Films

The award-winning documentary “ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL” (Sur le chemin de l’école) directed by Pascal Plisson, will open in Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York on February 6, 2015.  ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL immerses us in the extraordinary routines of four different children who live in the four corners of the earth but all share the same thirst for learning. They understand that only education will allow them a better future and that is why, every day, they must set out on the long and perilous journey that will lead them to knowledge. Their sheer will to accomplish their dream leads them onto a path we have all walked – but never like this.

ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL, winner of the 2014 Cesar Award for Best Documentary, is the story of: Jackson, 11, who lives in Kenya and twice a day he and his younger sister walk 10 miles through a savannah populated by wild animals; Carlito, 11, rides more than 11 miles twice a day with his younger sister, across the plains of Argentina, regardless of the weather; Zahira, 12, lives in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains and takes an exhausting walk on foot along punishing mountain paths awaits her before she and her two girlfriends can reach their boarding school; Samuel, 13, lives in India and the 2.5 miles he has to travel each day are an ordeal, as he doesn’t have the use of his legs so his two younger brothers have to push him all the way to school in a makeshift wheelchair.

 http://youtu.be/eIsQ0B43Q9Y

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TAPIA, the documentary about the talented but tormented world champion boxer Johnny Tapia will debut Tuesday, December 16 (11:00 p.m.-midnight ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. TAPIA uses first-person narration and archival footage to explore the achievements, personal demons and ultimate redemption of the popular fighter, who died in 2012 at age 45. The film is executive produced by multiplatinum award-winning musician, entrepreneur and actor Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and sports promoter, producer and entertainment executive Lou DiBella.

“Johnny Tapia’s life story was an incredible journey, and we are eager to celebrate his biggest accomplishments and chronicle the toughest and most difficult moments of his turbulent life,” says Rick Bernstein, executive producer, HBO Sports. “Tapia was so much more than just a world champion, and we want to share this gripping account with our subscribers, many of whom may have seen Johnny in his five fights on HBO, but may not know the amazing story behind the fighter.”

“This is not a boxing film, but a film about tragedy, triumph, demons and redemption,” says DiBella. “Johnny gives us an honest assessment of his strengths and frailties; he reminds us of the power and resiliency of the human spirit.”

“Johnny’s is a story that needed to be told,” says Jackson. “Everyone can relate to some aspect of it, which makes it that much more powerful. Personally, his journey is one that has touched me greatly.”

http://youtu.be/tllXLOQ2vWU

Born Feb. 13, 1967, Johnny Tapia used boxing as way out of his impoverished life in Albuquerque, NM, becoming a five-time world champion in three different weight classes. Tormented as an adult by thebrutal kidnapping and murder of his mother, which occurred when he was eight years old, Tapia suffered repeated episodes of drug addiction and mental illness. His nickname, Mi Vida Loca (“My Crazy Life”), reflected not only Tapia’s intensity in the ring, but also a tumultuous personal life, which involved jail time and several drug overdoses. In 1994, he married his wife, Teresa, who helped Tapia regain control of his life in retirement before he succumbed to a heart attack in 2012.

HBO has a rich and distinguished history of developing and presenting boxing documentaries, among them: “Legendary Nights: The Tale of Gatti-Ward”; “Klitschko”; the Emmy®-winning “Assault in the Ring”; the Peabody Award-winning “Thrilla in Manila”; “Joe Louis: America’s Hero…Betrayed”; the Peabody Award-winning “Ali-Frazier: One Nation Divisible”; and the Emmy®-winning “Sugar Ray Robinson: The Bright Lights and Dark Shadows of a Champion.”

Other HBO playdates: Dec. 18 (4:45 p.m., 1:50 a.m.), 20 (11:30 a.m.), 22 (11:00 a.m.), 28 (10:30 a.m.) and 29 (12:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m.), and Jan. 8 (8:00 p.m., 3:50 a.m.) and 13 (4:00 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates: Dec. 19 (3:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.), 24 (7:00 p.m.) and 27 (4:00 p.m.), and Jan. 4 (7:40 a.m.) and 6 (9:00 a.m., 2:40 a.m.)

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Netflix will release a documentary on singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone, titled, “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” directed by Academy Award(R) nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola, USA and Bobby Fischer Against the World). The film was produced in cooperation with the Estate of Nina Simone, and will premiere exclusively in all territories where Netflix is available in 2015.

“In What Happened, Miss Simone?, Liz Garbus paints a brave and provocative picture of Nina Simone – artist, civil rights activist and heroine – in a film that we’ve loved from day one and are proud to bring to our viewers around the world.” said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix VP of Original Documentary Programming.”

