By: Mariah Thomas
Photo Courtesy of Brave Documentary, LLC
Sara Bareilles: Good Grief is a reflective, intimate documentary that makes your deepest fears feel seen. Post pandemic and dealing with different variations of grief, artist Sara Bareilles set out to make an album sorting through that pain. Prior to recording the album, Sara realized she wanted to document this week-long journey. The band and film crew enjoyed meals and lived together in this process, truly creating a safe atmosphere for this music to be born.
Tackling themes of lost loved ones, infertility and other personal hardships, Sara and her band come together to turn grief into gratitude. In those moments of feeling high emotions, they all discover they aren’t alone on specific journeys. This documentary follows the band during a six day process to record Sara Bareilles’ first album since the pandemic. There are fears of returning to the music space on top of general life grief. Throughout this, the audience sees Sara talk through different variations of grief and share the lessons learned along the way. Everyone involved in the making of the album poured their entire hearts into this project. This documentary is a beautiful glimpse into that process. It is one thing to feel seen by a song from an artist you love and it is another to get a deeper look at the creation of the song and the fuller intended meanings.
I really appreciated the vulnerability each person involved brought to the table. There was no sugar coating grief to look and sound picture perfect. My favorite element is how raw this documentary is as well regarding the conversations. Many times these long conversations go on without any cuts. In that you see moments of joy and moments of connecting in shared grief. As an audience member you also feel so involved and seen with the talks going on. There is a raw honesty there that many artists tend to steer away from. As someone who has enjoyed Sara’s music over the years, it was incredible to see more layers to her and see how much love and care goes into each song.
This documentary was presented to director Josh Alexander at a prominent point in his life as he was searching for a project to reawaken inspiration. Taking a very small crew with him, seventy hours of footage was captured in those six days at the studio. The direction Alexander chose to go with this project brings such a beautifully somber tone to the documentary. There is such an innate rawness throughout the entire project that at times it feels like “should I even be allowed to watch this?” After speaking with Alexander, it is also fascinating to know how much was entrusted to him with this project creatively as Bareilles had no involvement outside of being filmed. She allowed herself to solely focus on the music and permitted the camera into her private space with full trust in Alexander to capture the magic. He did just that and so much more.
Sara Bareilles: Good Grief is a feature documentary at 2026’s Tribeca Film Festival. Alongside the documentary, Bareilles is also gearing up to release the accompanying album set to come out on August 28th. This documentary is sure to garner excitement for the project as fans get a moment to understand the project a little more before hearing it.