Films

 

Oprah Winfrey recently held a private LA screening of a documentary she’s executive producing called RUNNING FROM CRAZY, directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, American Dream). The film, which goes behind the long history of mental illness and suicide in the famed Hemingway family, is currently in theaters in select cities and will air on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2014. 

Hailed as one of the most distinguished families in American literature, the Hemingways have always exposed their brilliance while often living in the shadows of deep emotional struggle. Two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s newest documentary focuses on Mariel Hemingway, a granddaughter of the legendary writer Ernest, as she explores her family’s disturbing history of mental illness and suicide. As a child, Mariel grew up on the Hemingway family farm in Idaho, the same place her famous grandfather took his own life months before she was born. The youngest of the three sisters, Mariel followed her older sister Margaux into acting and modeling, while her oldest sister Muffet struggled with mental illness and drifted in and out of mental hospitals. Kopple’s bold film intertwines haunting archival footage of the three Hemingway sisters with scenes from Mariel’s life today as she seeks to live a rigorously healthy lifestyle to combat what appears to be a difficult family birthright. Mariel’s courageous journey of introspection and reflection allows her to view her family that has shaped her life through new eyes and, for the first time, strive for peace and acceptance.

Image: (L-R) Sheri Salata, president of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Studios; Oprah Winfrey, chairman and CEO of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and Harpo Studios; Barbara Kopple, filmmaker and Mariel Hemingway at the LA premiere screening of “Running From Crazy.”

Courtesy: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

http://youtu.be/kfGYqdTAxEk 

Read more

DOCUMENTED, a feature-length film that explores the life – and journey out of the shadows – led by undocumented immigrant and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas, will premiere on CNN/U.S. in the second quarter of 2014 following its World Premiere at the  2013 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) and its theatrical distribution in the United States.  DOCUMENTED is written and directed by Vargas, with technology entrepreneur Sean Parker, Matthew Hiltzik (“Paper Clips”), Scott Budnick (“The Hangover” series), and philanthropist Liz Simons as executive producers.

“Immigration, to me, is not a political issue, it’s not a Latino or Asian issue – it’s an American story,” said writer-director Jose Antonio Vargas.  “The film is in honor of 11 million undocumented immigrants – many of us Americans in all but papers.  And, the film is dedicated to parents everywhere who dream of better futures for their children.  It is a privilege to be associated with CNN Films in bringing DOCUMENTED to television,” Vargas said.

Filmmaker Vargas began working on the documentary shortly before “outing” himself as undocumented in a ground-breaking New York Times Magazine essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.”  Vargas then traveled around America, telling his story in solidarity with the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country.  As he connected with his subjects through the similarities of their journeys, particularly those who, like Vargas, came to the United States as children, his personal reflections compelled him to reconnect with his mother, whom he had not seen in 20 years.

In 2008, Vargas was awarded a Pulitzer as part of the team of Washington Post journalists who reported on the 2007 shooting massacre at Virginia Tech University.  His own immigrant journey began at age 12 when he was sent to the United States from the Philippines by his mother to live with his grandparents in Mountain View, Calif.  After attending San Francisco State University, he pursued a print journalism career – landing jobs at newspapers in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, DC for the Post – all the while, managing to keep his true citizenship status a secret.

“We have followed Jose’s story closely since 2011 and are very pleased we will be able to offer U.S. viewers a window into the experiences of recent immigrants through his story.  Jose also reports this story from a journalist’s point of view – which makes it a great fit for distribution on our network,” said Amy Entelis, senior vice president for talent and content development for CNN Worldwide.

 http://youtu.be/w7F8uw9hw_A

Read more

 

The basketball documentary LENNY COOKE which World Premiere earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival will open in theaters on December 6th, 2013.   In the documentary, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie take a candid look and track the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only out of reach.

 In 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. In an era when high school stars were forgoing college hoops in favor of the potential multi-million dollar contracts promised in the NBA draft, Lenny was supposed to be the next superstar. He had the world at his fingertips. But over a decade later, while his peers are taking home MVP awards and championship trophies, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. What went wrong? 

With incredible access to Lenny’s story as it unfolded over the past decade, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie follow Lenny from his run-down home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to the New Jersey suburbs where he spent his high school career through to the present day, with the friends and family who shared in his dreams and aspirations. Lenny Cooke is a quintessentially American story about dreaming big, the fickle nature of sports celebrity and the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only just out of reach.  

