Part of Music City Mondays
Take one look at award-winning songwriter and artist Allee Willis and you see someone unafraid to be themselves. Best known for writing the “Friends” theme song, the Earth Wind & Fire mega-hit “September” and the musical “The Color Purple,” Willis began filming her life as a kid in 1950s Detroit and never stopped. Dressed in a cacophony of prints and colors, with her signature asymmetrical haircut and famed parties at her real-life Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Allee didn’t waste any opportunity to tell you what she was about. But privately, Allee struggled with not fitting established gender and sexual norms. She buried herself in her work, until true love manifested her ultimate masterpiece — self-acceptance.
“Watching THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ALLEE WILLIS is like being invited to a party full of old friends and being welcomed with open arms…. Exposes vital queer history that reminds us that there is more to our culture than the heteronormative stories audiences have been fed for so long. Even though Willis never publicly came out, the queerness of her work is not only clear, but enduring.” —Jourdain Searles, Hollywood Reporter “A magical film…. This is a wonderful celebration of a wonderful woman. It’s a film that will make you feel things and glues a big goofy smile on your face. We should all be this lucky to have a film like this made about our lives.” —Steve Kopian, Unseen Films
