A new documentary explores the relationship between John Lennon and Yoko Ono, centered around a joint concert they performed in the early 1970s.
One to One: John & Yoko, releasing on April 11, highlights the only full-length concert John Lennon performed with Yoko Ono following the dissolution of the Beatles. Their August 30, 1972, performance, which raised approximately $1.5 million for children with mental disabilities, featured audience participation with tambourines and onstage appearances.
Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the growing anti-war sentiment in the U.S., the film uses the concert to examine Lennon’s activism and his calls for peace. Director Kevin MacDonald utilized restored footage of the concert, and Sean Lennon granted permission to use hours of his father’s recorded phone conversations from the 1970s.
The couple were known for their political activism and their unique love. TIME spoke with Sean Lennon about his parents’ relationship, his memories of his father (who was murdered 45 years ago when Sean was five), and the documentary’s message for 2025.
The ballad of John and Yoko
At the time of the One-to-One concert, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had been married for three years. They lived in Greenwich Village—in an apartment with a bed made from a church pew—and had recently launched the album Some Time In New York City.
Ono significantly influenced Lennon’s political awakening. The pair gained notoriety in 1969 for their “bed-in,” a week-long anti-war protest where they stayed in bed.
“I started waking up,” Lennon says, describing Ono’s influence in an interview featured in the film.
One to One includes many memorable quotes from Lennon, such as, “It’s easier to shout revolution and ‘power to the people’ than look at yourself,” as he remarked in one interview.
Audio from the film reveals Lennon’s 1972 idea for a “Free the People” tour, where he would fund the release of prisoners in each city he performed in, ending in Miami during the Republican National Convention.
Although the tour was never realized, his radical ideas led President Nixon to attempt his deportation, and he became an FBI surveillance target. Sean Lennon told TIME that Lennon began wiretapping his own phone “in case the FBI accused him of something.”
On the misogynistic idea that Yoko broke up the Beatles
One to One depicts John attending feminist rallies with Ono. Often blamed for the Beatles’ breakup, the documentary shows her discussing “how hard it is for women,” the negativity she faces for marrying Lennon, and the constant criticism of her art.
“The myth that my mother was some kind of villain who broke up the Beatles is past its time—very few people will watch this movie and hold on to that,” Lennon says. “I think people realize she was a lot more than that. She was not a villain. She was simply an artist who fell in love with a musician.”
Lennon believes the idea that his mother, now 92, solely caused the Beatles’ split is rooted in misogyny.
“If she had been a quiet, arm-candy type of woman, maybe society would have accepted her more easily,” he says. “But she was not like that. She’s a very strong, intellectual, powerful, independent artist.”
John Lennon’s legacy
Lennon’s life was tragically cut short. He was at age 40 on December 8, 1980, outside the Dakota apartment building in Manhattan.
Sean Lennon was only five when his father passed away, but he him teaching him to swim, make paper airplanes, and play piano and guitar.
“I became a musician because I missed him,” he says. “When I was a kid, I associated music with my dad, so playing music made me feel like I was connected to him. I became preoccupied with playing piano and learning guitar because there was this empty space where my dad was supposed to be.”
He hopes the documentary will resonate with a generation raised on social media. He describes his parents as “sort of the first and social media celebrities,” explaining, “They filmed themselves all the time, invented little catch phrases like ‘give peace a chance’ and ‘bed peace’ to spread arguably subversive political messaging. John and Yoko were some of the first celebrities to use memes, before they were called memes.”
Their message remains relevant half a century later.
“I don’t think my parents ever imagined that we’d still be entrenched in multiple foreign wars, it’s really sad,” Lennon says. “I definitely ascribe to this idea that we’ll never reach the stars or populate another solar system if we can’t get past killing each other.”
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