Grace Lee Boggs, civil rights icon, and subject of the 2013 documentary American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, has died at the age of 100.
According to the a statement on the Boggs Center website, Grace Lee Boggs died peacefully in her sleep at her home on Field Street in Detroit on Monday night, October 5, 2015.
Philosopher-Activist Grace Lee Boggs Dies in Detroit: A Champion for the People October 5, 2015–Grace Lee Boggs died peacefully in her sleep at her home on Field Street in Detroit this morning. She had recently celebrated her 100th birthday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Grace was an internationally known philosopher activist for justice. She had been politically active since the 1930’s working with A. Phillip Randolph’s first march on Washington and later C.L.R. James. For more than 40 years she worked closely with her late husband James Boggs in advancing ideas of revolution and evolution for the 20th and 21st Centuries. She helped organize the 1963 March down Woodward Avenue with Dr. Martin Luther King and the Grassroots Leadership Conference with Malcolm X. Grace Lee Boggs was active in Labor, Civil Rights, Black Power, women and environmental justice movements. Later, with her husband James, she helped organize SOSAD, WePros, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Gardening Angels and Detroit Summer. Grace was a founding member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership and was a strong advocate for place based education and supported the James and Grace Lee Boggs School. “Grace died as she lived surrounded by books, politics, people and ideas,” said Alice Jennings and Shea Howell, two of her Trustees. A memorial celebrating her life will be announced later.
President Barack Obama, issued a statement, saying “Michelle and I were saddened to hear of the passing of author, philosopher, and activist Grace Lee Boggs. Grace dedicated her life to serving and advocating for the rights of others – from her community activism in Detroit, to her leadership in the civil rights movement, to her ideas that challenged us all to lead meaningful lives. As the child of Chinese immigrants and as a woman, Grace learned early on that the world needed changing, and she overcame barriers to do just that. She understood the power of community organizing at its core – the importance of bringing about change and getting people involved to shape their own destiny. Grace’s passion for helping others, and her work to rejuvenate communities that had fallen on hard times spanned her remarkable 100 years of life, and will continue to inspire generations to come. Our thoughts and prayers are with Grace’s family and friends, and all those who loved her dearly.”
The filmmakers of the documentary also issued a statement saying, “Grace Lee Boggs passed away peacefully this morning. We are so grateful for the vision of justice and human connection that she gave us and feel incredibly privileged to have been able to share her story with others.”
The documentary film, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS, plunges us into Boggs’s lifetime of vital thinking and action, traversing the major U.S. social movements of the last century; from labor to civil rights, to Black Power, feminism, the Asian American and environmental justice movements and beyond. Boggs’s constantly evolving strategy—her willingness to re-evaluate and change tactics in relation to the world shifting around her—drives the story forward. Angela Davis, Bill Moyers, Bill Ayers, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Danny Glover, Boggs’s late husband James and a host of Detroit comrades across three generations help shape this uniquely American story. As she wrestles with a Detroit in ongoing transition, contradictions of violence and non-violence, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the 1967 rebellions, and non-linear notions of time and history, Boggs emerges with an approach that is radical in its simplicity and clarity: revolution is not an act of aggression or merely a protest. Revolution, Boggs says, is about something deeper within the human experience — the ability to transform oneself to transform the world.
POV is streaming the film for free until November 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JvyZtNA4CUDocumentary
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Civil Rights Icon Grace Lee Boggs, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS, Dies at 100
Grace Lee Boggs, civil rights icon, and subject of the 2013 documentary American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, has died at the age of 100.
According to the a statement on the Boggs Center website, Grace Lee Boggs died peacefully in her sleep at her home on Field Street in Detroit on Monday night, October 5, 2015.
