20 Feet from Stardom

20 Feet from Stardom (2013) is a documentary about music's invisible workforce that you can watch online on iFILM. Director Morgan Neville spent time with the backup singers behind some of the best-known recordings in pop and rock history — voices you have heard thousands of times attached to names you have never known.

Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton and Judith Hill are the film's central figures. Clayton sang the chilling counter-vocal on "Gimme Shelter." Fischer toured with the Stones for decades. Love's voice is everywhere — her name, until recently, was nowhere. Mick Jagger, Sting, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen all appear on camera, and what they say about these women lands differently than a standard tribute. The film picked up the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature that year.

Neville's real question is harder than it looks: what is the difference between a backup singer and a star, when the talent is clearly there on both sides of the microphone? Watch 20 Feet from Stardom (2013) online on iFILM.