By Patrick Shanley
Managing Editor
This year’s best documentary feature nominees continues a long trend of music docs being recognized by the Academy, as two music-related films have earned nominations at this year’s Oscars.
Amy, which tells the story of late songstress Amy Winehouse in her own words through never-before-seen archival footage and unreleased tracks and is nominated for best doc this year, earned nominations for the Queer Palm and Golden Eye awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for director Asif Kapadia.
Filmmaker Liz Garbus earned the second nomination of her career with the Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? The film focuses on the life of iconic R&B singer Nina Simone and her life as a singer, mother, and civil rights activist. Garbus earned her first Oscar nomination in 1998 for her documentary The Farm: Angola, USA.
Music-related docs have been a hot topic for the Academy in years past,...
Managing Editor
This year’s best documentary feature nominees continues a long trend of music docs being recognized by the Academy, as two music-related films have earned nominations at this year’s Oscars.
Amy, which tells the story of late songstress Amy Winehouse in her own words through never-before-seen archival footage and unreleased tracks and is nominated for best doc this year, earned nominations for the Queer Palm and Golden Eye awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for director Asif Kapadia.
Filmmaker Liz Garbus earned the second nomination of her career with the Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? The film focuses on the life of iconic R&B singer Nina Simone and her life as a singer, mother, and civil rights activist. Garbus earned her first Oscar nomination in 1998 for her documentary The Farm: Angola, USA.
Music-related docs have been a hot topic for the Academy in years past,...
- 1/22/2016
- by Patrick Shanley
- Scott Feinberg
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Keep on Keepin’ On, director Alan Hicks’ debut film, follows four years of the friendship and mentorship between jazz legend and trumpeter Clark Terry, who played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington and taught a young Quincy Jones how to play, and Justin Kauflin, a talented 23-year-old blind pianist. The two musicians support each other as Terry begins to lose his eyesight due to health issues and as Kauflin deals with stage fright as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. The film is one of 15 films on the Oscar documentary shortlist, five of which will be nominated on Jan. 15.
The Academy is particularly fond of music-related documentaries, nominating 17 since 1942, with eight winning. Keep on Keepin’ On could join the following Oscar-nominated films:
Festival (1967)
Director Murray Lerner’s black-and-white documentary offers a glimpse into three years (1963-1966) of the Newport Folk Festival, which...
Managing Editor
Keep on Keepin’ On, director Alan Hicks’ debut film, follows four years of the friendship and mentorship between jazz legend and trumpeter Clark Terry, who played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington and taught a young Quincy Jones how to play, and Justin Kauflin, a talented 23-year-old blind pianist. The two musicians support each other as Terry begins to lose his eyesight due to health issues and as Kauflin deals with stage fright as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. The film is one of 15 films on the Oscar documentary shortlist, five of which will be nominated on Jan. 15.
The Academy is particularly fond of music-related documentaries, nominating 17 since 1942, with eight winning. Keep on Keepin’ On could join the following Oscar-nominated films:
Festival (1967)
Director Murray Lerner’s black-and-white documentary offers a glimpse into three years (1963-1966) of the Newport Folk Festival, which...
- 1/8/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, Finding Vivian Maier documents Maloof’s journey to discover more about Vivian Maier after purchasing a box of her negatives in 2007. He began the search a few years later, after he realized the negatives consisted of some of the best undeveloped street photography of the 20th century. After some searching, it was revealed that Maier was a career-nanny who had died in 2009.
Since the documentary is in serious contention for a best documentary feature Oscar, we thought we’d check to see how many other photography-related films have managed to resonate with the Academy’s documentary branch and land a nomination in the same category. We found six.
The Naked Eye (1956)
Directed by two-time Oscar winner Louis Clyde Stoumen, this documentary celebrates photography through history by looking at pioneers in the field, such as Margaret Bourke-White. Though he covers works by multiple photographers,...
Managing Editor
Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, Finding Vivian Maier documents Maloof’s journey to discover more about Vivian Maier after purchasing a box of her negatives in 2007. He began the search a few years later, after he realized the negatives consisted of some of the best undeveloped street photography of the 20th century. After some searching, it was revealed that Maier was a career-nanny who had died in 2009.
