Great, Once is a personal story for us. It explores the need to face the current moment and improvise a better tomorrow–something everyone is yearning for right now. In Jazz and in acting, improvising is all about finding a new story, a new way of playing a note, a new way of facing chaos and making it beautiful.
In this film, Reed Francis, a reclusive Jazz bass legend, has left the music world behind. He’s living in anonymity with his wife and daughters until his world flips upside down. As he fights to save his family, a documentarian finds him and offers to restart his career.
Crumbling under the weight of an opioid addiction, the last thing he wants is to go back into the Jazz world. That is, until Evelyn Hahn, documentarian and Jazz musician herself, shows up and offers to help him with his family crisis.
Reluctantly, Reed accepts the offer in exchange for being a part of the documentary by interviewing, performing in a concert and recording an album.