Doc Talk Podcast: Celebrating A Japanese-American Artist Who Survived Incarceration; Plus, We Sit Down With A Film Festival Innovator

Kevin Costner made a bold choice. He departed the most popular TV show in the country and decided to tell the sweeping story of American Western expansion in four interconnected films before anybody knew if the first one was any good. Well, by the end of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” which clocks in at more than three glacial hours, I could not fathom committing another 540 minutes of my time to this bloated ego trip.

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has acquired North American theatrical, VOD, and DVD rights to All Happy Families, the dramatic comedy that premiered at Chicago International Film Festival and at Mill Valley Film Festival last fall and just had its Southern California premiere last night at Dances With Films: L.A. independent film festival. Freestyle Digital Media is planning a fall 2024 limited theatrical and VOD release.Pic is the story of the Landrys, not the stereotypical midwestern family. A charming dramedy that stars Fleishman Is In Trouble’s Josh Radnor as an actor and writer in a slump and still waiting for his big break, whose brother Will (Rob Huebel) is crushing it as a series star. On the weekend before new tenant Dana (Chandra Russell) is due to move into their childhood home, the siblings and their parents find themselves unexpectedly under the same roof again. All the secrets and resentments come to the surface. Cast includes Becky Ann Baker, and John Ashton as the parents. Haroula Rose directed from script she cowrote with Coburn Goss. Pic’s produced by Liz Cardenas, Coburn Goss, Ian Keiser, Haroula Rose, and Mary Muñez. Michael Shannon served as Executive Producer.

EXCLUSIVE: Limonero Films has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Blue Carbon, an innovative environmental-themed documentary produced by MAKE Waves Media that features the participation of Grammy-nominated music producer and DJ Jayda Guy, Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and Brazilian musician Seu Jorge. Limonero, based in London and Barcelona, will launch sales of the film at Sunny Side of the Doc, the world’s largest documentary-focused market, which kicks off today in La Rochelle, France.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Ken Burns attended the 29th annual Nantucket Film Festival, which concludes Sunday, to give audiences a glimpse of his latest PBS documentary “Leonardo da Vinci.” The two-part, four-hour doc — directed by Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and his son-in-law David McMahon — explores the life and work of the 15th-century polymath. “Leonardo da Vinci,” which begins airing in November, marks the first project Burns has directed that unfolds entirely outside the continental United States.

Elton John is set to premiere at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival 2024.Elton John: Never Too Late will show John’s journey through the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which began in 2018 and wrapped up in Stockholm last July. It was the first-ever concert tour to earn over $900million (£708million) in gross ticket sales, making it the highest grossing concert tour of all time.According to Music News, the documentary will also “pull the back the curtain” on the superstar’s life, featuring “never-before-seen concert footage of him over the past 50 years, as well as hand-written journals and present-day footage of him and his family”.Some of the footage taken from the farewell tour was filmed at his final US performance at the Dodger Stadium in November 2022.

Todd Gilchrist editor “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” director Neo Sora’s posthumous documentary about Japanese musical luminary Ryuichi Sakamoto, will premiere online as a live event on The Criterion Channel. On Sunday, June 30 at 5 p.m.

American Idol‘s 23rd season might look a bit different!

Angelique Jackson Denzel Washington is one of the most prolific Black actors of all time. But the two-time Oscar-winning actor, director, producer and humanitarian is also a proud husband and father — a point that was well made during his career retrospective conversation at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) on June 15.Denzel Washington’s latest producorial effort, the Netflix film adaptation of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson,” sees him working with members of his family, including his sons Malcolm Washington, who co-wrote and directed the film, and John David Washington, who stars.“After about two weeks [on set], I went home. I was like, there’s really nothing for me to do here, I’m just in the way,” Denzel Washington said of watching his son Malcolm Washington work.

The Munich International Film Festival will screen 152 films from 53 countries during its 41st edition, which runs from June 28 to July 6. 

“Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on June 13 and revealed how the late Gandolfini battled demons while playing a mob boss on the iconic HBO series. His TV wife, Edie Falco, said in the doc that Gandolfini “was a very good, kindhearted man,” but that the role “may have taken a toll on him,” according to USA Today.

Saint Clare starring Bella Thorne and Ryan Phillippe will open Italy’s Taormina Film Festival. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent U.S.-based Italian director Mitzi Peirone’s comic horror thriller “Saint Clare” has been set as the opening night film of Italy’s upcoming Taormina Film Festival with protagonist Bella Thorne in attendance. “Saint Clare” follows Peirone’s debut, the horror film “Braid,” which launched from Tribeca in 2018. Based on U.S.

Marta Balaga Morgan Freeman isn’t a fan of Black History Month. “I detest it. The mere idea of it.

Selena Kuznikov Sulayman Tahir’s “Peripheral” and Coke Daniels’ “The Waterboyz” were among the winners of this year’s Best of ABFF Awards, presented Saturday at the American Black Film Festival. Hosted by Dondré Whitfield, the festival presented winners in the official film selection categories: narrative and documentary features, series and the HBO Short Film Award showcase. This year’s festival takes place June 12-16 in Miami Beach, Fla., followed by a virtual segment June 17-24 on ABFF PLAY.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Parallax China, one of China’s leading independent film sales companies, has picked up rights to a pair of titles that debut this week at the Shanghai International Film Festival. It is handling world sales on “Qian Tang River,” directed by Wan Bo, and “Another Day of Hope,” by Liu Taifeng. Both are directorial debuts and both appear in the non-competitive Refreshing Chinese Cinema section.

The Hollywood Basic Crafts have officially wrapped the first week of negotiations on a new three-year agreement with the studios.

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Lexi Carson The cast and creatives behind “The Sopranos” reunited at Tribeca Festival Thursday night in celebration of the series’ 25th anniversary. They gathered for the premiere of Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary, “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” which played to a packed audience at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan Thursday night. The two-hour-and-40-minute documentary begins with “The Sopranos” opening credit sequence driving into New Jersey.

EXCLUSIVE: The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) will welcome Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, Sundance Institute, Roadside Attractions and Film Independent as partners for its inaugural Industry Day.

Ben Croll French animation outfit Blue Spirit (the studio behind Netflix sensation “Blue Eye Samurai”) will introduced an in-house digital creation and development label under the moniker Blue Spirit Creative. Offering full-service creative and graphic development for features, series, ads and games, the creative label will be run by the Paris-based team behind Digital Banana, which Blue Spirit acquired last year. “We can now offer a one-stop-shop,” says Blue Spirit CEO Olivier Lelardoux.