New film unveils the world of John Lennon and Yoko Ono

The Citizen

25-05-2025

'One To One: John & Yoko' has been described as loud, honest, emotional, and unlike any documentary about Lennon and Ono made before.
John Lennon remains one of the most influential musicians and social activists of all time. Not only did he, together with Paul McCartney and the Beatles, seed much of rock and roll as well know it today, but Lennon's activism showed the impact that celebrity can have on highlighting issues and agitating for change.
With wife and muse Yoko Ono, the often controversial pair dented social constructs and made history, and helped turn the tide of their time.
One To One: John & Yoko is a new film that tells this story. It has been described as loud, honest, emotional, and unlike any documentary about Lennon and Ono made before. It's not a biography. Not a timeline. The movie is more akin to a human story seen through the fuzz of a television set.
In 1972, John Lennon was no longer a Beatle. He was a husband, a performer, an activist, and more than ever, a man trying to make sense of a world in chaos around him. Yoko Ono was by his side, not just as an inspirer, but as a creator, an artist, and equal in every way. Together they moved to Greenwich Village in New York, watched far too much American television, and tried to change the world.
Not rock & roll nostalgia
Directed by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards, the documentary is not your standard trumpeting of rock & roll nostalgia. Instead, it is an immersive, sometimes jarring, often beautiful, cinematic experience that takes its audience inside the world as John and Yoko saw it. Literally.
'Kevin came up with the idea,' Rice-Edwards said. 'Why don't we show the world the way John and Yoko would have experienced it through their television in 1972? That became the lens through which the story unfolds.'
John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Picture: Supplied
John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Picture: Supplied
It is an experimental route for a documentary, but it works. With thousands of hours of archive American television footage used, mixed with intimate and in many cases never-before-seen material from the Lennon estate, the film delivers fresh perspectives and insight.
It is not just another portrait of fame or popcorn ego-trip in fandom. It is an honest endeavour to see and feel what John and Yoko actually felt.
'There were two types of archives,' Rice-Edwards said. 'The footage with John and Yoko, which was limited, but incredibly powerful, and then the seemingly endless material from 1972 American television. We watched everything from war coverage to daytime game shows, Nixon speeches, Coca-Cola adverts, all of it. We filtered and refined until we were left with what really told the story of that time.'
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That window in time was politically and culturally charged. The war in Vietnam raged on. The youth vote was in play. Nixon was under scrutiny. The country was divided and Lennon, newly arrived in America, believed he could make a difference.
'They (John and Yoko) fell in with radicals, artists, and activists,' Rice-Edwards said. 'There was this incredible optimism. They really thought they could change the world. But over time, they realised the world does not change as easily as you might hope. And so, they changed from global revolution to human connection, from grand gestures to smaller, more meaningful ones.'
Meaningful human connection
It was a moment on television that inspired the One to One benefit concert, the centrepiece of the film. A segment by broadcaster Geraldo Rivera about a school for children with disabilities struck a chord with both John and Yoko.
'They both had traumatic childhoods,' Rice-Edwards said. 'Yoko's daughter had been kidnapped. There was this intense emotional connection, and they wanted to do something about it.'
The concert, which took place on 30 August 1972 at Madison Square Garden, was Lennon's only full-length solo show ever. But it was not recorded under ideal conditions.
'Everyone working on it was apparently really high,' Rice-Edwards said. 'So, the footage was chaotic, and the sound was poor. Sean Ono Lennon went back and completely reworked the audio. He took it to another level. We would hear the music as we were editing, and with every version it got better. By the time we did the final mix, it blew us away.'
The film also attempts to correct the imbalance in how Yoko has been portrayed over the years.
'We did not feel the need to defend her,' he said. 'We just let the archive speak. She is strong, creative, compassionate, and central to everything. When Sean saw the film, he said it was the most honest portrayal of his mother ever made. That meant a lot to us.'
Beyond politics and the rage of the time
Beyond the music and politics and the rage of the time, One to One is also about perspective.
'What really surprised us,' Rice-Edwards said, 'was how much 1972 looked like now. The environment, race, gender, immigration, populist leaders, culture wars. It is all there. In a strange way, stepping back into that world tells us something urgent about the one we are in now.'
One to One: John & Yoko screens exclusively in IMAX at selected Ster-Kinekor cinemas. It opens in South Africa for limited screenings on 6, 7 and 8 June.
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