Directed and produced by award-winning documentarian Susan Lacy, Jane Fonda in Five Acts is an intimate look at Oscar(R)-winner Jane Fonda singular journey, drawing on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. Girl next door, sex kitten, activist, fitness tycoon: Fonda has lived a life marked by controversy, tragedy and transformation, and she’s done it all in the public eye. Jane Fonda in Five Acts debuts Monday, September 24 (8:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Jane Fonda has been vilified as Hanoi Jane, lusted after as Barbarella and heralded as a beacon of the women’s movement. This film goes to the heart of who she really is, a blend of deep vulnerability, magnetism, naiveté and bravery, revealing a life transformed over time.
The documentary draws on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. She explores the pain of her mother’s suicide, her father’s emotional unavailability, 30 years of an eating disorder and three marriages to highly visible, yet diametrically opposed, men. Jane Fonda in Five Acts also includes interviews with family and friends, as well as rare home movies and verité footage of the 80-year-old Fonda’s busy life today at, as she puts it, “the beginning of my last act.”
Where “girls” of her generation were raised to be passive and compliant, Fonda has always seemed like very much “her own woman.” But her memories reveal the extent to which she was defined and controlled by the desires, ambitions, and fortunes of the powerful men in her life, and how much her own secret insecurities, unresolved anxieties and impulsive actions often prevented her from being the person she aspired to be.
Featuring interviews with Robert Redford, Lily Tomlin, producer Paula Weinstein and former spouses Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, among others, the first four acts of Fonda’s life are named after the four men who shared – and hugely influenced – her personal and professional ambitions. The fifth act is named after Fonda herself, as she finally confronts her demons, reconnects with her family and resumes a successful career as both an actress and an activist, entirely on her own terms.
Fonda recalls growing up “in the shadow of a national monument” in the form of her father, Henry. One of the most beloved actors of his time, the elder Fonda was a distant father in private, neglecting his family and having an affair while her mother descended into mental anguish that led to tragedy.
Fonda’s name and good looks brought her modeling gigs and a chance to study acting with Lee Strasberg, but “it never felt real,” she recalls. She impulsively went to France to experience the cinematic revolution of the French New Wave, and married director Roger Vadim, agreeing to live a “heady and hedonistic” life and reluctantly allowing herself to become a sex object with films like “Barbarella.”
Fonda’s proximity to leftist politics in Paris inspired an awakening about America’s role in Vietnam. Despite being a new mother, she threw herself into anti-war activism, eventually earning the nickname “Hanoi Jane” and a place in the crosshairs of the Nixon administration, and meeting her second husband, activist and organizer Tom Hayden.
“I’m proud of most of what I did,” Fonda recalls of the period when she became a divisive political figure, “but very sorry for some of what I did.” While her acting career soared in films like “Klute” and “Coming Home,” she lived a deliberately stripped-down life with Hayden and their son, Troy Garity (who recalls the family arriving at the Oscars in a station wagon), funneling just as much energy into Hayden’s career and ambitions as her own. She produced an exercise video to raise money for their political work, only to see “Jane Fonda’s Workout” become the best-selling home video to date.
With a newfound sense of purpose, Fonda began to confront her chronic discontent, leaving Hayden, going “cold turkey” on a lifelong eating disorder, learning more about her mother’s life and death and fostering an emotionally creative reunion with her father on the film “On Golden Pond.” Buoyed by the affection of third husband, billionaire mogul Ted Turner, she went into semi-retirement, until she recognized that she still had more to contribute and finally struck out on her own.
Today, still challenging herself creatively and still active politically, Jane Fonda continues to demonstrate that there is no limit to the possibilities in a life full of self-determination, honesty and hard work.
Susan Lacy is the creator and former executive producer of the celebrated WNET series “American Masters,” which is shown on PBS nationwide. She has won countless awards, and has produced and directed a broad library of acclaimed films exploring the lives of America’s most enduring cultural icons. Her previous HBO documentary, “Spielberg,” debuted on the network in Oct. 2017 and was recently nominated for an Emmy(R) in the category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.Documentary
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JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS, The Story of the Cultural Icon, Debuts September 24 on HBO
Directed and produced by award-winning documentarian Susan Lacy, Jane Fonda in Five Acts is an intimate look at Oscar(R)-winner Jane Fonda singular journey, drawing on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. Girl next door, sex kitten, activist, fitness tycoon: Fonda has lived a life marked by controversy, tragedy and transformation, and she’s done it all in the public eye. Jane Fonda in Five Acts debuts Monday, September 24 (8:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Jane Fonda has been vilified as Hanoi Jane, lusted after as Barbarella and heralded as a beacon of the women’s movement. This film goes to the heart of who she really is, a blend of deep vulnerability, magnetism, naiveté and bravery, revealing a life transformed over time.
