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.
Documentary
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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
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Jonathan Berman’s Documentary CALLING ALL EARTHLINGS Explores One of the First UFO Cults [Trailer]
Calling All Earthlings, a documentary by Jonathan Berman, explores one of the first UFO cults, led by George Van Tassel, a one-time Howard Hughes confidante. Van Tassel combines alien technology with Tesla science to build a rejuvenation machine and mid-century dome called The Integratron. Van Tassel claimed to have combined extraterrestrial guidance with the work of inventor/physicist Nikola Tesla and other alternative scientists, to build an electromagnetic time machine he dubbed “The Integratron.” Was he deluded? Or could the dome actually break through the boundaries of space, time, and energy? FBI agents try to halt the growing army of outliers who gather in the desert to create a threatening reality on the edge of the midcentury American Dream. An empathetic enquiry into an archetypical countercultural movement, the story is told by relatives, neighbors, skeptics, believers, scientists, healers, artists, and historians, including Dr. Kevin Starr, the preeminent historian of California; Eric Burdon, musician and area resident, and futurists JJ and Desiree Hurtak.
Jonathan Berman’s documentaries explore third places, those beyond home or work. Previous work includes The Shvitz (The Steambath) and Commune.
Calling All Earthlings will open in New York at Maysles Cinema on August 1 and available on VOD on August 28.
Calling All Earthlings is the true story of Howard Hughes, the Postwar avant-garde, and a mad genius named George who took off from the California desert in a flying saucer.
In 1947, George Van Tassel, a Hughes employee and confidante, suddenly quits working for his mentor and ditches the straight life, moving deep into the Mojave Desert where he and his family sleep under a rock. He leaves behind a tattered Los Angeles in the grips of postwar paranoia, opting for the quietude of the Joshua Tree area. It is during an August 1953 full moon that Van Tassel has an encounter with extraterrestrials, who give him the information to build a rejuvenation machine he dubs “The Integratron.”
Van Tassel believes he has been chosen by these extraterrestrial visitors, led by Solganda (who “speaks” to him with a voice not unlike that of actor Ronald Coleman) to build a massive experimental dome that will open a hole in time and space. The groovy iconoclast and charismatic leader’s received blueprints from Solganda are soon combined with the work of Nikolai Tesla and other alternative scientists.
Long before the ‘X-Files,’ and the internet, it was the threat of nuclear bombs and stifling social conformity that drew artists, inventors, eccentrics and postwar seekers to the desert to experiment with alternate lifestyles and futures. They join other do-it-yourself inhabitants of the “jack-rabbit shacks,” the five acres that the government gave to citizens through the Small Tract Act of 1938.
Van Tassel, a pilot and self-taught inventor, becomes a local, and lands as one of the first gurus of alien contact culture. Using ‘outsider science” and rugged charm, Van Tassel pursues his dream of combining science and spirit to create a new utopia. The Integratron would not only solve the issue of aging and the attendant loss of seasoned wisdom but would also act as a source of unlimited power for the planet
In the 1950’s, George Van Tassel devises the Interplanetary Spacecraft Conventions as a way to fund the dome and bring attention to his transformative and rabidly anti-militaristic stance. Is he crazy or could The Integratron really work?
Rich Los Angeles playboys help fund the work (seeking rejuvenation, of course) and they fly into his airfield nearby, including his old boss, one Mr. Howard Robard Hughes. Beyond any vanities, Hughes’ concern for contamination bonds him to the anti-nuclear Van Tassel and he adds money to the project.
With his can-do neighbors, including an early disciple of Yogananda, Van Tassel actually builds his dome and prepares to turn it on. People flock to the desert to join in what quickly becomes an alien-guided, peace-loving, revolutionary movement. Questionable science, secret agents, and an army of eccentrics collide on the edge of the American Dream to try to further – or halt – this new reality.
It looks promising but there is a hiccup: the Integratron stands on the border of one of the largest military bases in the world, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, commonly known as Twentynine Palms. It is balanced by its other neighbor, an enigmatic boulder, Giant Rock, that was once revered by American Indians and has had its own embattled history.
Meanwhile, the dome’s workings are mysterious – some of the electro-magnetic processes actually bear merit, however they must be “phased” by the Venusians, as one subject suggests: “otherwise Southern California could be blown off the map.” Nearing completion, Van Tassel’s tale and the Integratron meets an unexpected, twisted end.
The magical ‘workings’ of the dome emerge in an unexpected way: for some participants in the film it is a simple opportunity for friendship and mentorship, for another it’s a global plan to colonize space, for others it’s a site-specific zone for art and culture. ‘Calling All Earthlings’ tells the story through their eyes –the current and past residents of the Joshua Tree area — including singer Eric Burdon, medicine woman Valerie Brightheart, Ernest Siva, historian and elder of the Morongo Indians, L.A. Free Press publisher Art Kunkin, and the current “Stewards of the Dome, the Karl sisters, who now own the property. Rounding out the story are esteemed California historian Dr. Kevin Starr, skeptical astronomer Bob Berman, and legendary “Stargate” participant Dr. J.J. Hurtak.
