Darlene Love Documentary Premieres in Toronto with Taraji P. Henson and Barry Avrich

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Sep 12, 2026 10:12am PT

Love Has Everything to Do With It: Darlene Love, Producer Taraji P. Henson and Director Barry Avrich on ‘Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,’ a Stirring Music Doc Premiering in Toronto

Watch an exclusive unveiling of the film's trailer along with reading about the labor of love.

By Chris Willman

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Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

ChrisWillman

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The truly legendary singer Darlene Love had her story already lightly sketched out in a 2013 film about backup singers of yore, 2013’s Oscar-winning “20 Feet From Stardom.” But what Love’s fans — and they are legion — really have hungered for is a movie in which she is less than 10 feet from the camera for the length of a feature film, one devoted solely to her life and career. They are getting it with “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,” an illuminating and spirit-lifting doc premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival Sunday night.

Love’s fame was renewed and in part kept alive by annual performances of her Phil Spector-helmed classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on David Letterman’s late-night programs. But music fans with only a cursory knowledge of Love as the original queen of Christmas will relish learning about dozens of classic songs they had no idea she sang lead or backup on. Thankfully, after a period in which her career stalled enough that she became a house cleaner in Beverly Hills, Love was persuaded by Steven Van Zandt to move to New York and rebuild her career there, which led to such heights as a costarring role in the “Lethal Weapon” movies and a starring role on Broadway in “Hairspray,” where her bravura ballad each night was the civil rights-themed anthem “I Know Where I’m Going,” a key line from which gives this new documentary its name.

Director Barry Avrich has spent two years on the project, and was joined in it by celebrity superfan-turned-producer Taraji P. Henson , whose production company, TPH Entertainment, brought it to the finish line. The doc has its enjoyable share of talking heads, but some of its most stirring scenes are performances shot especially for the movie in a New York studio with Love being backed by a Paul Shaffer-led band, potent as ever in her 80s. Variety spoke with Love, Avrich and Henson in the days leading up to the Toronto premiere, and we also have this exclusive first look at the movie’s trailer.

A lot of people have gotten a taste of Darlene’s story before, but it’s not so many who have been given a chance to really dig in. What was the impetus for making this happen and how did everyone come to be involved?

Barry Avrich: For me, Darlene Love is one of these people that just kept entering my life in different times. In 2002, I went to see “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” the film about the Funk Brothers, at the Toronto Film Festival, and I sat there amazed at the cadence of the film and how the audience would applaud after each performance, and how incredible this unknown entity was in the back line of Motown. I said, “I want to make a movie like that one day.” Then I started to talk to Doug Blush, the Academy Award-winning editor, about editing a film for me in the art world. I asked him what he was working on, and he told me about “Twenty Feet From Stardom,” and he said, “You know, when this comes out, have a look at Darlene Love.” And I said, “My God, I’ve never forgotten about her.” Going back before that, I had met with Don Kirshner and Phil Spector in Las Vegas about a television show concept, and Phil had brought up Darlene, and so her name just kept coming back to me.

Then as I started to do my research on Darlene Love before even approaching her, what would amaze me as the through line in this movie is, she’s gotta be probably one of the nicest people in show business, number one. Number two is this community that surrounded her with love and wanted to make sure that she had a life and a career, and that she never gave up. Certainly Darlene never gave up. There were moments, but this talent continued forever. That’s when I approached her and said, “I have an idea,” and talked about the arc of her story, and we got moving pretty quickly.

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_Originally reported by [Variety Music](https://variety.com/2026/music/news/darlene-love-documentary-interview-toronto-film-festival-1236859617/)._