John Scheinfeld is a critically- acclaimed documentary filmmaker with a broad range of subjects and productions to his credit. From documentaries about John Lennon, Brian Wilson, and John Coltrane, Scheinfeld has brought his strong story-telling skills to pop culture. His latest project, “Sergio Mendes: In The Key Of Joy,” takes a unique look into the life of the iconic Sergio Mendes. Our conversation revealed an interesting journey to Hollywood.
You’ve been a writer, director, and producer for various projects. When did you know that you wanted to be a director?
I would say that the germ of the idea came to me when I was 12 years old. My parents took me to see a revival of Laurence of Arabia . I remember sitting in the movie theater staring up at that big screen and being absolutely overwhelmed with what I saw. It was masterful direction, masterful scriptwriting, and wonderful performances. I remember thinking that I have to be part of this business somehow. Then, as life does, you encounter different twists in the road, coming to Hollywood after graduate school. I started as an executive, then a producer. I would become a writer of scripted material, eventually discovering documentaries about 20 years ago. I love the form, being able to tell the story with music, with footage, photos, and interviews. I’m fond of saying that I have a great job, I get to travel to interesting places and talk to interesting people about interesting things. The ability to take an idea and bring it to fruition is very exciting to me.
John Lennon, Brian Wilson, John Coltrane, all iconic people that you have been involved directly in their documentaries. What attracted you to this project about Sergio Mendes?
I was first approached by Concord Records, which has been Sergio’s label for about 14 years now. They asked if I would be interested in doing a documentary about Sergio Mendes. I hesitated for about 5 seconds…oh, I’ll do that (laughing). I’ll do that for my mother. When I was a kid, my mother used to play Brasil 66 around the house all of the time. She’d dance to this uplifting, happy music. In the years since I’ve had Sergio in my iPod and played it frequently. I was already intrigued, but then when I met him, it became so clear that he is a passionate man, passionate about life, about travel, about food, and wine. Sergio is a relentless optimist. We share that. It’s part of my midwest roots. I felt like, in the time in which we’re living now, which has so much divisiveness and conflict, I didn’t want to make a dark edgy film. I was interested in something uplifting, positive, and inspirational. That’s what Sergio’s story is.
I loved how we got to see and feel the emotion of Sergio’s serendipitous life. What difficulties, if any, did you face while filming?
There are always multiple challenges when making a music documentary. However, the shooting was quite easy. Sergio, whether it’s his fans, John Legend, Quincy Jones, or Common; all of them were very happy to be involved in the project. There was one great story. In my films, I like to have something that is totally unexpected. This time, it was Harrison Ford. I don’t want to spoil the story. People should see it in the documentary. At the international premiere for the movie, it received such big laughs. I originally reached out to Harrison’s publicist, saying that we’re doing a documentary and we’d love to interview Harrison Ford. The publicist said, “why would he want to do that?” So I requested that they just ask him. Three days later, the same person called back and said, “we’re all stunned, but he wants to do it.” This actually allowed him to talk about a time in his life that he doesn’t get to talk about very often. The biggest challenge that we had was clearing the music. There are 48 songs in the film, which is a lot for any film. Concord owns about 98% of Sergio’s catalog, going back to the 1960s. We did have to make deals with publishers, not only here in the states, but in Brazil as well. It got quite complicated. The way things are done here is not necessarily the way things are done in Brazil. Ultimately, things all worked out. People will come to this film and hear wall to wall music, including 3 songs from his new album that is coming out at the end of February.
What do you have planned next?
Interesting that you ask. It’s been a very intense work period, finishing up Sergio. I have a new feature documentary that we’re going to release in May about Herb Albert. He’s a legend of the music industry. He’s an amazingly diverse human being and a wonderful man. A performer, a former A&R guy, a producer, an entrepreneur. He’s also an artist who does sculpture, and a philanthropist who sees to it that young people have the opportunities in arts and education. I’m very excited about this film.
Photo Credit: Megan Bueschel — John Scheinfeld (Right) with Herb Alpert and Sergio Mendes at Skirball Cultural Center.
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