Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus

I went to see this film with my husband and we were both devastated but also utterly entranced. We feel nothing but admiration and awe for this incredible feat of resurrection of a forgotten artist who deserves enormous recognition. Q Lazzarus was an extraordinary woman and Aridjis-Fuentes tells her story with great elegance and respect. Apart from being a compelling portrait of an artist and of a woman with a personality and presence larger than anything you could ever imagine, it is a complex and layered portrait, not always favorable, of American society. May Q's story and transcendent voice become a part of our lives, may she forever be an inspiration.

Goodbye Horses is a must watch for deep music heads and fans of documentaries on underground and "outsider" arts. Eva Aridjis Fuentes did a fantastic job of capturing Q (Diane Luckey) and her work. Q was a fascinating singer / songwriter who combined hard rock, soul, and new wave in her songs and focused it all through her powerful, sublime voice (think Tina Turner on the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack.) The film follows Diane / Q from her youthful explosion of musical creativity through a series of heartbreaking tribulations and "almost" moments. An equally beautiful and painful paean to dreams and survival.

The reason we love films is that, sometimes, they provide us with a reminder that there is magic, still, in the world.

Such is the case with Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus - A remarkable - even miraculous - piece of documentary work by director Eva Aridjis-Fuentes who just happened to be the only person who could have made this film at the particular time it came to be.

This is a stunning, accessible, portrait of an artist as well as a commentary on our society. Heartbreaking, haunting, and, ultimately, uplifting, it's everything you could want from any film and the fact that it's true to life makes it even more important. Watch it at your emotional peril because it is devastating in the end. Bravo!

This film is outstanding, mainly because the subject, Q Lazzararus (Diane Luckey) is magnificent. She is a force of nature. There seems to be a serious disconnect in the music industry which doesn't recognize a superior talent like this, and it extends to the indie film industry as well. Those programmers at Sundance and Slamdance and SXSW are all falling over themselves trying to secure the rights to secure the productions of rock royalty and are ignoring the work of a significant underground artist like Q. She is miles above any of the winners at the Grammy Awards this past year, and needs to be awarded a Grammy immediately. Her work is completely misunderstood, since she is a black woman fronting a heavy metal band, and the music industry has no precedent for how to market such a phenomenon.

As far as the documentary is concerned, it is the unbelievable result of the filmmaker, who is a fan of Q herself, getting into a cab driven by none other than Q herself. How is this possible? It sounds like something that would be considered absolutely implausible if it was a script, yet it was real life. If this is not evidence of the abstract phenomenon known as FATE, then please explain how something so amazing could happen.

The documentary is one of the best I have ever seen, and this is written by a documentary teacher, who studies them and presents them to students in major arts colleges, so there is reason to believe that the filmmaker deserves some recognition here. How is it possible that this is not getting worldwide recognition? Oh yeah, because the subject is a black woman who is fronting a heavy metal band. I guess that says it all. Do yourself a favor and see this. Absolutely riveting.

I saw this film in an art house cinema in Toronto and was blown away. I agree with the reviewer here who said this is THE documentary of the year. Forget the endlessly bland and predictable bio epics about famous performers. This is the real thing. Absolutely authentic and intimate and unlike any film portrait I have ever seen. How could it have not gone to the independent festivals, how could this gem of a film not be written about everywhere right now? I just don't get it. But for those of us lucky enough to have seen this film and discover Q's inner life and tragic trajectory, it will linger for years to come. The music is fantastic too. Thanks to this brilliant doc, Q will never be forgotten. I can't stop thinking about it.