Summary
- Gloria Gaynor’s new documentary,
I Will Survive,
chronicles her personal and professional hardships, including medical scares and a tumultuous marriage. - Through faith and determination, Gaynor believes that anything is possible and that no one can stop you from achieving what God has in store for you.
- Despite initial hesitation, Gaynor decided to reveal personal details in the documentary with the intention of doing good for others and sending a message of faith and resiliency.
Gloria Gaynor is a survivor. The talented songstress is best known for disco hits like Never Can Say Goodbye and I Will Survive. More than just a break-up anthem, the latter is also a powerful motivator for people navigating difficult situations. It’s also the name of a new documentary by Betsy Schechter that chronicles Gaynor’s personal and professional hardships and successes and the making of her 2019 Gospel album Testimony.
In Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive, Gaynor recounts medical scares, sexual abuse, and a tumultuous marriage to manager/husband Linwood Simon. In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb about the upcoming documentary, we asked Gaynor how she remained grounded through life’s most challenging moments. She shared:
“I didn’t quite stay grounded. I didn’t want to do things that I wasn’t really interested in doing, but I was too insecure and too weak to just do what I wanted to do. So, I followed him [ex-husband Simon], and I allowed him to take me in a direction that I really didn’t want to go. Then I got stopped one night because of my faith and because of God’s faithfulness. He stopped me dead in my tracks, caused me to turn around, and go in a completely different direction. Then life completely changed for me.”
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Exclusive: Gloria Gaynor Shares How ‘I Will Survive’ Almost Didn’t Become a Hit
The music icon also opens up about her riveting new documentary, the music business, and who should play her in a potential biopic.
Gaynor believes that with faith and determination, anything is possible:
“With faith and determination, you can survive anything. You can do anything you want. I don’t even remember whether I said it in the film, but I hope readers get it from this interview: No one can stop you from getting what God has for you except you.”
The Making of Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive
Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive has gained critical praise for its intimate look at its subject’s life and for giving audiences someone to root for.
Decades after her reign as one of disco’s top names, Gaynor decided that she wanted to lend her powerful voice to a new genre: gospel. In 2019, Gaynor released Testimony, which would go on to earn a Grammy for Best Gospel Performance/Song. This marked her second Grammy and came 40 years after her first. While we now know that the album was a success, the outcome was not known at the start of the years-long effort to bring Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive to the screen. Gaynor revealed to us that she even questioned whether to move forward with the documentary:
“My first thoughts were, ‘What are we going to reveal? And how much do I want to reveal?’. And then I came to, ‘Well, if you’re not going to reveal anything substantial, you might as well not do it.”
She says initial hesitation came from seeing “people on social media just really hanging all the dirty laundry out, and for what purpose?”
“I thought if I’m going to reveal things that are personal to me, then it’s got to be for a purpose, and it’s got to do some good for others. Otherwise, it’s purposeless,” she added.
Early reviews of the film signal its purpose: just like the 1978 song of the same title, Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive serves as a message of faith and resiliency.
