Ask Stanley Nelson about the key to his longevity as a documentary filmmaker and he doesn’t hesitate with his response: “Luck.”
Nelson is the director-producer behind such recent films as “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” which premiered at Sundance last year and is now part of PBS’ “American Masters” series, 2015’s “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and 2017’s “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.”
On the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Nelson discusses the luck factor in his long career, and the many paths that documentarians pursue to fund projects that are almost always purely driven by passion rather than dreams of hitting it big at the box office. The environment for independent filmmakers has definitely improved, thanks to the explosion of content and platforms.
“There are so many different funders and so many different outlets for documentary film.
Nelson is the director-producer behind such recent films as “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” which premiered at Sundance last year and is now part of PBS’ “American Masters” series, 2015’s “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and 2017’s “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.”
On the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Nelson discusses the luck factor in his long career, and the many paths that documentarians pursue to fund projects that are almost always purely driven by passion rather than dreams of hitting it big at the box office. The environment for independent filmmakers has definitely improved, thanks to the explosion of content and platforms.
“There are so many different funders and so many different outlets for documentary film.
- 3/11/2020
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
In an age where celebrity funerals are de rigueur, the PBS documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (which premiered last year at Sundance) fits right in and feels like a home-going service three decades in the making. Music industry titans such as Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, and
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- 2/26/2020
- by Mekeisha Madden Toby
- TVGuide - Breaking News
On-the-beat editing for the documentary “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” comes courtesy of Lewis Erskine who brings rhythm to the images apace with that perfect flow of the jazz icon’s horn. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and earned a nomination at the NAACP’s 2020 Image Awards for outstanding documentary film. It premieres on PBS’ “American Masters” with additional footage tonight (Feb. 25).
“One of the responsibilities of editing, and the job, is to harness this huge amount of material and put it together,’ says Lewis, the film’s editor. “So it swings.”
And does it ever. In vintage photos and video footage cut together to the tempo of the soundtrack, every frame evokes the mood and era in each phase of Davis’ life — the somber melody; the raging fury; the sophisticated, poetic, jazz symphony — all artfully blended.
Speaking about the process of compiling material to...
“One of the responsibilities of editing, and the job, is to harness this huge amount of material and put it together,’ says Lewis, the film’s editor. “So it swings.”
And does it ever. In vintage photos and video footage cut together to the tempo of the soundtrack, every frame evokes the mood and era in each phase of Davis’ life — the somber melody; the raging fury; the sophisticated, poetic, jazz symphony — all artfully blended.
Speaking about the process of compiling material to...
- 2/25/2020
- by Teresa Stone
- Variety Film + TV
The Cinema Audio Society Awards gave a boost to the Oscar hopes of “Ford v Ferrari” on Saturday. This film about auto racing took top honors at these precursor prizes over two of its Oscar rivals for Best Sound Mixing — “Joker” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — as well as “Rocketman” and “The Irishman.” The sound branch of the academy snubbed those latter two films in favor of “1917” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Historically, about half of the Csa champs go on to claim victory at the Academy Awards.
“Toy Story 4″ won for best sound mixing in an animated feature over “Abominable,” “Frozen II,” “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” and “The Lion King.” And the documentary feature prize went to “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound” over “Apollo 11,” “Echo in the Canyon,” “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” and “Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything.
“Toy Story 4″ won for best sound mixing in an animated feature over “Abominable,” “Frozen II,” “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” and “The Lion King.” And the documentary feature prize went to “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound” over “Apollo 11,” “Echo in the Canyon,” “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” and “Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything.
- 1/26/2020
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Beyonce has won 23 Grammys over the course of her career. The all-time record for female artists is 27 — that’s how many country/bluegrass star Alison Krauss has accumulated. It just so happens that Beyonce has four nominations this year, which is exactly what she needs to tie that record, assuming she wins all of them. That’s easier said than done, though. According to our readers, she’ll win at least one of her categories when prizes are handed out in January, but she won’t win all of them. Scroll down for our complete poll results.
Queen Bey is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Visual Media Song for “Spirit,” Best Pop Album for “The Lion King: The Gift” and Best Music Film for “Homecoming.” Less than a quarter of our respondents (24%) are expecting a clean sweep. More than half (56%) say that she’ll win something, but not everything.