“I’m thrilled that Netflix has embraced the incredible story of Nina Simone and partnered with RadicalMedia on this film,” said director Liz Garbus. “For each of her millions of fans, Nina feels like a treasured secret. With What Happened, Miss Simone?, I’m excited to help bring her passion, her music, and her story to the world.”

http://youtu.be/7jgHOcXTr50

Classically trained pianist, dive-bar chanteuse, black power icon and legendary recording artist, Nina Simone lived a life of brutal honesty, musical genius, and tortured melancholy. In this epic documentary, director Liz Garbus interweaves never-before-heard recordings and rare archival footage together with Nina’s most memorable songs, to create an unforgettable portrait of one of the least understood, yet most beloved, artists of our time.

The film uses never-before-heard audio tapes, recorded over the course of three decades, of Nina telling her life story to various interviewers and would-be biographers. From over 100 hours of these recordings, What Happened, Miss Simone? weaves together Nina’s narrative, told largely in her own words. Rare concert footage and archival interviews, along with diaries, letters, interviews with Nina’s daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, friends and collaborators, along with other exclusive materials, make this the most authentic, personal, and unflinching telling of the extraordinary life of one of the 20th Century’s greatest recording artists.

“Throughout her life, Nina used her powerful voice to entertain, effect change and inspire anyone who’s ever listened to one of her songs,” said Justin Wilkes, President of Media + Entertainment at RadicalMedia and a producer of the film. “It’s only fitting that Nina will once again use her voice to enchant a new generation of fans by taking center stage in the telling of her own story.”

Academy Award(R)-nominated director Liz Garbus is a leading US documentary filmmaker and cofounder of Moxie Firecracker Films, under which she has produced over 15 films. Recent works include Love, Marilyn; the Emmy(R)-nominated Bobby Fischer Against the World; There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane and Girlhood. Her first film, The Farm: Angola, USA, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Oscar(R), and won two Primetime Emmy Awards.

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For the first time, more than twenty years after his death, the first fully-authorized feature documentary on Kurt Cobain, legendary lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of Nirvana, “the flagship band of Generation X,” will be released. Titled, KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK, the documentary film is scheduled for international release in 2015, and will debut exclusively on HBO in the U.S. Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean Cobain is executive producer, but no Courtney Love.

Brett Morgen, the Oscar®-nominated filmmaker behind acclaimed documentaries such as the HBO presentations “Crossfire Hurricane,” which celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones, and “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” is writer, director and producer of KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK. 

The first documentary to be made with the cooperation of Kurt Cobain’s family, the film is a raw and visceral journey through Cobain’s life and provides no-holds-barred access to Kurt Cobain’s archives, home to his never-before-seen home movies, recordings, artwork, photography, journals, demos, personal archives, family archives and songbooks. The film features dozens of Nirvana songs and performances as well as previously unheard Cobain originals.

“I started work on this project eight years ago,” says Morgen. “Like most people, when I started, I figured there would be limited amounts of fresh material to unearth. However, once I stepped into Kurt’s archive, I discovered over 200 hours of unreleased music and audio, a vast array of art projects (oil paintings, sculptures), countless hours of never-before-seen home movies, and over 4000 pages of writings that together help paint an intimate portrait of an artist who rarely revealed himself to the media.”

He adds, “I could not be happier with our partners at HBO and Universal. We look forward to sharing this film with audiences around the world.”

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The documentary, I Am Big Bird, which had its world premiere at Hot Docs earlier this year and will screen at DOC NYC in November, will be released theatrically and on VOD in early 2015 via Tribeca Film. Directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker, I Am Big Bird focuses on Caroll Spinney, who since1969, is the man behind Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Now at 80 years old, I Am Big Bird features incredible footage of Spinney’s earliest collaborations with Jim Henson as it traces his journey from bullied child to celebrated performer. 

I AM BIG BIRD is a feature-length documentary about Caroll Spinney, who has been Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969… and at 80 years old, he has no intention of stopping. Think you know everything there is to know about Sesame Street ? You don’t. You might know that Frank Oz turned down an offer to play Big Bird, but you probably don’t know that until a last minute change of heart by NASA, Big Bird was supposed to go to space aboard the Challenger. Or you may know that Oscar the Grouch got his voice from a cantankerous cabbie, but you’d be surprised to learn that a fire in his trash can almost led to Caroll’s untimely demise. Caroll’s stories are the stuff of legend. He has been a constant presence in our lives for over 40 years, his path weaving through American history like that of Forrest Gump. His time inside the Bird has taught him about the world and about himself.