Philosopher-Activist Grace Lee Boggs Dies in Detroit: A Champion for the People October 5, 2015–Grace Lee Boggs died peacefully in her sleep at her home on Field Street in Detroit this morning. She had recently celebrated her 100th birthday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Grace was an internationally known philosopher activist for justice. She had been politically active since the 1930’s working with A. Phillip Randolph’s first march on Washington and later C.L.R. James. For more than 40 years she worked closely with her late husband James Boggs in advancing ideas of revolution and evolution for the 20th and 21st Centuries. She helped organize the 1963 March down Woodward Avenue with Dr. Martin Luther King and the Grassroots Leadership Conference with Malcolm X. Grace Lee Boggs was active in Labor, Civil Rights, Black Power, women and environmental justice movements. Later, with her husband James, she helped organize SOSAD, WePros, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Gardening Angels and Detroit Summer. Grace was a founding member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership and was a strong advocate for place based education and supported the James and Grace Lee Boggs School. “Grace died as she lived surrounded by books, politics, people and ideas,” said Alice Jennings and Shea Howell, two of her Trustees. A memorial celebrating her life will be announced later.
President Barack Obama, issued a statement, saying “Michelle and I were saddened to hear of the passing of author, philosopher, and activist Grace Lee Boggs. Grace dedicated her life to serving and advocating for the rights of others – from her community activism in Detroit, to her leadership in the civil rights movement, to her ideas that challenged us all to lead meaningful lives. As the child of Chinese immigrants and as a woman, Grace learned early on that the world needed changing, and she overcame barriers to do just that. She understood the power of community organizing at its core – the importance of bringing about change and getting people involved to shape their own destiny. Grace’s passion for helping others, and her work to rejuvenate communities that had fallen on hard times spanned her remarkable 100 years of life, and will continue to inspire generations to come. Our thoughts and prayers are with Grace’s family and friends, and all those who loved her dearly.”
The filmmakers of the documentary also issued a statement saying, “Grace Lee Boggs passed away peacefully this morning. We are so grateful for the vision of justice and human connection that she gave us and feel incredibly privileged to have been able to share her story with others.”
The documentary film, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS, plunges us into Boggs’s lifetime of vital thinking and action, traversing the major U.S. social movements of the last century; from labor to civil rights, to Black Power, feminism, the Asian American and environmental justice movements and beyond. Boggs’s constantly evolving strategy—her willingness to re-evaluate and change tactics in relation to the world shifting around her—drives the story forward. Angela Davis, Bill Moyers, Bill Ayers, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Danny Glover, Boggs’s late husband James and a host of Detroit comrades across three generations help shape this uniquely American story. As she wrestles with a Detroit in ongoing transition, contradictions of violence and non-violence, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the 1967 rebellions, and non-linear notions of time and history, Boggs emerges with an approach that is radical in its simplicity and clarity: revolution is not an act of aggression or merely a protest. Revolution, Boggs says, is about something deeper within the human experience — the ability to transform oneself to transform the world.
POV is streaming the film for free until November 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JvyZtNA4CU
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Marlon Brando Documentary LISTEN TO ME MARLON to Premiere on Showtime
LISTEN TO ME MARLON which premiered earlier this year at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, will premiere on SHOWTIME on Saturday, November 14th at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Directed by Stevan Riley (Fire in Babylon), LISTEN TO ME MARLON, unlocks two-time Oscar(R) winner Marlon Brando’s extensive never-before-heard personal audio archive, bringing viewers on a creative odyssey into the mind and motivation of the enigmatic legend. As the lines between Brando’s on screen persona and personal life blurred, his audio recordings uncover his intellectual introspection, humor and sensitivity; a man in perpetual search for moral clarity. LISTEN TO ME MARLON was released in over 150 theaters this summer and was one of this year’s most successful films at Film Forum in New York.
Unbeknownst to the public, Marlon Brando amassed a vast archive of personal audio materials over the course of his lifetime. Now – for the first time – those audio recordings come to life in LISTEN TO ME MARLON. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen, the film reveals the complexities and contradictions that were Marlon Brando by telling the story in his own words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZlWjE_NJfI
LISTEN TO ME MARLON is written, edited and directed by Stevan Riley and produced by Academy Award(R)-winning producer John Battsek (Searching for Sugar Man, The Tillman Story), Emmy(R) winner R.J. Cutler (THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DICK CHENEY, The September Issue) and Emmy Award nominee George Chignell (Ali). Academy Award-winner Andrew Ruhemann serves as the executive producer. LISTEN TO ME MARLON is a Passion Pictures production.
