Documentary

The trailer has been released for Neil Berkeley’s HARMONTOWN, a documentary chronicling Dan Harmon’s podcast tour following his firing from his cult-like creation, NBC’s “Community.”  Featuring appearances from Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Jason Sudeikis, and Joel McHale, among others, HARMONTOWN provides untapped insight to Harmon’s personal demons and his ever-present talent that is poised to redeem him.  HARMONTOWN will be released by The Orchard on October 3rd in LA and on VOD and on October 10th in NYC.

http://youtu.be/KisiU9b_2EU

A kindred spirit to nerds everywhere, writer-comedian Dan Harmon has achieved celebrity via the hit series “Community,” but cut his teeth writing for shows such as “The Sarah Silverman Program” and the Jack Black/Ben Stiller pilot “Heat Vision and Jack.” After being fired from his signature creation, Harmon hits the road with his popular podcast and performs live for his cult-like fan base across the country. Known for his wit, cynicism, and disarming vulnerability, HARMONTOWN finds Harmon bathed in the adoration of his fans as he confronts his personal demons and comes out on the other side.

From acclaimed filmmaker Neil Berkeley (BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING), and featuring past and present collaborators Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, Allison Brie, Joel McHale and many more, HARMONTOWN tells Harmon’s story with unabashed candor — showing his highs, his lows, and everything in-between.

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PELICAN DREAMS, a documentary film by Judy Irving, the director of “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” will open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and at the Angelika Film Center in New York, and at the Royal, Playhouse 7,  and Town Center in Los Angeles on November 7. A national release will follow.

Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Judy Irving (with her first film since the widely acclaimed and loved “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”) follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges of these ancient birds, sometimes referred to as the flying dinosaurs.

The film is about wildness, and asks the following questions: how close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? PELICAN DREAMS, stars “Gigi” (for Golden Gate) and Morro (a backyard pelican with an injured wing). 

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 Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Bahman Mohassess in FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS. Courtesy of Music Box Films

Music Box Films will release FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS, the award-winning documentary film by Mitra Farahani in the U.S. The film had its World premiere as the Official Selection at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival and screened at numerous film festivals including New York, Telluride, and Seattle. FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS will open at the Lincoln Plaza in New York on August 8, and at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on August 15. A national release will follow.

Mitra Farahani’s lyrical documentary explores the enigma of provocative artist Bahman Mohassess, the so-called “Persian Picasso,” whose acclaimed paintings and sculptures dominated pre-revolutionary Iran.  Irreverent and uncompromising, a gay man in a hostile world, Mohassess had a conflicted relationship with his homeland—revered by elites in the art scene and praised as a national icon, only to be censored later by an oppressive regime.  Known for his iconoclastic art as well as his scathing declarations, Mohasses abandoned the country over 30 years ago for a simple, secluded life in Italy.

Bahman Mohassess in FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS. Courtesy of Music Box Films

While the new Iranian government destroyed many of his works, Mohasses himself obliterated even more– in rage at man’s inhumanity to man, environmental destruction, and the futility of idealism.  Ranging from tender to playful to haunting to grotesque, these unforgettable pieces were as mercurial as the man himself, a chain-smoking recluse with the mouth of a sailor and the soul of a poet, touched by a mischievous spark and as likely to lapse into a political rant as a burst of eccentric laughter.

Determined to interview Mohassess, fine artist/filmmaker Farahani discovers him living alone in a hotel room in Rome and begins to craft the perfect final biography, in his own words and on his terms.  Along the way, the inimitable spirit of the man behind the image is laid bare—both painfully sensitive and crudely comical, “condemned to paint,” but unable to compel himself to leave anything behind as a legacy.   When a pair of artist brothers and ardent fans of Mohassess commission him for an ambitious project, the elderly man is inspired with a renewed sense of purpose and returns to painting after decades of dormancy.  A lasting tribute to an elusive artistic genius, FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS affirms the power of creative freedom, the right of the artist to create and to destroy, and above all, to have no regrets.

http://youtu.be/50Isgf9j9Dw

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SECOND OPINION: Laetrile at Sloan-Kettering, a documentary film by Eric Merola, will open at Cinema Village in NYC on August 29, and at Laemmle Music Hall in LA on September 5. A national release will follow.  SECOND OPINION: Laetrile at Sloan-Kettering is the remarkable true story of a young science-writer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who risked everything by blowing the whistle on a massive cover-up involving a promising cancer therapy.