The documentary draws on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. She explores the pain of her mother’s suicide, her father’s emotional unavailability, 30 years of an eating disorder and three marriages to highly visible, yet diametrically opposed, men. Jane Fonda in Five Acts also includes interviews with family and friends, as well as rare home movies and verité footage of the 80-year-old Fonda’s busy life today at, as she puts it, “the beginning of my last act.”
Where “girls” of her generation were raised to be passive and compliant, Fonda has always seemed like very much “her own woman.” But her memories reveal the extent to which she was defined and controlled by the desires, ambitions, and fortunes of the powerful men in her life, and how much her own secret insecurities, unresolved anxieties and impulsive actions often prevented her from being the person she aspired to be.
Featuring interviews with Robert Redford, Lily Tomlin, producer Paula Weinstein and former spouses Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, among others, the first four acts of Fonda’s life are named after the four men who shared – and hugely influenced – her personal and professional ambitions. The fifth act is named after Fonda herself, as she finally confronts her demons, reconnects with her family and resumes a successful career as both an actress and an activist, entirely on her own terms.
Fonda recalls growing up “in the shadow of a national monument” in the form of her father, Henry. One of the most beloved actors of his time, the elder Fonda was a distant father in private, neglecting his family and having an affair while her mother descended into mental anguish that led to tragedy.
Fonda’s name and good looks brought her modeling gigs and a chance to study acting with Lee Strasberg, but “it never felt real,” she recalls. She impulsively went to France to experience the cinematic revolution of the French New Wave, and married director Roger Vadim, agreeing to live a “heady and hedonistic” life and reluctantly allowing herself to become a sex object with films like “Barbarella.”
Fonda’s proximity to leftist politics in Paris inspired an awakening about America’s role in Vietnam. Despite being a new mother, she threw herself into anti-war activism, eventually earning the nickname “Hanoi Jane” and a place in the crosshairs of the Nixon administration, and meeting her second husband, activist and organizer Tom Hayden.
“I’m proud of most of what I did,” Fonda recalls of the period when she became a divisive political figure, “but very sorry for some of what I did.” While her acting career soared in films like “Klute” and “Coming Home,” she lived a deliberately stripped-down life with Hayden and their son, Troy Garity (who recalls the family arriving at the Oscars in a station wagon), funneling just as much energy into Hayden’s career and ambitions as her own. She produced an exercise video to raise money for their political work, only to see “Jane Fonda’s Workout” become the best-selling home video to date.
With a newfound sense of purpose, Fonda began to confront her chronic discontent, leaving Hayden, going “cold turkey” on a lifelong eating disorder, learning more about her mother’s life and death and fostering an emotionally creative reunion with her father on the film “On Golden Pond.” Buoyed by the affection of third husband, billionaire mogul Ted Turner, she went into semi-retirement, until she recognized that she still had more to contribute and finally struck out on her own.
Today, still challenging herself creatively and still active politically, Jane Fonda continues to demonstrate that there is no limit to the possibilities in a life full of self-determination, honesty and hard work.
Susan Lacy is the creator and former executive producer of the celebrated WNET series “American Masters,” which is shown on PBS nationwide. She has won countless awards, and has produced and directed a broad library of acclaimed films exploring the lives of America’s most enduring cultural icons. Her previous HBO documentary, “Spielberg,” debuted on the network in Oct. 2017 and was recently nominated for an Emmy(R) in the category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
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Steve McQueen-Great Escape Doc “THE COOLEST GUY MOVIE EVER” Sets Digital Release Date [Trailer]
From filmmaker and film historian Chris Espenan comes The Coolest Guy Movie Ever — a fascinating forensic documentary about the making of the classic World War II adventure film The Great Escape — to DVD and digital HD from Virgil Films on August 21, 2018, after a special screening earlier this year at Marché du film in Cannes.
