The Darkness Behind Donna Summer's Disco Facade

Early in the new documentary about her life, Donna Summer says, “You're looking at me, but what you see is not what I am. How many roles do I play in my own life?”

It's a profound thesis statement backed up by a career that saw her go from musical theater upstart to sensual disco pioneer to born-again Christian. Summer was the first Black woman with a video in regular rotation on MTV, a statistic that stresses the progress she represented and the burden she carried. By the time she danced her last dance in 2012, she was living on a sprawling California ranch removed from showbiz's commercial trappings.

Love to Love You, Donna Summer, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and airs on HBO in May, paints a complicated portrait of a performer whose concept albums and theatrical stage shows made her more of a multihyphenate than she gets credit for. Like all celebrities, however, Summer could only control her image so much. She felt boxed in by the queen-of-disco branding that made “I Feel Love” one of the most influential dance songs ever recorded, and not even a hit collaboration with Barbra Streisand could diversify the way she'd be remembered.

Read more at The Daily Beast.