SXSW: The World According to Allee Willis

Shortly after a chance meeting with Bruce Vilanch  and Allee Willis after a cabaret in Los Angeles, I would get these invitations to “kitsch” parties from Allee.  Regretfully, I never attended and after screening this doc, I am confident I missed out on teh opporutnity of a lifetime.

Willis’s songs have sold over 60 million records, including Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September”(which was inducted into the Library of Congress National Registry for Historic and Culturally Significant Recordings to become  a permanent part of  American history) and “Boogie Wonderland,” The Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance,” Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield’s “What Have I Done to Deserve This?,” “I’ll Be There For You,” the theme from “Friends, and the Tony and Grammy-winning Broadway musical, The Color Purple, which was also made into a major motion picture produced by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones in 2023.

As early as 1992 Willis developed a social network, with Mark Cuban joining as CEO in 1993. In 1997 she was also the first artist ever to address the U.S. House of Representatives on artists’ rights in cyberspace.

Take one look and you see someone unafraid to be themselves. Dressed in a cacophony of prints and colors, 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 struggled not fitting established gender and sexual norms. Willis unapologetically buried herself in her work, until true love manifested her ultimate masterpiece – self-acceptance. Filming every millisecond of her life from early beginnings in 1950s Detroit, this documentary serves as the realization of her wish that her “final art piece be someone putting together the trail I have left behind.”

It was heartbreaking to witness such a creative, giving soul struggle through life not being able to embrace her authentic self due to self doubt, fear and disappoint from the one person whose acceptance she craved the most – her Dad. In this day and age is unthinkable to be cognizant of a time when one had to be careful not to have sexual preference revealed as it literally could kill a career – no matter how successful or beloved the artist was in the industry. Yet, Allee persevered ultimately finding patience and acceptance in the one person who loved her most – her life partner of 28 years.

In 2019, Allee Willis died of an aortic aneurysm on Christmas Eve, but her artistry continues to thrive and live on through the Willis Wonderland Foundation created by her partner Prudence Fenton.

The World According to Allee Willis is a wonderful reminder to never allow fear to grind one’s creativity or zest for life to a halt while coming to the realization that allowing people to love you is great, but the self love showered can enrich one in ways unseen and unknown.