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The Vindication of a Great Artist: Interview with Eva Aridjis Fuentes, Director of ADIÓS CABALLOS: THE MANY LIVES OF Q LAZZARUS (2024)

Ariadna Coronel

We probably all wanted to hear more of Q Lazzarus' music after listening to her only released song (so far), Goodbye Horses. Eva Aridjis Fuentes set out to tell the story behind Q Lazzarus' enigmatic figure, Diane Luckey, in Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (2024).

After its successful presentation at the 22nd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), we spoke with Eva Aridjis about her approach to Diane's life.

FICM: Your first encounter with Q Lazzarus seems like something out of a movie. How did this unexpected encounter influence the way you decided to approach the making of the documentary?

Eva Aridjis Fuentes: We both felt that it was an encounter of fate, that there weren't many factors that for both of us... I don't normally take a car during the day, I take the subway, but I was rushing to get to an appointment, and she didn't normally work during the day, she worked at night, but that day she had a client who had hired her all day, but he was in a meeting for several hours, so she decided to pick up other passengers. So there were like several things that helped for this encounter to take place. It was similar to an encounter she had with director Jonathan Demme in the '80s, when he got into her cab as a passenger and they met like that. So, even though she was obviously a singer, filmmakers ended up being very important to her, because she was first discovered by filmmaker Jonathan Demme and 30 years later she was rediscovered by another filmmaker: me; no longer in a cab, more like Uber - it wasn't Uber but a similar service.

We immediately hit it off, we started talking, we started singing together, she was playing a Neil Young album that I really like, it's called Harvest. So from the beginning, there was like a connection, even before I found out that she was Q Lazzarus.

FICM: Q Lazzarus is a mystery in the music world, especially because she decided to disappear from the public eye. What aspects of her personal and artistic life surprised you the most during the filming process?

Eva Aridjis Fuentes: There were two things, which I think are the same things that surprise and move the audience the most when they see the film: one is her story, which was so dramatic; so many things that happened to her - which is why I titled it The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus, because so many things really happened to her in that period when she disappeared and before. The other is her music because everybody knows “Goodbye Horses” but she has a lot of music in different genres: in rock, in more like dance music, electronic, metal, new wave; she made music in different genres and people don't know that music. When I heard those songs... she gave me a bag full of cassettes and then I went to digitize and when I started to listen to all the music, I was impressed not only with her voice, which is so powerful but the music is so good and varied. I really don't understand how she never managed to release an album in those ten years she was making music, between '85 and '95; but the music is coming out, we are going to release the soundtrack, the soundtrack of the movie, in December/January and on the label called Secret Bones -which is here in New York and London-, which were Q's two cities, and that is where this label is based.

FICM: The testimony of Q's son James points out the medical negligence that many African-American women suffer in the U.S. health care system. Tell me, how did you approach this sensitive subject?

Eva Aridjis Fuentes: It wasn't a decision I made, it was more about what happened to her and, well, since it's documentary about her and her life, we included it, her cause of death, but, indeed: Q as an African American was a victim. Several systems failed her, from the music industry, which did not want to support a Black woman singing rock music -which is absurd because African-Americans invented rock, with Little Richard and the like-, to the legal system and the medical system. As we see in the film, she broke her leg, went to the hospital and never came out. It's absurd for a person to die after breaking their leg.

But sadly yes, the public medical system, and more so for people of color, is not good. She was 61 years old, we were about to finish the film, we just had to film the concert that was going to be the happy ending of the film: her return to the stage, her return to her music, her finally receiving the attention and appreciation that she deserved -and that she had never had. So yes, it was a very unexpected and tragic ending and event.

FICM: The documentary also takes place at a time when racial protests in the U.S., especially after the death of George Floyd, were very present. How did these protests and the racial issue impact the narrative of the film?

Eva Aridjis Fuentes: As we see in the film, her son James was very involved in the protests, but Q also discusses it; there's a scene where they talk about everything that was going on. I think just like with the other themes, the fact that she was African American is a major focus in the film. It's a constant theme that's always in the background of all the things that are happening to her, all the problems and all the obstacles. We are always aware that she is African-American, and that, maybe, had she been a white woman, her story would have been very different. So it was important for me to include that as well. A scene from Black Lives Matter and also from COVID, because two historical things happened: the pandemic and these protests. Two historical things that happened while we were filming and that affected us, and affected the filming - because the pandemic also meant that we had to stop filming and we had to delay the concert. She and I began to work a lot just the two of us. I was filming, recording sound and she was telling me stories, and so it became a very intimate film for that reason as well.

FICM: Throughout the documentary, how did you balance the story of Q Lazzarus' disappearance and reappearance with the need to respect her privacy and the mystery surrounding her?

Eva Aridjis Fuentes: When she met me, she decided to go back to her music, go back to being Q Lazzarus and tell me the story of what had happened to her. And what she tells me, what she told me on camera for the film, are stories she never told anyone, so really the audience watching this film are the only ones in the world who know what happened to her, and it was very important for both of us that people knew her story through her, through the film and the words, and also the lyrics of Q's songs. The songs also kind of illustrate the different chapters of her life, the issues, the problems and things that happened to her; some songs also support and illustrate those chapters.

FICM: Having worked so closely on her life and legacy, how do you hope viewers will see Q Lazzarus beyond the enigmatic figure behind “Goodbye Horses”?

Eva Aridjis Fuentes: At the two screenings in Morelia there wasn't a dry eye in the room. When the film ended everyone was crying a lot, everyone fell in love with Q, and everyone asked where they could buy the record. Really the idea of the film - and I think, after seeing the audience's reaction, we achieved it - is that people really get to know this great woman and her music and that she finally receives the appreciation, respect and attention she always deserved, even if it is posthumous.

But her legacy was left in my hands when she died and we are adding this. Her legacy was left in my hands because she's not going to do any more music, she's not going to do any more interviews.