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Harley Flanagan at age 11 on drums in The Stimulators with Anne Gustavsson, Patrick Mack and Denise Mercedes

Rex Miller’s unrelenting Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos (a highlight of the 15th edition of Doc NYC) on The Stimulators drummer and Cro-Mags founder, features revealing on-camera interviews with his wife Laura Lee Flanagan, Denise Mercedes (his aunt and founder of The Stimulators), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Ian Mackaye (Minor Threat; Fugazi; founder of Dischord Records), Lucy Sante, Darryl Jenifer (Bad Brains), Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Keith Morris (Black Flag; Circle Jerks; Off), Glenn Danzig (The Misfits; Danzig), Michael Imperioli, Brooke Smith (Jonathan Demme’s The Silence Of The Lambs; Louis Malle’s Vanya on 42nd Street; Alan Rudolph’s The Moderns), Anthony Bourdain, Sacha Jenkins, Marcia Resnick, Scott Ian (Anthrax), Kate Schellenbach (Beastie Boys; Luscious Jackson), and Ray Cappo (Youth of Today).

Rex Miller with Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Jordan Peele is making a documentary series that promises to overturn the public perception of the Old West.

The Get Out writer-director will executive produce a project for Peacock “which dismantles the whitewashed mythology of the cowboy” and expand on themes explored in his 2022 thriller Nope (which is also streaming on Peacock).

Keith McQuirter (By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem) is attached as showrunner, executive producer and director

The official description: “The untitled Black cowboy docuseries will rewrite a foundational piece of American history, unmasking the forces that erased the identity of the Black cowboy from frontier history and present. Stories of real cowboys will take viewers on a thrilling odyssey that connects to the heart of the resurgence of Black cowboy culture that we see today across music, art, fashion and film in a three-part series to premiere on Peacock.”

The project is...

Exclusive: Jordan Peele‘ s Monkeypaw Productions is getting back on the documentary horse and is using his movie Nope as inspiration.

The Get Out filmmaker is producing a documentary series that dismantles the whitewashed mythology of the cowboy for Peacock.

Produced through his Monkeypaw Productions label, Peele is producing the untitled series with Universal Television Alternative Studio as part of his overall deal with Universal Studio Group.

The series is inspired by themes from his movie Nope, which starred Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as horse-wrangling siblings attempting to capture evidence of a UFO in Agua Dulce, California.

The docuseries will rewrite a foundational piece of American history, unmasking the forces that erased the identity of the Black cowboy from frontier history and present.

Keith McQuirter, who directed MGM+’s By Whatever Means Necessary: The Godfather of Harlem, will serve as showrunner, director and exec producer.

Peele will exec produce...

Sacha Jenkins and Raquel Cepeda’s Resurgent Pictures has partnered with Imagine Documentaries to develop and co-produce film, television and documentaries.

The partnership with the nonfiction division of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and Resurgent Pictures is a multi-year agreement.

Headed by Sara Bernstein, Imagine Documentaries recently co-produced Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.” The Apple TV+ docu, which debuted at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival in 2022, explores the life and art of the legendary jazz performer.

“We’ve had an empowering experience with Imagine and are delighted to be working with them on future projects,” Jenkins and Cepeda said in a joint statement. “We believe our companies share a commitment to pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and this collaboration will amplify our creative capabilities. Having their support is just killer.”

Jenkins and Cepeda, who are married, launched Resurgent Pictures in 2022 as a boutique production company that develops and produces documentary,...

Mass Appeal, the record label/media company co-founded by Nas, is facing a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee who claims she was “targeted for termination simply because she was White.”

The suit was filed by Melissa Cooper, who spent about two years working in development at Mass Appeal, first as a consultant from April 2021 to October 2022, then as Head of Development from October 2022 to June 2023, when she was fired. The lawsuit claims that she “was the target of a racist conspiracy… to damage Cooper’s reputation and...

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Showtime is releasing a new documentary streaming on Paramount+ on the late rapper Biz Markie, best known for his song “Just a Friend,” on Friday, Aug. 11. “All Up in the Biz” will show footage that’s never been seen before of Markie’s life, career, and some of the top names in the business. Known as the “The Clown Prince of Hip Hop,” music fans will see Markie like never before and be reminded of a true underdog tale. You can watch with a 30-Day Free Trial of Paramount Plus.

