'Dream of Life,' a highly personal film portrait of Patti Smith that was 12 years in the making, helped the cult rocker-poet emerge from a personal crisis and go back on the road as a musician.
"People had asked me to do documentaries for decades and I never really wanted to do anything," Smith said Saturday after a screening of fashion photographer Steven Sebring's movie at the Berlin Film Festival.
"I think I always imagined that documentaries were something one did after someone died," she added.
When Sebring approached her about the project in 1995, Smith was by her own admission "at a very low point" following the deaths of her husband and brother as well as her "best friend," the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
At the same time, she was seeking to resume her career after a 16-year hiatus.
"I was trying to get my feet on the ground. I had no money. I had two small children. I had to start all over again," she said.
"So (Sebring) came into my life when I was really just trying to figure everything out and trying to be positive and gain my strength, and having him believe in me was actually very helpful."
The film that resulted, following more than a decade of steady but intermittent filming, runs suitably against the grain of the normal music documentary style, much as Smith's own career has never followed any other well-worn paths.
Shot mostly in grainy 16mm black and white film with no discernible chronological structure, it follows Smith as she resurrects her career with a series of tours and reflects on her personal history and the deaths among her family and friends.
"For me it's a slice of life," Smith said. "It's a 12-year slice of life."
The film also focuses on the singer's political activism, particularly her opposition to the war in Iraq and her frustration with what she views as a lack of mass protest over the policies of US President George W. Bush.
"Political songs can still be inspiring, but they can only do so much," she said Saturday. "In our present global condition, what we need is action and in the end an artist can inspire people, but it's the people who have to make change."
Music has been a headline act at this year's Berlinale, which opened on Thursday with the world premiere of "Shine a Light" -- Martin Scorsese's concert film of The Rolling Stones.
Canadian folk rock legend Neil Young presented a documentary about his 2006 anti-war concert tour on Friday, and Madonna was to screen her directorial debut, "Filth and Wisdom," later in the festival.
The music theme is an international one, with movies about Sudanese hip-hop artists and Argentinian tango, as well as "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" -- a freewheeling documentary focusing on youth culture in war-torn Iraq and spotlighting the talents of the country's only heavy metal band, Acrassicaud.