Calling all Americans! See Oscar-shortlisted docs on the big screen
Dec
17
2019
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/maiden-toronto-film-festival-606x180.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Leopold-Kozlowski-Kleinman-606x181.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Summerspace-606x181.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/jaymyself-2-606x181.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/rita-guerrero-606x181.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/corsaire-606x180.jpg)
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’
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/aretha-franklin-amazing-grace-the-complete-recordings-4-cd-606x181.jpg)
“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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/marsha-hunt-raw-deal-606x181.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/entertainment-2013-05-mr-rogers-trolley-main-606x249.jpg)
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
![](https://artsmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/2-606x181.jpg)
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 ...