How to Watch 'All Up in the Biz' When: Friday, August 11, 2023 Where: Paramount Plus Stream: Watch with a 30-Day Free Trial of Paramount Plus. 30-Day Free Trial$5.99+ / month paramountplus.com

For a Limited Time, Get 1 Month of Paramount+ With Code: Lioness

About 'All Up in the Biz'

“All Up in the Biz...

In documentary All Up in the Biz, director Sacha Jenkins looks back on the career the eccentric Clown Prince of Hip-Hop

When the future director Sacha Jenkins was growing up in Astoria, Queens, he was enthralled by a New York rapper who constituted a jolt to the musical system. “Biz Markie was so fresh and new,” Jenkins remembers of the early days of the late legend and hip-hop change-maker. “So compared to what hip-hop is today and what people are into now, his story is refreshing in a lot of ways.”

For the man born into a housing project before living in a tent under a Long Island bridge and then entering foster care, Markie funneled joyful art through his experiences, all the while keeping a childlike wonder about the world and influencing a genre in the midst of changing culture forever. It’s an improbable success story highlighted in...

With the 2023 Truth Seekers Summit presented by Showtime taking place a day after former President Donald Trump was indicted for a third time, this time in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow set the tone of the event after receiving the Variety and Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Award, “The crisis we have right now in this work that we do is not a crisis about the truth,” she said in a sitdown with Variety’s Co-Editor-In-Chief Ramin Setoodeh. “The truth is the truth; the truth just exists.

Longtime “Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. spoke about the future of late-night TV at Variety and Rolling Stone’s Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Showtime, saying he believes studios don’t realize that the more they look to downsize shows, the more likely they will face stiff competition from TikTok creators and other social media stars who can retain the rights to their content.

“I think the cheaper that they choose to make the product, the more accessible and affordable you make it for outside competitors to come in,” Wood Jr. said, when answering a question about if he was interested in hosting the Comedy Central talker following the exit of Trevor Noah, or any late-night show, in general.

“That’s the thing that I don’t think the entertainment studios understand is, if you want to get rid of an audience if you want to make the show a little smaller,...

A new documentary, All Up in the Biz, will examine the life of the late rapper, Biz Markie, who was known as the “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” thanks to lighthearted songs like “Just a Friend.” A clip from the film, which premieres Aug. 11 on Showtime, focuses on Biz’s sense of humor.

In between shots of the rapper dunking on audience members and his friends with “your mother” and “you’re so bald” jokes, comedian Tracy Morgan, who was friends with Biz, explains the roots of the hip-hop artist’s comic sense.

Last Wednesday, Rolling Stone and Variety made more news regarding their upcoming Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Showtime on August 2nd. The two brands announced a digital content hub for attendees, featuring the kind of reporting that’s at the heart of the event’s celebration of hard-nosed journalism and documentary and investigative storytelling. Seeking to dig “underneath the surface to reveal what’s hidden, what happened and what might come next,” the content hub will showcase stories on documentaries of all genres by both Rolling Stone and Variety.

One...

Biz Markie was a hip-hop legend. There are just no two ways around it. And unlike many other legendary rappers, there hasn’t really been anyone to really mimic what Biz Markie was able to do, especially when you think about a song like “Just a Friend.” Now, it appears Biz Markie is getting the documentary treatment in the upcoming film, “All Up in the Biz.”

Read More: ‘Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues’ Review: Sacha Jenkins Honors Pops’ Legacy As A Jazz Founding Father

As seen in the trailer for “All Up in the Biz,” the doc aims to shine a light on Biz Markie and his importance in the history of hip-hop.

Continue reading ‘All Up In The Biz’ Trailer: New Showtime Doc Gives Late Hip-Hop Legend Biz Markie The Mic at The Playlist.

It’s almost summer in the city, and you might as well rot in the sun with some of the year’s best indie films.

Rooftop Films, one of the longest-running outdoor showcases for indie films globally, has revealed its 2023 lineup, which IndieWire shares exclusively below.

Throughout New York City parks and outdoor landmarks, the Summer Series runs May 25 through August 24 with over 45 events featuring new independent feature films, short film programs, and live performances. Highlights include screenings of Bill Pohlad’s Donnie and Joe Emerson biopic “Dreamin’ Wild,” Savanah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama,” Eva Longoria’s directing debut “Flamin’ Hot,” and Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s “Bobi Wine: The People’s President.”