LENNY COOKE marks the first feature length documentary by the Safdie brothers, who received the John Cassavetes Award at The Independent Spirit Awards for DADDY LONGLEGS.   DADDY LONGLEGS premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as did their first feature THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED.  

The film was executive produced by two time NCAA champion and Chicago Bull Joakim Noah.

http://youtu.be/ne61w4R20QE

 

Read more

LETTERS TO JACKIE: REMEMBERING PRESIDENT KENNEDY, the acclaimed documentary about JFK’s presidency which premiered at 2013 AFI DOCS film festival, will air at 9/8c on Sunday, November 17, 2013 on TLC. Directed and written by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Couturié, the film features 18 stars, including Anne Hathaway, Bérénice Bejo, Michelle Williams, Kirsten Dunst and Chris Cooper, reading from letters sent to Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following the loss of John F. Kennedy. 

LETTERS TO JACKIE: REMEMBERING PRESIDENT KENNEDY is based on the book “Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation” by Ellen Fitzpatrick. For two months after President Kennedy’s assassination, the White House received more than 800,000 letters for the first lady, who lost her husband and the father of her children. In this special two-hour event, selections from this collection are read by celebrities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination. Readers include: Berenice Bejo, Demian Bichir, Jessica Chastain, Chris Cooper, Viola Davis, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Anne Hathaway, Allison Janney, John Krasinski, Melissa Leo, Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, Chlo Grace Moretz, Mark Ruffalo, Octavia Spencer, Hailee Steinfeld, Channing Tatum, Betty White, Michelle Williams.

http://youtu.be/YYeV-F5IMi8

 images via TLC

Read more

Marc Silver’s documentary “WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL?”, winner of 2013 Sundance Film Festival cinematography award and an official selection at 2013 New York Film Festival, will be released in the U.S in Spring 2004 by Kino Lorber.  The body of an unidentified immigrant is found in the Arizona Desert. In an attempt to retrace his path and discover his story, director Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal embed themselves among migrant travelers on their own mission to cross the border, providing rare insight into the human stories which are so often ignored in the immigration debate.

Following a team of dedicated staff from the Pima County Morgue in Arizona, director Marc Silver seeks to answer these questions and give this anonymous man an identity. As the forensic investigation unfolds, Mexican actor and activist Gael Garcia Bernal retraces this man’s steps along the migrant trail in Central America. In an effort to understand what it must have felt like to make this final journey, he embeds himself among migrant travelers on their own mission to cross the border. He experiences first-hand the dangers they face and learns of their motivations, hopes and fears. As we travel north, these voices from the other side of the border wall give us a rare insight into the human stories which are so often ignored in the immigration debate.

Who Is Dayani Cristal? tells the story of a migrant who found himself in the deadly stretch of desert known as “the corridor of death” and shows how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the U.S. war on immigration. As the real-life drama unfolds we see this John Doe, denied an identity at his point of death, become a living and breathing human being with an important life story.

http://youtu.be/RdJQWmvtmqQ

Read more

HERBLOCK: THE BLACK & THE WHITE, directed by Michael Stevens (HBO’s “Thurgood”) will debut Monday, January 27, 2014 on HBO.  The film traces the life of Herbert L. Block, who started cartooning in his teens in Chicago and went on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his 55 years at the Washington Post.

“Michael and I are happy that this film has found a home at HBO, where Herblock’s remarkable story will be presented to a new generation of viewers,” says George Stevens.

“This is the story of a courageous journalist who stood ready to take on the big guys on behalf of the little guy,” says Michael Stevens. “He stood for fairness and justice and was unafraid to challenge Senator Joe McCarthy, expose Nixon’s duplicity in Watergate, or attack corruption in government or the corrosive influence of money in politics.”

HERBLOCK traces the life of Herbert L. Block, who started cartooning in his teens in Chicago and went on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his 55 years at the Washington Post. For the better part of the 20th century, his cartoons were a must read for those in Washington and Syndicated across the country. The film features interviews with political and journalism luminaries such as Ted Koppel, David Brooks, Gwen Ifill, Tom Brokaw, Jules Feiffer, Tom Friedman and Bob Schieffer, as well as comedians Lewis Black and Jon Stewart, who describes Block as a “touchstone” for political comics and satirists today.

The documentary journeys through Block’s career as his cartoons comment on everything from World War II, the Red Scare and the fight for Civil Rights, to Vietnam and Watergate and the conflicted media world of today, concluding with an unexpected end to the journey of the cartoonist-journalist known to millions as simply Herblock.

http://youtu.be/J3fTy8S6Jmc

Read more