The new unscripted 10-part documentary series “America To Me” which provides a first look into an academic year at Chicagoland’s elite Oak Park and River Forest High School, released the official trailer. The insightful documentary series created by Emmy Award(R)-winning and Oscar(R)-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail) will premiere on Starz on Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 9 PM ET/PT.
“America To Me” follows students, TEACHERS and administrators in suburban Chicago’s Oak Park and River Forest High School, one of the country’s highest performing and diverse public schools, over the course of a year, as they grapple with decades-long racial and educational inequities – in addition to the challenges that today’s teenagers face. Digging deep into the experiences of a racially diverse student population, “America To Me” sparks candid conversations about what has succeeded and what has failed in the quest to achieve racial equity and overcome obstacles in our education system. In this part observational character story and part high-school confessional, James captures critical moments within this vibrant high-school ecosystem.
“America to Me” made its world premiere with the first five episodes at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the new “Indie Episodic” category. Episodes were also previewed at Full Frame and AFI DOCS.
To inspire action on the educational equity issues highlighted in “America To Me,” Participant Media and Starz are partnering to launch a social impact campaign. The campaign is designed to encourage candid conversations about racism through a downloadable Community Conversation Toolkit and elevate student voices through a national spoken-word poetry contest. Alongside the release of each new episode, the campaign will host a high-profile screening event in one city across the country. Over the course of the ten weeks, these ten events will SEED a timely national dialogue anchored by the series, and kick off activities across the country to inspire students, teachers, parents and community leaders to develop local initiatives that address inequities in their own communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNhmWJ4l5kDocumentary
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Watch Official Trailer for Documentary Series AMERICA TO ME Set to Debut August 26 on Starz
The new unscripted 10-part documentary series “America To Me” which provides a first look into an academic year at Chicagoland’s elite Oak Park and River Forest High School, released the official trailer. The insightful documentary series created by Emmy Award(R)-winning and Oscar(R)-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail) will premiere on Starz on Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 9 PM ET/PT.
“America To Me” follows students, TEACHERS and administrators in suburban Chicago’s Oak Park and River Forest High School, one of the country’s highest performing and diverse public schools, over the course of a year, as they grapple with decades-long racial and educational inequities – in addition to the challenges that today’s teenagers face. Digging deep into the experiences of a racially diverse student population, “America To Me” sparks candid conversations about what has succeeded and what has failed in the quest to achieve racial equity and overcome obstacles in our education system. In this part observational character story and part high-school confessional, James captures critical moments within this vibrant high-school ecosystem.
“America to Me” made its world premiere with the first five episodes at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the new “Indie Episodic” category. Episodes were also previewed at Full Frame and AFI DOCS.
To inspire action on the educational equity issues highlighted in “America To Me,” Participant Media and Starz are partnering to launch a social impact campaign. The campaign is designed to encourage candid conversations about racism through a downloadable Community Conversation Toolkit and elevate student voices through a national spoken-word poetry contest. Alongside the release of each new episode, the campaign will host a high-profile screening event in one city across the country. Over the course of the ten weeks, these ten events will SEED a timely national dialogue anchored by the series, and kick off activities across the country to inspire students, teachers, parents and community leaders to develop local initiatives that address inequities in their own communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNhmWJ4l5k
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Influential Rock Doc KILL YOUR IDOLS to be Re-Released in October 2018
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Kill Your Idols – Yeah Yeah Yeahs[/caption]
Scott Crary’s influential rock documentary, Kill Your Idols will be re-released with special event theatrical screenings and 2xDVD set by Submarine Deluxe. The roc doc will be available on VOD for the first time ever with a rollout across multiple platforms planned for October 2018.
A chronicle of New York City’s diverse art punk and no wave music scenes across three decades, the documentary includes original interviews and performances with bands and artists like Suicide, Lydia Lunch, the late Glenn Branca, Sonic Youth, Swans, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The 2xDVD expanded edition will include over 90 minutes of bonus content, including 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage from the original production, commentaries and two brand new featurettes, produced exclusively for the reissue.
