Betty: They Say I'm Different

Betty Davis emerged as a funk force in the 1960s, influenced a world-famous musician, and then disappeared. British filmmaker Phil Cox relies on commentary from friends and associates, excerpts from interviews, music and performance clips, and photos and collages. It's just enough material to provide a taste of her fiery shows, uninhibited lyricism, and arresting fashion sense, but not enough to fill out the standard running time, since They Say I'm Different clocks in at 54 minutes. Cox traces Davis's beginnings to North Carolina and Pennsylvania. When she was ready to make music her career, she moved to New York, where she attended design school, worked as a model, and wrote songs. She met Miles Davis at the Village Gate, told him she dug his shoes, and that was that. They married in 1968, after which he incorporated psychedelic-rock elements into his music and wardrobe. After their divorce, her recording career began in earnest, and she released three albums. Though Davis spoke with Cox, she's always facing away from the camera, so he focuses on her hands. She provides so few details about her years in exile that she feels like a ghost haunting a film about a past she doesn't care to revisit. The extra features include interviews with Davis, in which Cox filmed her from the back ("No one wants to see an old woman," she says) and with the filmmaker. It took him four years to gain Davis's trust, and yet the film effectively ends in 1975. Betty Davis has managed to keep herself alive since then, no small feat. Maybe someday somebody will shed light on the life she lived after the fame faded. An optional selection. (K. Fennessy)