Before Evans, Hemsworth, and Downey Jr. there was McQueen, Garner, and Bronson. These men represented what it meant to be tough guys in the 1960s, and they had the acting chops to play the toughest characters around – including the real life airmen who pulled off one of the most improbable escapes in war history.
The filming locations of the enormously popular World War II adventure The Great Escape have become enshrined over the years by film buffs and historians alike, forever changing the landscape of the small German towns that once played host to these Hollywood heavyweights. Now for the first time, Filmmaker Chris Espenan set out to visit all of the locations in Germany where the 1963 film was made, while compiling facts, behind-the-scenes stories, and inside information on how the film was produced.
From visiting Geisel Gastag Studios in Munich to the Bavarian town of Füssen, Espenan assembled a unique team of cameramen, historians, film buffs, and local experts who painstakingly found the exact spots where actors Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum, and others toiled in the summer of 1962.
Uncovering treasures such as footage from a German television news shoot — which included a rare interview on the set with Steve McQueen — to getting first person interviews from the locals who were there during filming, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever is a true labor of love, fashioned by filmmakers who exult The Great Escape as one of the most memorable World War II movies ever made, featuring one of the greatest casts ever assembled, and for many, indeed, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever.
“The Great Escape is my favorite film of all time,” said Producer Steve Rubin. “It is the first film I started researching for my book ‘Combat Films 1945-2010’, the subject of my 1993 documentary Return to The Great Escape, and the reason I was nominated for Best Classic Commentary in 2004 for The Great Escape: Special Edition. When filmmaker Chris Espenan came to me with the idea for The Coolest Guy Movie Ever, I literally dropped everything to help him.”
Executive Producer and Virgil Films CEO Joe Amodei echoed Rubin’s sentiments when he said “As a young boy exploring the big wide world of motion pictures for the first time The Great Escape excited me, thrilled me and cemented a love for movies that has stayed with me forever. This is the film that started it all.”
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Eugene Jarecki’s Road-Trip Documentary THE KING on Elvis Presley as Metaphor for America in Theaters Now [Trailer]
Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner Eugene Jarecki’s new film takes The King’s 1963 Rolls-Royce on a musical road trip across America in the new documentary The King. From Memphis to New York, Las Vegas, and beyond, the journey traces the rise and fall of Elvis as a metaphor for the country he left behind. In this groundbreaking film, Jarecki paints a visionary portrait of the state of the American dream and a penetrating look at how the hell we got here. A diverse cast of Americans, both famous and not, join the journey, including Alec Baldwin, Rosanne Cash, Chuck D, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, Van Jones, Mike Myers, and Dan Rather, among many others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csXtdjsqYLM
A cross-country road trip in Elvis’ Presley’s 1963 Rolls-Royce, The King is far more than a musical biopic; it’s a penetrating portrait of America at a critical time in the nation’s history and an unflinching investigation into the state of theAmerican dream.
Emmy, Peabody, and Two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, The House I Live In) helms this odyssey, retro-fitting Elvis’ Rolls to serve as a vehicle –both literal and figurative –for the journey.
“I set out in Elvis’ car,” says Jarecki, “because he’s the poster child of what we’re taught to think of as the American dream, right? The poor country boy who rises like a rocket and ends up a king. But from there, it gets more complicated, for Elvis and America. For Elvis’ dream ended in a tragedy of lost authenticity, addiction, and self-destruction. And, at this point, I don’t think I need to tell anyone what a tangled mess America has become. But how did this happen? And is there, in the demise of Elvis, a cautionary tale for his country? For the world?”
To investigate these questions, The King traces Elvis’ rise and fall from the Deep South to New York, Las Vegas, and countless points between. Alongside this, the film examines America in parallel, from her auspicious founding to her own struggles with excess power up to the acute challenges of today. This was always Jarecki’s intent, but he could never have anticipated the election of Donald Trump, which happened in mid-production and sent a shock wave through the filmmaking process.
“From the start,” Jarecki explains, “Elvis was a metaphor for the best and worst of America. This was never going to be a puff piece but a cautionary allegory:power and money compromised Elvis’ life and authenticity and did the same to the democratic health of his country. As I went along, the American dream itself came into question. What had it ever been? For whom was it true? For whom not? Suddenly, when a billionaire oligarch was elevated to high office, the story became a warning siren of national, and even global, concern.”