The War On Cancer, launched in the early 1970s, set the stage for a massive influx of new ideas in fighting the disease of cancer. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, America’s leading cancer research center at the time, was assigned the task of testing an unconventional therapy called “Laetrile” in an effort to curb the public’s “false hope” in the alleged “quack” therapy. Ralph W. Moss PhD, a young and eager science writer, was hired by Sloan-Kettering’s public relations department in 1974 to help brief the American public on the center’s contribution to the War On Cancer. One of his first assignments was to write a biography about Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura, one of the Center’s oldest and leading research scientists as well as the original co-inventor of chemotherapy.

While meeting with this iconic scientist to pen a biography on his 60-year career at Sloan-Kettering, Moss discovered that Sugiura had been studying this “quack remedy”
in laboratory mice, and with unexpectedly positive results. Shocked and bewildered, Moss reported back to his superiors what he had discovered, only to be met with backlash and denial from Sloan-Kettering’s leaders on what their own leading scientist had found. Fueled by respect and admiration for Sugiura—Ralph W. Moss attempted to publicize the truth about Sugiura’s findings. And after all diplomatic approaches failed, Moss started living a double life, working as a loyal employee at Sloan-Kettering while also recruiting fellow employees to help anonymously leak this information to the American public—
through a newly formed underground organization they called—“Second Opinion”.

http://youtu.be/GcCyawsaWZQ

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CARDBOARD, the latest work by Seattle-based filmmaker Matt Longmire will get a well deserved screening at Portland Oregon’s Northwest Film Center on July 3rd. Director Matt Longmire will be in attendance to introduce his film.

Encountering panhandlers with their rumpled cardboard signs asking for help is an everyday occurrence in Seattle. Many are veterans, many have issues with mental illness, and most make between $10 and $60 a day. Longmire was inspired to interview many of them to understand the corrugated trails that led to these street corners. What is their background? How do they survive? Seattle’s mayor, Mike McGinn, who made the highly controversial decision to veto the city’s ban on panhandling, offers political context balanced with countless other outlooks from Seattle’s citizens. (89 mins.)

http://youtu.be/zDVprC9ET3U

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Sundance Selects will open the new documentary BOUND BY FLESH, about conjoined twin superstars Daisy and Violet Hilton theatrically in New York (IFC Center) and select theaters, VOD, and iTunes on June 27.  The award-winning film was directed by Leslie Zemeckis (BEHIND THE BURLY Q).

American sideshows were in fairs, circuses and carnivals. There were acts such as glass blowers, musicians, and also the freaks. Most freaks just stood there while the audience wandered past. The Hilton sisters however were trained to put on a winning performance. They sang, they danced and played a variety of musical instruments. Once they quit the carnival world and started playing vaudeville houses they made tens of thousands of dollars, setting box office records. They were soon considered “the royalty of vaudeville,” but the exploited twins would see little of their fortunes after the money was pocketed by unscrupulous managers.

BOUND BY FLESH explores the American sideshow, its origins and its heyday when the Hilton sisters were on display for huge streams of crowds pouring into tents to get a glimpse of these gorgeous multi-talented sisters.

The film includes interviews with Ward Hall, known as the “King of the Sideshow.” He is the last of the sideshow promoters in the style of a P.T. Barnum.

In June, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Academy Award-winning director Bill Condon will stage a reimagining of the hit musical show SIDE SHOW about the famous sisters as they grow from circus attraction to famous stage performers. 

AMC recently renewed its popular series FREAKSHOW.

BOUND BY FLESH is produced, directed and written by Leslie Zemeckis, produced by Jackie Levine and executive produced by Robert Zemeckis.

http://youtu.be/kVwhd-ORjSQ

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The trailer is released for the newly restored documentary Stations Of The Elevated.  Stations Of The Elevated premiered at the 1981 New York Film Festival, but lacking appropriate music licenses, was never theatrically released in the United States. In the 30 years since its completion it has been rarely screened, developing a cult amongst cinephiles and jazz and graffiti lovers. After two years of working to secure appropriate licenses for its soundtrack, APD’s Cinema Conservancy program will finally make this crucial cultural document and cinematic experience available to the public in 2014 with a theatrical run. 

