David Bowie continues to innovate even after his tragic passing. A special 16-episode miniseries inspired by his recent album Blackstar debuts Thursday, February 25th at 8 PM EST on social photo-sharing app Instagram. Every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, an episode will showcase “evocative images inspired by the moods suggested in the album’s music, lyrics and artwork.” The experience is designed with a global audience in mind, inviting participants into a unique, nonlinear creative discussion about meaning, metaphor and intention, inspired by the beloved Man Who Fell to Earth himself.
Bowie released his 25th record Blackstar on January 8th, just two days before he died of cancer. (Check out Best Classic Bands‘ review of his brilliant final album here.) Surreal, atmospheric and beautiful, Blackstar offers up a serious statement about life and death – a life lived to the fullest and a death contemplated philosophically and sometimes hedonistically by an artist who chose to live on through his art. Fittingly, the music video for “Lazarus” broke the Vevo record for most video views in one day with an impressive 51 million views on January 11th alone.
“David Bowie has always been about reinvention over repetition,” miniseries co-founder Nikki Borges told Entertainment Weekly. “Remarkably honest and passionate in his work, his innovations have influenced our own work as we transform a social media platform to a creative outlet. We are grateful to have the opportunity to participate with the chameleonic rock icon and honored to be entrusted with interpreting his art.”
UNBOUND: A ★ InstaMiniSeries was actually completed prior to Bowie’s death, back in December of last year. “As story-tellers and music lovers, who better for us to be inspired by than David Bowie?” says UNBOUND writer and producer Carolynn Cecilia. The series’ creative team says that the trailblazing musician entrusted them with full access to the album in order to create visual interpretations of the songs without any special conditions. 19-year-old “It” girl (an Rookie founder and actress) Tavi Gevinson and Patricia Clarkson (The Green Mile) will also make appearances.
Check out the trailer for the miniseries right now on Instagram. App users can also watch the series by following @instaminiseries.
