ZHU Steps Into Director's Chair for World Premiere of New Documentary at SXSW

ZHU is stepping behind the camera with 24 Hours of Grace, a new documentary feature premiering at SXSW.

The “Faded” hitmaker has always embraced the shadows, but in his first documentary, he’s stepping into the light. No stranger to reinvention, ZHU serves as the film’s director, producer and screenwriter, crafting an intimate portrait of an artist at a crossroads.

24 Hours of Grace follows ZHU as he returns to San Francisco to record GRACE, his fourth studio album, inside a gothic cathedral that doubles as both a sanctuary and a creative incubator. The documentary goes behind the scenes of the recording process, culminating in a high-stakes performance where the freshly minted tracks are debuted for an audience the same night.

The “audiovisual journey” then expands beyond the studio walls, taking viewers inside ZHU’s three sold-out performances at the Hollywood Palladium, where his signature fusion of shadowy aesthetics and haunting soundscapes came to life.

Both a meditation on time and a visceral deep-dive into artistic reinvention, 24 Hours of Grace explores ZHU’s evolution since releasing “Faded” over a decade ago, according to its synopsis. He’s peeling back the layers of his enigmatic persona to offer an unfiltered look at the pressure of creation and its release through live performance.

24 Hours of Grace is scheduled to premiere at 11am on March 15th at Alamo Lamar 9. SXSW returns to Austin, Texas from March 7-15 and you can find the festival’s full slate of programming here.