Preceeding the theatrical run, APD/Cinema Conservancy’s new restoration of Stations Of The Elevated will premiere on Friday, June 27 as part of BAMcinemaFest on the Steinberg Screen at the BAM Harvey Theater. The event begins with a live performance by legendary jazz ensemble the Mingus Dynasty, the original Charles Mingus legacy band. The first band Sue Mingus organized after Charles’ death in 1979, this acclaimed orchestra continues to interpret Charles Mingus’ more than 300 compositions, and will perform as a prelude to Kirchheimer’s jazz-inflected documentary. 

STATIONS is a 45-minute city symphony directed, produced and edited by Manfred Kirchheimer. Shot on lush 16mm color reversal stock, the film weaves together vivid images of graffiti-covered elevated subway trains crisscrossing the gritty urban landscape of 1970s New York, to a commentary-free soundtrack that combines ambient city noise with jazz and gospel by Charles Mingus and Aretha Franklin. Gliding through the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan – making a rural detour past a correctional facility upstate – STATIONS is an impressionistic portrait of and tribute to a New York that has long since disappeared.

The first-ever documentations of graffiti on film, STATIONS captures the height of the 1970s graffiti movement in New York, featuring the work of early legends including Lee, Fab 5 Freddy, Shadow, Daze, Kase, Butch, Blade, Slave, 12 T2B, Ree, and Pusher. Juxtaposing the colorful imagery of ‘tagged’ cars with shots of carefully hand-painted billboards depicting hamburgers and bikini-clad women, STATIONS forces audiences to ask: “What is urban art, and what role does it play in the daily life of a city?”

 http://youtu.be/J0iqF6A4vRI

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Frédéric Tcheng’s fashion documentary “Dior and I” which premiered to strong reviews earlier this year at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, will be released in the US later this year, by Entertainment One Films (eOne).  Filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng follows up his work on fashion films, including Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and Valentino: The Last Emperor, with another masterful exploration of a towering fashion institution.

In Dior and I, one enters the storied world that is the House of Christian Dior with a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Raf Simons’ highly anticipated first Haute Couture collection as the iconic brand’s new Artistic Director. From conception through its ultimate exhibition, the process is shown to be a true labor of love by the stoic Simons and a dedicated, charming, and often humorous team of collaborators. Beautifully melding the everyday, pressure-filled components of fashion with an elegant reverence for the history of Dior, Tcheng’s colorful homage to the seamstresses of the atelier is nothing short of magical.

Frédéric Tcheng

Director Frédéric Tcheng is a French-born filmmaker who co-produced, co-edited, and shot Valentino: The Last Emperor, the 2009 hit documentary shortlisted for a Best Documentary Academy Award. He co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011), and has collaborated on films with such varied personalities as the poet Sarah Riggs, the fashion brand H&M, Jimmy Choo, Ferragamo and Vogue, among others.

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The official trailer is released for the documentary WE COULD BE KING from two-time Emmy® nominated director Judd Ehrlich.  WE COULD BE KING follows the riveting true story of two rival Philadelphia high schools forced to merge due to budget cuts. Their football team’s young, rookie coach and the school’s new principal fight to overcome insurmountable odds and inspire their young players to come together and lift each other toward a better future. WE COULD BE KING will open theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on April 25th and be broadcast on ESPN2 on April 26th at 8pm.

Germantown and Martin Luther King High Schools were bitter rivals for over 40 years. This past year, a budget crisis caused Philadelphia to lay off over 4000 employees and close 37 schools, including Germantown High. Now Germantown must merge with their former rival, King. Against overwhelming odds, a 27-year old first time head coach and a new principal fight to inspire young men from difficult circumstances to come together and lift each other toward a better future.

