Ten Years after the film “20 Feet from Stardom” Came Out, some Adults Picture Themselves as “20 Feet from Stardom”

The 2013 documentary “20 Feet from Stardom,” which is about Pop, R & B, and Rock back-up singers, works still. This splendid and moving film, which won Best Documentary Feature for 2013, focuses mostly on the Black-American singers circa 1950s through 2000s. It resonated beyond the realm of music.

In the decade since that evocative film came out, professionals from fields well outside of music, have related their aspirations and seeming closeness to the notion of success as being 20 feet away from it.

T’was a splendid and moving film about performers who glow in the shadows. How do we see “20 Feet form Stardom” and connect it to broader vision and ambition away from music? How many talented professionals feel like they are stuck in the shadows?

In a featurette for the film, Judith Hill, who sang back-up for Michael Jackson among others, said “It’s the story of perseverance. And everyone can relate to that”. Musical icon Bruce Springsteen describes the back-up vs main vocalist, “It’s a bit of a walk from back by the drummer to over here. That walk to the front is complicated.” He said depending on “narcissism” and “ego,” “it can be a lot!”

In that featurette Tata Vega, who sang back-up for Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson among others and recorded solo records, pings off of Judith Hill’s point, “they’re stuck in jobs they hate or they’ve been told their whole lives, ‘why you tripping man? You know you can’t do that’”! In the more than 10 years since viewers and average people saw the film, many saw themselves relating to these women’s career struggles.

In late 2024, adult job-seekers walk the corridor of time from Dec. 1st to end-of-the-year and brace for January 2025. Some of them might remember that film about vision, ambition and even destiny, and relate the singers’ perseverance and ambition to their own. How will those viewers, who saw the film, many and still connect to the film, exploit the 11 months, which follow January?

As the last month unfurls, adults dealing with Winter Blues and great American social pressure to enjoy Christmas, many very talented job-seekers struggle in a “good economy”. A voice in a promo featurette quoted a Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival viewer, a work-a day man. “I just realized. I’m a back-up singer”.

In mid-December, a recruiter shared on Linkedin.com, “tapped” job-seekers on their digital shoulders “tsk tsk”’ing them. She warned them not to be common job-seekers, pausing their searches as the calendar approaches Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa. During what is assumed to be job market quietness, they figure the market is in a dead and budget-end season.

For example, talented, confident and driven friends, Black American men, with strong work histories are doing “all of the right things” and diligent job search and networking actions. And yet they struggle and suffer from isolation, wavering self-confidence, and strained budgets.

Ten years after that film came out and earned an Oscar, it still works because in the Library of Congress chose it, in 2023, for preservation as culturally significant. How people who’re doing “all the right things” toward goals, like a job search, find that stardom or satisfaction eludes them.