“There’s a conversation going on in the United States that’s much broader and much deeper than what you might imagine from reading news reports,” adds Executive Producer Steven Soderbergh. “A large portion of the country feels that we are at some kind of inflection point, but is unsure what it means, where it’s going, what should be done about it. I think for anybody with just a passing interest in culture, generally speaking,The King is a very detailed, high-resolution snapshot of this conversation that’s evolving in the United States right now.”
Over thousands of miles, a wide spectrum of Americans –famous and not –join the journey, including ALEC BALDWIN, EMMYLOU HARRIS, CHUCK D, MIKE MYERS, M WARD, VAN JONES, and ETHAN HAWKE, among others. “Poetically, we wanted the film’s cast of characters to reflect the rich tapestry of the American family, expressing themselves in words and, at times, in song inside Elvis’ Rolls.The King is both an Elvis film and a film about the American experience, so we chose people who could speak to either of these in a deep and authentic way.”
Weaving the sights and sounds of Elvis’ own music and films with soaring live performances from artists as varied as Nashville phenom Emi Sunshine, Mississippi bluesman Leo Bud Welch, New York City rapper Immortal Technique, and the gospel stylings of Memphis Stax Music Academy, The King opens doors toward a deeper more complex discourse on America’s identity and path forward.
“I was drawn to the project because the basic premise of the film is so clean—America has reached its ‘Fat Elvis’ years,” adds co-writer CHRISTOPHER ST. JOHN. “Yet the possibilities for making it are so endless. You can start anywhere. There’s no corner of the country that hasn’t been touched in some way by Elvis, and there’s no person who doesn’t have a strong opinion on the current state of the nation. Ultimately, it’s a metaphor that empowers people to speak eloquently about their concerns for the country.”
“It has a wonderful kaleidoscopic quality that I think is not only unique to Eugene, but also, I think unique to the country,” says STEVEN SODERBERGH. “I don’t know of any other country would allow for the level of exploration that the United States provides just strictly because of its geography. So the idea of Eugene taking Elvis’ Rolls-Royce and driving through the country to talk to people, that’s a very specifically American movie idea. And I think would only work in America.”
“From our first conversation about the film and from his previous work, I knew Eugene was never going to make a standard Elvis biopic or clumsy polemic. But this film is brilliant and essential,” says Executive Producer ROSANNE CASH. “The imagery and interviews so perfectly dovetail that it’s like an epic poem, a narrative ballad, a piece of music that makes us deeply contemplate the state of America. I am thrilled so show it to the world for the conversations it will inspire.”
From countless of his subjects, Jarecki heard the same sentiment –that the American Dream was a thing of the past, something for which people felt an overriding nostalgia.While this resonated with him, he began over time to question his premise. Strangely, his vision became more hopeful as he finished the film.
“After Trump’s inauguration, I guess for a moment I thought that the country had indeed perhaps died on the toilet, choked by our addiction to power, money, and excess. But in the months since, I’ve seen a significant resurgence in public engagement. The body politic is, to some degree, rejecting the transplant of an oligarchic, predatory capitalist into the Oval Office. This is heartening and made me think that maybe all is not lost. It also made me think that perhaps my premise was a bit naïve. The idea that we –and Elvis –were young once and beautiful but then lost our way is dangerously idealistic. It might be more accurate to say that America and Elvis were always imperfect–works-in-progress, full of greatness and shortcomings. While Elvis was ultimately by consumed his, we seem to be very much at work on ours, and there is clearly much work left to wake up tomorrow and do.”
NOW PLAYING IN DOZENS OF MOVIE THEATERS NATIONWIDE
Coming Soon 8/26/2018 Montgomery AL Capri Theater
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Now Playing 7/20/2018 Denver CO Landmark Mayan
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Coming Soon 8/24/2018 Milwaukee WI Oriental Theater
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SXSW Award-Winning Documentary PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE Opens in Theaters on November 30 [Trailer]
[caption id="attachment_28168" align="aligncenter" width="1180"]
People’s Republic of Desire[/caption]
People’s Republic of Desire, the winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW, is the untold story of China’s live-streaming economy, and the search for fame, fortune and human connection in a virtual world. The documentary directed by technology executive-turned-filmmaker Hao Wu, will be released in theaters on November 30.
