New York, NY, February 26, 2024 – The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will present the world theatrical premiere of Merce Cunningham: The Events at Dia Beacon, a 40-minute film drawing on footage from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s unique, site-specific Events at Dia Beacon in 2008 and 2009. The screening will take place on Monday, April 8, at 6pm, at the Library’s Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center.

From 2007 to 2009, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company presented a series of Cunningham’s Events in the galleries of Dia Beacon. This film, edited by award-winning film director/editor Daniel Madoff, is a compilation from five of these site-specific stagings with footage from the dress rehearsals and live performances.

Says producer Nancy Dalva: “The film creates an entirely new cinematic event with linkages revealing the choreographer’s idiosyncratic methodology and acute sensitivity to environment. Cunningham arranged these multi-stage performances after careful site visits,...

Kyle Richards and her castmate Dorit Kemsley have some explaining to do after eagled-eye viewers pointed out their suspicious behavior in the latest episode.

Episode 15 was titled “Ashing it Out,” and it showed the continuation of the cast trip to Spain, which ended with a healing ceremony before they returned home.

We also saw a sweet bonding moment between Kyle and Dorit, as the Og opened up about her marriage to Mauricio.

However, it was another moment between the duo that people are now dissecting online.

Some fans of the show are convinced that the pair were talking smack and being “shady” which would explain Kyle’s behavior in the scene.

We’re waiting for Kyle or Dorit to share the story behind the odd moment because, right now, the speculations are running wild.

Check out Kyle Richards and Dorit Kemsley’s suspicious behavior in the recent episode

The incident...

Bravo’s “Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde,” a two-hour documentary special, will premiere on March 6, the network announced Wednesday. According to the logline for the special, the spinoff of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” will employ “a compilation of formal interviews and observational footage” to capture cast member Jayne during her preparation for her Las Vegas residency, which viewers saw her score on the show’s currently airing 13th season. The special covers the “frenzied six-week run-up to opening night” at the House of Blues on August 25, 2023, as Jayne works on assembling her songs, wardrobe and choreography while contending with the “realities of budget constraints and a ticking clock.”

“Bet It All on Blonde” was originally announced at BravoCon in early November, and the Vegas residency represents a comeback for Jayne, as the backdrop for the special revolves around her legal and financial problems after the downfall of her estranged husband,...

“Merce is in the purse” has become another infamous line on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, thanks to Erika Jayne.

The Pretty Mess singer certainly has a way with words, and her one-liners tend to live on forever.

This hilarious one-liner, courtesy of a drunk Erika Jayne, has a lot of Rhobh fans wondering about Merce.

It all began when Sutton Stracke brought the ashes of her lifelong friend, Merce Cunningham, with her to Spain so she could spread them.

Sutton revealed she’d had them for over 10 years before Erika reminded everyone they were in a Zip-Loc bag.

The episode got The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills viewers asking about Merce and his friendship with Sutton.

Who is Merce on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?

Merce Cunningham was a famous dancer, choreographer, and teacher in New York City who owned Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The company was...

Yvonne Rainer’s first film is a fascinating immersion in radical art practice in all its meta-narrative incoherence and mess

Here is the first film from avant garde film-maker Yvonne Rainer, showing as part of a retrospective of her work at the Ica in London, affording viewers a chance to appreciate the wonky, wonderful weirdness that was integral to the New York experimental art scene in the early 1970s. Aptly enough for an artist who started her career in the dance world (having studied with such luminaries as Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham), Rainer grounds this in the world of dance, opening with a rehearsal of a company running through different moves. Don’t be alarmed if no sound is coming through – it’s meant to be that way. Rainer plays throughout with audience expectations and need for narrative closure, offering little titbits of story and then whipping them away...

In a city where you can discover a film festival every weekend of the year, perhaps the most unique of such offerings is located in Rockaway, Queens. Taking place just a few blocks from the beach, the 6th edition of the Rockaway Film Festival will occur August 19-August 27, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the lineup of award-winning documentaries, premieres, live music and dance performances, shorts programmes, and rare repertory screenings.

Organized by Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller and sponsored by Blundstone®, Istic Illic Pictures, and NYC Ferry, this year’s edition will open at their flagship outdoor theater, Arverne Cinema (constructed using scraps of boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy), with Disney’s famous feature masterpiece Fantasia. There will be a program of shorts preceding it by cine-magician Oskar Fishinger, whose groundbreaking animations changed the cinematic frontier. The festival will also present the New York Premiere of...

Rise director Cédric Klapisch with Anne-Katrin Titze on seeing dance at 14: “My parents brought me … It was the time of Merce Cunningham, Carolyn Carlson - they were the hit dancers in the Seventies.”

Classical ballet dancer Elise (Marion Barbeau) in Cédric Klapisch’s riveting and dynamic Rise (co-written with Santiago Amigorena) suffers an ankle injury during a performance of La Bayadère right after having spotted her boyfriend and dance partner with another woman. With her future unclear on all fronts, Elise rises out of the ashes with the support of a number of illustrious characters in her life. Choreographer Hofesh Shechter (and Rise composer with Thomas Bangalter) playing a version of himself makes very clear that dance can have many forms. There is physiotherapist Yann (François Civil) who is overcoming his own heartbreak, and friend Sabrina (Souheila Yacoub) who also had to transition out of the field of dance.

