Steve McQueen ('12 Years a Slave') directing Tupac Shakur documentary

Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen, who made 12 Years a Slave, as well as Shame and Hunger, will next make a documentary about the late Tupac Shakur, reports Deadline. The film will be fully authorized by Shakur’s estate. “I am extremely moved and excited to be exploring the life and times of this legendary artist, ” McQueen told Deadline. “I attended NYU film school in 1993 and can remember the unfolding hip-hop world and mine overlapping with Tupac’s through a mutual friend in a small way. Few, if any shined brighter than Tupac Shakur. I look forward to working closely with his family to tell the unvarnished story of this talented man.”

Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting in 1996 and this year was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In other news, there is also a Tupac Shakur biopic, titled All Eyez on Me, which will be in theaters June 16 (which would’ve been his 46th birthday). This unauthorized account of the rapper’s life and stars Demetrius Shipp Jr. as Shakur. You can watch the trailer for that below.

Speaking of Steve McQueen, MoMA will be showing McQueen’s 2009 film, Static, as part of the museum’s “Inbox” installation::

The artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen (British, born 1969) has been making film and media installations since 1992. His works amplify the corporeality of the projected image, investigating the human body and its limits through a rigorous engagement with the physical space of the viewer, the sonic potential of cinema, the history of film aesthetics, and the entanglement of documentary and narrative. Static (2009) is a digital projection of a 35mm film shot from a helicopter circling the Statue of Liberty, on Liberty Island, set against the backdrops of New York City and New Jersey. The film captures Lady Liberty both in detailed close-ups and from a greater remove. As suggested by the work’s title, the statue remains fixed, intended to be looked at from afar, even as the perspectives from which it is seen are subject to change. At times dominated by the roaring sound of the helicopter blades, the piece is marked by unease and uncertainty. Static showcases and scrutinizes the statue, defamiliarizing one of the most iconic symbols of the United States through an intimate, agitated gaze at its surfaces. The film was made in 2009, the same year that President Barack Obama chose to reopen the Statue of Liberty to the public on July 4, ending the monument’s nearly eight-year closure following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

More info on “Inbox: Steve McQueen,” which will show through the summer, is here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRgua3A3XOE