With all the controversy currently swirling around Jackson, the energy felt very dark, uncomfortable, and uncontrollable. And sure enough, that energy would nearly destroy the film and the project. After a processing lab “break,” the first accident of its kind in fifteen years at the only super-8 lab in the city, I was devastated. Six out of nine rolls were partially or completely destroyed, unthinkable and unbelievable. Yet, when I viewed the remains of this accidental, spiritual heartbreak and became joyful. The destruction and subsequent transformation of surface and intent is an exacting metaphor for Jackson’s own transformation and demise. Recorded Yesterday records Jackson’s epic fight to keep dancing through time and space as he hopelessly disintegrates in front of our eyes. The piece awakens our humanity; his struggle becomes ours again in a way that the real Michael Jackson has yet to reassimilate. Jackson has gone from beloved to freak as yesterday forever stalks him, joining Curtis and Cobain as another example of a cultural assassin, assassinated by the very culture that loved him to death.