But you can also catch festival favorites like Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema) winner “Scrapper” from writer-director Charlotte Regan, Laura Moss’s horror entry “birth/rebirth,” D. Smith’s Sundance Award-winning trans documentary “Kokomo City,...

New documentaries about Biz Markie and Milli Vanilli are among the films set to screen at 2023 Tribeca Festival, which takes place June 7 through 18 in New York City.

The Sacha Jenkins-directed All Up in the Biz, a documentary on the late New York hip-hop legend Biz Markie — featuring celebrity interviews, rare film, reenactments, and animation — will get its world premiere at Tribeca. Milli Vanilli also makes its world premiere. Directed by Luke Korem, the film traces the origins and downfall of singers Rob & Fab.

Other music-oriented documentaries include the Jake Sumner-directed Ron Delsener Presents,...

Abbott Elementary, Atlanta and Better Call Saul are among the winners from the fourth night of the NAACP Image Awards‘ non-televised ceremonies.

Winners during Thursday’s night virtual ceremony encompassed the TV writing, TV directing and podcasting categories.

Brittani Nichols won best writing in a comedy series for Abbott Elementary, while Marissa Jo Cerar took the drama series writing award for Women of the Movement.

Angela Barnes won directing honors for the comedy series Atlanta, while Giancarlo Esposito won an NAACP Image Award for directing Better Call Saul.

Winners in the the podcasting categories included The Daily Show and LeVar Burton.

NAACP recognized winners in non-televised categories in virtual ceremonies over multiple nights. Beyoncé and Rihanna were among the winners from night one; Jennifer Hudson, Trevor Noah and Viola Davis were among those winning during night two; and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Quinta Brunson and Keke Palmer were among the night three winners.

Exclusive: Paul McCartney’s incredible creative output in the decade after he left The Beatles will come into focus in Man on the Run (working title), a documentary to be directed by Oscar and Grammy winner Morgan Neville.

Mpl and Polygram Entertainment – the film and television unit of Universal Music Group – announced the project today, a day before the 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The feature film will explore “Paul McCartney’s extraordinary life following the breakup of The Beatles and how the love he shared with Linda McCartney influenced a journey that would lead to the formation of Wings and more of the greatest music ever created.”

Paul and Linda McCartney, circa 1970.

Neville, whose directing credits include 20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, and Roadrunner: An Anthony Bourdain Movie, has been granted access to never-before-seen home videos and photos from the archives...

New York, NY – – See Me As I Am: Lincoln Center’s Year-Long Celebration of Terence Blanchard launches in March 2023, the first cross-campus exploration of a single artist. Following a long and deep relationship with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and building off of 2021’s historic staging of Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at The Metropolitan Opera and its forthcoming production of Champion, his work will be featured across Lincoln Center in a diverse and expanded range of art forms. A collaboration of seven arts organizations across campus: Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the year will feature jazz, opera, chamber music, orchestral music, film scores, dance, and more.

Portrait of musician Terence Blanchard at his home in New Orleans, LA.

“One...

No matter how you measure it, Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project was an earth-shaking thing when it premiered in The New York Times in 2019. It won a Pulitzer Prize. It sparked conversation. It generated waves of backlash from people who absolutely, positively didn’t read the full 100-page collection of essays.

It also offered a reminder of how effectively legacy media can still move the needle in terms of discourse.

As a six-part Onyx Collective/Hulu series driven by Hannah-Jones and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, The 1619 Project proves something different. However provocative the connections and contexts that Hannah-Jones and company provided were within the print and online confines of The New York Times, television has been tackling the bigger-picture topic in earnest (and with some success) for years. Hulu’s The 1619 Project remains cogent, smartly argued and persuasive, but in failing to sufficiently adjust its storytelling to...

The 2023 BAFTA Film Awards longlists were unveiled this morning, and an unexpected frontrunner emerged in Netflix’s wartime epic All Quiet On The Western Front.

The German-language film led the pack, appearing in 15 categories. The film was longlisted in all nine technical categories and nabbed an impressive set of appearances on the Best Film, Director, and Adapted Screenplay lists alongside a Film Not In English language nod.

Directed by German filmmaker Edward Berger, the film is a new take on the classic 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The film tells the story of a young German soldier, played by Felix Kammerer, on the Western Front of World War I as he learns how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as he fights for his life. The pic debuted at TIFF. Daniel Brühl, Sebastian Hülk, Albrecht Schuch, and Anton von Lucke also star.

