Documentary – Page 15 – Unspool Hollywood

OUR AMERICAN FAMILY World Premiere at Woodstock Film Festival 2021

A World of HA Productions Film in association with Atlas Industries and The Intellectual Property Corporation Presents OUR AMERICAN FAMILY

Directors & Producers: Hallee Adelman, Sean King O’Grady
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes

WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL 2021 Screenings:

WORLD PREMIERE--Saturday October 2 @ 3:45pm at the Bearsville Theater (291 Tinker St. Woodstock NY, 12498)

Sunday October 3 @ 2:00pm at Orpheum Saugerties Theater
(156 Main St. Saugerties NY, 12477).

OUR AMERICAN FAMILY is a radically honest, unfiltered portrait of a close-knit Philadelphia family fighting its greatest nemesis: generational addiction. Beginning with a pivotal, “nothing to lose” moment, then captured over the course of the following year, five family members tired of life plagued by addiction on center stage, each struggle to transcend their crippling histories: a mother who learned from childhood to enable her own mother’s addiction, a daughter who doesn’t know who she is without a substance, a son who learned everything about “Heroin 101” from his sister, a younger son who feels alone but acts content to ease the family’s burden, and a stepfather who wonders if addiction is really a disease or simply a by-product of laziness. What will it take to shift this entrenched, wrenching pattern in their lives? How will they each free themselves from their interlocking fates? Will they be able to make significant changes to help their next generation? The members of OUR AMERICAN FAMILY invite us into their lives to find hope and to explore what is possible. No experts. No drug use. No melodrama.

WFF 2021 WEBSITE FOR TICKETS:
https://woodstockfilmfestival.eventive.org/films/our-american-family-60e5d6fb66fa930069afa5bd

FILM WEBSITE:
https://ouramericanfamilyfilm.com

Instagram: @ OurAmericanFamilyFilm
Facebook: @ OurAmericanFamilyFilm
Twitter: @OurAmerFamFilm

PR CONTACT:
EMMA GRIFFITHS, EG PR
E: EMMA@EG-PR.COM

SALES CONTACT:
SUBMARINE/ BEN SCHWARTZ
SCHWARTZ@SUBMARINE.COM

FIRE MUSIC: Movie Review

Submarine DELUXE Presents In Association with Joseph Wemple, Films We Like, Mexican Summer and Nothing Is...

FIRE MUSIC

John Coltrane ©Lee Tanner - The Jazz Image

Director and Writer: Tom Surgal
Featuring: Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, Alber Ayler, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and many more
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Country: U.S.A.
Runtime: 1 hour 26 minutes

A Crash Course in Free Jazz 101

The Angry form of improvisational jazz comes to life in Tom Surgal's documentary 'FIRE MUSIC'.

The history of this under appreciated form of of Jazz begins with the 1956 release of Cecil Taylor's first album Jazz Advance. It was Ornette Coleman's first album Something Else!!!! and his later release
Free Jazz: A Collective that gave us the first of freely improvised music., Sun Ra's Jazz in Sihoutte, Archie Shepp's, Albert Aylar's, Bill Dison's contributions are highlighted in Surgal's musical documentary.

Sun Ra December 1968 Photo @Baron Wolman

The sounds of John Coltran's Ascension, his take on the style of free improvisation. There is Don Cherry,
who moved the needle of Free Jazz to the inclusion of international musicians that lead to Alex von Schlippenbach's
release of the first Globe Unity Album.

You hear the sounds of the Art Ensemble of Chicago with Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton. Peter Brotzmann and his
groundbreaking recording Machine Gun that showcases Evan Parker and Han Bennink.

Tom Surga. Photo: Lin Culbertson

Understanding is an important quality to have and Surgal's documentary gives you just that, an understanding of Free Jazz
that assist in the appreciation of this radical form of music known as Free Jazz.

Run time: 1 hour 26 minutes
Featuring: Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, Alber Ayler, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and many more
Director and Writer: Tom Surgal
Producers: Dan Braun, Joseph Wemple
Executive Producer: Ron Mann
Cinematography: Dan Ehrenbard
Editor and Co-Writer: John Northrup
Composer: Lin Culbertson

FINDING KENDRICK JOHNSON Now Available on Digital + Video on Demand

Screening Nationwide in Theaters this Fall
Premiering on Starz - December 2021

A documentary by Jason Pollock
Narrated by Jenifer Lewis
Produced by Malcolm D. Lee
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes

On January 11th, 2013, Kendrick Johnson was found dead in his high school gymnasium rolled up in a gym mat. The state of Georgia ruled his death as an accident, having died from positional asphyxia. When the family hired their own Forensic Pathologist, not only did he find KJ’s organs missing from his body during the autopsy, he determined the cause of death to be from non-accidental blunt force trauma. To this day, no one knows where KJ’s organs have gone.. So what really happened to KJ?

