Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds Documentary Bright Lights to Air on HBO

The new film will honor the recently deceased mother-and-daughter pair.

The new documentary Bright Lights follows the lives of Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, both of whom died earlier this week.
The new documentary Bright Lights follows the lives of Debbie Reynolds and her daughter, Carrie Fisher, both of whom died earlier this week.
(© Joseph Marzullo/David Gordon)

HBO has moved up the air date of the new documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds following the recent deaths of both Fisher and Reynolds — Hollywood's famous mother-daughter pair. The film will now air Saturday, January 7, 2017, at 8pm.

Directed by Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom, the documentary screened in October at the New York Film Festival and before that in May at Cannes. HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins has described the film as "a love story" between the mother and daughter who had a famously tempestuous relationship. Reynolds is best known for her film work during the 1950s and '60s (most famously Singin' in the Rain), while Fisher is best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. She also penned the semiautobiographical novel Postcards From the Edge about her relationship with her mother, which was then adapted for the screen in 1990. The film was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Fisher died unexpectedly on Tuesday, December 27, at the age of 60 following a heart attack. Reynolds died the following day at the age of 84 after suffering a stroke.

Stevens and Bloom offered a joint statement in response to their deaths: "[Fisher and Reynolds] were supremely kind human beings, and unusually perceptive. And when either one entered a room, the energy changed. Quite simply, we were iron filings to their magnets. And never more so than when they were together. These women were more than mother and daughter, they were an expression of exquisite humanity in all its travail and triumph. They lived their days boldly. They sung every song worth singing (often together.) Carrie and Debbie loved each other profoundly. We are devastated they’re gone. And so very fortunate to have known them at all."

In addition to the January 7 airing of Bright Lights, HBO will air an encore presentation of Wishful Drinking in Fisher's honor on Sunday, January 8, at 9pm. The film tells the story of Fisher’s life, combining her raucous one-woman stage performance, interviews with family and friends, and archival footage.