Produced by Crary and executive produced by Submarine’s own Dan Braun and Josh Braun, Kill Your Idols was distributed in 2006 by Palm Pictures and Showtime/Sundance Channel. The film won the award for Best Documentary at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival and also screened at SXSW, the BFI London Times Film Festival, among others. The doc has been called “iconic” by Black Book, “still shocking” by Uncut and, in 2013, was included in the permanent archives of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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SHOWTIME Sets Premiere Date for Concert Documentary JEFF LYNNE’S ELO: WEMBLEY OR BUST [Trailer]
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JEFF LYNNE’S ELO: WEMBLEY OR BUST[/caption]
The concert documentary, JEFF LYNNE’S ELO: WEMBLEY OR BUST, will make its U.S. television premiere on SHOWTIME on Friday, July 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on-air, on demand and over the internet. Celebrating Lynne’s enduring and ongoing musical legacy, director Paul Dugdale documents Lynne’s ELO performance in England’s famed Wembley Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd of 60,000 fans.
JEFF LYNNE’S ELO: WEMBLEY OR BUST gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the concert of recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Lynne – one of the most successful recording artists, songwriters and producers of all-time. The film is complete with bells, whistles and spaceships, and most importantly, many of the most beloved songs of all time, from vintage ELO classics like “Mr. Blue Sky,” “Livin’ Thing” and “Evil Woman” to “Do Ya” from his days with The Move, “Handle With Care” which he recorded with the Traveling Wilburys, right through “When I Was A Boy” from his latest ELO album, Alone In The Universe. “I love it,” says Lynne. “This might be my favorite gig ever, so it’s a very good one to get to share.”
JEFF LYNNE’S ELO: WEMBLEY OR BUST is directed by Paul Dugdale and produced by Simon Fisher. Julie Jakobek and Craig Fruin serve as executive producers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDL54-Euqg8
image via screengrab
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Documentary A WHALE OF A TALE on Controversy Surrounding Whaling Sets Release Date
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.
Can a proud 400-year-old whaling tradition survive a tsunami of modern animal-rights activism and colliding forces of globalism vs. localism?
A Whale of a Time reveals the complex story behind the ongoing debate. 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.
A Whale of a Time 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 2008, Filmmaker Megumi Sasaki directed and produced her first feature-length documentary Herb & Dorothy, about legendary New York art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel. The film went on to win top honors at many international film festivals and was released theatrically nationwide and as a part of PBS’s Independent Lens series. In 2013, Megumi completed the highly anticipated follow-up Herb & Dorothy 50X50, focusing on the next (and final) chapter in the lives of the beloved couple. The film had a nationwide theatrical release and continues to screen in theaters, museums and art fairs around the globe.
A Whale of a Time is her third feature length and had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea and has won awards in many other festivals worldwide. In August 2017, Sasaki published her first book with the same title of the film in Japanese, OKUJIRASAMA depicting behind the scenes of the film’s production and the in-depth historical and religious background information of the whaling controversy that won the Science Journalist Award in 2018.
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Documentary HITLER’S HOLLYWOOD on German Film Industry Under Third Reich Gets DVD Release [Trailer]
Hitler’s Hollywood is a new documentary directed by Rüdiger Suchsland and narrated by Udo Kier, that traces the rise and fall of Nazi Germany through its national cinema of 1933-1945, illustrated with clips from the many big spectacles, colorful fantasies and lavish costume films that Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels conceived of to rival Hollywood.
An Official Selection of the Telluride Film Festival, this critically-acclaimed film opened at New York’s Film Forum earlier this year before moving on to engagements in national markets including Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta.
Kino Lorber will release Hitler’s Hollywood on DVD on July 10.
Hitler’s Hollywood, narrated by Udo Kier, asks what the Nazi cinema of the Third Reich reveals about its period and its people. About 1000 feature films were made in Germany in the years between 1933-1945: musicals, melodramas, romances, costume dramas and war films. Only a few were overtly Nazi propaganda films. But by the same token, even fewer of them can be considered harmless entertainment.
