“EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” the new documentary feature film from director Baz Luhrmann, made its U.S. debut on Jan. 8 at Graceland to almost 1,000 Elvis fans, about a dozen national journalists and more than 20 invited international “influencers.”

“EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” the new documentary feature film from director Baz Luhrmann, made its U.S. debut on Jan. 8 at Graceland before close to 1,000 Elvis fans, about a dozen national journalists, more than 20 invited international “influencers” and at least one bear.

“He’s the most significant one here,” said the bear’s companion, Rebecca Bailey, 31, of York, Pennsylvania, who had traveled to Memphis for the annual celebration of Presley’s Jan. 8 birthday, which this year was highlighted by two screenings of “EPiC” in the TCB Showroom at The Guest House at Graceland, the hotel adjacent to the Elvis Presley mansion.

“He’s got signatures all over him,” said Bailey, brandishing her distinctive Build-A-Bear, a small pompadoured teddy bear wearing an Elvis-esque jumpsuit covered in felt-tip pen autographs, including those of former Memphis disc jockey and Elvis pal Wink Martindale; Letitia “Tish” Henley Kirk, Elvis’ final private nurse; and “the most important one, Lisa Marie.”

Bailey — herself dressed in an outfit modeled after Presley’s 1974 “Chinese Dragon” jumpsuit — met Elvis’ daughter when Lisa Marie Presley attended the 2023 Graceland celebration of what would have been Elvis’ 88th birthday. Lisa Marie signed the bear’s left pant leg. She died four days later.

Footage of the infant Lisa Marie in “EPiC” drew some of the loudest applause of the evening from fans at the premiere screenings. Cheers and claps also greeted many of the musical segments during the 96-minute film, which includes rediscovered and restored or rejuvenated concert and rehearsal performances of such Elvis classics as “Hound Dog” and “Suspicious Minds,” along with covers of songs more closely associated with other artists, such as Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday” and “Something.”

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A sort of documentary complement to Luhrmann’s hit 2022 biopic “Elvis” (which earned eight Acadmey Award nominations and $288 million at the worldwide box office), “EPiC” had its world premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival. “EPiC” opens Feb. 20 on IMAX screens (including at the Malco Paradiso) and goes into general theatrical release a week later.

“We thought the man with the big voice deserved to be on the big screen,” said “EPiC” and “Elvis” editor Jonathan Redmond, explaining why the new film is appearing in movie theaters instead of going straight to streaming, like so many music documentaries.

A longtime Luhrmann collaborator, Redmond introduced the Graceland screenings after participating in a ritual earlier that day on the Graceland front lawn: the annual cutting of the Elvis birthday cake. His remarks were followed by a video introduction by Luhrmann, who called the screenings “a little bit of a birthday treat” for the assembled fans, who would be “some of the first people on the planet” to see the film.

A labor of love and an overdue rescue effort, “EPiC” was motivated by Luhrmann and Redmond’s discovery dozens of hours of forgotten Elvis footage in a literal salt mine: a climate-controlled underground Warner Bros. storage facility in Hutchinson, Kansas, that held 65 reels of unused material shot for the 1970s documentaries “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is” (chronicling the singer’s 1970s Las Vegas residency) and “Elvis on Tour” (about his 1972 concert tour).

Also while researching the “Elvis” biopic, they found new-to-to-the-public Elvis home movie footage and audio recordings.

“Everyone just wanted to put it back in the salt mines, and Jonathan Redmond and I from day one said no,” Luhrmann said, in his introduction to the screenings. “We’re gonna have Elvis sing and tell his story like it’s never been before, from his point of view, and that became ‘EPiC.’”

Mixing familiar material with the rediscovered content, the movie begins as a stylized biographical documentary, skimming through elements of the Elvis story (the pelvis, the Army, the movies) before settling into his concert years, which began in 1969 and continued until his death at 42 in 1977. Elvis’ return to the stage is presented as restorative and even (at least temporarily) salvific, after the artistic compromises of his Hollywood career.

Luhrmann and Redmond let Elvis discuss his life and career in his own words, via interview footage and audio excerpts, but slyly editorialize through their filmmaking choices, which thematically match the sonically refreshed and sometimes remixed concert scenes with archival material. In some instances, the association is humorous (performances of “You’re the Devil in Disguise” back footage of the singer’s controversial manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker); more often, it is biographical (images of Elvis’ impoverished Tupelo childhood appear onscreen while the singer performs “Polk Salad Annie,” the story of a Southern family so poor “about all they had to eat” was wild swamp greens) or interpretive (Elvis’ insistence on being apolitical in interviews is contrasted with his song choices, which include “In the Ghetto” and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”).

Whatever footage was onscreen, the audience cheered — and not just for Elvis. The fans from around the country who traveled to Graceland for the screenings included many who said they owed a debt to Luhrmann: They credited the director with opening their eyes and ears to Elvis.

With Austin Butler in the title role, Luhrmann’s “Elvis” movie “was “the catalyst to make us do a deep dive into Elvis,” said Skyllar Huskisson, 28, of Scottsdale, Arizona, one of the many young women at the screenings whose presence belied the notion that Elvis appeals mainly to older fans.

“The older generations say they feel like they’re passing the torch to us,” said Victori Koepsell, 27, of Orlando, who — like Huskisson — said her Elvis passion was ignited by the “Elvis” movie.

Koepsell and Huskisson host “The Pink Cadillacs,” an Elvis podcast “for the next generation of fans,” Koepsell said. “We’re creating a safe space for girls our age who love Elvis,” she said. About 20 “Pink Cadillacs” listeners from around the county assembled at The Guest House before the screenings, sharing homemade Elvis decorations and friendship bracelets.

Gianna Campanaro, 23, of Long Island, was distributing original Elvis artwork, including pieces made from old unplayable Elvis vinyl records.

“I like to repurpose material,” she said, citing a strategy that connects her art to the reworked archival content of “EPiC.”