Showtime has announced that it will premiere Spike Lee’s new documentary, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, on February 5 at 9 p.m. The film, which contains original interviews with The Weeknd, Pharrell, L.A. Reid, and both of Jackson’s parents, will examine the rare period of Jackson’s life in which he was not directly in the spotlight, between the end of his time in the Jackson 5 and before the beginning of his proper solo career.
This is just one of many of Lee’s forays into the world of documentary, as can be seen by his extensive IMDB page. This is also by no means the first MJ doc to come out in recent years, though it is the first to skip both the legendary beginning and end of Jackson’s career and focus on the transitional period that helped him establish himself as the King of Pop with Off the Wall. (Lee had actually done that, with 2012’s Bad 25, which looked at the legacy of Jackson’s Bad.)
If you miss the February 9 world premiere, don’t worry: the network promises the thing will be aired regularly around the world in the months to follow. It will also, according to Rolling Stone, be packaged with an anniversary edition of Off the Wall, which Jackson’s estate will release on February 26.
