Upcoming documentary: The Heavy Metal Dream

From Black Sabbath to Gojira, a documentary charting heavy metal's five decades of sonic fury, cultural impact and global reach. Seeking co-producers.

On February 13, 1970, Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut and, with it, the blueprint for an entirely new sonic world. More than five decades later, heavy metal has not merely survived, it has proliferated, mutated and colonised culture far beyond the stages and record stores where it was born. Its influence now runs through fashion, cinema, comics and mainstream pop, while its community remains one of the most passionate and globally connected in music.

The Heavy Metal Dream sets out to map this sprawling phenomenon through the themes that have always defined it: the tension between transgression and community, the power of spectacle, the political charge of extreme sound, and the question of what it means to belong to a culture that the mainstream has never stopped treating with suspicion.

Director Olivier Richard builds his portrait around exclusive interviews with figures who have shaped the genre from within. Geezer Butler, bassist and primary lyricist of Black Sabbath, is one of its founding architects. Max Cavalera co-founded Sepultura in Brazil in 1984, bringing a raw political fury that expanded metal's reach across continents. Tobias Forge, the masked frontman of Swedish band Ghost, has turned theatricality into a fine art. Joe Duplantier of French band Gojira has pushed the genre onto the world's grandest stages, including the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Currently in production, the film is seeking co-producers.