Since the documentary is in serious contention for a best documentary feature Oscar, we thought we’d check to see how many other photography-related films have managed to resonate with the Academy’s documentary branch and land a nomination in the same category. We found six.
The Naked Eye (1956)
Directed by two-time Oscar winner Louis Clyde Stoumen, this documentary celebrates photography through history by looking at pioneers in the field, such as Margaret Bourke-White. Though he covers works by multiple photographers,...
- 11/7/2014
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
NYC's Stranger Than Fiction documentary series has announced their winter 2014 lineup, with a thematic focus of music documentaries. The season begins January 28 with a sneak preview of "Finding the Funk," Nelson George's film about the past, present, and future of funk. As always, Stranger Than Fiction screenings take place Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. at the IFC Center, with every session followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. This year's series will combine classic docs such as D.A. Pennebaker's landmark "Monterey Pop" with previews of new documentaries. The one exception to the music focus of the series is "The Central Park Five," which will screen on January 30 with a Q&A with two of the film's subjects, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise. Another highlight is a screening of "A Great Day in Harlem," whose Oscar-nominated director Jean Bach died last May. It will be the first...
- 1/17/2014
- by Max O'Connell
- Indiewire
Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Giulio Andreotti (1919-2013) Prime minister of Italy during the years 1972-1973, 1976-1979 and 1989-1992. He is the main subject of the Oscar-nominated biopic Il Divo, in which he's portrayed by Toni Servillo, and he is said to be the inspiration for the character of Don Licio Lucchesi in The Godfather Part III. He also appears as himself in the 1983 Italian comedy Il tassinaro. He died on May 6. BBC News) Jean Bach (1918-2013) Jazz fan-turned-documentary filmmaker who received an Oscar nomination...
Read More...
Read More...
- 5/31/2013
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
From the bonkers Holy Motors to the disappointing On the Road, Cannes offered plenty of breadth, but only Michael Haneke's exquisite tale of an elderly man caring for his frail wife in their Paris apartment ticked all the boxes
Michael Haneke is too good. Whenever the Austrian director shows one of his films in Cannes, I always come out thinking the others might as well just pack up and go home because they'll never reach his awesome heights of control and precision. It's like the days when Beethoven was around and everyone else gave up composing. Haneke's Amour, about an elderly man looking after his frail wife (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, both utterly captivating) when a stroke confines her to their Paris apartment, was by some stretch the finest film at Cannes. It was the only piece to be exquisitely acted, composed, paced and pitched, as well as...
Michael Haneke is too good. Whenever the Austrian director shows one of his films in Cannes, I always come out thinking the others might as well just pack up and go home because they'll never reach his awesome heights of control and precision. It's like the days when Beethoven was around and everyone else gave up composing. Haneke's Amour, about an elderly man looking after his frail wife (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, both utterly captivating) when a stroke confines her to their Paris apartment, was by some stretch the finest film at Cannes. It was the only piece to be exquisitely acted, composed, paced and pitched, as well as...
- 5/26/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Looks like no day this week is going to go by without a big announcement from Cannes. Today's is the lineup for Cannes Classics, a program created in 2004 "showcasing restored prints of classic films and masterpieces of film history." From May 16 through 27, the program will be featuring "13 feature films, two shorts, a mini-concert and four documentaries. All these films will be world premieres."
Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Running 245 minutes, this newly restored version with 25 minutes of additional scenes is based on Leone's original cut. "This restoration was requested by Martin Scorsese. The screening will be attended by Robert De Niro, Elizabeth McGovern, Jennifer Connelly, producer Arnon Milchan (which also has a small role in the film) and, of course, the Leone family."
Roman Polanski's Tess (1979). Polanski supervised the restoration and, with Nastassja Kinski, will attend the screening.
Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). Newly restored in...
Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Running 245 minutes, this newly restored version with 25 minutes of additional scenes is based on Leone's original cut. "This restoration was requested by Martin Scorsese. The screening will be attended by Robert De Niro, Elizabeth McGovern, Jennifer Connelly, producer Arnon Milchan (which also has a small role in the film) and, of course, the Leone family."
Roman Polanski's Tess (1979). Polanski supervised the restoration and, with Nastassja Kinski, will attend the screening.
Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). Newly restored in...
- 4/26/2012
- MUBI
World premiering at the Playboy Jazz Film Festival and opening Friday at Laemmle's Monica, Jean Bach's excellent documentary illuminates the history and lasting legacy of a "magic moment" in 1958 -- when "Esquire"'s Art Kane photographed 60 of jazz music's "big dogs" one summer morning in Harlem.
A treat for jazz aficionados and a dandy historical jam session for the curious, "A Great Day in Harlem" combines recent interviews with those subjects in the photo still alive, liberal use of the famous black-and-white still and others taken by Kane that day, home movie footage shot by Mona and Milt Hinton, and great film clips of performances to support the verbal storytelling.
Starting with Kane's account of how the photograph came about, with support from then-Esquire art director Robert Benton, Bach weaves together the memories of the late Dizzy Gillespie plus Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer and many others -- including Taft Jordan Jr., one of the now-grown boys seated on the curb with Count Basie -- and thoroughly recounts the events of the "Great Day".
Amazingly, it was Kane's first pro gig as a photog and the early-morning session resembled a social gathering until everything came together just right. Controlling the group was "near impossible" and Kane used a rolled-up newspaper as a megaphone. His assistant did not even know how to load film.
But the moment is undeniably powerful, as the group stands on the steps of a 125th Street tenement and sidewalk with locals looking on. The mood seems casual and the composition unpretentious, evoking but not overstating the subjects' "hard life surrendered to art."
Bach and co-writers Susan Peehl and Matthew Seig wisely follow the leads of their talkative subjects. Stories about those in the photo no longer among the living are both laudatory and personal.
The soundtrack is heavenly and supports Art Blakey's conclusion that these jazz greats were "literary figures," using drums, trombones, trumpets and saxophones to imaginatively capture the experience of living.
A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
A Jean Bach Production
Flo-Bert Ltd.
New York Foundation for the Arts
Producer Jean Bach
Co-producer Matthew Seig
Writers Jean Bach, Susan Peehl, Matthew Seig
Director of photography Steve Petropoulos
Editor Susan Peehl
Narrator Quincy Jones
With Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, Marian McPartland, Mona Hinton, Robert Benton, Horace Silver, Art Blakey
Color/Stereo
Running time -- 60 minutes
No MPAA Rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
A treat for jazz aficionados and a dandy historical jam session for the curious, "A Great Day in Harlem" combines recent interviews with those subjects in the photo still alive, liberal use of the famous black-and-white still and others taken by Kane that day, home movie footage shot by Mona and Milt Hinton, and great film clips of performances to support the verbal storytelling.
Starting with Kane's account of how the photograph came about, with support from then-Esquire art director Robert Benton, Bach weaves together the memories of the late Dizzy Gillespie plus Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer and many others -- including Taft Jordan Jr., one of the now-grown boys seated on the curb with Count Basie -- and thoroughly recounts the events of the "Great Day".
Amazingly, it was Kane's first pro gig as a photog and the early-morning session resembled a social gathering until everything came together just right. Controlling the group was "near impossible" and Kane used a rolled-up newspaper as a megaphone. His assistant did not even know how to load film.
But the moment is undeniably powerful, as the group stands on the steps of a 125th Street tenement and sidewalk with locals looking on. The mood seems casual and the composition unpretentious, evoking but not overstating the subjects' "hard life surrendered to art."
Bach and co-writers Susan Peehl and Matthew Seig wisely follow the leads of their talkative subjects. Stories about those in the photo no longer among the living are both laudatory and personal.
The soundtrack is heavenly and supports Art Blakey's conclusion that these jazz greats were "literary figures," using drums, trombones, trumpets and saxophones to imaginatively capture the experience of living.
A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
A Jean Bach Production
Flo-Bert Ltd.
New York Foundation for the Arts
Producer Jean Bach
Co-producer Matthew Seig
Writers Jean Bach, Susan Peehl, Matthew Seig
Director of photography Steve Petropoulos
Editor Susan Peehl
Narrator Quincy Jones
With Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, Marian McPartland, Mona Hinton, Robert Benton, Horace Silver, Art Blakey
Color/Stereo
Running time -- 60 minutes
No MPAA Rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 9/28/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.