As he prepares to revisit his past with the Metal Machine Trio, Lou Reed, has made a move into the world of movie-making with his first documentary.

Fans expecting an insider's insight into the workings of Andy Warhol's Factory in all its 1960s glory or perhaps of glimpse of what really happened at Max's Kansas City in the early 1970s will be surprised to learn that the former Velvet Underground member and unofficial Poet Laureate of New York has focused his attentions - and indeed his camera - on his 99-year-old cousin Shirley Novick as she approaches her 100th birthday, the Guardian has reported.

Entitled 'Red Shirley', the 28-minute film will receive its premiere at the Visions du Réel festival in Nyon, Switzerland on May 20. The film's soundtrack has been composed by Reed and recorded with the Metal Machine Trio.

So what's it all about? According to the film's program notes, "We learn that she left Poland on her own in 1928 at the age of 19 with only two suitcases and a few dollars in her pocket to travel to Montreal - where in six months she was to learn not French but the mandolin - before finally slipping off illegally to New York, buried under the goods on a truck.

"There she was to become a dressmaker and to lead the workers' demands -- hence her nickname Red Shirley, which gave the film its title."