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Watch Video Clip from I AM GIANT: VICTOR CRUZ to Premiere on Showtime October 30
I AM GIANT: VICTOR CRUZ, a feature-length film chronicling the New York Giants wide receiver’s rise to football stardom, demoralizing injury, and his dramatic attempt at a comeback, will premiere on Friday, Oct. 30 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME.
In the video tease, Cruz details his mindset as he prepares to make his anticipated return to the field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKsmS-dAPmA
The unscripted film debuts in the midst of the NFL season as the former Super Bowl Champion aims to return as one of the league’s elite wide receivers. A former undrafted free agent, Cruz tore his patellar tendon in 2014 in just his second season after signing a multi-million dollar contract. The debilitating injury forced Cruz to miss the remainder of the 2014 season and undergo rehab with renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews. I AM GIANT: VICTOR CRUZ chronicles that comeback and introduces viewers to a humble giant battling the most challenging obstacle of his life.
The film is directed by Gotham Chopra (KOBE BRYANT’S MUSE) who serves as executive producer alongside producing partners Chris Uettwiller and Martin Desmond Roe. Elaina Watley also serves as executive producer under the Kennedy Blvd. banner, as will NBA star LeBron James and Maverick Carter, CEO of SpringHill Entertainment.
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Feature Documentary TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL to Open on October 16 | TRAILER
TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, a new feature documentary exploring the life and career of one of Hollywood’s most iconic classic movie stars, will open in New York City on October 16, before expanding to Los Angeles and additional markets across the country.
Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (Vito, I Am Divine), TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL features unfiltered interviews with Tab Hunter himself, as well as friends and co-stars including George Takei, Clint Eastwood, John Waters, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner.
Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. In dozens of films – and in the pages of countless movie magazines – Tab’s astonishing looks and golden-boy sex appeal drove his fans to screaming, delirious frenzy, making him the prototype for all young matinee idols to come. Bristling against being just another pretty face and wanting to be taken seriously, Tab was one of the few to be able to transcend pin-up boy status. He earned his stripes as an actor to become a major movie star and recording artist. But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Now, Tab’s dramatic, turbulent and ultimately inspiring life story has become an explosive documentary feature directed by Emmy award winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz. The film has the unique advantage of exclusive, unprecedented access to Tab Hunter himself who shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image. We will trace Tab’s dizzying rise to Hollywood super-stardom, his secret life in an era when being openly gay was unthinkable, and his ultimate triumph when the limelight finally passed him by. Punctuating Tab’s on screen presence will be rare film clips and provocative interviews with friends and co-stars including John Waters, Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Portia de Rossi, Noah Wyle, Connie Stevens, Robert Osborne, and dozens more. TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL is an important piece of Hollywood’s hidden history that is more relevant than ever in today’s obsessive, star-driven, sexuality speculating media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfTiAAHYhyw
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Jon Whelan’s Documentary STINK! to Open on Black Friday | TRAILER
STINK! is a new feature documentary that presents consumers with crucial information on how seemingly safe, everyday products can contain undisclosed chemicals linked to cancer and fertility issues.
After purchasing brand new pajamas for his young daughters as a Christmas gift, single father Jon Whelan is troubled when opening the packaging releases a foul odor.
Determined to uncover the source of this mysterious stench and whether it poses a health risk to his daughters, Whelan quickly discovers that manufacturers and retailers in the U.S. have no obligation to reveal chemicals used in their products, even if those chemicals can cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive damage.
Journeying from retailers and manufacturers to corporate boardrooms and the halls of Congress, Whelan clashes with political and corporate operatives all trying to protect the darkest secrets of the chemical industry.
Directed by Jon Whelan, STINK! opens in New York on Black Friday, November 27 and Los Angeles of December 4, before expanding to additional markets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICN52Uzoo0I
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Activist Malala Yousafzai, HE NAMED ME MALALA, at 2015 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park NYC
Activist Malala Yousafzai (C) speaks on stage at the 2015 Global Citizen Festival to end extreme poverty by 2030 in Central Park on September 26, 2015 in New York City. Malala is the subject of the documentary HE NAMED ME MALALA from acclaimed documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman). HE NAMED ME MALALA opens in select theaters on Friday, October 2nd 2015.
