Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan

Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan
A black-and-white still of Bob Dylan singing into a microphone and playing guitar with the title of the movie over it
Directed byAlma Har'el
Produced byAlma Har'el
Christopher Leggett
Raphael Marmor
StarringBob Dylan
CinematographyLol Crawley
Edited byAlma Har'el
Music byBob Dylan
Distributed byVeeps, Apple TV+
Release date
  • July 18, 2021 (2021-07-18) (Streaming Premiere)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Shadow Kingdom is a 2021 concert film featuring American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Directed by Israeli-American filmmaker Alma Har'el, it was shot on a soundstage in Santa Monica, California, over seven days in 2021 while Dylan was sidelined from his Never Ending Tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] The film features Dylan and a group of masked musicians performing 13 songs from the first half of Dylan's career in an intimate club-like setting.[2][3][4]

Shadow Kingdom premiered via the livestream platform Veeps.com with little information about its contents having been revealed in pre-release publicity.[5] Some viewers expected the event to be a live concert and were surprised when it turned out to be a stylized black-and-white art film featuring "pre-recorded set pieces" instead.[6] Shadow Kingdom nonetheless earned rave reviews from critics, many of whom praised Dylan's creative re-arrangements of his early songs as well as Har'el's imaginative staging of the performances.[7]

A soundtrack album, Shadow Kingdom, was released on June 2, 2023,[8] and the full-length film was released four days later as a rental and digital download.[9]

  1. ^ "Bob Dylan Delivers Streaming Concert 'Shadow Kingdom'". Jambands. July 20, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  2. ^ "Review: Another side of Bob Dylan — a streamed concert". Star Tribune. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  3. ^ "Bob Dylan's 'Shadow Kingdom' Streaming Concert Set for Release". Rolling Stone. April 13, 2023.
  4. ^ "Bob Dylan Releasing Music from 'Shadow Kingdom' Film as an Album in June". April 13, 2023.
  5. ^ Bals, Fred (July 2, 2021). "What We Know and What We Can Guess About Bob Dylan's "Shadow Kingdom"". Medium. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  6. ^ "Bob Dylan's live-streamed concert was evocative, touching and a devotee's dream – review". The Independent. July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  7. ^ "Review: Bob Dylan: He's 80, he's livestreaming and he still loves messing with us". Los Angeles Times. July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  8. ^ "Bob Dylan Concert Film Shadow Kingdom To Be Released On CD, LP". Spin. April 13, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  9. ^ "Bob Dylan". view.fans.legacyrecordings.com. Retrieved April 13, 2023.