Two-time Emmy® nominated director Judd Ehrlich uses an intimate, unflinching lens to tell a story much larger than the Martin Luther King Cougars. As the threat of more drastic budget cuts and the loss of funding for athletics looms large, WE COULD BE KING examines the crisis of education in urban America, and celebrates the power of sports to bring young people, neighborhoods, and a city together.

http://youtu.be/i1jgu9JG6qo

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The poster and official trailer is released for documentary Fed Up, directed by Stephanie Soechtig and executive produced by Katie Couric, that premiered earlier this year at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Fed Up will open in theaters on May 9, 2014.  In the film, filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig and TV journalist Katie Couric lead us through this potent exposé that uncovers why—despite media attention, the public’s fascination with appearance, and government policies to combat childhood obesity—generations of American children will now live shorter lives than their parents did.

http://youtu.be/aCUbvOwwfWM

Thirty years ago the U.S. Government issued its first ever dietary guidelines and with it one of the greatest health epidemics of our time ensued. In her documentary feature debut, executive producer and narrator Katie Couric joins Laurie David (An Inconvenient Truth), Regina Scully (The Invisible War) and Stephanie Soechtig (Tapped) to explore why, despite media attention and government policies to combat childhood obesity, generations of kids will now live shorter lives than their parents.

Upending the conventional wisdom of why we gain weight and how to lose it, Fed Up unearths the dirty little secret the food industry doesn’t want you to know — far more of us are sick from what we are eating than anyone has ever realized. The truth is, only 30% of people suffering from diet-related diseases are actually obese; while 70% of us — even those of us who look thin and trim on the outside — are facing the same consequences, fighting the same medical battles as the obese among us.

Following a group of children for more than two years, director Stephanie Soechtig achieves a profound intimacy with them as they document their uphill battles to follow the conventional wisdom, ‘diet and exercise’, in order to live healthier, fuller lives. They are undertaking a mission impossible. In riveting interviews with the country’s leading experts, Fed Up lays bare a decades-long misinformation campaign orchestrated by Big Food and aided and abetted by the U.S. Government. via official film site

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Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired worldwide rights to Jason Miller’s THE PAST IS A GROTESQUE ANIMAL, described as an intimate, enlightening portrait of the endlessly versatile indie pop band of Montreal. The film, which is currently in post-production and is set to bow later this year, is the result of a passionate fanbase that brought the project to life through a successful Kickstarter campaign that resulted in nearly $100,000 in pledges.

THE PAST IS A GROTESQUE ANIMAL is a personal, accessible look at an artist – frontman Kevin Barnes – whose pursuit to make transcendent music at all costs drives him to value art over human relationships. As he struggles with all of those around him, family and bandmates alike, he’s forced to reconsider the future of the band, begging the question – is this really worth it?

About the acquisition, O-scope’s Dan Berger and David Laub said, “As fans of of Montreal, we have been excited by this project since we first became aware of it via Kickstarter. We were exceptionally pleased when THE PAST IS A GROTESQUE ANIMAL turned out to be an incredibly well-made, relatable film and are extremely excited to come on board at this early stage to unleash it upon the masses.”

Filmmaker Jason Miller said, “I’m not sure if they actually liked the whole film, or just the scene with Kevin Barnes’ penis flapping around, but either way, I’m thrilled to release my first film with the infamous Oscilloscope Laboratories!”

of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes said, “It is difficult for me to be totally objective about the documentary, but I feel that it is a fairly unflinching and honest portrait of my life in music over the last twenty years.”

‘THE PAST IS A GROTESQUE ANIMAL’ was produced and edited by Jason Miller and Andrew Napier (producer of the 2013 Academy Award®-winning short film ‘Curfew’), executive produced by Matt Lunsford and Seth Hubbard of Polyvinyl Records and is a production of Shrine. 

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Watch the trailer for the Matthew Shepard documentary, MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE, winner of the Audience Choice Award For Best Film at the 38th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF).  MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE follows director Michele Josue, a close friend of Matt’s, as she travels to pivotal locations in Shepard’s life, interviewing other friends and family members, and gaining insight into the beautiful life and devastating loss of Matthew Shepard.

Fifteen years ago, on the night of October 6, 1998, two men lured Matthew Shepard, a gay freshman at the University of Wyoming, from a bar in Laramie, WY. He was kidnapped and driven to a field where he was tortured and tethered to a fence and left to die. Never regaining consciousness, Matthew succumbed to the severe injuries from the attack and died on October 12, 1998.

The murder of Matthew Shepard was a devastating tragedy that made countless headlines around the world. As people denounced the hatred and senseless violence that caused Matthew’s death, a much-needed dialogue about hate crimes and intolerance against the LGBT community began and continues to this day. His tragic story brought the reality of inequality and vicious, irrational contempt into the public consciousness and set the stage for the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009. via official film site

http://youtu.be/aVe1mP0qugk

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