FINDING KENDRICK JOHNSON is the feature documentary product of a 4-year undercover investigation into the facts of this case. From the creator of 'Stranger Fruit', this new documentary hopes to shed light on one of the most important American stories of our time.

Told through the eyes of KJ's family and close friends, Narrated by Hollywood legend, Jenifer Lewis, Directed by 'Stranger Fruit' creator, Jason Pollock, with an amazing team of Producers including Actor Hill Harper, and Space Jam 2 Director Malcolm D. Lee, FINDING KENDRICK JOHNSON shares this truly historic, heartbreaking, and unbelievable story with the world for the first time.

“The case of Kendrick Johnson is one the most important cases in U.S. history,” says writer/director Jason Pollock. “KJ deserves justice, and hopefully our film will help his family get one step closer to that outcome.”

"This is the most important film I've ever worked on,” says actor and activist Jenifer Lewis. “What this family has gone through is unspeakable but we must speak it so the public knows the truth. Jason has done a brilliant job on this vital story of injustice.”

FINDING KENDRICK JOHNSON is now available on digital and video on demand and will be heading to theaters nationwide this Fall, before premiering on Starz in December 2021.

View Trailer Below!

Gravitas Ventures Acquires Powerful First Responder PTSD Documentary “Florian’s Knights” For Audiences Everywhere

“Florian’s Knights” Will Open Theatrically on September 10^th Timed to the 20^th Anniversary of 9/11 in Theaters Across North America
Before a TVOD/Digital & Blu-Ray/DVD on November 23^rd

Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, has acquired North America digital rights to filmmaker Panayioti Yannitsos (“Freedom Besieged”) powerful feature documentary “Florian’s Knights.” Crowbar Pictures, Inc will first release the film in theaters across North America on September 10th, 2021 timed to the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Markets to be included in the theatrical rollout – New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Saskatoon. Gravitas Ventures will release across all TVOD/Digital platforms & Blu-Ray/DVD throughout the North American continent beginning on November 23rd, 2021. A Canadian production, Yannitsos’ new documentary chronicles firefighters in both the US and Canada who form a controversial motorcycle club to cope with the crippling effects of PTSD. As the Florian’s Knights full patch motorcycle club, the freedom felt on two wheels inspires North American firefighters to speak truth against the stigma of first responder mental health and outlaw biker culture. From the impact of 9/11, to the front lines of the opioid crisis in Vancouver and Toronto, and across the bridge to the arson epidemic in Detroit, Florian’s Knights travel to the darkest pits of the human experience. The real traumas of firefighting are exposed in ways never-before-seen.

“With his unprecedented access, filmmaker Panayioti Yannitsos has crafted a timely, visceral and moving doc that candidly explores the repeated trauma that fire fighters experience, the fallout and what they have ultimately found will help them heal; two wheels and an open road. The unexpected and devastating twist to this story further exposes the difficulties these first responders face in finding support for the sacrifices they make for society making this is a much watch film for all.” – Megan Huggins, Acquisitions Coordinator at Gravitas Ventures.

In April of 2018, director Panayioti Yannitsos met with Crowbar Pictures founder Shawn Galvao to discuss the Florian’s Knights; a new firefighter motorcycle club making waves across North America. Driving home from that meeting, Pan found himself bumper-to-bumper with retired Vancouver Battalion Chief Rod MacDonald, who was riding his motorcycle, a Florian’s Knights patch on his back. Staring at the patch for several minutes in traffic, the serendipitous event convinced Yannitsos to sign on to direct the film. Over the course of three years, Yannitsos and a core team of only four fellow filmmakers slept in fire halls across North America, often in 24-hour shifts, responding to emergencies in real time.

“For over a century, firefighters in North America have grappled with the harsh reality of post-traumatic stress. In pursuit of making this movie, we were faced with a code of silence engrained in fire departments for generations. I knew that this moratorium on mental health was costing men and women their lives, whether through substance abuse, depression, or suicide and I felt a responsibility to shine a light on this very human struggle and bring it to audiences.” – filmmaker Panayioti Yannitsos.

