One to One: John & Yoko

In 1971-72 New York, John Lennon and Yoko Ono took a unique approach to making the world a better place. They spent 18 months in an apartment in Greenwich Village meeting with kindred spirits and watching lots of TV—which Lennon called “a window on the world.”

Their apartment was recreated for this film, so it feels like we are sitting next to Lennon and Ono watching TV, fast forwarding around the world in that era. The newsflashes—dominated by the Vietnam war—and clips from talk shows, commercials and films bring the 1970s very close to home. Unique are the couple’s previously unseen home videos, and phone calls presented as contemporary WhatsApp conversations.

The ultimate outcome of all this TV watching was the successful benefit concert One to One, for children with physical and learning disabilities. The two shows on 30 August 1972 would be Lennon’s only full-length concerts between the last publicized Beatles concert in 1966 and his death in 1980. A vibrant, musical, emotionally moving, and disturbingly topical visual journey through an exceptionally turbulent time.