In the last five years of his life, David Bowie ended nearly a decade of silence to engage in an extraordinary burst of activity, producing two groundbreaking albums and a musical. David Bowie: The Last Five Years explores this unexpected end to a remarkable career. Made with remarkable access, Francis Whately’s documentary is a revelatory follow-up to his acclaimed 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years, which chronicled Bowie’s golden ‘70s and early-‘80s period.
Direction
Whately's access to Bowie's private archive is unprecedented.
Production
Blackstar and Lazarus sessions reveal a man racing time.
Editing
Juxtaposes 70s glory with 2010s mortality—devastating.
Director
Francis Whately
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bowie never told his musicians he dying; they learned after his death. The 'Lazarus' music video, showing him in a hospital bed escaping into a wardrobe, was filmed while he had terminal cancer.
Blackstar became Bowie's first #1 album in America—achieved posthumously. The documentary argues this late-period explosion reframes his entire career as one continuous experiment rather than nostalgia act.
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