The Nomi Song is a 2004 documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about the life of singer Klaus Nomi

Klaus Nomi

Klaus Sperber , better known as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona....

, written and directed by Andrew Horn. The film debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival

Berlin International Film Festival

The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...

 in February 2004, where it won a Teddy Award

Teddy Award

The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival . Here, an "independent jury" implies that its members are not officially selected by the committee of the Berlinale...

 for "Best Documentary Film."

Structure

Through interviews with Nomi's collaborators and family members, the documentary lightly brushes on the early life of Klaus Sperber before settling in to the five year period depicting the German singer's reinvention of himself as Klaus Nomi, his rise to fame in New York, his break into the international music market and his death from complications of AIDs

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 in 1983. In addition to interview footage and still photography, the film features archival footage of Nomi performances. The film features East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

 personalities such as Kristian Hoffman

Kristian Hoffman

Kristian Hoffman is an American musician. His sister is writer Nina Kiriki Hoffman.-History:Singer/songwriter Kristian Hoffman first emerged during the late 1970s as songwriter and keyboardist for New York City cult favorite the Mumps, and was also an active figure in the No Wave, performing...

 and songs by artists such as The Bongos

The Bongos

The Bongos were a rock band from Hoboken, New Jersey, primarily active in the 1980s. With a unique blend of British Invasion-flavored power pop, jangly guitars, and dance beats they made the leap to national recognition with the advent of MTV.-Biography:...

, Marbles, The Mumps, and David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

.

Critical reception

In his review, Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

s Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....

 described the documentary as "loving and meticulous", giving the film an A-. MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

's Kurt Loder

Kurt Loder

Kurt Loder is an American film critic, author, columnist, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone, during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire, Details, New York, and Time. He has also made cameos on...

 dubbed it "strange and fascinating". In its review of the film, The Advocate called it "engaging", indicating at the DVD release that "New Wave countertenor

Countertenor

A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...

 Klaus Nomi gets his posthumous due in this acclaimed doc."

DVD features

The DVD includes numerous bonus features, including remixes of Nomi songs by Richard Barone

Richard Barone

Richard Barone is a rock musician born in Tampa, Florida who gained attention as frontman for The Bongos. He works as a songwriter, arranger, author, director, and producer, releases albums as a solo artist, tours, and has created major concert events at Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl and New York's...

, Ana Matronic

Ana Matronic

Ana Matronic is the female lead singer for the Scissor Sisters.Her stage name is said to be due to "a deep and abiding love of robots"...

 of the Scissor Sisters

Scissor Sisters

Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...

, The Moog Cookbook

The Moog Cookbook

The Moog Cookbook is the name of an electronica band made up of Brian Kehew and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. as a parody/tribute to the novelty "Moog records" of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The duo performs exclusively on analog synthesizers, especially Moog synthesizers...

, and Man Parrish

Man Parrish

Man Parrish is an American composer, songwriter, vocalist and producer. He, along with artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, John Robie, Jellybean Benitez and Aldo Marin helped create and define electro in the early 1980s...

.