Folklore : The Long Pond Studio Sessions

We will never say again what a talented artist Taylor Swift is, whose music is not only inspiring but is capable of moving us deeply. From her beginnings in country music to more pop music, she has not only remained true to her principles but continues to amaze us with her albums. She is not content to simply reproduce a winning formula but constantly seeks to find new territories of expression and her latest album Folklore is a way to approach music differently, to return to a limpid and perfect sound. Certainly, it may confuse some, but we can only salute this artist of genius who is in our eyes the greatest musical artist of today.

Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions is a documentary film that she directed and produced and that was put online on the Disney + streaming platform only one day after its announcement. It shows Taylor Swift performing all 17 tracks from her eighth studio album, Folklore (2020), and most importantly, it shows her talking freely about her sources of inspiration and the creative process behind each of her songs with co-producers Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff.

Setting the stage for this documentary film at Long Pond Studio-a secluded, rustic cabin in upstate New York, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions shows us how a song is recorded in the studio and all the magic that comes out of it. Performing for the first time in the same room with his musicians following the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor Swift delivers an unforgettable documentary in which music and musical inspiration play an equally important role. Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions is neither a filmed concert nor a documentary, but a mix of both in which each song is explained before being performed, allowing us to learn more about this great artist.

In the current context, one can only imagine the difficulty of creating such an intense musical experience and one can only applaud the technical elements put in place to bring Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions to life. It took not only an Arri Alexa LF camera with an Angénieux 24-290 lens and six Panasonic Lumix S1H cameras with Leica lenses in the recording studio to bring this documentary to life. We can only salute Taylor Swift's excellent direction, which marks here her real debut as a director after having directed several of her music videos (I'm Only Me When I'm with You (2008), The Best Day (2009), Taylor Swift: Mine (2010), ME! (2019), Christmas Tree Farm (2019), Lover (2019), You Need to Calm Down (2019), The Man (2020), Cardigan (2020))

Finally, it should be noted that the songs performed live from Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions were released as a live album, entitled Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions on music and digital streaming platforms on the day of the release of this documentary, November 25, 2020.

Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions
Directed by Taylor Swift
Produced by Taylor Swift, Robert Allen, Bart Peters
Starring Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon
Music by Taylor Swift
Cinematography: Ethan Palmer
Edited by Laura Randolph
Production company: Taylor Swift Productions, Big Branch Productions
Distributed by Disney+
Release date: November 25, 2020 (World)
Running time: 106 minutes

Seen on November 26th in original version on Disney +

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