Queen Bey is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Visual Media Song for “Spirit,” Best Pop Album for “The Lion King: The Gift” and Best Music Film for “Homecoming.” Less than a quarter of our respondents (24%) are expecting a clean sweep. More than half (56%) say that she’ll win something, but not everything.
- 12/31/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Sharon Stone got an Oscar nomination for appearing in one Martin Scorsese film, “Casino.” But could her cameo in one of his latest pictures help derail his shot at a nomination for that film this year?
The movie in question is not “The Irishman,” the film that’s seen as a leading Oscar contender, but “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story,” which had a lot of heat when it premiered in a handful of theaters and on Netflix in June. It was seen at the time as offering the possibility that Scorsese could get nominated for two films in one year.
But as many unaware viewers and critics came to realize that they’d been hoodwinked by a few mischievously fictional scenes in the Dylan doc, the question arose: Was it, in fact, a documentary — at least as far as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would be concerned?...
The movie in question is not “The Irishman,” the film that’s seen as a leading Oscar contender, but “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story,” which had a lot of heat when it premiered in a handful of theaters and on Netflix in June. It was seen at the time as offering the possibility that Scorsese could get nominated for two films in one year.
But as many unaware viewers and critics came to realize that they’d been hoodwinked by a few mischievously fictional scenes in the Dylan doc, the question arose: Was it, in fact, a documentary — at least as far as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would be concerned?...
- 12/13/2019
- by Chris Morris
- Variety Film + TV
Universal Music Group’s TV production company Eagle Rock Entertainment has hired BBC children’s director Alice Webb as its new chief executive.
Webb has worked at the BBC for 15 years, the past five of which she has been the British broadcaster’s kids boss, overseeing TV channels Cbbc and CBeebies.
She announced her departure in an email to staff and will take up her role at London-based Eagle Rock Entertainment in spring 2020. It is not clear what this will mean for Eagle Rock’s founder, chairman and CEO Terry Shand.
“It has been one of my proudest achievements to lead BBC Children’s over the last five years and I pay tribute to you all,” she said in her message to staff. “Everyone says it — working at BBC Children’s is the best place in the world — and it really is. You are truly world class.”
Universal acquired Eagle...
Webb has worked at the BBC for 15 years, the past five of which she has been the British broadcaster’s kids boss, overseeing TV channels Cbbc and CBeebies.
She announced her departure in an email to staff and will take up her role at London-based Eagle Rock Entertainment in spring 2020. It is not clear what this will mean for Eagle Rock’s founder, chairman and CEO Terry Shand.
“It has been one of my proudest achievements to lead BBC Children’s over the last five years and I pay tribute to you all,” she said in her message to staff. “Everyone says it — working at BBC Children’s is the best place in the world — and it really is. You are truly world class.”
Universal acquired Eagle...
- 12/11/2019
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
“Ford v Ferrari,” “Joker,” “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” “Rocketman” and “The Irishman” have been nominated as the best sound mixing of 2019 at the Cinema Audio Society’s 56th annual Cas Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.
More than two-thirds of the Cas nominees typically go on to receive Oscar nominations in the sound mixing category. Last year, four of the five nominees did so.
Nominations in the animated-feature category went to “Abominable,” “Frozen II,” “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” “The Lion King” and “Toy Story 4,” while documentary noms went to three music films – “Echo in the Canyon,” “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” and “Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything” – along with the Nasa chronicle “Apollo 11” and, fittingly enough, the doc about motion-picture sound, “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound.”
Also Read: 2020 Golden Globes Nominees React: From 'Beyond Excited' to 'Truly Blessed'
“Game of Thrones,...
More than two-thirds of the Cas nominees typically go on to receive Oscar nominations in the sound mixing category. Last year, four of the five nominees did so.
Nominations in the animated-feature category went to “Abominable,” “Frozen II,” “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” “The Lion King” and “Toy Story 4,” while documentary noms went to three music films – “Echo in the Canyon,” “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” and “Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything” – along with the Nasa chronicle “Apollo 11” and, fittingly enough, the doc about motion-picture sound, “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound.”
Also Read: 2020 Golden Globes Nominees React: From 'Beyond Excited' to 'Truly Blessed'
“Game of Thrones,...
- 12/10/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
By the early 1970s, as the counterculture was dissolving and reconfiguring, there were new pop-star archetypes on the horizon that we still tend to think of — the glam rocker, the sensitive singer-songwriter, the hair-band metal strutter, the prog-rock wizard, the belting pop chanteuse, the punk rocker. But there was another figure of the era who, for a while, was every bit as present but a little less in-your-face, not to mention a lot less respectable: the soft-rock geek, with his too-square-to-be-hip leisure suits and his blow-dried mullet parted in the middle and his caressingly sentimental piano chords and his almost sleazy sincerity. This was, and is, a figure out of a Will Ferrell movie — not “Anchorman” but “Soft Rock Star.” He was Eric Carmen, he was Stephen Bishop, he was Gilbert O. Sullivan, he was the grinning resplendent king of them all, Barry Manilow.
David Foster, the subject of the...
David Foster, the subject of the...
- 9/19/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Stanley Nelson brings a studious effort to Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the music makes it real.
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"Music is always there, it comes before everything," Miles Davis says early in director Stanley Nelson's (The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution) documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. This thesis comes in all forms during the film. It is an explanation, a direction and an excuse at various times. But after an hour into the film, it becomes apparent Miles Davis, the quintessential cool jazz cat, wasn't so aloof as it would seem. Everything went into his music. His loves, his torments, his early family's inner turmoil, the entire racial divide of America came out of his horn. And he encouraged the musicians who played with him to do the same.
Miles Davis: Birth Of the Cool is comprehensive and revelatory, even if it is a...
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"Music is always there, it comes before everything," Miles Davis says early in director Stanley Nelson's (The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution) documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. This thesis comes in all forms during the film. It is an explanation, a direction and an excuse at various times. But after an hour into the film, it becomes apparent Miles Davis, the quintessential cool jazz cat, wasn't so aloof as it would seem. Everything went into his music. His loves, his torments, his early family's inner turmoil, the entire racial divide of America came out of his horn. And he encouraged the musicians who played with him to do the same.
Miles Davis: Birth Of the Cool is comprehensive and revelatory, even if it is a...
- 9/10/2019
- Den of Geek
Stanley Nelson’s documentary “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” is playing in U.S. theaters after screening at Sundance. But for the past 30 years Nelson’s films, such as the features “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities,” have detailed lesser-known stories of the African American experience. He produced the 2017 short “Gavin Grimm vs.,” directed by Nadia Hallgren, about a trans boy who challenged his school board’s bathroom policy by filing a case that made it to the Supreme Court. Nelson’s films expose injustices and pivotal moments in American history, and have received multiple awards.
Nelson first appeared in Variety on Dec. 2, 1987, with a rave review of “Two Dollars and a Dream,” his documentary about Madame C.J. Walker, whose parents were former slaves and who’s credited as the first black female self-made millionaire.
Nelson first appeared in Variety on Dec. 2, 1987, with a rave review of “Two Dollars and a Dream,” his documentary about Madame C.J. Walker, whose parents were former slaves and who’s credited as the first black female self-made millionaire.
- 8/30/2019
- by BreAnna Bell
- Variety Film + TV
After “Late Night” failed to meet expectations despite a strong limited opening, Amazon Studios is trying again with another acclaimed Sundance comedy, “Brittany Runs a Marathon.” Released on five theaters in Los Angeles and New York this weekend, the film grossed $175,969 this weekend, averaging $35,194.
The film stars Jillian Bell, a party girl named Brittany, who takes up running after realizing that her late night escapades are taking a toll on her body. Paul Downs Colaizzo wrote and directed the film in his debut, earning a 88% Rotten Tomatoes score.
“Brittany Runs a Marathon” will expand to 25-50 screens in top 10 markets next weekend, a slower rollout than was given for “Late Night,” the Emma Thompson comedy written by Mindy Kaling. That film went wide a week after its NY/La opening and quickly fizzled out afterward, only grossing $15 million despite expanding to 2,220 screens.
Also Read: Gerard Butler's 'Angel Has Fallen...
The film stars Jillian Bell, a party girl named Brittany, who takes up running after realizing that her late night escapades are taking a toll on her body. Paul Downs Colaizzo wrote and directed the film in his debut, earning a 88% Rotten Tomatoes score.
