Tina Arena: Unravel Me has its world premiere at The Astor Theatre on Wednesday night, screening as part of the 74th Melbourne International Film Festival. Arena is due to attend.
Adrian Russell Wills directed the documentary. It goes into cinemas nationally on 27 August, a fortnight after the festival screening.
The film runs across 50 years, from Young Talent Time through Arena's recording career in Australia, the United Kingdom and France. The material released with it describes two threads held side by side, Arena as public figure and Arena as private one.
Wills has assembled a long interview list. Celine Dion, Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, Jessica Mauboy, Marc Anthony and The Veronicas appear alongside archival footage. The film sits inside a wider anniversary program, TINA 5.0, which takes in touring and releases through Arena's own imprint, POSITIVE DREAM Records.
MIFF is running from 6 to 23 August, with more than 300 screen works across Melbourne and eight regional Victorian locations. MIFF Online follows nationally from 14 to 30 August. The festival opened last Thursday with Wicker, from Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer.
Elsewhere in the program, John Cameron Mitchell is presenting Hedwig and the Angry Inch at The Astor in a restored 4K version, 25 years on from the film's release.
Arena joined Young Talent Time in 1976, aged eight. The France chapter is the one Australian audiences tend to know least: she was made a Knight of the Ordre national du Merite in 2009, the first Australian given the honour, for her contribution to French culture.
The MIFF awards are on 22 August. The Bright Horizons Award, the festival's main prize, is worth $140,000. Unravel Me is not in that competition; Wicker is.
Cinemas take the film from 27 August.
