One to One: John & Yoko

A documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's years in New York. The couple moved from London to New York in 1971 and settled into a small flat in Greenwich Village. The film covers those eighteen months. Both were in politics at the time. They joined demonstrations, worked with people from the movements, and for that the American government tried to deport Lennon. The event at the centre is this: the couple watch a documentary on television. It shows the wretched state of an institution housing children with intellectual disabilities. They respond by organising a benefit concert. The concert was given at Madison Square Garden on 30 August 1972 and became Lennon's only full-length concert after the Beatles. The form is built on the television of the period: as though flipping channels, advertisements, news bulletins, series and election coverage follow one another. The telephone recordings and home footage between them come from the archive too. The concert footage was reassembled and its sound remixed by Sean Ono Lennon. Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards directed. It was shown at Sundance in 2025. A rich source for anyone interested in music documentaries and America in the 1970s. For a viewer expecting an orderly life story, the film looks at one short period and breaks up the chronology on purpose.