David Bowie

As he’s now over 25 years removed from his artistic peak, it’s easy to forget just how much of a commercial and creative powerhouse David Bowie was in the ’70s—and just how daring and unprecedented his self-imposed exile to Berlin was. Using that premise as a starting point, The Berlin Trilogy calls on a series of music journalists and Bowie contemporaries to explore the mythology surrounding his most experimental period, one that inspired a full flowering of his flirtation with ambient minimalism and the German avant-garde over the course of three albums. Along the way, we’re reminded that 1977’s now-classic Low was once regarded as commercial poison by his record label, a disaster by critics, and hardly music at all by some fans. The DVD exposes common myths—that Brian Eno presided over and produced the albums—but the film largely maintains a scholarly tone, tracing Bowie’s influences through Phillip Glass and Kraftwerk and spotting his fingerprints on world music that emerged in the ’80s. Those wondering why Bowie is regarded as a visionary need look no further.