Netflix’s All Quiet...

The Black Reel Awards has revealed its nominations for their 23rd Annual ceremony.

Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, about the warrior women of the country of Dahomey, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, about a superhero from the fictional African nation of Wakanda and a memorial to Chadwick Boseman, are tied at 14 nominations.

Two other films joined the ranks of double-digit nominations: MGM’s Till and A24’s The Inspection.

Independent studio A24 garnered 11 nominations across all categories. However, Amazon Studios landed a record three nominations in the Outstanding Independent Film category for Master, Nanny, and Emergency. Perennial powerhouse, Disney Studios nabbed the most nominations for a studio with 15.

Viola Davis landed her sixth Outstanding Actress nomination for her work in The Woman King, becoming the most recognized individual in the Actress category in Black Reel Award (Bolts) history. At the same time, director Elegance Bratton received...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) presented awards to the winners in 18 categories for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards on December 10, 2022 at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles. Shaunak Sen‘s “All That Breathes” went into the evening with four nominations and emerged as a winner of three, including the top prize. See the full list of winners below.

In addition to taking home Best Feature Documentary, Shen was named Best Director and the film’s editor Charlotte Munch Bengtsen won for Best Editing. Of its four nominations, “All That Breathes” lost only the award for Best Cinematography which went to the team on “Fire of Love” instead.

“Fire of Love” was the leader in nominations with five and won twice — it was also victorious in Best Writing. “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” won for Best Music Documentary and “The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art & Times of David Hammons” won for Best Music Score.

If they’re good, music documentaries can serve as a time machine — an immersive experience that transports the viewer back to the magic of another era, where the soundtrack envelops you, and an artist who has left this mortal coil returns for 90 minutes or so to validate their superstar status — a mic drop straight from the heavens. If the films are very good, they leave even hardcore fans learning a thing or two about their beloved icons. And if the films are very, very good, they completely upend public perception and, by extension, rewrite an artist’s legacy in a meaningful way.

Over the weekend, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues was named Best Music Documentary at the IDA Documentary Awards, and it’s also a contender in the race for Oscar gold, but the impact of the Apple TV+ film may very well stretch beyond awards season. Never-before-heard audio tapes...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the winners in 18 categories at the 38th annual IDA Documentary Awards Ceremony on December 10, 2022 at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles. Hosted by Jenny Yang, the show was live-streamed on IDA’s YouTube channel.

Shaunak Sen’s Indian eco-documentary “All That Breathes” won Best Director, Editing, Feature Film, and the Pare Lorentz Award, beating out in that category Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Sara Dosa’s Best Cinematography and Writing winner “Fire of Love,” Simon Lereng Wilmont’s “A House Made of Splinters,” Edward Buckles’ “Katrina Babies,” Isabel Castro’s “Mija,” Daniel Roher’s “Navalny,” Akuo de Mabior’s “No Simple Way Home,” Lukasz Kowalski’s “The Pawnshop,” and Neasa Ní Chianáin and Declan McGrath’s “Young Plato.”

The winner of the Sundance Film Festival 2022 Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary, “All the Breathes” is building momentum on the awards circuit,...

Updated from original 9:17 p.m. story with more quotes from winners: Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes won the top prize at the 38th IDA Documentary Awards in Hollywood tonight, cementing its status as an Oscar frontrunner.

The documentary, about two brothers in Delhi, India who tend to injured and ailing birds of prey, earned Best Feature, and Sen was named Best Director. All That Breathes also collected the award for Best Editing, recognizing the work of Charlotte Munch Bengtsen and Vedant Joshi.

“The film itself really feels like a tiny miracle,” Sen noted as he accepted the Best Feature award, “because Aman [producer Aman Mann] and I, we couldn’t believe we got financing, we couldn’t believe that we found producers, festivals, distributors, so it really feels a bit unbelievable.”

All That Breathes, from Sideshow, Submarine Deluxe and HBO Documentary Films, also won the previously-announced Pare Lorentz Award.

“All That Breathes” took top prize for best feature at the International Documentary Assn. Awards Dec. 10, also grabbing prizes for director Shaunak Sen, editing and the special Pare Lorentz award.

“We Need to Talk About Cosby” won the award for multi-part documentary, while “Fire of Love” took the cinematography and writing prizes.

