R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe has signed on to executive produce a new project from Saskatchewan’s plan9films, a documentary about singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt.

The film, tentatively titled Vic Chesnutt – It Is What It Is, features concert footage filmed in Canada during Chesnutt’s last tour. The critically-acclaimed artist, partially paralyzed from the age of 18 after a car crash, died in 2009 after overdosing on muscle relaxants. He’d released 17 albums over the course of his career, including two produced by Stipe.

Chesnutt was also the subject of a 1993 documentary, Speed Racer: Welcome to the World of Vic Chesnutt, which aired on PBS.

Besides his musical career, Stipe has co-founded two film companies, C-Hundred Films (which produced the doc Smoke in 2000) and Single Cell Pictures, and has produced several films, serving as executive producer on Being John Malkovich, Velvet Goldmine, and Man on the Moon.

Stipe and band have also recently worked with documentarian Albert Maysles and his filmmaking partner Bradley Kaplan on a video for the track “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I” from their latest album Collapse Into Now.

Plan9films is the prodco behind the live concert series The Neighbors’ Dog, which airs on SCN in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

From realscreen