Posted on: September 22, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The Last Days of Left Eye is a documentary that originally aired on VH1 and attempted to break down the course of events that culminated in the April 25th, 2002 death of “Left Eye” Lopes, whom individuals will remember from TLC. This 86-minute long documentary builds off of Lopes’ desire to film eir time in Honduras. This means that there are tremendous amounts of first-hand footage present that are interspersed with segments of Lopes’ diaries and other linkages to eir past.

Perhaps most interesting during this documentary has to be the footage of the accident: where the accident is captured, Lauren Lazin (director) decided to avoid showing the actual impact, instead leading up and following from the accident that left one of the world’s best R&B performers prematurely dead. The event follows from another accident, which led to the death of a small child from the island that had the same name (Lopez versus Lopes), setting up foreshadowing that would make even the best director jealous. While the event is long out of viewers’ minds at this time, “Last Days of Left Eye” brings back the sorrow and sadness that was felt by anyone that may have been touched by Lopes, either directly or indirectly. No matter how long it has been since this tragedy, merely watching “Last Days of Left Eye” will cause one to well up.

There are a few bonuses here for individuals that may have actually watched the documentary when it was originally aired, most impressive of which has to be the digging up of an Lopes track exclusive to this DVD, “Let’s Just Do It”. Bolstering the inclusion of this song is a number of deleted scenes that further flesh out the narrative. I must admit that I was not familiar with Lauren Lazin’s work before this, but I would love to see subsequent works of Lazin’s in the years and decades to come. If you want to remember exactly how important Lisa “Left Eye Lopes” was to the world – more than just music or eir family – make it a point to pick up “The Last Days of Left Eye”. Where a number of documentaries take a vantage point far away from the action, Lazin makes sure that through the use of primary documents that individuals, by the end of the documentary, feel that they know “Left Eye” intimately.

Rating: 7.9/10

The Last Days of Left Eye (DVD) / 2008 Lisa Lopes / http://www.anchorbayent.com /

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