The 38th annual event, held at L.A.’s Paramount Theater, was hosted by comic-actor Jenny Yang. Prizes were announced in 18 categories. The show was also LiveStreamed on IDA’s YouTube channel and the recording is now available.

There were 16 competitive categories and two special categories, the ABC News VideoSource Award and the Pare Lorentz Award.

This year’s shortlists and nominees were selected by independent committees of 310 documentary makers, curators, critics, and industry experts from 52 countries. IDA received 806 submissions in all categories, 40 of which are internationally produced or coproduced projects from 86 countries.

The winners are:

Feature: “All That Breathes...

Deadline on Wednesday launched its streaming site for Contenders Film: Documentary, the award-season showcase that took place Sunday with creatives from 20 of the year’s buzziest non-fiction movies.

Click here to launch the streaming site.

Top filmmakers including Brett Morgen, Sacha Jenkins, Kathlyn Horan, Alek Keshishian, Reginald Hudlin, Ryan White, Dror Moreh, Margaret Brown and Chris Smith joined the annual panel-fest, in which Deadline’s Documentary Editor, Awards Matthew Carey guided discussions about the films, their inspiration and their impact.

This year’s lineup spanned the globe and at least two planets, with a lineup that included Sony Pictures Classics’ Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, Turn Every Page and The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile; HBO Documentary Films’ All That Breathes, 38 at the Garden, The Janes and Moonage Daydream; Netflix’s Sr. and Descendant; Apple Original Films’ Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, Selena Gomez: My Mind...

“My only sin is in my skin.” That rhyme is among the lyrics in the 1929 Fats Waller song “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue,” an eloquent and haunting evocation of the experience of being a Black man in America.

The brilliant jazz artist and entertainer Louis Armstrong recorded a version of that song. More importantly, he lived it.

Related: Contenders Documentary — Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Armstrong’s private feelings about the racism and indignities he faced during his life are explored in the Apple Original Films documentary Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, directed by Sacha Jenkins. The film draws from private audio recordings the jazz trumpeter made, including conversations with friends where he spoke openly about his experiences.

“He was a techie, you could say, and he had a reel-to-reel recorder that he took with him everywhere, but also was prominently featured in his fun room at his house,...

Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event kicks off Sunday at 8 a.m. Pt and promises to open up distant lands and even a distant planet—no passport required.

Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.

The terrain covered by the cast and creatives from our 20 participating films astonishes with its variety and range: an enclave of Delhi, India in All That Breathes, a remote section of Paraguay in Eami, and possibly an even more remote outpost of the Brazilian rainforest in Wildcat. Moscow is the ultimate destination of Navalny, the documentary about Russia’s imprisoned and poisoned opposition leader, and Descendant takes us to a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama settled by survivors of the last slave ship known to have navigated U.S. waters.

About 5,600 miles separate Moscow from Mobile, mere inches apart compared to the far-flung rendezvous point of Good Night Oppy, about NASA...

A version of this story about “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” first appeared in the Guild & Critics Awards/Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Louis Armstrong was a titan of American music and one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century, but his protean talent was at times ignored by those who thought he’d watered down his gifts to pander to a mainstream audience. Sacha Jenkins encompasses all sides of the monumental artist in a film that makes use of a treasure trove of audio recordings Armstrong left behind.

What was your initial exposure to Louis Armstrong?

I grew up in Queens. I knew there was a school named after him. I knew that he was a master at his instrument and that he could sing. But coming up in the ’80s and being a fan of Public Enemy and coming into my consciousness as a young Black man,...

“It’s great that Mr. Armstrong is finally getting his just due,” reveals director Sacha Jenkins when asked about the overwhelmingly positive response to his documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues.” The Apple TV+ film holds a perfect 100 rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and has been nominated for Best Music Documentary at both the Critics Choice and IDA Documentary Awards.

Jenkins’ film follows the life and legacy of Louis Armstrong, the founding father of jazz, America’s first pop star, and cultural ambassador. To celebrate the acclaimed movie, watch our special Spotlight roundtable discussion with Jenkins and four key players from “Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues” — animator Hectah Arias, archival producer Amilca Palmer and editors Alma Herrera-Pazmino and Jason Pollard. Together they are joined by Gold Derby senior editor Denton Davidson for a fun, memorable Q&a. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

See dozens of interviews...