“Florian’s Knights” follows the lives of a number of first responders and experts. All of the following documentary subjects will be available for press interviews – Firefighter Matthew Sabini (New York Fire Department / Florian’s Knights MC), Retired Captain Erik Bjarnason (North Vancouver Fire Dept / Florian's Knights MC), Retired Battalion Chief Rod MacDonald (Vancouver Fire Dept / Florian’s Knights MC), Acting Captain Bill Shokar (New Westminster Fire Department / Florian’s Knights MC), Captain Jack Cooper (Toronto Fire Service / Florian’s Knights MC), Battalion Chief Michael V. Nevin (Detroit Fire Department), Senior Lieutenant Darnell McLaurin (Detroit Fire Department / Axemen MC), and Dr. Don Vaughn, PHD (Neuroscientist, UCLA).

Dr. Don Vaughn, Michael Maggiora, and their team measured the brain activity, heart rate, and hormone levels of over 50 experienced motorcycle riders in “Project Free.” The study was peer reviewed and accepted by Brain Research. The study concluded that riding a motorcycle can decrease hormonal biomarkers of stress. The work was funded by a grant from Harley-Davidson.

“Florian’s Knights” is directed, edited & produced by Panayioti Yannitsos, executive produced by Shawn Galvao, with cinematography by Jon Thomas (“The Angel Tree”) & Blake Davey (“Someone Like Me,” “Rupture”), and sound design by Jamie Spittal (“Freedom Besieged”).

Additional markets interested in theatrical bookings should contact Henry Lystad at Adventure Entertainment

Panayioti Yannitsos negotiated on behalf of the filmmaking team directly with Megan Huggins, Acquisitions Coordinator at Gravitas Ventures.

Where to follow the film and its journey:
Website: www.floriansknightsmovie.com
Facebook: @FloriansKnightsMovie
Instagram: @FloriansKnightsMovi
Twitter: @FloriansKnights

About Gravitas Ventures
Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, is a leading all rights distributor of independent feature films and documentaries. Founded in 2006, Gravitas connects independent filmmakers and producers with distribution opportunities across the globe. Working with talented directors and producers, Gravitas Ventures has distributed thousands of films into over a hundred million homes in North America - over one billion homes worldwide. Recent releases include Our Friend directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, starring Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, and Jason Segel,Vanguard, directed by Stanley Tong and starring Jackie Chan, The Secret: Dare to Dream, directed by Andy Tennant and starring Katie Holmes; End of Sentence starring Logan Lerman and John Hawkes; Looks that Kill; Tread; Loopers: The Caddie’s Long Walk, narrated by Bill Murray; and Colin Hanks’ All Things Must Pass. For more information, please visit gravitasventures.com, and follow @GravitasVOD on Twitter and @gravitasventures on Instagram.

About Red Arrow Studios
Red Arrow Studios is one of the world’s leading creators and distributors of entertainment content, comprised of an acclaimed network of international production companies and labels in seven territories; world-leading digital studio, Studio71, based in six countries; and global film and TV distributors Red Arrow Studios International and Gravitas Ventures. The group’s significant output includes scripted, non-scripted and formatted content and IP, from TV and film to short-form and branded content, made for an array of global networks and platforms. Red Arrow Studios is part of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, one of Europe's leading media groups. redarrowstudios.com

Tom Surgal’s ‘FIRE MUSIC’ Opens Friday, September 10th

Submarine Deluxe Presents in Association with Joseph Wemple, Films We Like, and Mexican Summer 'FIRE MUSIC'

Sigma 7 Ornette Coleman

Director and Writer: Tom TurgalL
Featuring: Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy and many more.
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
Country: USA

FIRE MUSIC opens theatrically in New York at the Film Forum on Friday, September 10th and Los Angeles at the Laemmle Glendale on September 17th with a national
release to follow.

FIRE MUSIC is an official selection of the New York Film Festival

John Tchicai Münster

Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and ‘70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers – brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane – are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America’s most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries and produced landmark albums like Coleman’s Free Jazz: A Collective Inspiration and Coltrane’s Ascension. A rich trove of archival footage conjures the 1960s jazz scene along with incisive reflections by critic Gary Giddins and a number of the movement’s key players.

