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Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami[/caption]
The Toronto International Film Festival’s 2017 documentary program presents a distinct collection of works from award-winning directors, and will open with Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami, a film that captures the legendary performer on and off stage.
The lineup features celebrated filmmakers, including Morgan Spurlock, who reignites his battle with the food industry in Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!; Brett Morgen, with his portrait of primatologist Jane Goodall in Jane; Greg Barker, who grants viewers unprecedented access into President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team in The Final Year; Frederick Wiseman, who takes us behind the scenes of a New York institution in Ex Libris – The New York Public Library; and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, who follow three Hasidic Jews who attempt to enter the secular world in One of Us. The TIFF Docs Program is made possible through the generous sponsorship of A+E IndieFilms.
“Resistance is a key theme in this year’s documentaries,” said TIFF Docs Programmer Thom Powers. “We pay witness to rebels challenging the status quo in art, politics, sexuality, religion, fashion, sports and entertainment. They speak powerfully to our times as audiences seek inspirations for battling powerful and corrupt systems.”
The theme of resistance plays out in a diverse range of films, including Jed Rothstein’s The China Hustle, executive produced by Alex Gibney and Frank Marshall, which confronts a new era of Wall Street fraud; Matt Tyrnauer’s Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, which profiles the sexual taboo breaker Scotty Bowers; Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman’s Silas, which portrays Liberian activist Silas Siakor; and Erika Cohn’s The Judge, which follows the first female Shari’a judge, Kholoud Al-Faqih, practicing law in the West Bank.
We gain insights into high-profile figures in the worlds of entertainment and sports in films such as Chris Smith’s JIM & ANDY: the Great Beyond – the story of Jim Carrey & Andy Kaufman featuring a very special, contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton, which examines Jim Carrey’s immersion into the role of Andy Kaufman; Lili Fini Zanuck’s Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, which delivers the definitive biography of the rock legend; and Jason Kohn’s Love Means Zero, which investigates the controversial tennis coach Nick Bollettieri and his history with Andre Agassi.
Several films deepen our understanding of black cultural figures, including Sam Pollard’s Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me on the complex career of the multi-talented Rat Pack performer; Kate Novack’s The Gospel According to André on the trend-setting fashion writer André Leon Talley; and Sara Driver’s BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat on the formative years of the acclaimed artist.
TIFF Docs upholds its tradition of featuring films and filmmakers from around the world with films such as Violeta Ayala’s Cocaine Prison on the drug trade in Bolivia; Mila Turajlić’s The Other Side of Everything on the dissident activism of her Serbian mother; Hüseyin Tabak’s The Legend of the Ugly King on the Kurdish filmmaker Yilmaz Güney; Sabiha Sumar’s Azmaish: A Journey through the Subcontinent on the politics of India and Pakistan; and Gustavo Salmerón’s Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle on his eccentric family in Spain. The TIFF Docs closing film is Emmanuel Gras’ Makala, which won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes’ Critics Week and portrays the heroic struggles of a subsistence laborer in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival runs September 7 to 17, 2017.
2017 TIFF Docs Program include:
Azmaish: A Journey through the Subcontinent
Sabiha Sumar, Pakistan
North American Premiere
BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Sara Driver, USA
World Premiere
The China Hustle
Jed Rothstein, USA
World Premiere
Cocaine Prison
Violeta Ayala, Australia/Bolivia/France/USA
World Premiere
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars
Lili Fini Zanuck, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library
Frederick Wiseman, USA
North American Premiere
The Final Year
Greg Barker, USA
World Premiere
The Gospel According to André
Kate Novack, USA
World Premiere
Documentary Program Opening Film.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Sophie Fiennes, United Kingdom/Ireland
World Premiere
JIM & ANDY: the Great Beyond – the story of Jim Carrey & Andy Kaufman featuring a very special, contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton
Chris Smith, USA/Canada
North American Premiere
Jane
Brett Morgen, USA
World Premiere
The Judge
Erika Cohn, Palestine/USA
World Premiere
The Legend of the Ugly King
Hüseyin Tabak, Germany/Austria
World Premiere
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle
Gustavo Salmerón, Spain
North American Premiere
Love Means Zero
Jason Kohn, USA
World Premiere
Documentary Program Closing Film.
