There aren’t a lot of sports stars who could claim to be as interesting as Moe Berg, a Major League baseball player who spoke nearly a dozen languages, blew audiences away on quiz shows, and worked as a spy for the United States government during World War II. Berg nearly assassinated German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg. Take that, Dwayne Johnson.
Berg, who got his own biopic last year is now the subject of a major documentary. “The Spy Behind Home Plate.” Written and directed by Aviva Kempner (“The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg”), the film assembles pundits, contemporaries and family members, combining new and archived interview footage to reveal the many incredible facets of Berg’s life.
Nimble and efficient, “The Spy Behind Home Plate” races through that life at a steady clip, unloading one fascinating biographical tidbit after another. The action may be staid — it’s a talking-heads documentary,...
Berg, who got his own biopic last year is now the subject of a major documentary. “The Spy Behind Home Plate.” Written and directed by Aviva Kempner (“The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg”), the film assembles pundits, contemporaries and family members, combining new and archived interview footage to reveal the many incredible facets of Berg’s life.
Nimble and efficient, “The Spy Behind Home Plate” races through that life at a steady clip, unloading one fascinating biographical tidbit after another. The action may be staid — it’s a talking-heads documentary,...
- 6/14/2019
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Specialties were mostly sidelined this weekend, as audiences turned to studio offerings. Some limited release holdovers, however, grabbed some attention from moviegoers looking for alternatives, including Greenwich Entertainment’s second weekend holdover, Echo In The Canyon, which took the best per theater average among the specialties in the three-day with added runs. The doc grossed an estimated $105,678 in 14 locations, averaging $7,548 bringing it cume to over $260K.
Greenwich reported “multiple sold-out shows” for the title’s second frame. The company said it added, “10 mostly mainstream locations” in the Los Angeles metro area with “stronger results in the dedicated arthouses.” Echo In the Canyon also expanded to the Angelika and Landmark 57 West in New York, buoyed by select Q&As and live performances featuring music from the documentary performed by executive producer/musician Jakob Dylan and accompanying band.
Greenwich will add over two dozen runs for the film next weekend with locations in San Francisco,...
Greenwich reported “multiple sold-out shows” for the title’s second frame. The company said it added, “10 mostly mainstream locations” in the Los Angeles metro area with “stronger results in the dedicated arthouses.” Echo In the Canyon also expanded to the Angelika and Landmark 57 West in New York, buoyed by select Q&As and live performances featuring music from the documentary performed by executive producer/musician Jakob Dylan and accompanying band.
Greenwich will add over two dozen runs for the film next weekend with locations in San Francisco,...
- 6/2/2019
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
Andrew Slater’s music documentary Echo In The Canyon opened with a bang in two Los Angeles theaters over the Memorial holiday weekend, crooning out the second-highest opening weekend per theater average of 2019, solidifying further non-fiction as the star genre among the specialties so far this year.
The Greenwich Entertainment release grossed a three-day estimate of $103,716 from its showings at the ArcLight Hollywood and The Landmark in West L.A., giving the title a $51,858 PTA. The year’s top debut average remains with Avengers: Endgame at $76,601 in over forty-six hundred theaters. It is also the best PTA for a doc this year.
Echo In The Canyon debuted at last year’s final Los Angeles Film Festival where Greenwich first viewed the feature. The film celebrates the explosion of popular music that came out of La’s Laurel Canyon in the mid-’60s as folk went electric and The Byrds, The Beach Boys,...
The Greenwich Entertainment release grossed a three-day estimate of $103,716 from its showings at the ArcLight Hollywood and The Landmark in West L.A., giving the title a $51,858 PTA. The year’s top debut average remains with Avengers: Endgame at $76,601 in over forty-six hundred theaters. It is also the best PTA for a doc this year.
Echo In The Canyon debuted at last year’s final Los Angeles Film Festival where Greenwich first viewed the feature. The film celebrates the explosion of popular music that came out of La’s Laurel Canyon in the mid-’60s as folk went electric and The Byrds, The Beach Boys,...
- 5/26/2019
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
Tom Fleischman working on Aviva Kempner's captivating Moe Berg documentary The Spy Behind Home Plate Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
After I watched the rough cut of Aviva Kempner's The Spy Behind Home Plate, the director invited me to meet her at Soundtracks F/T, where re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, Oscar-winner for Martin Scorsese's Hugo (with John Midgley) and nominee for The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Jonathan Demme's The Silence Of The Lambs, and Warren Beatty's Reds, was working on her documentary on the elusive Moe Berg. Ira Spiegel, Aviva's sound editor, was also on hand inside Stage B, where Tom was working on the film.
Aviva Kempner on William Donovan's Oss recruitments, including John Ford: "Really bright people, Ivy League, Moe fit in that. A lot of women, Julia Child, Marlene Dietrich - who is my heroine of heroines." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In 1934, Moe...
After I watched the rough cut of Aviva Kempner's The Spy Behind Home Plate, the director invited me to meet her at Soundtracks F/T, where re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, Oscar-winner for Martin Scorsese's Hugo (with John Midgley) and nominee for The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Jonathan Demme's The Silence Of The Lambs, and Warren Beatty's Reds, was working on her documentary on the elusive Moe Berg. Ira Spiegel, Aviva's sound editor, was also on hand inside Stage B, where Tom was working on the film.
Aviva Kempner on William Donovan's Oss recruitments, including John Ford: "Really bright people, Ivy League, Moe fit in that. A lot of women, Julia Child, Marlene Dietrich - who is my heroine of heroines." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In 1934, Moe...
- 5/21/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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.