Sarah Jessica Parker to Narrate Bill Cunningham Documentary
Sarah Jessica Parker has been tapped to narrate “The Times of Bill,” a feature-length documentary about the late New York Times photographer and fashion historian. In addition, artist and illustrator Ruben Toledo has created the animations for the film while legendary model Pat Cleveland’s sole recorded song, “Tonight, Josephine” serves as the film’s theme song.
The film is written and directed by Mark Bozek and produced by Bozek and Live Rocket cofounder Russell Nuce. Live Rocket, a New York-based entertainment and commerce company, just completed its first global collaboration with Apple to promote “The Times of Bill,” the company’s first project. The tour, part of Apple’s “Today at Apple” retail programming initiatives, included curated events in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Tokyo and Singapore.
On the day Cunningham died 18 months ago, Bozek went into his basement and retrieved a 25-year-old interview he did with the photographer. The interview, which Bozek conducted when he was 27 years old and producing a fashion segment for television, was supposed to last “just 10 minutes.” Hours later, Cunningham was still talking — passionately and unabashedly — about his unprecedented focus on what women wore.
“If you asked me 18 months ago, if my after-work project that I found in my basement, would gain the support of Angela Ahrendts and her incredible global marketing team, I would have laughed out loud,” said Bozek, who was once chief executive officer of HSN. “It has become the primary focus of our new company’s goal to create exciting content that can be presented in a retail environment like never before. Traditional retail is not dead, it’s just often dead-boring. Bill Cunningham, who was the Nostradamus of fashion and society his entire adult life, absolutely saw how technology would change everything.”
Bozek did not know Parker prior to reaching out to ask her to narrate, and she accepted within days. “Ms. Parker is the very essence of New York and fashion and deeply respects all that Bill Cunningham stood for during his most amazing and unique life,” Bozek said. “She is the perfect narrator of this film.” The picture, currently in post-production, will be released next spring in a way that Bozek calls “unique and disruptive.”
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