In an increasingly digital universe where live streamers earn as much as $200,000 a month, can virtual relationships replace real-life human connection? People’s Republic of Desire tells the stories of two such online stars who have risen from isolation to fame and fortune on NASDAQ-listed YY, China’s largest live streaming platform.
Live-streaming showrooms have become virtual gathering places for hundreds of millions – from the super rich who lavish these online stars with digital gifts, to poor migrant workers who exhaust meager savings idolizing them. All of these characters are brought together in a series of bizarre online talent competitions, where they discover that happiness in their virtual world may be as elusive as in the real one.
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Award-Winning Puppy Documentary PICK OF THE LITTER Opens in Theaters on August 31 [Trailer]
This has got to be among the cutest and sweetest documentaries ever. Pick of the Litter directed by Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, follows a litter of puppies from the moment they’re born and begin their quest to become guide dogs for the blind. The film World Premiered earlier this year at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival and went on to become an audience pleaser winning Audience Awards at multiple film festivals. Sundance Selects will release Pick of the Litter in theaters on August 31, 2018.
Cameras follow these pups through an intense two-year odyssey as they train to become dogs whose ultimate responsibility is to protect their blind partners from harm. Along the way, these remarkable animals rely on a community of dedicated individuals who train them to do amazing, life-changing things in the service of their human. The stakes are high and not every dog can make the cut. Only the best of the best. The pick of the litter.
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Watch Official Trailer + Poster for Sundance and SXSW Award Winning SCIENCE FAIR
National Geographic Documentary Films has released the official trailer and poster for the award winning film Science Fair documenting high school students competing at The International Science and Engineering Fair. Science Fair will open in theaters starting September 14, 2018.
Winner of the audience award at Sundance and SXSW, National Geographic Documentary Films’ Science Fair follows nine high school students from around the globe as they navigate rivalries, setbacks and, of course, hormones, on their journey to compete at The International Science and Engineering Fair. As 1,700 of the smartest, quirkiest teens from 78 different countries face off, only one will be named Best in Fair. The film, from Fusion and Muck Media and directed by the DuPont Award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaking team Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, offers a front seat to the victories, defeats and motivations of an incredible group of young men and women who are on a path to change their lives, and the world, through science.
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Watch New Trailer for Lee Aronsohn’s 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING: THE MAGIC MUSIC MOVIE
The new trailer to Paladin’s new documentary, 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING: THE MAGIC MUSIC MOVIE from television writer/producer Lee Aronsohn (“The Big Bang Theory,” “Two and a Half Men”) is here. See Lee Aronsohn track down the scattered members of one of Boulder, Colorado’s most influential and elusive bands in the hope that, 40 years after they broke up, he can get them to play ONE LAST SHOW. 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING: THE MAGIC MUSIC MOVIE will open in New York August 3, and in Los Angeles August 10, with a national release to follow.
Magic Music is one of the most fondly remembered bands of the Boulder Revolution of the late 60s and early 70s. Living in a makeshift camp up in the mountains, they would delight local residents and university students with their original songs, acoustic instruments, and light harmonies; their growing popularity brought them to the brink of success more than once. Unfortunately, they never signed a record deal and eventually broke up in 1975.
40 YEARS IN THE MAKING: THE MAGIC MUSIC MOVIE chronicles how one of their greatest fans, acclaimed director (and UC Boulder alumnus) Lee Aronsohn, tracked down the original band members four decades later to tell their story. More importantly, he makes a dream come true for himself, fellow fans, and the band, by bringing them all back to Boulder for a sold-out reunion concert that preserves their legacy for posterity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6w-1VzsXCk
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Martha’s Vineyard Film Society Reveals Lineup for 4th Documentary Week
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A PAINTER WHO FARMS: ALLEN WHITING – PAINTER AND FARMER[/caption]
The Martha’s Vineyard Film Society will host its 4th Annual Documentary Week, which begins Monday, July 30th and runs through Saturday, August 4th at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven. LOVE, GILDA featuring Director Lisa D’Apolito will open Documentary Week on Monday, July 30th; the festival concludes on Saturday, August 4th with JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS with Director Susan Lacy and Producer Jessica Levin.