Makala
Emmanuel Gras, France
North American Premiere
OF SHEEP AND MEN
Karim Sayad, Switzerland/Qatar
World Premiere
One of Us
Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, USA
World Premiere
The Other Side of Everything
Mila Turajlić, Serbia/France/Qatar
World Premiere
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me
Sam Pollard, USA
World Premiere
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Matt Tyrnauer, USA
World Premiere
Silas
Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman, Canada/South Africa/Kenya
World Premiere
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!
Morgan Spurlock, USA
World Premiere
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Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars[/caption]
Showtime will world premiere two riveting films, “Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars” and “Love Means Zero” at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, directed by Oscar(R)-winner Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush, Driving Miss Daisy), is an unflinching and deeply personal journal into the life of legendary 18-time Grammy(R) winner Eric Clapton. Also debuting at TIFF is Love Means Zero, the story of the celebrated yet controversial tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, directed and produced by Jason Kohn (Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)). Following their debuts at TIFF, both documentaries will premiere on Showtime in 2018.
These two films join the esteemed Showtime Documentary Films portfolio that focuses on the lives and legacies of culture-defining and at times controversial figures, including Whitney. “Can I Be Me”, The Putin Interviews, Becoming Cary Grant, the Emmy(R)-nominated Listen To Me Marlon, Risk, which takes viewers closer than they have ever been before to Julian Assange and tells the WikiLeaks story from the inside, and an upcoming documentary film on John Belushi’s life and career.
Told through his own words and songs, Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars is a moving and surprising film about one of the great artists of the modern era – a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and the only artist ever inducted three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Spanning more than half a century of legendary popular musical innovation, the film contextualizes Eric Clapton’s role in contemporary music and cultural history. This rare and deeply intimate film reflects on Clapton’s traumatic childhood, his long and difficult struggle with drugs and alcohol and the tragic loss of his son and how he always found his inner strength and healing in music. The documentary features extensive interviews with Clapton himself, along with his family, friends, musical collaborators, contemporaries and heroes – including late music icons B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison. The film is directed by Oscar-winner Lili Fini Zanuck with Passion Pictures’ John Battsek (One Day In September, Searching for Sugar Man) amongst the producers. BAFTA winner Chris King (Amy, Senna) serves as editor.
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Love Means Zero[/caption]
Love Means Zero presents an in-depth look at famed tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. At 85 years old, Bollettieri is a living legend. At his academy in Florida, he raised a generation of champions. Courier. Seles. Agassi. No other coach has matched his success, his dominance or his fame. His greatness, though, came at a terrible price. Broken marriages, financial ruin and perhaps most devastating, a fractured relationship with his surrogate son and most cherished student, Andre Agassi. When Agassi refused to participate in a documentary about his ex-coach, a simple biographical film turned into an investigation of a relationship lost. Love Means Zero not only tells the story of this celebrated yet controversial coach, but also explores the cost of his all-consuming drive for greatness. The film is directed and produced by Jason Kohn. Amanda Branson Gill, Anne White, Jill Mazursky and David Styne also serve as producers.
The documentary One of Us, by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, Detropia) will have its world premiere at this year’s 
The Death, Dad & Son[/caption]
The 
Watch some video clips and photos from the Dominican film Woodpeckers (
Check out this brand new clip from 
Doris Dörrie[/caption]
Peter Machen spoke to leading German filmmaker Doris Dörrie about her remarkable film 
Fukushima, Mon Amour[/caption]
On January 1, 2016, the Japanese government decided to open the zone again because, says Dörrie, they did not want to pay the subsidies for the refugees. “People were being asked to move back, but there was nothing to move back to. So that became the nucleus of the film’s story – this old lady goes back to her destroyed house. And there’s nothing there. Nothing whatsoever. “
And was she concerned about the impact on her own long-term health and that of her crew?
“We shot in the former zone for six weeks and I was there for three months. But by then, we had done so much research. I had taken dust samples and I had gotten them analysed by the German Institute for Radioactivity and they had assured me again and again that it would be alright to take a crew there and spend several weeks there. I really tried very hard to be on the safe side because I didn’t want to take on the responsibility for the entire team. I couldn’t do that.”
“So we made very, very sure that it was going to be okay. We all wore dosimeters that keep collecting the accumulated radioactivity that you’re exposed to. And we sent them in after we got back to Germany and we were just lucky that the readings turned out to be totally okay. That was, of course, a bit of luck also. It’s of course not safe to dig in the ground, to sit under a tree, to eat berries. All of that is not safe, of course not.”
