Oh Yeah!, a documentary short on the iconic song by Yello and its impact on pop culture, has been acquired by Documentary+ Originals and Rolling Stone Films ahead of its June 7 world premiere at Tribeca Festival.
Directed by Nick Canfield (Iris, The Reverend, Making A Murderer), Oh Yeah! is the story of the electronic music and their 1980’s hit made famous by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Featuring interviews with actor Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Succession), musician/comedian Reggie Watts and Tarquin Gotch (music supervisor to John Hughes), it explores the cultural phenomenon of “Oh Yeah” from movie references to commercials to parodies while introducing the artists behind the music.
Canfield’s music doc The Reverend profiled gospel-rock icon and activist Reverend Vince Anderson, winning the audience award at DOC NYC. My Back Pages covered the world’s foremost collector of Bob Dylan memorabilia.
“I am fascinated by the impact and longevity of this special song and what that says about our culture,” said the helmer, who started his career as camera assistant to legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, developing an intimate vérité style as a cinematographer and archivist for Maysles Films. “A specific examination, like one song, can be the best way to reveal something larger about our society. I also found Boris Blank and Dieter Meier of Yello to be a wonderfully interesting and hilarious duo, as well as truly singular artists whose story really needs to be told to a wider audience.”
Justin Lacob and Bryn Mooser executive produced on behalf of DOCUMENTARY+. Rolling Stone Executive Chairman Gus Wenner, Rolling Stone Films SVP Jason Fine, and Rolling Stone Films Director Alexandra Dale are Executive Producers on behalf of Rolling Stone/Rolling Stone Films.
DOCUMENTARY+ is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated FAST channel and streaming platform. Its 2023 production Little Richard: I Am Everything, which aired on CNN/Max, won an Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary and was Grammy nominated in the Best Music Film category. Other productions include The Fall of Diddy for Max, Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine for Showtime and Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge for HBO.
The Oh Yea! acquisition marks the start of the second collection of films acquired by DOCUMENTARY+ and Rolling Stone Films. Titles from an initial collaboration included All Things Metal, which debuted at Tribeca last year; Wings of Dust, which was nominated for a News and Doc Emmy for Best Short, Webby nominated Mamus and Haiti on Fire.
Tribeca, which had thousands of short submissions, is putting a spotlight on the form this year with a dedicated screening room at its Spring Street headquarters.
