“It is dancing in the dark the analogy of enjoying it,” says director Thom Zimny.
“And then also you’re detached from the world.”
you might’t start a fire without a spark…
Bruce Springsteen in ‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’.Disney
In the case of director Thom Zimny, that spark isBruce Springsteenand the legendary E Street Band.
If you’re a casual fan, you could step into it."
And at the same time, it’s a celebration.
Bruce Springsteen.Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
A celebration of a moment of music, and there’s humor and there’s history.
Did you already know during those rehearsal shoots or were you just there because you often capture footage?
There’s no set POV.
Director Thom Zimny at the EW and PEOPLE TIFF Photo Studio.Ben Trivett/Shutterstock
I just filmed three or four rehearsals.
I didn’t do any interviews.
So that’s a very typical process with Bruce because we’re letting the film talk to us.
Bruce Springsteen.Disney
What I mean by that is we’re seeing what’s going on and there’s no forced POV.
So it took, I would say, up to the first show in Tampa.
That was where we started to talk about it as a film.
They never say, ‘We made it.
It’s over.’
And no one ever officially says it’s a film.
I always look at it from day one as a movie, but I don’t force anything.
There are a lot of sequences where you seamlessly mix the story of now with archival footage.
That’s every chapter.
Look at the body of work he has."
I was seeing the writer unpack a narrative that would be in the show itself later.
So, I use archive to enhance the story.
It’s never B-roll.
The shot of Bruce walking around the stadium.
I’ve had that shot for 24 years.
That shot of him in the archival footage sums up everything.
And I didn’t waste that shot.
I didn’t use it for other films.
Sometimes when I’m witnessing something happening in real time, it’ll trigger a memory of viewing something.
And I want to go back to the edit room and see if it’ll work.
At the end, there’s a credit for “Written by Bruce Springsteen.”
Since it’s a documentary, what exactly does that mean?
So, the writing credit is really about the voiceover.
This tour goes all around the country and the world.
The hardest thing to do is edit these films because there’s a million moments.
I really stay close to the story.
I knew that I wanted a sense of the American audience.
They’re a different energy altogether.
Also, the light is really important the light in Europe and those outdoor arenas and those faces.
you’re free to’t go too long with the music.
I don’t have to keep going with the tour.
I can take this segue."
I take a stab at stay open to what the film is telling me.
Ben Trivett/Shutterstock
The fans you talked to and included were all European.
Bruce is such a quintessentially American artist, so why did you make that choice?
I was letting the band tell the story of the appreciation of American fans.
[Vocalist] Curtis [King] talks about it being a religious experience.
I didn’t want to interrupt it at that moment.
We’re just beginning the journey.
You get a sense of America, and then the film takes off in Europe.
So, it made more sense to include the European fans.
And I really looked hard at the fans.
I didn’t want the uber fan.
I wanted somebody that was projecting this thing of, “The music means a lot to me.
It’s changed my life.
It’s part of my life.”
But it’s not a person who’s wrapped their whole apartment in Bruce memorabilia.
It is not about celebrity; it’s about a community interacting.
I wanted to honor that.
This tour was interrupted by illness.
Was there any discussion of that being part of the storytelling?
I’m chasing bigger ideas.
I also love the idea of the film feeling timeless.
And he’s talked about it.
It’s almost too easy to go for those things.
That’s a lot stronger place for me to emotionally connect when I’m watching a film.
You have all these on-camera interviews with the band members.
Was there anything they said that really surprised you after all this time?
There were tons of surprises when I was interviewing the E Street band.
The beauty of getting to know them is that sense of trust.
The early days of touring I hadn’t heard those stories.
And in my mind, I’m cross-cutting them already.
I can hear the rhythms and the beauty of the E Street band.
The guys have a brotherhood, but they also have this honesty on camera that conveys real-life struggles.
That only comes from a place of them feeling comfortable.
There’s a beauty to this film because it’s emotional and stays in a place of honesty.
There’s nothing being fabricated.
Did you feel like you saw a new side of Bruce as well?
Was there any hope that this film could offer context for that and maybe get people to calm down?
I don’t get caught up with that.
That would clutter the beauty of seeing Bruce’s intentions.
It’s far bigger to have Bruce talk about his mortality.
I’m not in that space.
What I’m doing is trying to unpack an invisible thing, which is a creative process.