Other documentaries featured include BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY on Tuesday, July 31st with Steve Young, former writer for the Late Show with David Letterman the subject of the film, and Director Dava Whisenant. A PAINTER WHO FARMS: ALLEN WHITING on Wednesday, August 1st with Painter and Vineyard-resident Allen Whiting. Q&A with Allen Whiting and Co-directors David Fokos and Barbarella Fokos This film is a joint benefit for the MV Museum and the MV Film Society; Tickets are $20 for everyone.
SAY HER NAME on Thursday, August 2nd with Kate Davis and David Heilbroner (co directed, produced and edited by), Sandra Bland’s sisters: Shante Needham and Sharon Cooper, both national spokespeople for Sandra Bland, and Cannon Lambert, lead attorney from Chicago. The Vineyard screening will be a rare chance for folks to see the film with filmmakers and 2 of Sandra Bland sisters and their lead attorney present for the Q&A, and moderated by Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
On Friday, August 3rd the Film Society screens 306 HOLLYWOOD with Co-directors Elan and Jonathan Bogarin.
LOVE, GILDA: In her own words, comedienne Gilda Radner looks back and reflects on her life and career. Weaving together her recently discovered audiotapes, interviews with her friends (Chevy Chase, Lorne Michaels, Laraine Newman, Paul Shaffer and Martin Short), rare home movies and diaries read by modern-day comedians inspired by Gilda (Bill Hader, Melissa McCarthy, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Cecily Strong). LOVE, GILDA opens up a unique window into the honest and whimsical world of a beloved performer whose greatest role was sharing her story.
BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY: Steve Young, writer for the Late Show, stumbles on a hidden world of bizarre corporate entertainment and finds an unexpected connection to his fellow man. With David Letterman, Chita Rivera, Martin Short, Jello Biafra, and more.
A PAINTER WHO FARMS: ALLEN WHITING – PAINTER AND FARMER: Allen Whiting is a farmer who has been living off the land as his family has for 12 generations. Allen Whiting is also a plein-air painter, whose depictions of island landscapes can be found in the collections of the rich and famous who have been visiting his home gallery since the 70s. From his taciturn delivery to his creative expression of the beauty that surrounds him, Allen Whiting is the human embodiment of the island in which his roots run deep, and from which he derives his inspiration: Martha’s Vineyard.
SAY HER NAME: Sandra Bland was pulled over and arrested for failing to signal a lane change in Waller County, Texas, in 2015. Three days later, she was dead, having apparently committed suicide while in police custody. But, as the case took on nationwide notoriety and sparked street protests, family and friends were left with nothing but questions: What, after all, took a bright, energetic Black Lives Matter activist from the promise of a new job to a mysterious jail cell death in just three days? Academy Award®-nominated nominated filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner accompanied Bland’s family on their search for answers during the two years following her death.
306 HOLLYWOOD: a magical realist documentary of two siblings who undertake an archaeological excavation of their late grandmother’s house. They embark on a journey from her home in New Jersey to ancient Rome, from fashion to physics, in search of what life remains in the objects we leave behind.
JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS: Girl next door, sex kitten, activist, fitness tycoon: Oscar-winner Jane Fonda has lived a life marked by controversy, tragedy and transformation, and she’s done it all in the public eye. Directed and produced by award-winning documentarian Susan Lacy.
Jane Fonda has been vilified as “Hanoi Jane,” lusted after as “Barbarella” and heralded as a beacon of the women’s movement. This film goes to the heart of who she really is, a blend of deep vulnerability, magnetism, naiveté and bravery, revealing a life transformed over time.
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ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970: SEX FASHION & DISCO Documentary Opens on September 14th [Trailer]
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Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco[/caption]
The documentary Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco by James Crump is described as an Electrifying Ode to the ’70s Most Influential Fashion Illustrator. The film features interviews with some of the big fashion icons from that era including Jessica Lange, Grace Jones, Bob Colacello and Jerry Hall. ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970 will open in theaters on September 14th at IFC Center in New York City with additional cities to follow.