How did the open lies and hidden truths in these films affect the future of German cinema? Director Rüdiger Suchsland (From Caligari to Hitler) presents these films and the people behind them. It explains how propaganda works: how stereotypes of the “enemy” and values of love and hate managed to be planted into viewers’ heads through the screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVeFBjVcglU
Hitler’s Hollywood is Suchsland’s follow-up to his 2014 film From Caligari to Hitler, a documentary adaptation of Siegfried Kracauer’s ground-breaking 1947 psychological study of silent German cinema that argues the rise of Nazism was anticipated in many of the films from that period.
Kino Lorber also recently released Forbidden Films: The Hidden Legacy of Nazi Film on DVD. This documentary by Felix Moeller examines those films made in Nazi Germany that were conceived and presented explicitly as propaganda, and explores questions of whether they should be shown for the purposes of study, or locked away for their dangerous (and powerful) ideological messages.
Together, these three documentaries present a comprehensive view of the cinema in Germany just before and during the Third Reich, posing challenging questions about cinema as an indicator of larger historical currents, the power of film as propaganda, and how even seemingly harmless entertainment films can be used to convey dangerous ideology.
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Greenwich Entertainment to Release Jeremy Workman’s Documentary THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET
Jeremy Workman’s documentary The World Before Your Feet, which had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, will release be released theatrically later this year by Greenwich Entertainment.
Executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Café Society), this personal and moving documentary follows Matt Green, who for six years has walked every block of every street in New York City. This journey of over 8000 miles takes Green and the audience to each neighborhood in the five boroughs and reveals the humanity and wonder of the world’s greatest city.
Critics raved following the film’s SXSW premiere with The Hollywood Reporter’s John DeFore saying “a Gotham-set charmer about the pleasures of wandering,” RogerEbert.com’s Nick Allen declaring the film “lovely…inspired me to get outside and look around,” and The Playlist’s Gary Garrison calling it “an utterly compelling joy.”
“Jeremy has found in Matt Green, a kind of contemporary Thoreau, and in the process of documenting Matt’s quest has made one of the most poignant and inspiring city symphonies in documentary history,” according to Greenwich co-managing director Edward Arentz.
“Jesse and I are thrilled and honored that Greenwich Entertainment will be releasing The World Before Your Feet and helping audiences discover Matt’s unique journey,” said Workman. “With the passion that Edward and his team have for this film, we know this is the ideal partnership.
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EXCLUSIVE: Watch a Clip from Documentary MAYNARD, on Maynard Jackson Jr., First Black Mayor of Atlanta [Video]
Here is an exclusive clip from the new documentary MAYNARD on the remarkable story of the unparalleled success of Maynard Jackson Jr., who became first black Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia in 1973.
Directed by Academy Award nominee, Emmy winner and 4 time Peabody Award winner Sam Pollard (“Slavery by Another Name”, “Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me”, “Two Trains Runnin’”), MAYNARD which will be released by Virgil Films on iTunes and digital platforms and dvd retailers on Tuesday, July 3, 2018.
Maynard interviews include President Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, Vernon Jordan, Ambassador Andrew Young, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Jesse Jackson, former Atlanta Mayor’s Sam Massell and Shirley Franklin, and current Mayor Kasim Reed to name a few.
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Documentary DETROIT: COMEBACK CITY Narrated by Detroit Native JK Simmons to Premiere on History
The original documentary special, “Detroit: Comeback City,” which recounts the saga of the rise, fall and rebirth of Detroit through the iconic Michigan Central Station will premiere on HISTORY on Sunday, July 1 at 9pm ET/PT.
Narrated by Academy Award(R)-winner and Detroit native JK Simmons, the film chronicles how Detroit went from the engine of American capitalism to a city of ruins that is now on the cusp of an exciting rebirth. The story of the city is told by real Detroiters who recount the stories of their relatives who helped build the city and the country. Among the interview subjects are Alice Cooper, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winner Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Bill Ford and NASA Astronaut Jerry Linenger.
From Henry Ford’s automated assembly lines å turned Detroit into a wheelhouse of innovation to the factories that made the city WW2’s arsenal of democracy, we will hear from those who found freedom and prosperity in the Motor City, including those who fled racism in the South to build a new life, and those who lived through the city’s 1967 riots and the city’s eventual downturn – leading to Detroit’s painful filing for bankruptcy in 2013.
