Coming to cinemas soon, Phil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away is a feature documentary on the life and music of Phil Lynott, telling the story of how a young black boy from working class 1950's Dublin, became Ireland's greatest rock star.

In a new interview with the Irish Examiner, director Emer Reynolds discusses bringing Lynott's music to moviegoers with her documentary.

The filmmaker was first introduced to the music of Thin Lizzy as a teenager.

“Myself and my sister were going out with these two boyfriends from a school called Joey's (St Joseph’s) in Fairview and they were huge Lizzy fans and introduced us to them. And it was the proper, Thin Lizzy stencil on your school bag and all over your journal in school, and listening to and deconstructing all the albums and analysing all the lyrics - real devotion.

“I was a fan who spanned all the changes and there were changes in personnel and there were changes in style. You could see him growing as a songwriter and then potentially diminishing as a songwriter as well. I don't like the last album at all.”

From early on, she wanted to bring his own voice into his story. “That was the key note in terms of how we would approach it, and obviously, tragically, not being able to interview him himself. Really having to be creative about how we might build it around his own words. I wanted to tell it in as first-hand a way as possible, rather than hearsay or anecdotes.

“We have the audio archives that you hear in the film, the material that does exist of him speaking about his life and work. That was hard enough to find. He seemed to be pretty keen in interviews to talk about the tours and the gigs and the craic. He didn't find it as easy to dig deeper, or reveal himself.

“The biggest line is to tell the story of his life through the songs. Taking them as his thoughts, how he's expressing himself and trying to chart the journey of his life and his interests and his inner world, through the songs without being too specific. I'm inviting the audience to make connections should they wish to. It's not a definitive."

Read more at the Irish Examiner.

As the lead singer of Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott was a songwriter, a poet, a dreamer, a wildman. Told extensively through the words of Phil himself and focusing on some of his iconic songs, the film gets to the heart of  Philip, the father, the husband, the friend, the son, the rock icon, the poet and the dreamer.

Phil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away is produced by Universal Music’s Globe Production with backing from Screen Ireland. It is produced by Alan Maher and John Wallace for Cowtown Pictures and Peter Worsley for Eagle Rock Films.

Watch an official trailer below: