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Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams and Aloe Blacc are among this year’s Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award recipients.

The honors — also presented to Aja Monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz and Sean Pica — were handed out at the 2024 Tribeca Festival on Friday, following the world premiere screening of the Belafonte doc Following Harry, directed by Susanne Rostock and featuring the honorees.

The award, which Tribeca first presented in 2021, recognizes individuals who used storytelling and the arts to enact change in their communities. Political activist and author Angela Davis presented the awards.

Dawson, an outspoken activist for various causes, co-founded Voto Latino, focused on educating and empowering Latinx voters, and Studio One Eighty Nine, a lifestyle artisan-forward brand produced in Ghana celebrating African heritage. She has also worked on issues including youth homelessness and domestic violence.

Williams, known for his roles in series like Grey’s Anatomy and Only Murders in the Building,...

Angela Davis, American political activist, scholar, and author, presented Tribeca Festival’s fourth annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award to Rosario Dawson, Jesse Williams, Aloe Blacc, aja monet, Matt Post, Carmen Perez-Jordan, RodStarz and Sean Pica.

Named after the entertainer, actor, and civil rights leader, the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award recognizes individuals who have used storytelling and the arts to enact change in their communities.

The award ceremony took place following the World Premiere screening of documentary Following Harry, directed and edited by Susanne Rostock (Sing Your Song). The film was followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Davis, with the award winners and filmmakers.

Following Harry begins with Harry Belafonte at the age of 84, embarking on a deeply personal journey, disrupting injustice over the next ten years by passionately encouraging a diverse group of entertainers and activists to overcome soaring national unrest and anger...

The Williams sisters are getting back into the producing game.

Serena and Venus Williams, along with their sister Isha Price, have joined documentary Between Starshine and Clay: The Hidden Diary of Diahann Carroll as executive producers alongside Katy Barksdale and Valerie Gamache. The project, currently in production, is being co-directed by Susanne Rostock and Carroll’s daughter, Suzanne Kay, who are producing alongside Color Farm Media’s Erika Alexander and Ben Arnon.

“After my mother’s passing in October 2019, I discovered her hidden diary,” Kay said in a statement. “Our relationship was challenging. I think she intended for me to find it. So, as her only child, this is also a personal journey to gain a deeper understanding about who my mother was.”

In her career, Carroll broke through multiple color barriers for Black women, becoming the first to star in her own television series (Julia) and the first to...

Tribeca Enterprises Chief Content Officer Paula Weinstein surprised a packed house tonight at Tribeca Festival’s annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award presentation with a special, never before seen, extended sneak peek of Susanne Rostock’s upcoming Harry Belafonte documentary “Following Harry.”

The four-minute clip, presented below, represents the prologue of Rostock’s upcoming documentary. The reveal was the climax of the event, during which the annual award was presented to Jane Fonda at Indeed Theater at Spring Studios.

The footage shows the elderly activist, who passed away at the age of 96 on April 25 of this year, reflecting on his life and the frustration that he has seen so many negative forces emerging upon the public stage in his twilight years.

“The truth of the matter is that the enemy doesn’t sleep,” Belafonte states amid scenes of torch-bearing Charlottesville Nazi protestors shouting “blood and soil.”

Belafonte collaborated...

Harry Belafonte was a child when his mother sent him and his brother to live with relatives in Jamaica.

He was born in Harlem on the cusp of the Great Depression, and after his father left the family, Belafonte’s mom thought her children might fare better in her home country. She wanted to save them from the deleterious effects of her precarious immigration status and poverty. Harry, as he writes in his memoir My Song, was a difficult child, prone to fighting with other kids. His mother — single, newly devout in her faith and working tirelessly to make ends meet — thought this move would help her troubled son.

Salvation is a tall order, but Jamaica did leave its mark. In Kingston, among his mother’s people, Belafonte discovered the sounds on which he would base part of his artistry. Many of the songs he sang later in his career,...

Exclusive: Principal photography has wrapped on Following Harry, a documentary that offers an inside view of 96-year-old civil rights icon Harry Belafonte’s continuing mission of social justice. The film directed and edited by Susanne Rostock is being readied for premiere at fall film festivals.

Belafonte, who celebrated his birthday on March 1, executive produces Following Harry. He, Rostock and producer Julius Nasso previously collaborated on the 2011 documentary Sing Your Song, a film that examined both Belafonte’s groundbreaking career in entertainment and his key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Following Harry is a present-tense account of Belafonte’s ongoing dedication to advance a more equitable and just society. It covers a span of time dating from the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida more than a decade ago until today.

“Following Harry is a feature documentary that shares the lived experience of Harry Belafonte, in the most public...

Veteran Hollywood multi-hyphenate George Gallo is attached to direct “Gambino,” a high-end biopic about organized crime boss Carlo Gambino that Gallo is co-writing with two-time Oscar winner Nick Vallelonga (“Green Book”).

The ambitious project, announced in Cannes, is being lead produced by Julius R. Nasso, also a Hollywood veteran, best known for his production partnership with Steven Seagal that went sour. Nasso more recently shepherded “Narc,” and is among producers of Susanne Rostock’s Harry Belafonte doc “Sing Your Song.”

Nasso has acquired rights to the novel “Gambino: The Rise” by Pierre James which delves into the U.S. story of Cosa Nostra starting from its roots in Italy and the role played by Carlo Gambino, who was its boss from 1957 until his death in 1976 of natural causes in his Massapequa, Long Island, home.

“I have known this story all my life,” Gallo told Variety, speaking from Los Angeles.

Gallo...

Exclusive: Theorem Media is putting the spotlight on legendary singer, songwriter, actor and human rights activist Harry Belafonte with Disrupting Injustice: A Belafonte Remix. The educational entertainment company has set a six-part docuseries inspired by and featuring the titular icon.

The music-driven docuseries is inspired by and will feature Egot recipient Belafonte and explore social justice issues around the world by documenting some of today’s most prominent artists/activists as they reimagine Belafonte’s iconic songs that speak truth to power. Artists Aloe Blacc, Angelique Kidjo, Maxwell, Gaël Faye, Common and John Forté are set to appear in the series. They will be joined by directors, activists and journalists including Kamilah Forbes, Carmen Perez, Chris L. Jenkins and Amy Goodman. Disrupting Injustice: A Belafonte Remix will explore including systemic racism, gender and society, digital activism, indigenous populations as well as cultural warfare.

“When I wrestle with the questions that...

Totally and tragically unconventional, Peggy Guggenheim moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century collecting not only not only art, but artists. Her sexual life was -- and still today is -- more discussed than the art itself which she collected, not for her own consumption but for the world to enjoy.

Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.

In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.

Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.

Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)

Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.

"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."

Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .

Let's try to cover new territory here.

First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?

Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.

Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?

Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.

Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?

Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .

Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?

Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.

World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.

Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?

Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.

Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.

The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.

Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?

Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.

It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.

So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.

Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.

There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.

And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.

Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?

Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.

Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.

Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.

Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.

She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.

Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.

Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.

The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.

A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.

Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?

Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...

She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.

She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.

Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?

Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.

Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?

Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.

We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.

It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.

Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?

Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.

Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.

Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?

Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.

About the Filmmakers

Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.

David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.

David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".

Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.

He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.

He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.

John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).

Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.

Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.

Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".

Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".

Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?

Credits

Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland

Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)

Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)

Josh Braun (executive producer)

Bob Benton (executive producer)

John Northrup (co-producer)

Bernadine Colish (editor)

Jed Parker (editor)

Peter Trilling (director of photography)

Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)

Music by J. Ralph

Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph

Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White

Running time: 97 minutes

U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe

International sales by Hanway...

As of today, Joan Didion can cross “crowd-funding” off her bucket list. The laconic 79-year-old essayist — who vivisected the '60s, became half of a Hollywood power couple, and more recently wrote two best-sellers about losing her husband and daughter suddenly — will be the subject of a documentary titled (aptly, if unoriginally) We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live. Her nephew, the actor Griffin Dunne, who will co-direct it with documentary veteran Susanne Rostock, put the project up on Kickstarter yesterday. It reached its goal of $80,000 at 10:30, roughly 24 hours later.As teased in a video and text on the site, the doc will alternate old photos of Didion with snippets of her reading selected passages (illustrated with gauzy stock footage), interspersed with newsreel-style coverage of the political upheavals she covered and talking heads like Patti Smith, Liam Neeson, Jann Wenner, Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, and the camera-shy...

At other festivals when we started to ask people what film school they went to (if any), we noticed that a lot of those who didn't go to film school wanted to talk about who their mentors were. When we asked Tribeca filmmakers who their inspirations and mentors were, they were eager to respond, whether they went to film school or not. Here are their answers: Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek ("In God We Trust"): Making our mockumentary comedy, "Cook Off," was a crash course in film making and we came out the other side with a practical hands on education in film. Since we started making films in 2006, we have been lucky enough to work with a diverse group of incredible people like Gore Vidal, Wendi McClendon Covey, Christian Bale and Susanne Rostock and so many others. Each one of them in their own way have contributed to us as filmmakers.

Susanne Rostock has long worked as an editor on American political and society documentaries, including a number directed by Michael Apted, and Sing Your Song, which she both directed and edited, is a skilfully compiled celebratory biography of Harry Belafonte. He was born into poverty in Harlem in 1927, raised in his father's native Jamaica, and after serving at sea in the Us navy at the end of the second world war, he worked as a janitor before being drawn into the theatre. From the late 1940s on he was primarily a singer, becoming sensationally successful in the 1950s as the "King of Calypso". Sadly he has made only a handful of films, three of them minor classics – Carmen Jones, Odds Against Tomorrow and Kansas City, a role that Robert Altman had to talk him into playing.

This excellent film, eloquently narrated by its octogenarian subject in that wonderfully husky voice,...

ill Manors (18)

(Ben Drew, 2012, UK) Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Natalie Press, Anouska Mond. 121 mins

The coalition government has repeatedly denied his existence, but Plan B proves he's for real with this intense, provocative survey of British urban decay in all its forms. A few too many forms, perhaps, as this crams in so many tales of hardship, exploitation, drugs and violence, and seeks to render them in so many ways (hip-hop numbers, tricksy visuals, flashbacks), it gets a bit carried away. Still, top marks for at least trying to tell it like it is.

Red Tails (12A)

(Anthony Hemingway, 2012, Us) Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrence Howard. 125 mins

George Lucas co-produces this story of the African-American Tuskegee Airmen and their role in the second world war, fighting both Nazis and racism. There's more of an eye for aerial action than grown-up drama, though.

A Fantastic Fear Of Everything (15)

(Crispian Mills, Chris Hopewell,...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Harry Belafonte belongs to a small collective of entertainers who have enjoyed massive success in their respective field, yet managed to somehow match that with the enormity of their contributions to society. His story, almost too good to be true, is told with soulful conviction in Susanne Rostock’s stellar documentary Sing Your Song.

Beginning not with a clip of Belafonte performing, as is the pro-forma for most all musician documentaries, we instead open on a riveting montage of various incidents of civil unrest, ones which Belafonte has both encountered and taken a hand in addressing throughout his life. From here, Rostock travels back to Harlem, where it all began.

Belafonte is an inspirational figure from the outset by rising up from dire circumstances – an impoverished upbringing with a single mother naturally proving difficult – and at a still-young age, finding himself schmoozing with the likes of Marlon Brando,...

While Harry Belafonte's good works are covered in detail here, a look at his more risky activism would have been welcome

A deeply respectful look at the extraordinary life of Harry "Day-o" Belafonte – the calypso musician and actor who helped Hollywood find its social conscience. With Belafonte's endorsement (he narrates and appears as an interviewee), director Susanne Rostock tracks his decades of activism – from the civil rights movement, to Live Aid, to his work with Unicef – while avoiding any of the icky bits (calling Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell "house slaves" in the Bush administration, for instance). Belafonte took the biggest gamble an entertainer can – he risked appearing unpopular – and we could have asked the same of Rostock. The man's good works are plain to see, but his personality remains an enigma.

Rating: 3/5

DocumentaryHenry Barnes

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Harry Belafonte has lived his entire life in the public eye. At the same time he was becoming a worldwide star as a crooner with a lilting and seductive voice, Belafonte was fighting against injustice wherever he saw it. Susanne Rostock's engrossing documentary portrait shows how Belafonte took his cue from an earlier singer/activist Paul Robeson in using his celebrity as a political tool rather than as a means to money and fame. "Get them to sing your song and they'll what to know who you are," Robeson told him.

★★★★☆ "One person can make a difference, and every person should try." This statement made by John F. Kennedy, whose assassination in 1963 is featured in Susanne Rostock's rousing documentary Sing Your Song (2011), is a good example of the thrust of Harry Belafonte's decades of activism. The film, which looks at the art and activism of the 'King of Calypso', is as much about a changing America as it is about its charismatic and influential protagonist.

Read more »...

The West Memphis Three: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory AIDS, American football, horses, the environment, war, the American Injustice System, Harry Belafonte. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 semi-finalists for the 2012 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award. Included on the list are James Marsh's Project Nim, a nominee for the British Independent Film Awards; Wim Wenders' Pina, Germany's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar; and Cindy Meehl's Buck, about the man who inspired the book The Horse Whisperer and the ensuing Robert Redford movie. Now, before anyone freaks out because of the inclusion of Undefeated: rest assured that this is Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's documentary about underprivileged football players — Lindsay and Martin's effort has nothing to do with the Sarah Palin movie The Undefeated, a shoo-in Razzie nominee. Lorenz Knauer's Jane's Journey,...

Filed under: TV Previews, TV Schedules

Monday, October 17

'Terra Nova' (8Pm Et, Fox)

When an orphaned "Sixer" girl comes to Terra Nova seeking asylum, the camp is at odds over whether they can trust her; Mira plots to reclaim a valued possession; Taylor begins to suspect there is a traitor in his midst and Reynolds admits his feelings for Maddy.

'Hart of Dixie' (9Pm Et, The CW)

As Bluebell is hit by an intense heat wave, Zoe discovers that the hot weather makes everyone act differently and with a lot less inhibition. In fact, it takes all of Zoe's strength to ignore her heat-induced attraction to Wade until it gets the best of her. Meanwhile, Lemon prepares for the arrival of George's family, determined to win them over, but her emotions get the best of her when Lavon shows up to the same restaurant with his date,...

One of the biggest treats on HBO's day to present at the Television Critics' Association summer press tour was the appearance of American icon Harry Belafonte, whose life is a balance of great music and significant social activism. HBO brings Mr. Belafonte's life story "Sing Your Song" to the smallscreen this October 2011. With a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style and insight, filmmaker Susanne Rostock (.The Long Way Home,.) takes us on a retrospective of Harry Belafonte's amazing life journey. From HBO Sing Your Song (Oct. 17) celebrates the life of singer-actor-activist Harry Belafonte. A tenacious hands-on activist, Belafonte.s groundbreaking career paralleled the American civil rights movement. He worked intimately with Dr. Martin Luther King,...

"A downbeat homage to bright-lights showbiz dramas, an epic orchestration that indulges in stubbornly obsessive riffs, Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977) seems to value awkwardness and indecision above all else," writes Dan Callahan for Alt Screen, and much of what follows is pretty rough medicine for those of us who love this film. "Coming off the success of Taxi Driver (1976), Scorsese secured a big budget and MGM sound stages for what was meant to be his tribute to and deconstruction of classic Hollywood musicals, but the tribute got lost somewhere in the deconstruction." The movie "plays out like some errant crossbreeding of Charles Vidor's Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and John Cassavetes's Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)."

It's screening as part of Hollywood Musicals of the 1970s and 1980s, Part 1: The 1970s, a series opening tomorrow at Anthology Film Archives and running through June 26. In his overview for the L,...

The 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center

June 16-30 at the Walter Reade Theater Program of 19 Films from 12 Countries . including 17 New York Premieres

Now in its 22nd year, the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival returns to New York with an extraordinary program of films set to inspire, inform and spark debate. A co-presentation of Human Rights Watch and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the festival will run from June 16 to 30 at the Film Society.s Walter Reade Theater. Nineteen of the best human rights themed films from 12 countries will be screened, 17 of them New York premieres. A majority of the filmmakers will be on hand after the screenings to discuss their films with the audience.

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival program this year is organized around four themes: Truth, Justice and Accountability; Times of Conflict and Responses to Terrorism; Human Dignity,...

Nineteen films from twelve countries make up the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, June 16-30 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.

Co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the festival is organized around four themes:

- Truth, Justice and Accountability

- Times of Conflict and Responses to Terrorism

- Human Dignity, Discrimination and Resources

- Migrants’ and Women’s Rights.

Launching on June 16 with the political thriller “The Whistleblower,” starring Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn, other special features include a centerpiece portrait of Harry Belafonte titled “Sing Your Song,” a tribute to the photographer, filmmaker and journalist, “No Boundaries: Tim Hetherington,” recently killed in Libya, and a HIV/AIDS themed drama, “Life, Above All” from South Africa will close out the festival.

Here’s the official word on the films in the program. For the complete line-up, screening and scheduling information, go to http://www.hrw.org/iff

Truth,...

Nineteen films from twelve countries make up the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, June 16-30 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.

Co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the festival is organized around four themes:

- Truth, Justice and Accountability

- Times of Conflict and Responses to Terrorism

- Human Dignity, Discrimination and Resources

- Migrants’ and Women’s Rights.

Launching on June 16 with the political thriller “The Whistleblower,” starring Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn, other special features include a centerpiece portrait of Harry Belafonte titled “Sing Your Song,” a tribute to the photographer, filmmaker and journalist, “No Boundaries: Tim Hetherington,” recently killed in Libya, and a HIV/AIDS themed drama, “Life, Above All” from South Africa will close out the festival.

Here’s the official word on the films in the program. For the complete line-up, screening and scheduling information, go to http://www.hrw.org/iff

Truth,...

Last Friday, Susanne Rostock’s “Sing Your Song” (HBO, date Tba, no trailer yet), an authorized documentary about the life of actor/singer/activist Harry Belafonte which premiered at January’s Sundance Film Festival and will air on HBO later this year, was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation following its screening at the Borough of Manhattan Community College as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Belafonte, who is now 84 and walks with a cane, made his way along the red carpet press line, sat through the film, and then participated in a Q&A with Tavis Smiley after it ended.

Rostock’s film — the idea of which was strongly promoted by Belafonte’s daughter, who felt that her father’s memories needed to be chronicled, and who is credited as a producer on the film — is largely narrated by Belafonte himself.

It takes you from the tenement in which he was raised in Harlem,...

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday announced its lineup for the 2011 Special Events and Tribeca Talks panel series. The full press release follows.

New York, NY [March 23, 2011] – The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by American Express®, today announced its lineup for the 2011 Special Events and Tribeca Talks® panel series. The component programs are “Tribeca Talks: After the Movie,” “Tribeca Talks: Industry,” “Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper, hosted by Barnes & Noble,” the Tribeca/Espn Sports Film Festival panel, and new this year, in celebration of the tenth Festival, the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series,” featuring one-on-one conversations with acclaimed filmmakers, plus the premiere of five new documentary films and a one-of-a-kind videogame-film event.

This year, Tribeca’s annual panel series, a collection of special events, conversations and audience Q&A’s designed to spark a richer dialogue about film, has expanded to include the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series.” The series invites audiences to...

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday announced its lineup for the 2011 Special Events and Tribeca Talks panel series. The full press release follows.

New York, NY [March 23, 2011] – The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by American Express®, today announced its lineup for the 2011 Special Events and Tribeca Talks® panel series. The component programs are “Tribeca Talks: After the Movie,” “Tribeca Talks: Industry,” “Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper, hosted by Barnes & Noble,” the Tribeca/Espn Sports Film Festival panel, and new this year, in celebration of the tenth Festival, the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series,” featuring one-on-one conversations with acclaimed filmmakers, plus the premiere of five new documentary films and a one-of-a-kind videogame-film event.

This year, Tribeca’s annual panel series, a collection of special events, conversations and audience Q&A’s designed to spark a richer dialogue about film, has expanded to include the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series.” The series invites audiences to...

Susanne Rostock's documentary Sing Your Song, about the life and career of singer Harry Belafonte ("Shake, Shake Senora" most prominently featured in the closing credits of Beetlejuice, and hundreds of other classic tunes), has just been picked up by HBO for a fall airing.

It focuses notably on Belafonte's anti-apartheid and gang violence campaigns in his later years, when he could use his fame to leverage these causes, about which he said "Artists should be gatekeepers of the truth. Stop behaving like a commodity and start exerting yourself, and use your power... Be an instrument of a greater truth." [Salt Lake Tribune]

read more...

"Sing Your Song," a documentary film profiling singer/activist Harry Belafonte, has been picked up by HBO. The film played at this year's Sundance and Berlin fests. Directed by Susanne Rostock (“The Long Way Home”), "Sing Your Song" details the life of Belafonte as he battled segregation to crossover into mainstream music and acting. The film depicts Belafonte as a tireless activist in the civil rights movement, who worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and later participated in the struggle against South African apartheid. HBO seems a good match for the film. In a press release, producer Michael Cohl says, “HBO...

Susanne Rostock's Harry Belafonte doc "Sing Your Song" has been picked by HBO Documentary Films for an exclusive premiere on the network this fall, it was announced today. The film - which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and also screened in Berlin, tells the story of singer and activist Belafonte. Full release below. New York, March 8, 2011 - HBO has picked up the U.S. TV rights for, Sing ...

HBO has acquired the U.S. TV rights for Susanne Rostock's documentary Sing Your Song, about the life and career of Harry Belafonte. It will debut on HBO in fall 2011. Sing Your Song was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and the 2011 Berlin Film Festival. It was produced by Michael Cohl, Gina Belafonte, Jim Brown, William Eigen and Julius R. Nasso.

Below are clips from Sing Your Song, a Harry Belafonte documentary we told you about earlier, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will also make its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival.

A detailed synopsis from the film’s website states:

Over the past half century, hardly a day has gone by when some clever stranger on the street has not called out, “Day-o!” upon recognizing Harry Belafonte wherever Belafonte may find himself in the world. He never fails to return a gracious smile. At the heart of these day-o’s that seem to greet him coming and going is a recognition and acknowledgment not only of him, but identification with a shared time and place, a community of shared experience.

In his new biographical film documentary, Sing Your Song, Belafonte recounts that he was performing at the Village Vanguard in New York City when the great...

Check out the links below — and check back often — for all the latest blogs, reviews, video interviews and filmmaker features from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Actors scheduled to appear in the Moving Pictures Media Studio on Park City’s Main Street during the fest include Elizabeth Banks, Kate Bosworth, Steve Buscemi, Patrick Dempsey, Zooey Deschanel, Paul Giamatti, Ed Helms, Rashida Jones, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Emma Roberts, Paul Rudd, Alicia Silverstone, Liv Tyler and Rita Wilson (talent subject to change). Do you have a question for one of our guests? Leave it in the comment box below for the chance to connect with a Sundance star!

Preview

‘Be There’ or Be Square: Festival director John Cooper and programming director Trevor Groth are making Sundance the gem of indie fests. Read our interview with the duo for insider tips on how to Sundance, from in-depth programming notes to what to pack...

Check out the links below — and check back often — for all the latest blogs, reviews, video interviews and filmmaker features from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Actors scheduled to appear in the Moving Pictures Media Studio on Park City’s Main Street during the fest include Elizabeth Banks, Kate Bosworth, Steve Buscemi, Patrick Dempsey, Zooey Deschanel, Paul Giamatti, Ed Helms, Rashida Jones, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Emma Roberts, Paul Rudd, Alicia Silverstone, Liv Tyler and Rita Wilson (talent subject to change). Do you have a question for one of our guests? Leave it in the comment box below for the chance to connect with a Sundance star!

Preview

‘Be There’ or Be Square: Festival director John Cooper and programming director Trevor Groth are making Sundance the gem of indie fests. Read our interview with the duo for insider tips on how to Sundance, from in-depth programming notes to what to pack...

Filed under: Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical

If you're in Park City enjoying Sundance 2011, use this as your handy guide to notable screenings and events popping up in the snowy mountain town. If you're stuck elsewhere, consider this your roadmap for navigating all the indie buzz.

The forecast for Saturday, January 22: 50-50 chance it will snow, with a balmy temperature of 32°

9:00 Am: 'Troubadours' at Yarrow Hotel Theatre

Morgan Neville looks into the scene that descended after the politically charged tunes of the '60s, namely the singer-songwriters of the '70s. You know, James Taylor and Carole King, plus Crosby, Browne, Mitchell, Kristofferson and more.

11:30 Am: 'Sing Your Song' at Prospector Square Theatre

In another sector of the music kingdom, Susanne Rostock looks into the life of Harry Belafonte as singer, actor and activist. The film outlines his "provocative crossover into Hollywood," as well...

Reviewed by Jeremy Mathews

(from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival)

Directed by: Susanne Rostock

Starring: Harry Belafonte

When younger people think of Harry Belafonte, they usually associate him with his famous recording of “Banana Boat Song” (“Day-o”). Others remember seeing him on “The Muppet Show.” But the singer, actor and activist has a much richer list of accomplishments than his hit renditions of folk songs. Despite its flaws, Susanne Rostock’s documentary “Sing Your Song” deserves credit for outlining a life of remarkable achievements in an entertaining, easy-to-engage format.

Belafonte may not have been the single face of any one movement, but he never hesitated to lend his name and resources to causes he believed in, from civil rights in the 1950s to recent protests against the war in Iraq. The documentary reveals how he fought for racial equality both on the frontlines and through his art, including several hot-button films that he appeared in.

Filed under: Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical

Get ready, festival-goers: Today marks Day One of Sundance Film Festival, 2011. If you're in Park City, use this as your handy guide to notable screenings and events popping up in the snowy mountain town. If you're stuck elsewhere, consider this your roadmap for navigating all the indie buzz.

The forecast for Thursday, January 20: A high of 26°, 10% chance of precipitation.

3:00 Pm: First Park City Event, 'All That is Solid Melts into Air' at New Frontier

15-minute installation by Mark Boulos that compares Nigerian guerrillas with Chicago stock traders.

3:00 Pm: Author Signing with Elizabeth Hess at Dolly's Bookstore

Hess wrote the source material for tonight's James Marsh film 'Project Nim.'

6:00 Pm: 'Sing Your Song' at Eccles Theatre

Susanne Rostock's biodoc looks into the music and activism of Harry Belafonte.

6:30 Pm: 'The Guard' at Egyptian...

Wonderfully archived, and told with a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style, and musical panache, Susanne Rostock’s inspiring biographical documentary, Sing Your Song, surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte. From his rise to fame as a singer, inspired by Paul Robeson, and his experiences touring a segregated country, to his provocative crossover into Hollywood, Belafonte’s groundbreaking career personifies the American civil rights movement and impacted many other ...

Wonderfully archived, and told with a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style, and musical panache, Susanne Rostock’s inspiring biographical documentary, Sing Your Song, surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte. From his rise to fame as a singer, inspired by Paul Robeson, and his experiences touring a segregated country, to his provocative crossover into Hollywood, Belafonte’s groundbreaking career personifies the American civil rights movement and impacted many other ...

For almost two weeks, indieWIRE has published interviews from 2011 Sundance filmmakers in the event's competition and Next sections. In addition to the 36 full length profiles (links below), indieWIRE is profiling four additional filmmakers to cap off the week. These include Sam Levinson ("Another Happy Day"), Susanne Rostock ("Sing Your Song") and Göran Hugo Olsson ("The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975"). Soon after the Sundance Film Festival unveiled its 2011 ...

For almost two weeks, indieWIRE has published interviews from 2011 Sundance filmmakers in the event's competition and Next sections. In addition to the 36 full length profiles (links below), indieWIRE is profiling four additional filmmakers to cap off the week. These include Sam Levinson ("Another Happy Day"), Susanne Rostock ("Sing Your Song") and Göran Hugo Olsson ("The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975"). Soon after the Sundance Film Festival unveiled its 2011 ...

The Bengali Detective

It’s yet another disappointing year for Indian cinema at Sundance Film Festival after Peepli Live became the first Indian film to compete at the festival last year. The only respite this year is India’s co-production venture with UK and USA, The Bengali Detective, directed by Philip Cox, which will be presented in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

The film; in Hindi, English and Bengali, is the story of a private detective Rajesh in Kolkata who investigates cases ranging from counterfeit hair products to a brutal triple murder. He also forms a dance troupe with his gang in order to appear on a national talent hunt on television.

The Bengali Detective is a layered, wildly entertaining film: a poignant profile of a delightful character, a gripping detective narrative, and a detailed look at the middle class in contemporary India,” states the festival website.

The Sundance Film...