Hopewell Theater

Friday, November 19

• With his first electronic single, “Go,” in 1991, Moby helped define the music of an era, and the mega-success of his 1999 album Play — and its soulful, infectious songs’ presence in clubs, films, ads, and on TV — brought him into the stratosphere of fame when it became the biggest-selling electronic album of all time.
• But just a few years earlier, he was living in an abandoned building, making remixes and trying to make sense of a disruptive, dark childhood. By 2008, alcohol and drug use overwhelmed him, and despite massive success he considered suicide — until a 12-Step program, music, and animal activism grounded him.
• A former philosophy student, he wondered: If he got everything he wanted…why wasn’t he happy?

Musician. DJ. Award-winning, billion-selling electronic artist. Animal rights advocate. Author. Survivor of alcoholism, drug use, and excess whose journey to sobriety took him through dark places and painful memories. Human being trying to figure out how his family and childhood impacted him, what happiness is, how to attain it — and share what he’s learned.

MOBY DOC is the creative, offbeat, wry, music-filled chronicle of an eventful life examined. Filled with existential discussions, extraordinary concert footage, deep cuts from 30 years of Moby’s music, unconventional narrative, quirky animation, rare clips, and thoughts from Moby’s friend David Lynch, it’s a vibrant, eclectic conversation between a man and his past. Moby delves into himself to share with radical honesty what he’s gone through, and why the answers to some of the deepest questions we can ask as human beings may not be found in the way we’re actually living.


This program is a part of Hopewell Theater's ongoing series, Films That Made Music, rock-docs and movies about some of the most legendary pop, rock, and R&B groups of our time. These beloved films provide an unvarnished look at iconic musicians and offer deeper insights into the music that defines our lives.