Events

The World According to Allee Willis Screening

Jan. 29, 2025, 5:30 p.m.
Location:

Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film 109, Rosenwald Theater

Prudence Fenton ’75 will be featured at a screening of a documentary she co-produced about her partner, the award-winning songwriter Allee Willis.

Take one look at Allee Willis and you see someone unafraid to be themselves. Dressed in a cacophony of prints and colors, her signature asymmetrical haircut and famed parties at her real-life Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Allee didn’t waste any opportunity to tell you what she was about. But privately, Allee struggled with not fitting established gender and sexual norms.

She buried herself in her work, until true love manifested her ultimate masterpiece—self-acceptance.

Allee began filming her life in 1950s Detroit and never stopped. This film is the realization of her wish that her “final art piece be someone putting together the trail I have left behind.”

Open to the public.

Allee Willis sits on a circular bed in the middle of a music video set, the walls are splatter painted and there is a heart with lights surrounding it on the wall behind her.
Allee Willis on the set she designed for MTV's Just Say Julie, from The World According to Allee Willis, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of the Estate of Allee Willis and Magnolia Pictures.