Credit: Jimmy KingThis Sunday, January 8, marks what would have been David Bowie‘s 70th birthday and in honor of the milestone, a new documentary about the late rock icon is on tap. Premiering Saturday on the U.K.’s BBC Two channel, David Bowie: The Last Five Years offers a number of new revelations about Bowie, including details about the illness that claimed his life last January 10.
BBC News reports that Johan Renck, who directed the final video in which David appeared — for the song “Lazarus” — reveals in the documentary that the singer discovered his cancer was terminal during the making of the clip, which was about three months before he passed away.
“I found out later that the week we were shooting is when he found out that it is over,” says Renck. “We’ll end treatment or whatever capacity that means, that his illness has won.”
While many people assumed the imagery featured in the “Lazarus” video, which shows Bowie lying in a hospital bed, was meant to be a reflection of David’s impending death, Renck maintains that that wasn’t the case.
“To me it had to do with the biblical aspect of it. You know, the man who would rise again, and it had nothing to do with him being ill,” says the director. “That was only because I liked the imagery of it.”
Directed by Francis Whately, The Last Five Years is a sequel to the 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years. The new flick profiles Bowie’s final tour, which took place on 2003 and 2004, as well as his life from 2013 to his death. The Last Five Years premieres at 9 p.m. U.K. time on BBC Two.
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