In January of 2016, the world came to a stop when the news broke that David Bowie was dead. After a secret battle with liver cancer, the global icon left the world with his legacy. Bowie was a music great and had a performance style like no other. He constantly pushed the boundaries of what pop music could be and didn’t let labels or anything else define him. Bowie had a spirit like no other, and Brett Morgen aims to capture that in his new documentary Moonage Daydream.

Known for his film Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Morgen shows the life of the late pop star through unreleased footage. Never-before-seen rolls of 16mm and 35mm film capture his “creative, musical and spiritual journey”. The documentary made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival and received rave reviews from the critics in attendance. Moonage Daydream is the first film that the Bowie estate has ever sanctioned, meaning that Morgen’s vision is one that Bowie himself would approve of.

Morgen spent two full years combing through Bowie’s archives and suffered a near-fatal heart attack in the process. During the pandemic, Morgen spent isolation with Bowie. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he described the late artist as the “best quarantine companion one could have.”

“You know, I’m sitting here, two years removed from a heart attack, and I’ve moved into my office because I’m too freaked out to be around anyone. So I’m all alone trying to do this by myself … and yet I’m making a film on an artist whose stock in trade is how to be creative during periods of isolation,” he added. “It comes up in every phase, from Ziggy to Blackstar. I didn’t see anybody for the first few months of the pandemic, but I saw David’s face every day when I woke up to go to work. It was almost like it was meant to be a piece of pandemic art. That was the only way it could be finished.”

Moonage Daydream premieres in theaters on September 16.