Paul Thomas Anderson Will Debut Jonny Greenwood Film at NY Film Fest

The Film Society of Lincoln Center just announced that a new, previously unannounced film by director Paul Thomas Anderson will premiere at this year’s New York Film Festival. Titled Junun, the 54-minute film will be a documentary chronicling Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s trip to India to record a solo album. Greenwood previously scored three of Anderson’s films including Inherent Vice, The Master, and There Will Be Blood.

Here’s a description of the film from the NYFF’s website:

Earlier this year, Paul Thomas Anderson joined his close friend and collaborator Jonny Greenwood on a trip to Rajasthan in northwest India, where they were hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhpur, and he brought his camera with him. Their destination was the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort, where Greenwood (with the help of Radiohead engineer Nigel Godrich) was recording an album with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and an amazing group of musicians: Aamir Bhiyani, Soheb Bhiyani, Ajaj Damami, Sabir Damami, Hazmat, and Bhanwaru Khan on brass; Ehtisham Khan Ajmeri, Nihal Khan, Nathu Lal Solanki, Narsi Lal Solanki, and Chugge Khan on percussion; Zaki Ali Qawwal, Zakir Ali Qawwal, Afshana Khan, Razia Sultan, Gufran Ali, and Shazib Ali on vocals; and Dara Khan and Asin Khan on strings. The finished film, just under an hour, is pure magic. Junun lives and breathes music, music-making, and the close camaraderie of artistic collaboration. It’s a lovely impressionistic mosaic and a one-of-a-kind sonic experience: the music will blow your mind.

Here’s video of Greenwood performing with Ben-Tzur in 2014:

The new movie may not be much of a shock to Anderson or Greenwood superfans. The guitarist announced in February that he was working on a new solo record in India. Eagle-eyed Instagramers may have even noticed that British photographer Ian Patrick snapped photos of Greenwood and Anderson behind a camera in India on his personal page in February.

A documentary is a slight departure for Anderson, who toyed with the genre in the 1988 mockumentary The Dirk Diggler Story, which he later expanded into Boogie Nights. Anderson’s last feature, the drug-hazed Thomas Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice, also premiered at NYFF. Since then he directed squeaky-voiced siren goddess Joanna Newsom’s video for her song “Sapokanikan.”