Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020) on Netflix

PG-1320201h 46mDocumentary Music

Taylor Swift performs all seventeen songs from her album Folklore in order at Long Pond Studio. She and her collaborators, kept apart by the pandemic, discuss how the album was made.

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Netflix4.6/5
IMDb8.5/105,887 votes
Rotten Tomatoes100%

Trailer

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Plot summary

Taylor Swift gathers with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff at Long Pond Studio in New York's Hudson Valley, the first time the three have been in the same room since writing and recording the album Folklore in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. They play all seventeen tracks in order in stripped-down acoustic arrangements, and between songs they discuss the creative process, the stories and the inspirations behind each one. Justin Vernon sings "Exile" with Swift, joining from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, over a video link. Because of the pandemic, no film crew was present: cameras were embedded in the studio, and a drone captured aerial shots of the building and the forested estate around it.

Cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Taylor Swift wrote and recorded several new songs off-screen while shooting the documentary in 2020, and those songs became a major portion of her ninth studio album, Evermore, released just fifteen days after the film.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic there was no film crew: the sessions were shot on six Panasonic Lumix S1H mirrorless cameras with Leica lenses embedded in the studio, plus an Arri Alexa LF on a curved dolly track.
A limited-edition vinyl LP of the live album, issued for Record Store Day 2023 through independent shops, sold out its 75,000 US copies in a week; that week Swift became the first artist since Prince in 2016 to have three albums in the Billboard 200 top ten, with Midnights and Lover.
Queen's University in Ontario runs a fall course called "Taylor Swift's Literary Legacy (Taylor's Version)" whose syllabus requires students to watch and analyze works including Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.
After the film and Evermore, artists including Maya Hawke, Gracie Abrams, Ed Sheeran, King Princess and Girl in Red wanted to collaborate with Aaron Dessner and record songs at his Long Pond Studio.
Long Pond Studio, near Aaron Dessner's home, was originally a barn that had been converted into a wooden cabin on a waterfront estate beside an elongated pond, surrounded by chairs, string lights and fire pits.