Writer / Director Tom Surgal is known for directing a series of groundbreaking music videos for leading alternative bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement and The Blues Explosion. Tom was initially mentored in filmmaking by Brian De Palma and would go on to work in a wide range of film production jobs, including production design and casting. Tom is also a musician who has performed regularly with Nels Cline (Wilco), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Jim O'Rourke and Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges) and is co-leader of the improvisational ensemble White Out. He is also a curator who has programmed celebrated music series at various downtown New York venues, including an entire month of shows at John Zorn's hallowed performance space The Stone.

Tom is recognized as a leading authority on Avant-Garde Jazz and boasts one of the world's largest collections of Free Jazz recordings.

Chad Michael Murray in Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman Out August 16th

Filmmaker Daniel Farrands ED BUNDY: AMERICAN BOOGEYMAN PHOTO CREDIT: Dark Star Pictures/Voltage Pictures

ED BUNDY: AMERICAN BOOGEYMAN will have its Fathom Release (Nationwide on over 750 screens) on August 16 with a US VOD and DVD release to follow on September 3, 2021.

A specter roams the highways of a gritty and decadent 1970s America, hunting for his next prey—his name is Ted Bundy (Chad Michael Murray). Tracking him down are the intrepid female detective Kathleen McChesney (Holland Roden), working out of the Seattle Police bureau, and rookie FBI profiler Robert Ressler (Jake Hays), the government agent who coined the term “serial killer.” This is the true story behind the manhunt that brought America’s most fearsome boogeyman to justice.

Chad Michael Murray in Daniel Farrands' TED BUNDY: AMERICAN BOOGEYMAN PHOTO CREDIT: Dark Star Pictures/Voltage Pictures

Daniel Farrands wrote and directed the project, which stars Chad Michael Murray (House Of Wax, The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia, and Riverdale) as Bundy. Rounding out the key cast are Genre actress Lin Shaye (Insidious franchise, The Grudge, Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels) and Holland Roden (Escape Room 2, Teen Wolf).

ABOUT DARK STAR PICTURES

Dark Star Pictures is a new-age North American distribution company, focused on bringing unique and targeted content to audiences across the country. We are committed to releasing auteur-driven, original cinema in the theatrical, digital and home video space. Our goal is to create original marketing campaigns directly catered to audiences who will embrace our brand of thought-provoking cinema. Recent releases include Tribeca Midnight Selection Honeydew, Sundance favorite Koko-di Koko-Da, Cannes Official Selection Enfant Terrible and the newly announced SXSW psychological drama Freeland.

Website: https://darkstarpics.com

#TedBundy #AmericanBoogeyman #TrueCrime

View trailer below!

Finding Kendrick Johnson in Theaters Friday, July 30th

Screening Nationwide in Theaters and available on Video On Demand July 30th

View trailer below!

Submarine Deluxe Presents in Association with Joseph Wemple, Films We Like and Mexican Summer ‘FIRE MUSIC’

Director and Writer: Tom Surgal
Featuring: Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Albert Ayer, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy and many more
Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
Genre: Documentary

Opens theatrically in New York at Film forum on Friday, September 10 and Los Angeles at Laemmle Glendale on September 17 with a national release to follow.

'FIREMUSIC' is an Official Selection at the New York Film Festival.

Sun Ra 1968

Carla Bley with the Carla Bley Band, Keystone Korner, San Francisco CA 2/10/79

(Minutemen, The Stooges) and is co-leader of the improvisational ensemble White Out. He is also a curator who has programmed celebrated music series at various downtown New York venues, including an entire month of shows at John Zorn's hallowed performance space The Stone.

Tom is recognized as a leading authority on Avant-Garde Jazz and boasts one of the world's largest collections of Free Jazz recordings.

Gravitas Ventures Feature Documentary “Stronger For Life” On All VOD/Digital Platforms; Blu-Ray and DVD Today, July 20

What does an internationally renowned fitness expert and entrepreneur do when faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer?

When internationally acclaimed fitness expert Ilaria Montagnani received her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in the summer of 2016, she decided to film footage documenting this emotionally and physically challenging journey. Her whole life, she has been driven to acquire strength and knowledge to help herself and others –and this terrifying cancer diagnosis was no exception to her life’s mission.

Ilaria’s main belief that hard work teaches you to never give up - was truly put to the test and she wanted to honestly show how this disease would affect her physically and emotionally.