The anchor of the story is the iconic Michigan Central Station (MCS). Designed by Warren & Wetmore and Reed and Stem, the firms that designed New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, MCS was built in the early 20th Century to announce Detroit’s dream for the future. The station was an emblem of Detroit’s innovative power, but after six decades it was shut down and abandoned, a painful symbol of the city’s demise.
Ford Motor Company has purchased Michigan Central Station, and recently announced plans to transform the building into an innovation hub.
“Part of History’s mission is to not just tell stories of the past, but capture history as it unfolds,” said Eli Lehrer, Executive Vice President of Programming, HISTORY. “Working together with organizations like Ford Motor Company, we are able to breathe new life into the past by working together to save our most precious landmarks for future generations.”
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Hulu to Release Award-Winning Whistleblower Documentary CRIME + PUNISHMENT
Hulu has acquired the whistleblower doc Crime + Punishment that premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, and will partner with IFC Films to release the documentary simultaneously in theaters and on Hulu on August 24th.
After debuting at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Crime + Punishment went on to win the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, and has garnered numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Independent Film Festival in Boston. Stephen Maing directed, produced and filmed, and Academy Award Winner Laura Poitras serves as an executive producer.
Crime + Punishment is a galvanizing and visually striking documentary that goes behind the scenes and undercover to expose discriminatory policing practices, intimidation and corruption within the New York Police Department. Told from multiple perspectives and precincts throughout New York City, Maing cinematically chronicles a band of minority whistleblower officers known as The NYPD 12, as well as the efforts of ex-cop turned private investigator, Manuel Gomez as they seek to expose the illegal use of arrest and summons quotas.
With unprecedented fly-on-the-wall access, the film artfully weaves an ensemble of interconnected stories and evidence from The NYPD 12, who put their careers on the line and mount a David vs. Goliath legal challenge – only to find themselves weathering harassment and retaliation from within their own departments.
“It was an act of bravery and defiance by all the cops and families who allowed their stories to be documented over the past four years so I’m heartened to know their efforts will not be in vain and this story made widely accessible,” said Maing. “It’s exciting to have Hulu’s amazing partnership and share this film theatrically, pursue an ambitious social impact campaign and present these previously unheard voices of active duty officers into the national dialogue around police reform. I am grateful for the collaborations and support I’ve received along the way, but most importantly to the brave participants of the film who have stepped forward for the sake of other citizens and officers.”
Crime + Punishment is the latest film to join Hulu’s award-winning documentary slate, which includes the recently-released TINY SHOULDERS: RETHINKING BARBIE and MARCH OF THE PENGUINS 2: THE NEXT STEP, as well as Grammy and Emmy Award winning film THE BEATLES: 8 DAYS A WEEK – THE TOURING YEARS, TOO FUNNY TO FAIL, OBEY GIANT, BECOMING BOND, DUMB and BATMAN AND BILL.
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THE CIRCUS Coming to PBS, Documentary to Premiere on American Experience in October [Trailer]
The four-hour, two-part documentary “The Circus,”, explores the colorful history of this popular, influential and distinctly American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time. Written, directed and produced by Sharon Grimberg and executive produced by Mark Samels, “The Circus” premieres on American Experience Monday and Tuesday, October 8-9, 2018, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS.
A transformative place for reinvention, where young women could become lion tamers and young men traveled the world as roustabouts, the circus allowed people to be liberated from the roles assigned by society and find an accepting community that had eluded them elsewhere. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, “The Circus” brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town, its stars were among the most famous people in the country, and multitudes of Americans gathered to see the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.
“There’s nothing in the world like a circus,” said ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson. “You cannot come to a circus and still believe as you previously did. Circus is a peek into what we could be, how great we could be, how beautiful our world could be. It’s about making your own miracles, conjuring your own miracles. We’re coming for the transcendent.”
Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late 19th century, including P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the five Ringling Brothers, the series reveals the circus as a uniquely American phenomenon created by a rapidly expanding and increasingly industrialized nation. It explores how its “dangerous” and “exotic” attractions revealed the country’s notions about race and Western dominance and shows how the circus subverted prevailing standards of “respectability” with its unconventional, titillating and “freakish” entertainments.
