Gorillaz Documentaries

This page is dedicated to the different Gorillaz documentaries over the years

Charts Of Darkness (2001)
Gorillaz: Charts of Darkness is actually a Mockumentary which aired in December 2001 on Channel 4. The rockumentary follows Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who tries his best to find the insight of the Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The 24 minute film shows the pair heavily bruised, where the claim to have been attacked by the "cartoons" (Gorillaz themselves). Through out the documentary both creators describe the horror they faced from Murdoc, Russel, 2-D and Noodle. Damon and Jamie are taken to an insane asylum where one of the nurses is portrayed by Phil Cornwell, Murdoc's voice actor, and Haruka Kuroda, Noodle's voice actor. Through out the documentary Murdoc's voice actor, Phil Cornwall, portrays several different characters such as ; Damon and Jamie's therapist, a police officer and the Nurse. The film obviously wasn't taken seriously as Damon can be seen Laughing through out the documentary while Jamie some how stayed serious. At the end when Damon and Jamie are confronted by Krishnan, they quite happily replaced each others voices by the Gorillaz live band such as having bass player Junior Dan play Damon.

The entire film was written by Cass Browne.

Bananaz (2008)
Directed by Ceri Levy, a friend of Damon Albarn, Bananaz is documentary about the making of Gorillaz first two albums, Gorillaz Debut and Demon Days. Filmed over 6 years, from January 21st 2000 to April 6th 2006, Ceri followed Damon and Jamie through their journey with the creation of the band. The documentary shows the recordings for the albums, Live footage (both rehearsal and live), G-Bitez and early art work. The documentary also shows Damon Albarn's famous cigarette trick, which he manages to do at the end of the film, and the behind the scenes of the Dirty Harry Video. According to an interview with the Hallelujah Monkeyz, Ceri first filmed Jamie showing him early art work at his and Damons flat. He also revealed filming Shaun Ryder's vocals for DARE, but unfortunately wasn't able to add it in.

The Making Of Plastic Beach (2010)
The Making of Plastic Beach shows the making of Gorillaz' 2010 third album Plastic Beach. The 30 minute film is a bit more stripped back compared to Bananaz as it only shows the recording process and the making of the sculpture of Plastic Beach seen on the album cover. The documentary doesn't go further into the live shows, this was most likely because it was featured on a deluxe version of CD of Plastic Beach, before the live shows eve started. As previously mentioned, the documentary shows Jamie Hewlett directing his team on how he wants the model to look, specifically asking them to add more junk etc. The documentary also shows Bobby Womack recording his parts, which would later become an emotional thing to watch after he would pass in 2014, it would be said due to the fact that it shows Bobby sharing his wisdom with Damon.

Reject False Icons (2019)
In 2019 Gorillaz released the documentary Gorillaz: Reject False Icons. The filmed was made by Jamie Hewlett son Denholm Hewlett, who filmed Damon, Jamie and now Remi Kabaka Jr. from 2015 to 2018. The film takes place after the 5 year hiatus after Plastic Beach leading into the making of Humanz and then The Now Now. In fashion of Bananaz, released 10 years prior, the documentary shows the Humanz Tour and The Now Now Tour, which contains several different moments. Despite the live parts of the documentary taking over the majority of the film, most of the key moments involve the band on the road, including the time when the Live band didn't tell bass player Seye Adelekan that they were doing sound check, until security manager Smoggy informed him when there was only 20 minutes to show. Another may include when Damon completed this cigarette trick a second time on screen. The film was released to YouTube in December 2019 in 3 different parts.

Gorillaz Documentary Discography

 * Gorillaz: Charts of Darkness (2001)
 * Bananaz (2008)
 * The Making of Plastic Beach (2010)
 * Gorillaz: Reject False Icons (2019)