Lil Nas X announced HBO picked up his documentary Long Live Montero, confirming a report by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday (January 4). The film will debut on HBO on January 27 at 8 p.m. ET and be available to stream on MAX.
“Good News World!” Lil Nas X wrote on social media. “Long Live Montero Tour Doc HBO MAX January 27. BIG 2024.”
Long Live Montero tells the story of Lil Nas X’s first tour. Co-director Zac Manuel praised the Columbia Records artist’s transparency in the film in a 2023 interview with Variety.
“I think there are a lot of different layers to the film, which is surprising maybe for a music documentary,” Manuel told Variety. “I think what was really important was that Montero himself was so transparent in his identity and also his journey toward being the fullest version of his identity that he really wanted to be. And I think sharing that journey with us and going on that journey with his family ended up really becoming the heart of the film.”
Manuel continued, “He is a really intelligent and thoughtful person, and he’s able to reflect on his place as an artist in the international pop music world. But he’s also able to put himself in perspective as a part of a continuum of other Black queer artists and performers who came before him. I think his reflections on those things became the spine and the heart of the film — and it became really important to the narrative and also to how we understand him as more than just an artist, but understand him as a person.”
Long Live Montero premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary’s premiere was disrupted by a bomb threat from a homophobic caller who targeted Lil Nas X for being a Black queer artist.