The United States V. Billie Holiday
The United States v. Billie Holiday goes to Hulu. The film will star singer Andra Day as Holiday. The film will focus on the rarely told story of when Holiday was profiled as the subject of an undercover investigation by the Federal Department of Narcotics due to her performing her 1939 song “Strange Fruit.” The song is about the lynchings of Blacks. The film is set to depict a “stormy love affair” Holiday has with one of the federal agents who led the undercover sting operation against the singer.
The film director Lee Daniels says: “Though she was an addict, she didn’t always want to be. She wasn’t really given the option by her government and by people to get clean at that time. She dealt with a lot of pain. She grew up in a brothel. She was raped at 11 years old. She was punished for being raped by an older man. Her father died because of Jim Crow laws.”
After conversing with Mr. Daniels about the film, Andra Day became even more excited to portray Lady Day: “...I found out that the film was actually going to highlight the fact that the FBI went after her and that she was like the first martyr in the war on drugs. That to me really piqued my interest. Going in, I initially thought ‘I don’t really have an interest in remaking Lady Sings the Blues because I just feel like Diana Ross put her stamp on that and it was beautiful.’ But to find out that it was going to talk about the FBI going after her and sort of vindicate her legacy, that was really exciting for me as a fan of Billie Holiday.”
The United States v. Billie Holiday will stream on a Hulu near you in the new year on February 12, 2021.
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