Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds documentaryBright Lights premiering in January

Following the deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, HBO will premiere the documentary Bright Lights in January

By
Nick Romano
Nicholas Romano author photo
Nick Romano is a senior editor atEntertainment Weekly with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared inVanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.
December 30, 2016 11:03 a.m. ET

As the world continues to mournCarrie Fisher andDebbie Reynolds, HBO announced the premiere ofBright Lights, the intimate documentary about this mother-daughter duo, for Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The filmscreened at the New York Film Festival in August before landing on the premium cable network. Sheila Nevins, president of HBO’s Documentary Films, called it “a love story” during an interview withVariety. “Carrie wanted to makeBright Lights for Debbie and Debbie wanted to make it for Carrie,” she said.

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds focuses on the loving and complicated bond between these two women formed over more than six decades in the Hollywood spotlight.

Fisher and Reynolds died within 48 hours of each other, prompting an outpour of emotion fromHollywood icons andfans around the world.

“Both were supremely kind human beings, and unusually perceptive,” Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom, who co-directedBright Lights, said in a statement on their deaths. “And when either one entered a room, the energy changed. Quite simply, we were iron filings to their magnets. And never more so than when they were together. These women were more than mother and daughter, they were an expression of exquisite humanity in all its travail and triumph. They lived their days boldly. They sang every song worth singing (often together). Carrie and Debbie loved each other profoundly. We are devastated they’re gone. And so very fortunate to have known them at all.”

The film was originally set to premiere in March 2017, but was moved to Jan. 7 in light of recent events.

Watch a clip from the film below.

An encore presentation of Fisher’s 2010 documentary,Wishful Drinking, is set to air at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Jan. 1 on HBO.

Read more:

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