Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of Wisconsin Public Television's
Director's Cut.
Tonight, we bring you The King- -
a film documenting a musical road trip across America
forty years after the death of Elvis Presley.
And since every great road trip needs a cool car,
director Eugene Jarecki used Elvis' 1963 Rolls Royce.
Along for the ride on this musical journey
are a diverse group of random Americans and celebrities
like Alec Baldwin, Chuck D,
Emmylou Harris, Dan Rather, and Ethan Hawke,
who in one vignette picks up Elvis' high school sweetheart
in the Rolls and takes her to prom.
The film explores the theory
that Elvis lost his authenticity and became a King
while the country in which he lived lost its democracy
and became an empire.
Jarecki is a two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner.
Variety Magazine describes his talent as,
"Combining the skills of a journalist and poet."
Joining the director on The King
is an A-list of award-winning executive producers
including Rosanne Cash, Errol Morris, and Steven Soderburgh.
The King proves once and for all
that Elvis has never really left the building.
it starts now on Wisconsin Public Television.
Your home for independent film.