HBO has acquired the U.S. TV rights to Judd Apatow’s and Michael Bonfiglio’s film May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers. The documentary will premiere at the 2017 South By Southwest Festival March 15.
The music film is co-directed and produced by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. May It Lastis an Apatow Production in association with RadicalMedia and marks Apatow and Bonfiglio’s second collaboration, following last year’s baseball film Doc & Darryl.
Filmed across more than two years, May It Last chronicles the band, fronted by brothers Scott and Seth Avett, on the long journey from their rural North Carolina childhoods to topping the charts and selling out arenas, with a bit of heartbreak, tragedy and joy along the way. The film also provides an inside look at their collaboration with legendary producer Rick Rubin while recording the 2017 album “True Sadness.”
“This film has been a true labor of love for us for more than three years now, and we could not be happier that HBO–with their incredible lineage of documentary programming–believes in it as much as we do,” said Apatow and Bonfiglio.
Featuring exclusive footage of the Avetts in the studio and at home, never-before-seen family photographs, concert footage and revealing interviews with band members, the film takes an in-depth look at the relationship between the brothers.
"The accuracy with which Apatow and Bonfiglio present this moment in our lives and process is stunning," said Seth Avett. “From the vantage point of my brother and I, the film is almost surreal in its level of personal truth-telling.”
Executive producers include Jon Kamen, Dave O’Connor and Justin Wilkes.