I AM BIG BIRD will peel away the instances in Caroll’s life that inspired his creation of characters that influenced generations of children. And, as the yellow feathers give way to grey hair, it is the man, not the puppet, who will steal your heart.

http://youtu.be/uFTCUF853H0

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The trailer is released for the Orson Welles documentary Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles from Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman.  The film which was released at the Telluride Film Festival features interviews with with Richard Linklater, Peter Bogdanovich, Frank Marshall, Anthony Perkins, Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollack, Steven Spielberg. Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles opens on December 12th.

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles looks at the remarkable genius of Orson Welles on the eve of his centenary – the enigma of his career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker. From Oscar-winner Chuck Workman.

http://youtu.be/VN8L7TsjfDk

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THE LAST PATROL  

A few years ago, Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Sebastian Junger (“Restrepo”) planned a walk from Washington, D.C. to New York City along Amtrak railroad lines with his close friend, acclaimed war reporter Tim Hetherington. After Hetherington was killed covering the Libyan civil war in 2011, Junger decided to take the same trip, joined instead by a Spanish photographer who was at Hetherington’s side when he died and two combat vets they’d known in Afghanistan.

Chronicling their journey, the moving documentary THE LAST PATROL debuts MONDAY, NOV. 10 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT), the day before Veterans Day, exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: Nov. 10 (5:15 a.m.), 13 (9:15 a.m., 4:00 p.m.), 16 (1:00 p.m.), 18 (3:00 p.m.) and 22 (8:15 a.m.)

HBO2 playdates: Nov. 19 (8:15 a.m., 8:30 p.m.), 25 (12:30 a.m.) and 30 (8:15 a.m.), and Dec. 5 (3:00 p.m.) and 8 (10:15 a.m.)

Junger was accompanied by combat veterans Brendan O’Byrne (previously seen in “Restrepo”) and Dave Roels, as well as acclaimed Spanish photojournalist Guillermo Cervera. Naming their journey The Last Patrol, they walked from D.C. to Philadelphia and then turned west, away from the cluttered Northeast Corridor, and headed for the Allegheny Mountains and Pittsburgh.

Junger chose railroad lines because, he believes, “they go straight through the middle of everything,” including ghettos, suburbs, farms and woods, and offer the only way to see the country from the inside out. The group decided not to take tents, since brightly-colored nylon attracts too much attention. Instead, they slept under bridges, in abandoned buildings or simply in the woods. This high-speed vagrancy saw them bathing in rivers, getting water out of creeks, cooking over open fires and talking their way past motorcycle gangs, COPS and suspicious homeowners.

After extensive experience in combat and the loss of good friends, all four men declared they never wanted to go to war again. The goal was to get to know America again after a decade of war, and discuss why combat is so incredibly hard to give up. The Last Patrol recreated the hardship, brotherhood and closeness of combat, without getting fired upon – except once in Pennsylvania.

In conjunction with the film’s premiere, Manhattan’s Anastasia Photo will present Guillermo Cervera’s first solo exhibition in New York, scheduled to run from Oct. 24 to Jan. 4.  In addition to photos he took during the filming of THE LAST PATROL, the show includes selections from 20 years of documenting armed conflict and social issues around the world.

Sebastian Junger is a New York-based writer, journalist and filmmaker. THE LAST PATROL concludes his trilogy on war, following 2014’s “Korengal” and “Restrepo,” which he co-directed with Tim Hetherington. “Restrepo” won the 2010 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature the following year. Junger’s accompanying book, “War,” was a New York Times bestseller. His other books include “The Perfect Storm,” which was adapted for the hit feature film of the same name, “Fire” and “A Death in Belmont.”

Junger’s other credits include the 2013 HBO documentary “Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington.”

THE LAST PATROL was directed by Sebastian Junger; producers, Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested; editor, Michael Levine; cinematographer, Rudy Valdez. For HBO: supervising producer, Sara Bernstein; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

http://youtu.be/Ddambdna4JU

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Bitter Honey is a feature-length documentary presenting an intimate and emotionally charged portrait of three polygamous families in Bali, Indonesia.  Following these families over a seven year period, the film portrays the plight of Balinese co-wives, for whom marriage is frequently characterized by psychological manipulation, infidelity, domestic violence and economic hardship. The film opened in Los Angeles on October 3, 2014, San Francisco on October 17, Boston at the Apple Cinemas Freshpond on October 24, New York and Chicago onOctober 31, 2014 and Washington DC on November 7, 2014. More cities to be announced.

http://youtu.be/lEMmp3h8c3E

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