We are about to get a rare glimpse into the life of a designer who needs no introduction these days: acclaimed footwear maestro Christian Louboutin.

With a slew of celebrities advertising his designs (indeed even Kanye West who is notoriously difficult to please has sported Louboutin loafers) and women the world over salivating over his trademark red soled shoes, the designer’s name can’t but be mentioned when the conversation turns to shoes. But while we’re familiar with his designs and even more so with his patrons, we know precious little about what inspires him to create those red soled works of art. We’re about to learn just that thanks to a new documentary created by his longtime friend Farida Khelfa: she was behind the camera for the project, following him around for almost two years.

She describes Louboutin as “like my brother” but “pretty mysterious,” explaining that she wanted to shed some light on the man behind the red bottomed shoes that are a must-have for women and men around the globe. The close relationship between filmmaker and subject results in an intimate look at the otherwise private designer: “It’s rare for me to talk for more than five minutes,” Louboutin told WWD. “Here it’s for an hour, and I don’t feel like I’m suffocating.”

Jean Paul Gaultier, Farida Khelfa and Christian Louboutin attend the Louis Vuitton show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2014-2015. Getty Images

Featuring David Lynch, Blake Lively and Alicia Keys among other Louboutin devotees, fashion’s elite turned out for the screening, with Jean Paul Gaultier, Haider Ackermann and Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz just a few of the names in attendance. The feedback was positive all around, with Elbaz saying he “loved” the film and Ackermann even commenting that it made him “think differently about (his) own work.”

Haider Ackermann and Clotilde Courau Ph. by Dominique Maître

If you weren’t invited to the screening worry not, you can catch the documentary on good old cable on the Arte channel on Sept. 27 at 10:30 p.m. where it will be aired as part of a weekend of fashion programs presented by model Nadja Auermann. You can also set your TiVo to record because we hear documentaries about fashion royalty like Balmain and Diana Vreeland are also part of the line-up.