Featuring a celestial score by Knitting Factory stalwart Elliott Sharp, desert ambient wizard Clive Wright, and other co-conspirators including the legendary Harmonia and Queens of the Stone Age’s Dave Catching, the project is an enigmatic look at the boundary-breaking culture of Joshua Tree and its eccentric residents, still waiting for their spaceship.
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Watch Trailer + Poster for A WHALE OF A TALE on Controversial Debate over Whale and Dolphin Hunting Traditions
The new trailer and poster dropped today for the documentary A Whale of a Tale from director/producer Megumi Sasaki of Herb & Dorothy. Following THE COVE documentary, A Whale of a Tale reveals the complex story behind the ongoing debate – can a proud 400-year-old whaling tradition survive a tsunami of modern animal-rights activism and colliding forces of globalism vs. localism? The film will open theatrically in New York on Friday, August 17 (The Quad) and Los Angeles on Friday, August 24 (Laemmle Music Hall) with a nationwide release to follow.
In 2010, Taiji, a sleepy fishing town in Japan, suddenly found itself in the worldwide media spotlight. THE COVE, a documentary denouncing the town’s longstanding whale and dolphin hunting traditions, won an Academy Award and almost overnight, Taiji became the go-to destination and battleground for activists from around the world.
Told through a wide range of characters including local fishermen, international activists and anAmerican journalist (and long time Japanese resident), this powerful documentary unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature and wildlife and cultural sensitivity in the face of global activism.
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Watch Movie Maverick Larry Cohen Discuss Special Effects in “Q : The Winged Serpent” in Clip from KING COHEN [Video]
A brand-new video clip debuted today from the highly anticipated King Cohen, the story of Movie Maverick Larry Cohen, before its release July 20. In this fun new clip, Cohen, as well as Joe Dante (“Gremlins”) and Michael Moriarty (“The Stuff”), discuss the filmmaker’s use of special effects in the 1982 classic “Q : The Winged Serpent”.
The highly anticipated King Cohen, the true story of writer, producer, director, creator and all-around maverick, Larry Cohen, will receive a full theatrical run across the U.S beginning July 20 in L.A (with other cities in the weeks to follow), courtesy Dark Star Pictures.
Cohen, best known for resourceful low-budget horror and thriller films that combine social commentary with prerequisite scares and welcome humor, is responsible for celluloid classics including Black Caesar, It’s Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent, and The Stuff. He was also a major player in the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s, as well as a prominent Hollywood screenwriter (Phone Booth).
The acclaimed film features interviews with such industry luminaries as Martin Scorsese, J.J Abrams, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, John Landis, Fred Williamson as well as Cohen himself. Cohen’s remarkable one-of-a-kind career, from 60’s TV series creator (Branded, The Invaders), to 70’s and 80’s independent film icon and beyond, is chronicled with freewheeling and insightful verve.
Winner of the 2017 Fantasia Fest Best Documentary Feature Audience Award, King Cohen hails from Rondo Award-winning writer/director Steve Mitchell, whose film and television credits include co-writing the beloved cult horror/comedy Chopping Mall. King Cohen is a La-La Land Entertainment production, in association with Big And Tall Pictures and Off The Cliff Productions. It is directed and produced by Steve Mitchell and produced by Matt Verboys and Dan McKeon.
King Cohen begins its theatrical run July 20 in LA, with other cities to follow.
Synopsis: Buckle up for King Cohen, the true story of writer, producer, director, creator and all-around maverick, Larry Cohen. Told through compelling live interviews, stills and film/TV clips, the people who helped fulfill his vision, and industry icons such as Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams, John Landis, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, Yaphet Kotto and many more, including Larry himself, bring one-of-a-kind insight into the work, process and legacy of a true American film auteur. Few can boast of a career as remarkable or prolific, spanning more than 50 years of entertaining audiences worldwide.
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Documentary 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING: THE MAGIC MUSIC MOVIE Opens in Theaters on August 3 [Trailer]
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40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie[/caption]
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.
40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie opens in theaters on August 3 with additional markets to follow. The Orchard will release the film digitally on September 4.
The film is written and directed by Emmy-nominated writer-producer Lee Aronsohn (Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory) and produced by Fleur Saville. Executive Producers are Aronsohn and Lisa Haisha and Producer is Jeff Jampol. Cinematography is by Dean Cornish with editing by Kyle Vorbach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N87NMTsr4So