HE NAMED ME MALALA is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old (she turned 18 this July) was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ghiYve6k68
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THE BOY FROM GEITA, Documentary on Albinism in Africa, Sets October Release Date
THE BOY FROM GEITA, a feature documentary by award-winning filmmaker Vic Sarin (Solitary Journey, Hue: A Matter of Colour) will open in New York on October 16, before expanding to additional markets and VOD. The film follows Adam, a young boy in Tanzania, born with albinism, a genetic condition that affects skin pigment, giving him a white complexion, that sets him apart from others in his village
In a remote village in the northwest of Tanzania, a twelve-year old boy sits in the shade of a hut while his siblings play in the light. His pale skin is sensitive to the sun’s rays and his eyes don’t see as well as the other children, but he’s content to sit on his own and draw with pencil and paper. He loves to draw. But his safe little world is about to be shattered…
“Ghost” is what a boy like Adam is called in Tanzania or “zero zero” – nothing – because he has albinism, a genetic condition that causes the absence of pigment in skin, hair and eyes. His pale complexion makes him vulnerable not only to the sun but to the most violent and hateful crimes imaginable.
Ostracized from society and fearing for his life, Adam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Peter Ash, a businessman from far across the globe who also has albinism. Together they embark on a journey that transcends cultures and continents.
Both heart-breaking and hopeful, THE BOY FROM GEITA is a film about human courage and is part of a growing global effort to break down the stigma and deadly misconceptions surrounding albinism in Africa.
https://vimeo.com/138210896
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2016 Cinema Eye Shorts List Revealed for 9th Cinema Eye Honors Awards
Ten nonfiction short films were announced today as finalists for the 2016 Cinema Eye Honors, the 9th edition of the largest annual celebration for and recognition of the nonfiction film artform and the creators of those films.
The announcement of the 2016 Cinema Eye Shorts List was made on the opening day of the 2015 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF), a key festival partner of the Cinema Eye Honors. For the second year in a row, all ten films, which are among the most acclaimed short documentaries of the year, will screen this weekend at the 11th Annual Camden International Film Festival. This is the first time that all the filmmakers on the list have never been on the Shorts List before or a previous Cinema Eye nominee.
This marks the fourth year that the CEH Shorts List has been announced in Camden. This January will mark the seventh year that CIFF hosts their annual reception on the eve of Cinema Eye’s award ceremony. A key part of Cinema Eye Week, a multi-day event held from January 10-13 in New York City in January 2016, the CIFF reception has become the largest single event for nonfiction film in the city and an important kickoff for the new year in the documentary community.
From the ten finalists on this year’s Shorts List, five films will be named as nominees for the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking Award. Nominees in that category and nearly a dozen feature film categories will be announced on Wednesday, November 11 in Copenhagen, Denmark at CPH:DOX. Awards will be presented during Cinema Eye Honors on January 13, 2016, in New York City.
This year’s ten finalists are:
Body Team 12 (Liberia/USA) (pictured above)
Directed by David Darg
Born to Be Mild (UK)
Directed by Andy Oxley
The Breath (Switzerland)
Directed by Fabian Kaiser
Buffalo Juggalos (USA)
Directed by Scott Cummings
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah (Canada)
Directed by Adam Benzine
The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul (Australia)
Directed by Kitty Green
Hotel 22 (USA)
Directed by Elizabeth Lo
{The And} Marcela & Rock (USA)
Directed by Topaz Adizes
The Solitude of Memory (Mexico/USA)
Directed by Juan Pablo González
Super-Unit (Poland)
Directed by Teresa Czepiec
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THE HIGH: MAKING THE TOUGHEST RACE ON EARTH to Premiere in NYC this October | TRAILER
BTV Productions’ fascinating documentary THE HIGH: MAKING THE TOUGHEST RACE ON EARTH will make its New York premiere on Saturday, October 24th at the School of Visual Arts. A journey filled with obsession, adventure and a pioneering spirit, the film challenges the essence of human endurance and begs the audience to question their own physical limits. Constructed over five years by American filmmaker Barry Walton, this true-story trails a group of finish-line obsessed competitors as they battle the highest and longest footrace on the planet.