The story of NASA landing two rovers on Mars to collect information, the life of one of America’s most celebrated musicians, the journey of American children of undocumented immigrants seeking a place in the music industry and the horrors America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. This wide array of subjects made up the films of the four filmmakers that took part in Gold Derby’s recent Meet the Experts panel on Film Documentaries where we discussed the films that inspired them and the recent films that left a mark on them. The directors were Ryan White (“Good Night Oppy”), Sacha Jenkins (“Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues”), Isabel Castro (“Mija”) and Matthew Heineman (“Retrograde”).

You can watch the television cinematographers group panel above with the people behind these four projects. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to each exclusive video interview.

When it came to the...

The reality of who Louis Armstrong was came as quite a shock to Sacha Jenkins as he was working on his new documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues.” “He was the exact opposite of who I thought he might have been based on being a young, Black kid in New York in the ‘80s, finding my identity, being into this Black consciousness that hip-hop was delivering at the time,” he tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: Documentary Film panel (watch the exclusive video interview above).

In addition to discovering the immense talent that Armstrong possessed, Jenkins came to realize how he was not at all what he thought he was. “What I knew about him felt contrary to the revolution or being pro-Black based on what other people might have said or based on my perceptions and when I did the research, it was completely the opposite of that.

IndieWire’s Consider This FYC Brunch returned on Friday, celebrating six of the films you’ll be hearing about during the 2022-2023 awards season. Above and below the line talent from “Thirteen Lives,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” “Causeway,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” and “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” all participated in panels moderated by IndieWire editors to discuss what went into the dazzling images audiences see on the screen.

“Elevating artisans and craftspeople is, if you don’t mind me saying so, one of the things that IndieWire does best,” IndieWire editor-in-chief Dana Harris-Brisdon said in her opening remarks.

Throughout the day, these artists opened up about the labor intensive process of making great cinema. In their quest to achieve that special creative edge that separates them from the competition, every detail counts. Panelists from all six films emphasized that...

Louis Armstrong is one of those icons who’s so well-known, so universally recognized, that you may realize you actually don’t know that much about him.

That realization was part of what made director Sacha Jenkins and producer Julie Anderson gravitate toward making a film about his life, “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” for Apple TV+. Both spoke to executive managing editor Christian Blauvelt at the IndieWire FYC Consider This Brunch on November 18 to discuss their intentions for the film, a top awards contender heading into Oscar season.

Armstrong’s incandescent technical ability possessed an otherworldly quality that still resonates today — and his presence was indeed otherworldly at one particular moment during filming. When asked about what we can learn from Armstrong’s lifetime that can be applied to today, Jenkins told an eerie story: “I’m waiting for someone to tell me that he’s going to walk through the door.

We now have a clear picture of where the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature is headed. With Friday’s announcement of the International Documentary Association‘s (IDA) nominations, all four of the major nonfiction precursors have now weighed in. Cinema Eye Honors (Ceh) announced their nominees on November 10, Doc NYC gave us their annual shortlist on October 18, and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda) presented their slate on October 17. Only two films were recognized for top honors by all four of those groups: Sara Dosa‘s “Fire of Love” and Daniel Roher‘s “Navalny.”

Before we get into the full state of this year’s race, let’s understand why these four groups are so important. First off, in the last five years only one film — “The Mole Agent” (2020)– was nominated for the Academy Award without recognition from at least one of these groups first. Of the other 24 nominated films,...

Four top film documentary filmmakers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, November 16, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our contributing editor Charles Bright and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following Oscar and guild contenders:

Good Night Oppy (Amazon Prime)

Synopsis: The film follows Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover affectionately dubbed Oppy by her creators and scientists at NASA. Oppy was originally expected to live for only 90 days but she ultimately explored Mars for nearly 15 years.

Cinematographer Ed Lachman was meant to reunite with his frequent collaborator and director Todd Haynes on “May December,” starring Natalie Portman, but he broke his hip. “I just came home from Chile doing a film with Pablo Larrain, and I unfortunately, I broke my hip.” Lachman says.

Instead of joining Haynes and Portman in Savannah, Ga., where the film is currently in production, Lachman is doing well and recovering in Mallorca. He spoke with Variety about his recent projects and the surge of shooting on film after being honored at the recent Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival.

The festival presented Lachman with its inaugural Evolution Cinematography Icon Award recognizing his work over four decades across films such as “Carol,” “Far From Heaven” and “Erin Brockovich.”

Your latest project, “Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues” uses a lot of archival images and voiceover to tell this story. What was your approach there?...

