Brow Beat

HBO Will Air Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds Documentary Bright Lights Next Week

In tribute to the late mother and daughter, the documentary about them has been moved up to Jan. 7.

HBO

In response to the deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, HBO has moved up the broadcast date of Bright Lights, the documentary about the two that premiered at Cannes last year. It will now air on Jan. 7 at 8 p.m.

Subtitled “Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds,” Bright Lights, which was co-directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens, concentrates on the relationship between the late mother and daughter, as well as Reynolds’ surviving son, Todd, who has had the terrible responsibility of relaying the news of his mother and sister’s deaths to the press in this last tragic week. Although it was received as a joyous celebration of two women’s determination to keep their careers alive and their sanity intact in the fact of an industry that seemed determined to ravage both, watching Bright Lights now is likely to be a far more melancholy experience, especially since its climax centers on whether Reynolds will be physically healthy enough to attend the Screen Actors Guild’s presentation of her lifetime achievement award.

HBO is also re-airing the film of Fisher’s marvelous one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, on Jan. 1 at 9 p.m., and it remains available on HBO’s streaming platforms.

Read more in Slate about Carrie Fisher.