Calling all Americans! See Oscar-shortlisted docs on the big screen
Dec
17
2019
American Factory “Oscars® Spotlight: Documentaries,” a screening initiative leading up to the 92nd Oscars gives audiences nationwide the opportunity to see Documentary Feature films shortlisted for an award in the 92nd Academy Awards.® The program, begun last year, is a really wonderful initiative by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in tandem with AMC ...
Straight outta Ukraine: authentic klezmer music in documentary film
Oct
13
2019
Leopold Kozlowski, subject of ‘The Last Klezmer’ You want Ukraine? We’ll give you Ukraine! But the good stuff, music, not the gnarly political-football stuff. A documentary, The Last Klezmer, that celebrates the infectious Jewish soul music, written and directed by artsmeme friend Yale Strom, is having a 25th anniversary screening at Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts ...
Merce’s marvelous movie
Seen yesterday in Cunningham, the new Merce Cunningham documentary shot in 3-D by writer/director Alla Kovgan: imagery and brief excepts from “Summerspace,” the choreographer’s legendary ‘no-center’ ballet dating from 1958 and performed in Robert Rauschenberg’s pointillist costumes/decor to music by Morton Feldman. The film, which may bring the rarefied artist his most widespread exposure with ...
‘Jay Myself’: the bricks & mortar of art
Aug
26
2019
It’s really a movie about photography, the art of direct observation. But it comes wrapped in a tale of transition. A renowned commercial photographer and artist, Jay Maisel, after forty-eight years living there and at 88 unable to fund its upkeep, must sell his home. His digs are unique — the 36,000 square-foot, 100-year-old landmark ...
Remembering Rita Guerrero
RITA, THE DOCUMENTARY, an intimate and music-fueled documentary by Arturo Díaz Santana that captures the energy and artistry of the brilliant lead singer of Santa Sabina, Rita Guerrero (1964-2011), will screen at the Hola Mexico Film Festival on Thursday, June 6 at The Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood. Santa Sabina, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, will perform following the ...
Nureyev – the man, the dancer – in a stimulating documentary 1
A rich companion piece to the soon-opening feature film, The White Crow (our review here), is the cleverly constructed new documentary, Nureyev, co-directed by BAFTA-nominated directors Jacqui Morris and David Morris. This doc, with its very unusual structure, was made with the support of the Nureyev Foundation. Released by CineLife Entertainment, Nureyev is a reworking ...
To be young, gifted & Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul in ‘Amazing Grace’
“Amazing Grace,” with two-million vinyl discs exiting record stores, was the top-selling gospel record of all time and Aretha Franklin‘s top-selling album. Released in June 1972, the album coincided with the very same month I graduated from an all-white high school in suburban Pittsburgh. Right around that time, on Sunday afternoons, I used my new ...
Marsha Hunt’s nobility, talent and patriotism on view in documentary
Jul
6
2018
In 1935, 17-year-old aspiring actress Marsha Hunt signed with Paramount Pictures and went on to a flourishing career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She made 54 films in 17 years, notably Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Raw Deal (1948). Then she was blacklisted. After that rude life-and-career interruption, she championed humanitarian causes as one of Hollywood’s first celebrity activists. A documentary, ...
A neighborly day in this beautywood with Fred Rogers
All that was missing was my blankie and a pacifier. Then I would hunker down all night with “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the latest documentary from Morgan Neville. Neville, whose Twenty Feet from Stardom shone a thrilling light on the unheralded talent of backup singers, in this new doc shifts focus to yet another ...
Trailblazing fashionista/journo Andre Leon Talley in doc
An unlikely fashionista except by virtue of his own brilliance, assiduous self-education in fashion history, and raging ambition to be in the middle of it all is the fascinating figure, André Leon Talley. This quintessential tastemaker, a contributor to Women’s Wear Daily, W, and Vogue, is the subject of a touching new documentary directed by Kate ...