Puerto Rican-born, Harlem and Bronx-raised Antonio Lopez was the most influential fashion illustrator of 1970s New York and Paris. And Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, from filmmaker James Crump (Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art, Black White + Gray), brings an exhilarating, often outrageous chapter of fashion history to rich life. Winner of the Metropolitan Grand Jury prize at this year’s DOC NYC Film Festival and produced by Crump and Ronnie Sassoon, ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970 is a time capsule of Paris and New York between 1969 and 1973 as viewed through the eyes of Antonio Lopez (1943-1987), the dominant fashion illustrator of the time. Lopez was a seductive arbiter of style and glamour who, beginning in the 1960s, brought elements of the urban street and ethnicity to bear on a postwar fashion world desperate for change and diversity. Counted among Antonio’s discoveries-muses of the period-were unusual beauties such as Cathee Dahmen, Grace Jones, Pat Cleveland, Tina Chow, Jessica Lange, Jerry Hall and Warhol Superstars Donna Jordan, Jane Forth and Patti D’Arbanville among others.
Through archival footage and stills of studio life in Carnegie Hall, infamous venues such as Max’s Kansas City and Hotel Chelsea, a soundtrack featuring disco superstars like Donna Summer, Chic, Curtis Mayfield and original interviews with principal characters from the time, Crump takes audiences back to the swinging seventies when fashion designers and their entourages gained the prominence of rock stars. Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, features interviews with Lange, Cleveland, Jordan, Forth and D’Arbanville, as well as revered fashion photographer Bill Cunningham in his very last interview, Grace Coddington, Joan Juliet Buck, Michael Chow, Bob Colacello, Corey Tippin, and Paul Caranicas, among others. The film which Interview Magazine called “dazzling,” perfectly captures Lopez and his entourage, blithely on a quest for beauty and pleasure before the decade, saturated by drug use, addiction and sexual promiscuity came to a crashing halt.
SELECT THEATRICAL DATES
9/14 : IFC Center — NYC
9/21: Laemmle Royal – Los Angeles CA
9/21: Laemmle Playhouse – Pasadena CA
10/5: Landmark Ritz at the Bourse – Philadelphia PA
10/12: Landmark Opera Plaza – San Francisco CA
10/12: Landmark Shattuck – Berkeley CA
10/12: SIEFilm Center – Denver CO
11/2: Landmark Midtown Art – Atlanta GA
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NEON to Release Todd Douglas Miller’s APOLLO 11 Documentary [Trailer]
Todd Douglas Miller’s (Dinosaur 13) cinematic space event documentary, Apollo 11 that features never-before-seen, large-format film footage of one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments has been acquired by NEON for release in theaters. The film which is is currently in post-production is executive produced by CNN Films, which will retain the U.S. television rights, and is produced by Miller’s Statement Pictures.
Miller is best known for the Emmy® Award-winning documentary, Dinosaur 13, which was also executive produced by CNN Films. That film tells the story of the discovery of the largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found. Dinosaur 13 world premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
Apollo 11 is the second film distribution collaboration between NEON and CNN Films in 2018. Earlier this year, the two companies announced their shared distribution of Three Identical Strangers, a feature-length documentary about triplets separated at birth and then reunited as adults. Three Identical Strangers had its world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is successfully exhibiting in theaters now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKM8YpTmVw
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PBS’ Independent Lens Fall Season to Open with YOUNG MEN AND FIRE
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Young Men and Fire[/caption]
The award-winning PBS series Independent Lens opens its new season on Monday, October 29 with Young Men and Fire, a richly personal look at the lives of a western firefighting crew during one challenging season. Also on the fall schedule is Dawnland, which explores the devastating impact of the forced removal of Native American children from their families; The Judge, a look at the first woman appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) courts; The Cleaners, an eye-opening investigation into how Silicon Valley monitors online content; and Man on Fire, the story of an elderly Texas minister driven to a shocking act of protest.
Highlights of the soon-to-be-announced Winter/Spring 2019 season include two of the most acclaimed documentaries of this summer: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville’s moving portrait of children’s TV pioneer Fred Rogers, and Eugene Jarecki’s unique meditation on Elvis and America, The King. Also premiering in 2019 is RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World (January 28), a celebration of the Native American musicians who transformed blues, jazz and rock.
“Documentary film is soaring right now because it’s doing the deep work of telling stories about ordinary and extraordinary people from across the country—all kinds of people who hold different beliefs,” said Lois Vossen, Executive Producer of Independent Lens. “The news has become divisive, and we’re not the news. We’re newsworthy, character-driven stories. And because we’re public media we have exceptional reach with 394 stations across the United States — that gives us the ability to be both local and national every time we work with a film.”
Independent Lens will also present a new season of Indie Lens Pop-Up, a national series of free public events that bring community leaders, local residents and organizations together for discussions and screenings. Selections this year include Dawnland, RUMBLE, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?; additional titles to be announced.