Talking about screenings of the film in Japan, Dörrie says that audiences were extremely emotional. “Everybody has a connection to Fukushima somehow. And people are so grateful to us – which really puts me to shame – but they are, because nobody ever shot a feature film in that region. Nobody. And that’s very, very touching to be thanked for. It is bizarre but sometimes it works that way – that foreigners can come in and they talk about traumas. Because they’re not affected by the trauma, sometimes it’s easier to come in from the outside and talk about these things.”
But while cultural distance has its advantages, there are always dangers to telling other people’s stories. Which is why Dörrie says that she always insists on having her perspective in films that deal with other cultures. “Because I wouldn’t dare talk about Japan from a Japanese viewpoint. So that’s why I have the young German in the film, who goes to Japan, who doesn’t know anything about it, who is a fool, the traditional fool, who is very innocent on one hand but also quite ignorant. And I need to have that perspective because that’s, of course, my perspective. As much as I read up and I do research, I’m still ignorant about a lot of things. Because you can never get the inside perspective on a country. So I need to have that perspective from the outside in the story itself.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RJga_xGoSY
via press release.
A LIFE IN WAVES[/caption]
Elizabeth Blue is an indie drama written and directed by first-time filmmaker Vincent Sabella. Sabella is a diagnosed schizophrenic, and the film is loosely based on a time in his life when all of his medications failed.
Global Digital Releasing will release Elizabeth Blue in NY, LA, and an additional 10 markets on September 22.
Recently released from a psychiatric hospital, Elizabeth (Anna Schafer) returns to her Los Angeles apartment where she lives with her fiancé, Grant (Ryan Vincent).
With the guidance of her new psychiatrist, Dr. Bowman (AdewaleAkinnuoye-Agbaje), and the unfaltering support of Grant, Elizabeth works at regaining control of her mental stability and her life as she begins to plan their wedding.
Struggling to navigate daily voices, hallucinations, anxiety, failing medications and her judgmental, unsupportive mother, Carol (Kathleen Quinlan), Elizabeth fears that Grant will leave her as she clings to hope that love will truly conquer all – even mental illness.
The filmmakers and GDR have partnered with 
ESPN has a released the new trailer for the 30 for 30 documentary “Nature Boy,” on wrestling legend Ric Flair, set to premiere on Tuesday, November 7, at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN. Director Rory Karpf (“I Hate Christian Laettner,” “The Book of Manning”) will take an inside look at Flair’s story, including his triumphs, his tragedies, and his pivotal role in turning pro wrestling into mainstream sports entertainment.
Real or Fake? It’s a question that’s long shadowed professional wrestling. But for one of the industry’s most legendary performers, there’s never been any separation between the ring and the world around it. His story starts in the Midwest, when a young Richard Fliehr set his sights on rising to stardom in a unique world, and decided to do anything necessary to get to where he wanted. A character was born, along with a singular desire “to be the man,” and a drive that made him as popular and polarizing as any figure ever to step into the ring. The success took a considerable toll – on his body, and on his wives and children – and in 2013 came a tragic postscript. But today, Flair remains as defiant as ever, proud of his legacy, eager to remain in the spotlight. This is the story of a man, a character, and their unbreakable connection.
“This film was basically borne out of working with Rory Karpf on our ‘I Hate Christian Laettner’ documentary,” says 30 for 30 Executive Producer John Dahl. “Rory interviewed Ric for his take on sports villains and wanted to do a film on him next. After watching that interview for the Laettner film, we were convinced that Ric would be a fascinating subject to explore for our first feature-length 30 for 30 on a pro wrestler.”
“Nature Boy” features two in-depth conversations between Karpf and Flair over a 16-month span, surrounded by interviews with those closest to the man himself; including Triple H, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, Baby Doll, Tully Blanchard, The Undertaker, Arn Anderson, Shawn Michaels, Sting and Road Warrior Animal as well as his first wife, Leslie Jacobs, and children along with others who know Flair best.
“I grew up a huge wrestling fan in the 1980s and I was captivated by Ric Flair,” says director Rory Karpf. “It’s been a personally rewarding experience to tell the story of arguably the greatest wrestler of all time. Ric’s story transcends the wrestling business, and my hope is that it will appeal to wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.”
16 original short films and webisodes have been