Avedon Trailer: Ron Howard Opens Richard Avedon’s Archive on Netflix

What the Documentary Covers

Over more than half a century Avedon photographed film stars and presidents, coal miners and drifters, and his fashion and portrait work helped define America’s idea of style and beauty. He died in 2004. Netflix says the film brings his life and work into focus through archival footage and new interviews, drawing on unprecedented access to his personal archive: never-before-seen stills, intimate behind-the-lens footage and the voices of his closest collaborators. It sets out to show how his vision both reflected and reshaped the visual language of the 20th century, and why even the most iconic image is only half the story.

“Richard Avedon was an artist whose work continues to resonate not only because of the extraordinary images he created, but because of the humanity and curiosity behind them,” Howard says. The film is made by Imagine Documentaries and Fifth Season in association with the Richard Avedon Foundation, and produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Dallas Brennan Rexer, Sara Bernstein, Christopher St. John and Justin Wilkes. Netflix acquired it after its Cannes premiere and plans an awards push. It is the latest Imagine documentary for Netflix after Marty, Life Is Short, which earned three Primetime Emmy nominations.