The Fall broadcast schedule follows; additional Winter/Spring titles and broadcast dates will be announced late fall.
Young Men and Fire by Kahlil Hudson and Alex Jablonski (Monday, October 29, 10-11 pm ET)
Forest and wildland fires are growing larger, more frequent, and deadlier every year, threatening millions of acres and thousands of lives. Meet a firefighting crew as they struggle with fear, loyalty, love and defeat over the course of a single wildfire season. What emerges is a quietly powerful story of a small group of men – their exterior world, their interior lives, and the fire that lies between.
Dawnland by Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip (Monday, November 5, 10-11 pm ET)
Follow the first government-sanctioned truth and reconciliation commission in the U.S., which investigates the devastating impact of Maine’s child welfare practices on Native American communities. With exclusive access to this groundbreaking process and never-before-seen footage, the film reveals the untold narrative of Indigenous child removal in the U.S.
The Judge by Erika Cohn (Monday, November 12, 10:30 pm- 12 am ET)
When Kholoud Al-Faqih walked into the office of Palestine’s Chief Justice and announced she wanted to join the bench, he laughed at her. But just a few years later, Kholoud became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) courts. The Judge offers a unique portrait of Kholoud’s brave journey and her tireless fight for justice for women while offering an unvarnished look at life for women under Shari’a.
The Cleaners by Moritz Riesewieck and Hans Block (Monday, November 19, 10-11:30 pm ET)
Meet some of the people hired by Silicon Valley leaders like Facebook and Google to do “digital cleaning.” Mostly located in the Philippines, these “content moderators” delete “inappropriate” content on the net, thereby influencing what people around the world see and think. The film charts social media’s evolution from a shared vision of a global village to a dangerous web of fake news, extremism and radicalization.
Man on Fire by Joel Fendelman (Monday, December 17, 10-11 pm ET)
On June 23, 2014, a 79-year-old white Methodist minister named Charles Moore drove to an empty parking lot in his old home town of Grand Saline, Texas, and set himself on fire. He left a note explaining that his act was his final protest against the virulent racism of the community and his country at large. Man on Fire goes back to Grand Saline — population 3,266 — to try to uncover the truth about the town’s ugly past and the fervor for God and justice that drove Moore to his shocking final act.
RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World by Catherine Bainbridge (Monday, January 28)
The acclaimed documentary explores how Native American musicians transformed American blues, jazz and rock — despite frequent attempts to ban, censor, and erase Indian culture. This eye-opening musical celebration features Robbie Robertson, Taj Mahal, George Clinton, Martin Scorsese, Slash, Jackson Browne, Taboo, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Steve Van Zandt, Quincy Jones, Tony Bennett, Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler, and many more.
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LYNYRD SKYNYRD: IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW Documentary To Premiere on Showtime [Trailer]
The documentary Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow, directed by Stephen Kijak takes viewers on a trip through the history, myth and legend of one of the most iconic American rock bands. Featuring Rare And Never-Before-Seen Interviews With Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Bob Burns, Billy Powell, Ed King, Artimus Pyle And Steve Gaines, the documentary will premiere on Saturday, August 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME.
ising from the swamps of the Deep South, these good ol’ boys from Jacksonville, Florida came to define an era with their hard-rocking boogie-woogie sound, soulful lyrics, drunken and dangerous antics and their controversial use of the rebel flag. The film also serves as a portrait of late band leader Ronnie Van Zant whose life was cut tragically short, but whose legacy endures to this day in songs like the “Simple Man,” “Country Boy,” and “Whiskey Rock-a-Roller.”
The film is primarily narrated by Gary Rossington, the last of the Street Survivors and founding member along with Van Zant and Allen “Freebird” Collins. Rossington remains the only original member still in the band today. His recollections, from the beginning to the very end, mingle with the tales of drummer Artimus Pyle and “Sweet Home Alabama” co-writer Ed King, interviews with the late drummer Bob Burns, “Honkette” JoJo Billingsley, producer Al Kooper, and recently discovered radio interviews with the late founding members, Leon “Mad Hatter” Wilkeson, Collins and Van Zant. Capturing the band through their own words, stories and memories, Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow vividly explores the makings of this quintessential Southern rock band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loo320c79aI