Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

Chris Sievey is said to have given his blessing to Lenny Abrahamson's Frank, the 2014 critical hit that saw Michael Fassbender assert his indie credentials by donning a papier-mâché head and playing the part of a mentally ill outsider musician. The unusual accessory was based on that of Sievey's Frank Sidebottom character, but beyond this aesthetic choice, there were few obvious nods to the man or his alter ego. While the movie enjoyed positive notices, its fabricated basis felt like a missed opportunity so soon after the death of a man whose life and career were often stranger than fiction.

This crowdfunded documentary won't receive anything near the level of attention paid to Frank, but is a far more effective study of the uneasy relationship between genius and insanity. There was nothing sexy about Sievey's homespun art nor the strata of showbiz – wilfully nightmarish cabaret – he ended up occupying.

Artefacts from his early life show an unbridled enthusiasm for music and performance that any mainstream audience would have found too intense to embrace. Sievey's brilliant band The Freshies never hit big perhaps because he promoted their work with a stalker's fervour. By 1982, he was releasing digital codes pressed on to vinyl so that a handful of curious fans could programme primitive video animations to sync with the A-side, the first ever real-time, home computer-generated pop video. Here was a man so creative he needed multiple outlets to express himself, but for the sake of retaining and growing an audience he got stuck with one.

Frank Sidebottom, a ludicrous character styled as the band's biggest fan, started out making appearances at gigs and across multimedia. As Frank's popularity eclipsed Sievey's, an antagonistic symbiotic relationship grew between the pair. Director Steve Sullivan applies only gentle analysis to his subject, allowing audiences to think for themselves as he excavates a comprehensive narrative of a one-off career.

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Released by Altitude