We will see a selection of family and friends, including mother Katherine Jackson, 81, and siblings Tito and Rebbie share their thoughts and memories of Michael Jackson in ‘Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon,’ a new 149-minute film being produced by David Gest.
A basis of the film is the horrible hair-fire incident: During the filming of a television commercial in 1984 Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire. The subsequent treatment for severe burns sparked a drug dependency that lasted until the pop star’s death, says the producer of a new documentary about the singer’s life.
Producer and “Michael’s close friend,” Gest, says the film is an honest look at Jackson’s life, aiming to tell “things about the man you never knew before.”
“People don’t realise that his dependency on pills is due to that one accident that changed his life forever,” Gest says in the film of the 1984 fire when Jackson’s hair – filled with styling product – caught on fire during the making of a Pepsi commercial.
In June 25, 2009 Jackson, aged 50, died unexpectedly at his rented Los Angeles home.
The death has been linked to a fatal dose of the anaesthetic Propofol and Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray is standing trial for the involuntary manslaughter of the singer.
“I did not follow the trial, I do not watch the trial and I try not to know about the trial because it’s too painful and I knew Michael Jackson better than most people will ever know anybody, we were best friends,” Gest told reporters in London.
“The latter part of his life, the last three years, he shut out his family and his closest friends. He became a recluse,” Gest said, fidgeting with his two packets of Marlboro cigarettes.
“He had the wrong people around him, people who kept everyone away. And you couldn’t get through to him, his number was changed all the time. They wouldn’t let him have his cell phone around him and other than his kids nobody really saw him. It was tragic.”
Gest said with disgust that those “people” were Jackson’s staff and bodyguards.
While created with an obvious sympathy towards the late Jackson, the film probes all the controversial areas of the singer’s life, dating back to childhood.
Starting with the Jackson family’s humble beginnings living in a two-bedroom Indiana house, the film progresses to allegations of physical abuse by father Joe Jackson toward his sons.
“You see the good, the bad, the indifferent, but I felt I was being honest,” Gest said of the production, adding that Joe had declined to be part of the film following a bad experience during a media interview.
Of Jackson’s eight siblings and parents, Katherine, Tito and Rebbie are the only immediate family who took part in the film.
“I approached (brother) Marlon but he passed on it. I never approached the other members. I didn’t want it to be every bit of the Jackson family talking, I wanted it to be people who were also part of the story.”
The film moves forward to touch on Jackson’s repeated cosmetic surgery procedures.
“He didn’t need to do so, he looked phenomenal,” said Gest of the surgery.
And of the recurring child abuse allegations against Jackson, Gest said they formed part of his inspiration to make the film.
“I was so tired of seeing the bullshit that people were saying … and I thought the true story needs to be told of who this man was and what was the problems that caused the downfall and I’m not talking about of his career, but of his life.”