Screen Rant is proud to present an exclusive clip from the historical documentary The Invaders which follows the Memphis-based Black Power group of the late 1960s. The documentary chronicles the group's creation to its last negotiation with famed activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which took place only minutes before his assassination. The Invaders explores the history of this Black Power group, race, economic injustice, and government surveillance.

The Invaders have historically been portrayed as violent and anarchist, but the documentary brings the true history of the group to light. The Invaders were inspired by powerful Black activists like Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, but in the late 1960s, they caught the attention of another leader in the civil rights movement, Dr. King. In 1968, Dr. King visited Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and met with The Invaders. The documentary reveals what he spoke with them about shortly before his assassination.

Louis Armstrong’s Black & and Blue is a documentary directed by Sacha Jenkins. A feature that gives us an impressive and enlightening portrayal of the music legend.

Premise

An intimate and revealing look at the world-changing musician, presented through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations. This definitive documentary honors Armstrong’s legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States.

About the Documentary

With a very clever and amusing introduction the documentary takes off with Orson Welles presenting and interviewing Louis Armstrong. Our attention is immediately grabbed. From there on the feature offers testimony after testimony, by Armstrong himself, his fourth wife, whom he adored, and various eminent musicians and actors who give their take on the protagonist.

Genuinely moving without being melodramatic, this artistically pieced together documentary is well worth the while.

There are great artists, and then there are artists of such titanic power that they literally change the world. I’m thinking of Shakespeare, Leonardo, Dostoevsky, Picasso. Louis Armstrong is on that Olympian plane. Yet he’s the rare example of an artist whose very fame, image, and media mythology can actually obscure his revolutionary grandeur as a creator. When he first came to prominence, in the ’20s and early ’30s, you heard the Armstrong revolution in every note he played or sang. He blasted the trumpet into an incandescent upper register, hitting high Cs audiences would talk about for days, yet it’s not as if this was some feat of musical mountain-climbing. He was in his own stratosphere, playing from the heavens. Each note vibrated like a shimmering pearl lit from within. No one had sounded like that; no one had commanded like that.

“Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,...

In an odd moment of chance, “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” is released at a moment in which musical artist Kanye West is rapidly losing the support of the global brands he was associated with due to his recent tirade of anti-Semitic comments. To observe a standard but thoughtful look at a trailblazing artist, while such a prominent contemporary musical innovator has positioned themselves as the architect of their downfall, is somewhat bewildering in contrast.

Continue reading ‘Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues’ Review: Sacha Jenkins Honors Pops’ Legacy As A Jazz Founding Father at The Playlist.

Chicago – One of the most prominent Americans musicians in the 20th Century, if not one of the greatest, was Louis Armstrong. The memorable black trumpeter, vocalist and outsized personality found success in the Jim Crow era, and how he did it is spotlighted in Sacha Jenkin’s documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901, and was raised by his mother and grandmother in poverty. As the documentary reveals, his unlawful street activities landed him in a “colored waif’s” detention school, where he learned discipline and played in the band. After stepping out of school, he began to play on riverboats, and began to develop his signature style. He followed his mentor King Oliver to Chicago, where he did his first recordings and introduced himself to the wider world. His ascension in music, the movies and...

Since that time in his teens when he self-published the early ’90s graffiti art zine “Graphic Scenes & X-Plicit Language,” Sacha Jenkins has been about documenting hip-hop and funk culture — Black culture. Moving between print (he’s creative director at Mass Appeal), television (“Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”) and film (“Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James”), he’s documented the intricacies of African-American culture with dexterity and painstaking study.

Jenkins is also a musician, making the life and legacy of Louis Armstrong a fitting story for the director-writer-producer to tell. In “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” premiering today on Apple TV+, Jenkins documents the jazz trumpeter, vocal innovator and actor as a fire-starter for so much of what we hear now in Black music — rap included, thanks to Armstrong’s innovative rhythmic scatting – as well as being more of an activist than people realized where racism and...

