Making Andrea Bocelli’s Movie Came With One Very Specific Challenge

When filmmakers create movies destined for the big screen, the focus is almost always on the visual. Every element of the production matters, of course, but what the audience actually sees typically drives the creative process. For director Cosima Spender, approaching a new documentary about famed musician Andrea Bocelli meant rethinking that balance. She had to consider his perspective in a way few other documentarians ever will.

When Spender first sat down with Bocelli to talk about making a film chronicling his life and rise to stardom, the tenor made one simple request – make the sound as interesting as the visuals. “Well, you better because I won’t be seeing anything. I’ll just be hearing it,” the tenor opined to the documentary filmmaker.

For Spender, the challenge of making a film that its subject could never watch became the very foundation of her vision.

“I promised him that I’d make it as interesting from a sound point of view as well as visual so that he would be entertained whilst watching it,” Spender explained during a recent interview to promote her new film Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe. Since so much of Bocelli’s career is rooted in his voice, that promise naturally became the anchor of the movie. It’s not just about sweeping views of the Italian countryside or the look of the massive crowds cheering him onstage — it’s about the sheer power that emanates from him whenever he performs.

Spender was overjoyed to follow Bocelli around, rather than rely on archival footage or sit-down interviews. Being present with the singer gave her the chance to capture his voice in countless unguarded moments — an opportunity few have ever experienced.

She recalled how Bocelli would break into song at seemingly random times, constantly putting his vocal cords to work throughout the day. “He will come out and practice, going down the stairs, going between the kitchen and the living room,” she said, adding, “An aria of opera comes out – and I’m not saying just a little aria. It is like he’s really testing his voice at all times.”

Spender also shared that when Bocelli sings, “It’s so loud when you are filming, you kind of get hit with the force of it,” and that’s something that she worked to incorporate into the movie.

The result is a revealing portrait of Bocelli’s present life set against the backdrop of his humble beginnings. For a man who has sold out arenas worldwide and sold tens of millions of albums, much of his private world has remained just that. In this documentary, the superstar opens up like never before.

Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe plays in American theaters on September 24, offering audiences the chance to experience not just the sight of the beloved singer, but the sound of a voice that has transformed the world, as it was meant to be heard. I spoke with Spender shortly before the film’s wide release and long after its festival premiere, about the challenges of making this documentary, balancing truth with storytelling, and navigating the input of both Bocelli and his wife, Veronica.

McIntyre: Tell me how you decided to pursue this project and why now was a good time for a feature documentary about Andrea Bocelli.

Spender: It came out of his thirtieth anniversary celebration. I was asked to interview for the job by the producers because Andrea had insisted he’d have an Italian speaking director.

Luckily all these very famous Italian directors were too busy, so they had to come knocking on my door because I’d made this film on the Palio del Drappo Verde, the oldest foot race in the world, a while ago [for] CNN. It went quite well. And then I did this series for Netflix on another Italian subject called SanPa [Sins of the Savior]. It’s on the oldest drug rehab in Europe.

Because Andrea really insisted on the Italian speaking part, they didn’t have much choice because there’s not that many documentarians who are fluent in Italian. And luckily, I speak with the same accent as Andrea, because I grew up an hour and a half from his village in a similar rural community. My parents are not Italian, they’re a mix of American and English, but they sent me to the local schools in the middle of nowhere in Italy. I could really relate to his sense of humor and to the… I understood his references, because he’s really a proper Tuscan Italian, and I’m quite a Tuscan, not quite Italian, but I’m a bit of a hybrid.

I promised him that I’d make it as interesting from a sound point of view as well as visual so that he would be entertained whilst watching it. He immediately said, “Well, you better because I won’t be seeing anything. I’ll just be hearing it.”
So I promised him that, and in fact, I did want to make this film that kind of took you into his world, into this microcosm or the private life and what it’s like to live in a world where music is so much part of your life. In that household with Andrea, he will come out and practice at any time, going down the stairs, going between the kitchen and the living room. An aria of opera comes out – and I’m not saying just a little aria. It is like he’s really testing his voice at all times.

It’s so loud when you are filming, you kind of get hit with the force of it. That was extraordinary as an experience, because you go and see these incredible tenors if you are lucky and you pay for the ticket, but you never really feel the force of their voice close up. That was a great privilege. The whole crew was in awe.

We were trying to be a bit invisible, because I was so excited to film him in an observational way without just doing the sit down interview and then some archive and then some reconstruction. To try and transmit the atmosphere of his life, of his world.
That’s what initially attracted me to documentaries – the possibility to represent a particular context wherever you are in the world. To capture reality and the way you look at reality and edit it. It’s so much more fascinating than fiction. This reality I felt was going to be special because of the music element and also him as a person being so optimistic, so full of hope, someone who refuses to focus on what might hinder you in life, someone who’s determined to follow his dreams.

That fame arrived quite late in his thirties and he didn’t really chase it. He just wanted to make money with music and support himself. He studied to be a lawyer at university, but he got so revved up in court cases that it wasn’t for him. [He] was just playing in a local piano bar and it was almost good enough for him. He’s not someone who’s there chasing, wanting to be a celebrity or wanting to be famous. He just wants to sit and support himself with that.