For anyone, a diagnosis of cancer is a frightening and life-changing experience but for a professional athlete and international fitness instructor, it is a challenge of unprecedented impact. Ilaria sought out a woman who took her workouts, Noriko Sugiura, a Japanese filmmaker friend to help guide her in the process.

More than a 100-hours of footage in on a hand-held camera, Ilaria next sought out a team of editors and cinematographers – Corey Florin (“Dream Factories,” “High Expectations”), Stephanie Gaweda (“Summer Moon,” “Mates”), and Federico Rosenzvit (“Years of Living Dangerously,” “Laredo, Texas,” and “City of Joel”), to guide and shape the documentary chronicling her journey. This is the filmmaking team that eventually shot and edited the movie that became “Stronger For Life.” “Stronger For Life,” is a cinematic sibling to inspirating and relatable documentaries “Dancer,” and “Any One Of Us,” which have chronicled the physical and mental struggles of athletes where life has thrown them unseen medical curveballs and a chance to make it through to the other side of illness.

Multiple media outlets from around the world have covered Ilaria fitness journey in her more than 20 years in the fitness world, including: The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart Show, The Dr. Oz Show, The Tyra Show, and CBS and ABC Evening News, among many others. The Wall Street Journal called her a “leading force” in the fitness world and New York magazine labeled her one of the city’s top fitness gurus. In 2017, Ilaria received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Equinox Fitness for top group fitness instructor in the country.

Where to follow the film and its journey:
Website: www.strongerforlife.film
Instagram: @strongerforlife.film

“Stronger For Life”
Ilaria Montagnani arrived in the United States from Florence, Italy at nineteen. She loves New York City and its potential to be anything you want to be if you work hard and have vision. During the next 20 years, Ilaria overcomes many obstacles as a pioneering woman entrepreneur developing weight-training and fitness workouts based on martial arts.

She is one of the first women to bring strength training and martial arts to gyms in the U.S.In 2016, Ilaria, then an internationally recognized fitness expert at the peak of her career, was diagnosed with breast cancer. For an athlete of her magnitude, it was devastating.

Shortly after her struggle, Ilaria learns of her father’s diagnosis of terminal cancer. Stronger for Life documents Ilaria’s fight against cancer and how she embodied her own philosophy: Exercise makes you stronger for life, to overcome the heartache and challenges she encounters.

Interview with Ilaria Montagnani About Her New Film “Stronger For Life”

Featuring: Ilaria Montagnani, Gabriella Montagnani, Elizabth Deluca, Omar Sandoval, Lorenzo Montagnani
Genre: Documentary
Language: English

I had the opportunity to talk to Ilaria Montagnani about her first film and new documentary "Stronger For Life" that chronicles her journey
after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Yevette: What was it like preparing for the documentary and working with your parents?
Ilaria: I did not prepare for the film. There were no preparations. I had got together a team and we started filming. It was hard work.

Yevette: What was it like working with your team, how did you work with Corey Florin, Vici Suflan and Noriko Sugiura?
Ilaria: I had a great team that was wonderful to work with. they really helped me with the whole process.

Yevette: What was it like shooting on two continents?
Ilaria: I do a lot of traveling and filming in the United States and Italy was similar to what you do while traveling.

Yevette: When was the moment you came to believe "exercise makes you stronger for life."
Ilaria: I have always felt that way. There was never a particular moment.

Yevette: In the film, you made it clear you did not want to be a housewife.
Ilaria: Yes, Italy was/is a very traditional place. My mom's and my sister's choice are great for them. I wanted something different.

Yevette: Your Mom is such a strong person.
Ilaria: I am glad you brought that up. My mom is one of the strongest people I know.

Yevette: As a trainer, how have you changed your business model due to COVID-19?
Ilaria: I started free virtual trainer for my clients, to keep them active and was surprised at how it took off and is really popular.

Yevette: How is your Mom? Here in Hollywood, tell her I think she is a star.
Ilaria: She is doing well. I will tell her. She will like that a lot.

Follow Stronger For Life:
Website: www.strongerforlife.film
Instagram: @strongerforlife.film

Production Co.: Gravitas Ventures
Executive Producers: Ilaria Montagnani, Leslie Rankow
Producer: Dahlia Waingort Guigui
Editor: Corey Florin
Consulting Producer: Federico Rosenzvit
Director of Photography: Noriko Sugiura
Music: Ched Tolliver

Watch Trailer Below!