7 Emmy Nominations 2015 · ACE Eddie Nomination
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is a 2015 HBO documentary directed by Brett Morgen, produced by Deep Cut co-founder James Smith and edited by co-founder Joe Beshenkovsky. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was broadcast on HBO in May of that year to massive critical and popular acclaim.
The documentary is an intimate, authorised portrait of the Nirvana frontman, built from an extraordinary archive of personal home movies, photographs, journals, artwork, and recordings from Cobain's childhood through his death in 1994. Morgen's approach — combining animation, audio collage, and raw personal material — produced one of the most formally inventive and emotionally devastating rock documentaries ever made.
The film received seven Primetime Emmy nominations in 2015 — Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, Outstanding Writing, Directing, Picture Editing, Cinematography, Sound Editing, and Producing — and was nominated for the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Documentary. It won the IDA Award for Best Editing. Rolling Stone has named Montage of Heck the greatest rock documentary of all time.
"The most intimate rock doc ever." — Rolling Stone
"Morgen uses still photos, drawings Kurt made, animations, and then works with his editor to cut them together in rhythm with Nirvana's music in ways that are completely mesmerizing." — RogerEbert.com
"Brilliantly pieced together through home video footage, interviews, audio recordings, and Kurt's own journal writings and drawings." — Critical Consensus