The long-talked about Eagles documentary, History Of The Eagles Part 1, has finally scheduled its first public viewing. According to a press release, the film will make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19 at 9:45 p.m. 

The band partnered with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) to shoot the doc, which features interviews with the current members of the band (drummer/singer Don Henley, guitarist/singers Glen Frey and Joe Walsh and bassist/singer Timothy B. Schmit) and also former guitarists Don Felder and Bernie Leadon and ex-bassist Randy Meisner.  

The film is being dubbed “part one” because it covers the group’s initial era, from 1970 through their 1980 breakup. Joe Walsh told CBS Local that the second part will tell the story of the band’s reunion, starting with the 1994 Hell Freezes Over tour. 

The film will also focus on everything that has happened since the reunion… including the dismissal of guitarist Don Felder.  Felder told CBS Local that he was interviewed for the documentary, and is interested in seeing it, particularly the Hotel California/Long Run era footage. 

Songwriter JD Souther was also interviewed for the film, and in a recent interview with CBS Local, said that he’s “mildly curious” to see it. He’s co-written a number of the band’s biggest hits, including “Best Of My Love,” “Victim Of Love,” and “How Long,” from their 2007 album Long Road Out Of Eden. In discussing that album, he says that the record probably shouldn’t have been a double album: “Henley says the same thing: ‘If we’d have made a single album it would have been great!’ It is a pretty good album. When you try to spread material over two discs… 24 songs, especially from guys who don’t hang out all the time is a lot. They have separate lives, they live in separate towns. And also, let’s face it, when we were really young and hungry in our 20s, you tend to write faster and with more urgency.” (That doesn’t necessarily bide well for History Of The Eagles Part 2.)

The Eagles are scheduled to play the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 30. Felder, meanwhile, has a few tour dates planned; check his website for details. 

– Brian Ives, CBS Local