You may know Q Lazzarus for her song "Goodbye Horses", which has been in many movies, TV shows, video games, and even TikToks. On May 28, The Neon will be one of two theaters in all of Ohio to show a one night screening of documentary Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus, made possible by Skeleton Dust Records and Josh Egeland. Egeland discussed the documentary and the premiere with WYSO Midday Music host Evan Miller.
"So it's really bittersweet, and tragic on the one end of the spectrum, but also super inspiring and just kind of a stranger than fiction that this film even exists," said Egeland. "So the filmmaker, Eva Aridijs Fuentes, is a Mexican-American filmmaker, she's primarily done documentaries. She was getting in a ride-share service and the GPS that the driver was using was broken. So it's taking this long way around, and she thought that the person driving looked familiar and she thought that her voice even sounded familiar. Instead of listening to Spotify or whatever was on the radio, this driver was listening and singing along to the CD of Neil Young's Harvest in full. Then it really clicked for her. She just kind of planted it, like, coyly as a question, 'Are you familiar with Q Lazarus?' And the driver's like,'Oh, I've heard of her.' The driver did eventually confide in her that she is Q Lazzarus, that she was the artist, the woman behind that act, and Eva was really interested in connecting with her further. The film was started during 2019 and then the pandemic of COVID-19 hit. So this documented kind of that lockdown experience when Eva and Diane were pretty much alone in her apartment together. And you know, those parts of the film, I think, are going to be very intimate as a glimpse into both of their lives at that moment in time."
During the filming of the documentary Q Lazzarus, Diane Luckey, passed away, leaving the direction of the film up in the air. "Following Diane's passing it completely shifted the scope of the film. It went from being this first glimpse that people are going to get into this mysterious artist and potentially beloved person's life, and at the same time now, it's kind of the last opportunity. This is the last footage of her. This is all that there may be. It's a huge responsibility that Fuentes recognized to have, and to tell her story, and to get it right."
The film won the Audience Award for Mexican Documentary Feature Film at the 22nd Morelia International Film Festival in 2024 and The Guardian called the film "a moving and honest triumph." Egeland himself has only seen clips of the film, but he has high expectations for the documentary. "I'm expecting, like all stories that are true, that it it will be a complex story- that there will be layers and angles to it. She had many people in her life, in the record industry at the time, that that basically advised her that she could not have successful career as Black woman. And the institution of American rock and roll, which of course for any of us who know anything about music and rock and roll being a genre, was invented by African American musicians. I think that we're going to learn a lot about, what makes music click with people- what connects Goodbye Horses with millions of fans and admirers around the world who want to know who Diane was and want to see this film. You know, a little mystery, I think, can go a long way."
Alongside the release of the documentary is the soundtrack, which features previously unreleased music from Q Lazzarus. There's a total of 23 tracks on the CD format of this release, as well as this new wave version of "Goodbye Horses".
Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus will premiere at The Neon on Wednesday, May 28 at 7:30 PM. There will also be a DJ set from Luke Tandy, owner of Skeleton Dust Records, at 6:30 PM on the patio, accompanied by trivia, refreshments, and raffles.