Freewheeling across the trumpeter’s pathbreaking career, Sacha Jenkins’ immensely enjoyable study speeds through giddyingly rich source material

Luxuriating in a wealth of archival material that encompasses radio and TV interviews, privately recorded conversations from reel-to-reel tapes (Armstrong could swear like a sailor), and good old-fashioned newspaper clippings (remember them?), this documentary about the great Louis Armstrong is a real keeper. Fans of the legendary jazz trumpeter are likely to complain that a mere 104 minutes is not enough to cover such a complex, innovative character whose career spanned decades and hope there will someday be a supercut that goes on for hours. But in a way this swinging, 4/4, 135 beats per minute biography-cum-essay crams a lot into its running time and makes relative brevity its virtue. Like one of Armstrong’s great solos, it feels packed with dynamics, sprinkled with astonishing high notes, and immensely pleasurable.

As with so many docs these days,...

Vladimir Putin may prefer that people forget about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but the Cinema Eye Honors isn’t.

The awards show dedicated to the art and craft of documentary film today announced its 2023 Unforgettables list of the most memorable subjects of nonfiction films this year, and Navalny’s name was front and center. The story of the lawyer and anti-corruption crusader, who was almost killed in a Kremlin poisoning plot in 2020, is told in the award-winning film Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher.

Joining Navalny on the Unforgettables list is another political leader — Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman from Arizona who was severely injured in an assassination attempt in 2011. Her difficult road to recovery and return to activism is told in Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen.

Artist Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin, the artist at the center of the Laura Poitras...

"They stood up for what was right." 1091 Pictures has debuted an official trailer for a documentary titled The Invaders, finally out on VOD this fall. The film originally premiered way back at the 2015 Doc NYC Film Festival, but has never been released since then or shown up anywhere else. The long wait is over. The Invaders follows the rise and fall of a militant black power group based in Memphis, Tn in the late 1960s. The film uncovers the history and significance of the often-overlooked group, detailing their involvement with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the hours leading up to his assassination. The Invaders also touches on themes of race, government surveillance and economic injustice. Featuring interviews with key members, including Coby Smith, Charles Cabbage, John B. Smith, and John Gary Williams. Narrated by Nas, who also executive produces, with Yo Gotti, Craig Brewer, Peter Bittenbender, and filmmaker Sacha Jenkins.

Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, announced the titles of its annual Short List: Features program on October 18. The Short List represents a selection of films the festival’s programming team considers to be among the year’s top contenders for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Launched in 2012, the Doc NYC Short List: Features selection has included the eventual Oscar winner nine of the last 10 times, including last year’s champ “Summer of Soul.” The festival also boasts that they screened 44 of the last 50 Oscar-nominated features and in 2021 screened 11 of the 15 films that were named to the academy’s pre-nominees shortlist.

Among this year’s selection is a documentary everyone is watching closely, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by Oscar winner for “Citizenfour” Laura Poitras. That film became only the second documentary to ever win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and then screened...

Few jazz artists had the mainstream, cross-over appeal of Louis Armstrong. Now, Sacha Jenkins and Apple TV+ bring audiences a documentary that charts the trumpeter, vocalist, and bandleader’s life and career, and the last imprint he made on American life.

Read More: TIFF 2022: New Films From Werner Herzog, Laura Poitras & More Join TIFF Docs And World Cinema Sections

Here’s the film’s official synopsis, courtesy of Apple TV+:

“Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” offers an intimate and revealing look at the world-changing musician, presented through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations.

Continue reading ‘Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues’ Trailer: Sacha Jenkins’ Documentary Hits Select Theaters & Apple TV+ On October 28 at The Playlist.

Louis Armstrong in “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” coming soon to Apple TV+. “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” offers an intimate and revealing look at the world-changing musician, presented through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations. This definitive documentary, directed by Sacha Jenkins, honors Armstrong’s legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States. The film shows how Armstrong’s own life spans the shift from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, and how he became a lightning rod figure in that turbulent era.

The documentary is directed and produced by Emmy-nominated Sacha Jenkins, and produced by Imagine Documentaries, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes and Julie Anderson along with executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The film is produced in association with Universal Music Group’s...

Apple Original Films has released the trailer for “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” a revealing documentary about the beloved jazz legend.

Offering an intimate, never-before-seen look at the world-changing musician, and presented through a lens of archival footage and previously unheard home recordings and personal conversations, the documentary will premiere in select theaters and stream globally on Apple TV+ on Oct. 28.

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“Do you think you’ve lost a step by being born Black in a white country?” an interviewer asks Armstrong in the trailer’s opening clip. “No,” the musician responds. “I don’t look at it that way.”

Per the feature’s synopsis, “This definitive documentary, directed by Sacha Jenkins, honors Armstrong’s legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars,...