Arena (1975)

Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day (1984x20)

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Arena presents the first film portrait of the greatest of all the jazz singers. Billie Holiday's tragic story, from her traumatic childhood in Baltimore to her premature death in a New York hospital at the age of 44, is told in the words of her closest friends and colleagues - but mostly through the songs themselves. Arena has assembled an unprecedented number of her filmed performances. Songs, including 'God Bless the Child', 'Don't Explain', and 'Fine and Mellow', are performed with the legendary names of jazz's golden age - among them Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Duke Ellington.