The camera follows an Indian doctor, a war journalist, and three adventure-seeking ultra-runners as they take on a running experiment to make the first crossing of a 137- mile footrace covering the two highest motorable passes in the world.
“I honestly thought I could have died on the race,” said Mark Cockbain, one of the ultra- runners.
“I’ll never have that feeling again of being at the starting point on the edge of the world,” said Bill Andrews, one of the film’s subjects, “and having no idea what was going to happen.”
Having worked as a documentary filmmaker for over a decade in Los Angeles, New York and Europe, Detroit native Walton is proud to bring this heroic and untold story to New York. “Making this film was as much a miracle as finishing the race,” said Walton. “It’s a rare look into the culture of ultra-marathoners and the extremes they will go to for their sport.”
He traveled to the Himalayas twice in the making of the project. During that time he overcame altitude sickness, a bout of pneumonia, and the unique demands of working in such a remote and challenging region of the world—all to create the largest accomplishment in his work to date.
THE HIGH presents one of the most unique stories in sports, bursting with beautiful shots of Himalayan peaks from the surrounding Indian city of Leh, complemented by endurance athletes and ultra-runners. An inspiration to watch, the film captures not only the challenge and disbelief of the race, but also the awe-inspiring beauty of the region. Showing one night only, this is a must-see film for all filmmakers, athletes, and movie- goers alike.
https://vimeo.com/88524988
Tickets for the event are now on sale at Eventbrite.
via press release
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BEST OF ENEMIES Wins 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award | TRAILER
BEST OF ENEMIES, directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, is the winner of the 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award. The award-winning film chronicles the groundbreaking series of televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr., during the 1968 presidential conventions. The film was released by Magnolia Pictures this summer.
Directed with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom), Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today. In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummeled out policy and personal insult—their explosive exchanges devolving into vitriolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed. And a new era in public discourse was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzgfQvB2dvA
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Pharrell Williams + Daft Punk Documentary DAFT PUNK: UNCHAINED to Screen at Doc’n Roll Film Fest
Doc’n Roll Film Festival will screen the French documentary Daft Punk: Unchained, directed by Hervé Martin Delpierre, and the first film to be made about the pop culture phenomenon.
The often elusive duo have sold 12 million albums worldwide and won awards around the globe without ever compromising their vision or sound. Between fiction and reality, magic and secrets, future and reinvention, theatricality and humility, The Robots have built a unique world. The documentary shows Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo on their permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom. Unchained has unprecedented access and combines rare archive footage and exclusive interviews with their closest collaborators including Giorgio Moroder, Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, Michel Gondry, Pete Tong, Skrillex and Leiji Matsumoto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0
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Doc’n Roll Film Festival to Host Preview Screening of Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain | VIDEO
Doc’n Roll Film Festival which runs from September 25 until October4, at Picturehouse Central in London, will screen a special advanced preview of the crowd-funded new music documentary Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain, a film shot on Sleaford Mods’ 2015 UK tour about the band, the fans and the state of modern Britain.
Directed by Nathan Hannawin and Paul Sng, Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain follows Sleaford Mods on their recent tour of the UK and visits the neglected, broken down and boarded up parts of the country that most would prefer to ignore. Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain aims to tell the story of how one of the most relevant British band in years became an unlikely success story through their expression of pent up rage and anger aimed at ineffectual politicians and the current state of affairs. Taking its cue from the likes of Patrick Keiller’s extraordinary Robinson Trilogy and the wanderings of Iain Sinclair, the documentary is a combination of raw footage of the band, interviews with fans, and a look at what individuals and communities are doing to resist so-called austerity measures. The filmmakers will attend the screening on 3 October for a post-film Q&A session. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pZc3UOG1y0