“The tented traveling circus is an American creation,” said Mark Samels, executive producer of American Experience. “Appealing to both urban and rural parts of the country, and to people from all walks of life, the circus helped forge a common American culture and identity. It was an unprecedented combination of cutting-edge marketing, military-like organization and supreme artistry. The circus was where you could reinvent yourself, which is why so many ran away to join it. With the recent closing of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the series offers a fascinating look back at this distinctly American entertainment.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-14W2o49kA4
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Watch New Trailer for Deliciously Scandalous SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD
The new trailer dropped today for the documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, the deliciously scandalous story of Scotty Bowers directed by Matt Tyrnauer. The film is based on the Book: “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” by Scotty Bowers with Lionel Friedberg. Greenwich Entertainment will release Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood on July 27th at the Arclight Hollywood in LA, and on August 3rd at the IFC Center in NY.
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is the deliciously scandalous story of ScottyBowers, a handsome ex-Marine who landed in Hollywood after World War II and became confidante, aide de camp and lover to many of Hollywood’s greatest male — and female — stars. In the 1940s and ’50s, Scotty ran a gas station in the shadow of the studio lots where he would connect his friends with actors and actresses who had to hide their true sexual identities for fear of police raids at gay bars, societal shunning and career suicide. An unsung Hollywood legend, Bowers would cater to the sexual appetites of celebrities – straight and gay – for decades.
In 2012, he finally spilled his secrets in the New York Times bestselling memoir “Full Service,” which revealed a dramatic, pre-Stonewall alternate history of Hollywood. While the studio PR machines were promoting their stars as wholesome and monogamous, Bowers was fulfilling the true desires of many of them. This cinema-vérité documentary tells his story, as well as presents eye-opening takes on icons from the Hollywood Golden Age including Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and many more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qn6HxTJp0k
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LeBron James Exec-Produces Documentary STUDENT ATHLETE on ‘Uncompensated Athletes’
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LeBron James[/caption]
The HBO Sports documentary Student Athlete, illuminating the complex rules of amateur athletics in America and showing how they affect uncompensated athletes and their families, will debut on HBO on Tuseday, October 2 (10:00-11:30 p.m. ET/PT). From LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment and Steve Stoute’s United Masters, the feature-length presentation is directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (HBO’s Oscar(R) winners “Saving Face” and “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”) and Trish Dalton (“Bordering on Treason”).
Unpaid college athletes generate billions of dollars for their institutions every year. Student Athlete unveils the exploitative world of high-revenue college sports through the stories of four young men at different stages of their athletic careers, as well as a coach-turned-advocate and a whistle-blowing shoe rep who exposes the money trail. The documentary spotlights: former NCAA and NFL coach John Shoop; New Jersey high school basketball phenom Nick Richards, now at the University of Kentucky; Mike Shaw, who played at the University of Illinois and Bradley University; Shamar Graves, a former wide receiver at Rutgers University; and Silas Nacita, a walk-on who played at Baylor University.
From high-school recruiting to post-graduation, the usefulness of athletes is tied to their ability to produce revenue. Once they can no longer do that, their participation in sport ends? – ?often abruptly? – ?with virtually nothing to show for their contributions. An audited financial disclosure from the NCAA in March 2018 revealed the association had close to $1.1 billion in revenue during 2017, a total that was unimaginable in 1964, when the NCAA coined the term “Student Athlete.”
In July 2017, news reports confirmed that the Big Ten conference had reached agreement with three television partners on a six-year, $2.64 billion rights deal to carry conference athletic competition, primarily focused on football and men’s basketball. Other powerhouse conferences across the country have struck similar deals and some have even partnered with media companies to launch standalone conference network channels dedicated to increasing exposure and generating more revenue.
Huffington Post wrote, “Big-time college sports look more like their professional counterparts than they ever have with one major exception: The NCAA has restrictive rules in place that prevent schools from compensating athletes beyond the full cost of attending.”
Directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton say, “We embedded in the world of men’s college basketball and football, capturing athletes’ hopes and dreams being shattered by the harsh reality of what it means to be a ‘Student Athlete’ in a billion-dollar industry.”
The production team is spearheaded by NBA superstar and three-time world champion LeBron James, one of today’s most socially responsible and community-minded athletes.