McIntyre: Were you already familiar with Andrea?

Spender: Everyone’s familiar with his name. Actually, we only met this for the first time on this project, but when I met him, I did feel like it was easy to get to know him. He’s got so little time because of his tight schedule [but] we found a way to spend three or four days each month for six months.

McIntyre: I am always interested in looking at the credits of these films, as I watch a lot of music documentaries. The subject itself, the musician, is a producer, and you said you were interviewed for this job. Tell me about finding a balance when you’re trying to tell an honest, true and interesting story about an artist, but both he and his wife are helping shape that narrative.

Spender: They always were featured as producers, and I think it’s probably in case something doesn’t work out. It’s like a kind of guarantee that they have the power, should they not be happy with something.

For me, that was a first, because I usually make stories about people who are totally unknown and they never get final cut, ever. But then I was speaking with my friends at Netflix who I’ve made films with before and I was like, “Is it normal that someone has final cut?” They’re musicians, and that’s the only case really, because they’re also performing. So it’s not just producer, but they also get something for those performances because the voice is featured. You have to pay the publishing, you have to pay for all the music.

But I come from such an old school of documentary filmmaking. When I came out of the national film school in the U.K., you never pay anyone to take part in the documentary, because that’s going to influence their relationship with the film. They’re going to be performing in a way, and not ethically. You want to capture reality and represent them [naturally]. Now I think that’s changed a lot with the streamers. That’s changed a lot.
Having said that, I was with Andrea actually yesterday. He goes, “Cosima, do you realize I still don’t have a link to this film? I mean, can you get me a link?” I said, “No, I can’t get you a link. I’m just the director. But you are the producer. You can get yourself a link.” “What do you mean? I’m the producer. I’m not the producer. I’m the subject of the film!” He didn’t even know he was a producer.

Veronica [Andrea Bocelli’s wife] is also his manager. But it was okay. There was only one scene they asked me to tweak, because they didn’t want legal problems. And fair enough, I get it if you are in that public sphere.

I would be uncomfortable in choosing a subject where they didn’t give you creative freedom. I was very lucky, because they said, “What scenes do you want to film and how do you want to make this?”

Even yesterday I was with him doing a lot of press, not because the press wanted to meet me. He was like, “No, I want you to be there. This is your film. You’ve got to be there.” So they did give me much more freedom than they had to, and they were like, “We trust her.” Because they’d seen my previous work – or Veronica had seen my previous work – and they were impressed.

McIntyre: So the film is out in theaters, but this premiered at Toronto a year ago. Tell me about the last year, and what I assume are negotiations and deciding if this is a theatrical release or maybe selling it to a streamer.

Spender: We decided this had to be theatrical because, how can you watch and hear opera on your iPad? It is such a shame. We did put a lot of care in the cinematography and the sound, and he’s put so much care in his music. It did premiere last year. It has taken a little while to find the right distribution in terms of who are the right people.
Andrea and Veronica [were saying] “What’s going on, what’s going on?” Because they really believed in it, and he really feels it’s his film, which is exactly what I wanted.

I was in a way, just a vehicle for his story that he’s telling. I like doing that when I make films, to respond to the subject in a way that the subject feels some sense of authorship.
It’s almost like a collaboration, but not in the sense that they were watching every cut and giving me feedback.

We watched it once at the end of the filming and I was really nervous. The producers rented a little cinema in this village near where they live. The day before, they ring up and they’re like, “We’re just going to have our closest friends. There’s going to be 60 of us.” So that was a big test. I was really nervous. And then in Tribeca it played really great. It was a big theater and they really laughed.

McIntyre: It is sort of a new world for music documentaries in theaters. I’ve been covering these long enough to see that shift and all of a sudden all these concert films and music docs are finding their way to cinema chains. How do you have the conversations asking, is Andrea’s fan base large enough? Is there really a large enough audience to justify this?

Spender: It’s really simple actually. If you really want the pragmatic side, [Andrea said] the tickets are going to be sold via [his] website, [but] that’s not the usual way that works. They said “This is the way it’s going to work, because that’s how our fan base is going to get to know about it.”
So much is just in the details, isn’t it? Filmmaking and how you sell. It’s the first time for me, but I’m really thrilled that a documentary gets seen in the cinema. It’s rare nowadays.

It was also rare for me to do observational filming, because as I was saying, a lot of the documentary series now are based on interviews, reconstructions and archive.

McIntyre: Do you know yet what life this film will have after its theatrical run?

Spender: It will definitely go to television. I have to let go of this baby once I’ve finished the color grade and the sound mix. Then it’s up to them to deal with where and how it gets sold.

McIntyre: You want to wait until this does well at the box office, because that changes the conversation.

Spender: Some of the streamers, they don’t want something that’s been in the cinema because it’s taking away the audience, and vice versa. You can’t put in the cinema something that’s been seen on the streamer, so it’s a kind of chicken and egg.

We’ll see. You have to let go at some point and believe that your film is going to find its audience. There’s so few films that get pumped so they really find that audience from the start. You need a really huge machine for that.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2025/09/23/making-andrea-bocellis-movie-came-with-one-very-specific-challenge/