“Brittany Runs a Marathon” will expand to 25-50 screens in top 10 markets next weekend, a slower rollout than was given for “Late Night,” the Emma Thompson comedy written by Mindy Kaling. That film went wide a week after its NY/La opening and quickly fizzled out afterward, only grossing $15 million despite expanding to 2,220 screens.
Also Read: Gerard Butler's 'Angel Has Fallen...
- 8/25/2019
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
"He wanted us to live on the stage, creating in front of the people." Abramorama has finally debuted an official trailer for music documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The doc went on to play at the Miami, Cleveland, Atlanta, Montclair, Krakow, Seattle, Sydney, and Munich Film Festivals, and is playing in select Us theaters this month. From acclaimed doc filmmaker Stanley Nelson, Birth of the Cool tells the full story of jazz icon Miles Davis, who played trumpet and revolutionized jazz music forever. "Newly released archival material, alongside interviews with pre-eminent historians and personal friends like Quincy Jones, illustrate a man of intensity and devotion to his craft. Despite the indignities of America during the time of segregation, nothing was going to stop Davis from realizing his dream: to create a new form of musical expression. Davis worked...
- 8/19/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The Montclair Film Festival will hold the world premiere of the restoration of the 1959 movie “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Variety has learned exclusively.
The black-and-white film, directed by George Stevens, has been restored by Twentieth Century Fox and the Film Foundation. The holocaust drama was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three, including best supporting actress for Shelly Winters.
The festival, now in its eighth year, will take place May 3-12 in Montclair, N.J., and features more than 150 films, events, discussions and parties. The festival had previously announced that it would open with a screening of Tom Harper’s “Wild Rose,” with star Jessie Buckley attending for a post-screening Q&A.
This year’s Storyteller Series will include A Conversation with Mindy Kaling, moderated by Stephen Colbert, taking place May 4 and A Conversation with Ben Stiller, moderated by Colbert, on May 5. Olympia Dukakis will attend for a...
The black-and-white film, directed by George Stevens, has been restored by Twentieth Century Fox and the Film Foundation. The holocaust drama was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three, including best supporting actress for Shelly Winters.
The festival, now in its eighth year, will take place May 3-12 in Montclair, N.J., and features more than 150 films, events, discussions and parties. The festival had previously announced that it would open with a screening of Tom Harper’s “Wild Rose,” with star Jessie Buckley attending for a post-screening Q&A.
This year’s Storyteller Series will include A Conversation with Mindy Kaling, moderated by Stephen Colbert, taking place May 4 and A Conversation with Ben Stiller, moderated by Colbert, on May 5. Olympia Dukakis will attend for a...
- 4/5/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Director Stanley Nelson dropped by TheWrap’s studios at Sundance to talk about the challenges of making a two-hour documentary about legendary musician Miles Davis.
“It was really challenging but I think in some ways it was a two-hour story,” Nelson told TheWrap’s Steve Pond. “Everybody wants to do a series now and so many times they seem inflated. I think you have to have something else going on besides just a straight biography if it’s six hours.”
“We tried to get some of every era in there,” added Nelson. “So many people concentrate on the late ’50s-early ’60s Miles, but we wanted also to talk about the ’70s and ’80s Miles.”
Also Read: 'Ask Dr. Ruth' Director Says Sex Therapist's Life Is Almost Like a 'Forrest Gump' Story (Video)
Watch the rest of the interview with Nelson in the embed above.
According to a synopsis of the film,...
“It was really challenging but I think in some ways it was a two-hour story,” Nelson told TheWrap’s Steve Pond. “Everybody wants to do a series now and so many times they seem inflated. I think you have to have something else going on besides just a straight biography if it’s six hours.”
“We tried to get some of every era in there,” added Nelson. “So many people concentrate on the late ’50s-early ’60s Miles, but we wanted also to talk about the ’70s and ’80s Miles.”
Also Read: 'Ask Dr. Ruth' Director Says Sex Therapist's Life Is Almost Like a 'Forrest Gump' Story (Video)
Watch the rest of the interview with Nelson in the embed above.
According to a synopsis of the film,...
- 2/8/2019
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
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