Deal Park, NJ — Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theater (Axcbt), the Jersey Shore’s professional ballet company, will present a one-night-only special event, “Architects of Dance,” featuring the Company in choreography by some of the greatest modern dancers of our time who will also perform on the program, on Thursday, May 18, 2023, at 7:30 p.m., in the Atrium at Bell Works Studio in Holmdel, New Jersey. The evening will include a pre-performance reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by a private VIP tour of Bell Works led by Lead Designer and Creative Designer Paola Zamudio beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the performance are $25 general admission or $75 for the VIP experience, including the performance, tour and reception. Tickets are available at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center Box Office.

Inspired by the Bauhaus architectural movement, Axcbt Artistic Director Gabriel Chajnik conceived of “Architects of Dance” to illustrate how choreography and architecture can influence each other.

The documentary Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV, which explores the groundbreaking video artist’s life and work, is like nothing Paik ever would have made himself. It’s far too straightforward and chronological, far too concerned with presenting things in a clear and comprehensive fashion — whereas Paik spent most of his career seriously messing things up, whether he was doing it with musical instruments, television sets or live TV broadcasts distorted through time and space.

But that doesn’t mean director Amanda Kim’s first feature isn’t worth a look. For anyone interested in the origins of what we now call video art, not to mention mass media and the internet, it’s essential viewing. Paik was a true visionary who foresaw the virtual world we now live in, and Kim’s film chronicles how he channeled that vision through madcap sculptures and installations that took...

Dogwoof has picked up Amanda Kim’s documentary on the contemporary artist Nam June Paik for world sales, excluding North America and South Korea.

“Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV” is set to world premiere on Jan. 22 at Sundance as part of the U.S. Documentary Competition.

Paik, one of the most famous Asian artists of the 20th century, revolutionized the use of technology as an artistic canvas and invented the video synthesizer. He is credited with coining the term “electronic super highway,” which was the title of one of his most famous works that involved more than 300 TV sets.

The film will trace Paik’s life from childhood as he traveled across the world. He fled to Japan from his native Korea at the outbreak of the Korean War, before moving to Germany and subsequently to New York City where he settled in 1964.

The film will include...

Jamie Nares and Thurston Moore holding up the hastily printed-out photos of the Harry Roskolenko chopped up death mask sculpture: “I called it The Poet Is A Book.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Ecstatic Peace Library Rock ’n’ Roll Round Table inside the Oak Room of The Algonquin on September 12, during the James Hamilton Linger On: Unseen Portraits of The Velvet Underground exhibition, music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman introduced me to Thurston Moore (co-founder with Eva Prinz of the Ecstatic Peace Library) and filmmaker/artist Jamie Nares (featured in Celine Danhier’s Blank City as James Nares).

Jamie Nares with Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on natural timing: “I’d say that the rhythm was the strongest characteristic of my guitar playing.”

In the first instalment with Jamie Nares we touch on Rome ’78, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino couture dress for Jamie, a party for Andy Warhol’s Athletes series,...

Maverick artist Nam June Paik will be the subject of a new feature-length documentary that will highlight unseen footage and archival materials. The currently untitled production will be completed in 2022. Oscar nominee and “Minari” star Steven Yeun and hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy have joined the project as executive producers.

Paik is often referred to as the “Father of Video Art” and was a prophet of the internet, as well as a visionary and futurist. Adopting technology to transform the way we see the world, he was one of the first to use television as an artist’s canvas and invented the video synthesizer. In the 1970s, he coined the term “Electronic Superhighway” and predicted the future of communication in the digital age. He launched a series of the world’s first global satellite art events, bridging the gap between East and West, pop and avant-garde and all genres of art...

13th and When They See Us director Ava DuVernay is the latest artist to receive the annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.

With Thursday’s announcement from the Gish Prize Trust, founded by actresses Dorothy and Lillian Gish, DuVernay is the fourth filmmaker to receive the honor. The director follows past honorees Ingmar Bergman, Robert Redford and Spike Lee. Upon receiving the honor, DuVernay referred to the Way Down East actress’ description of the prize.

“She said the prize was going to go to an artist who contributes to our understanding of ‘the beauty of life.’ What a notion. With her description, my own view of what I do has shifted slightly more toward embracing the beauty around me and welcoming it at every turn,” she said.

Each year the Gish Prize Trust hands the award over to an artist who has used their work and platform to contribute to...

Is your at-home streaming slowing down now that everyone else in your neighborhood is also at home, streaming? May we suggest good old, reliable physical media?

New Indie

We need to stop acting surprised when Adam Sandler gives a powerful performance, as he does in the Safdie brothers’ “Uncut Gems” (Lionsgate); great work pops up throughout his career, from “Punch-Drunk Love” to “The Meyerowitz Stories.” Granted, whereas some movie stars take a “one for them, one for me” approach to balancing popcorn fare with arthouse titles, Sandler is more “ten for them, one for me”; if a great Sandler performance needn’t elicit shock anymore, it should bring up a touch of sadness for the career that might have been.

If you haven’t seen “Good Time” or other earlier Safdie movies, you might not be prepared for their brand of anxious, cinematic-panic-attack filmmaking. “Uncut Gems” will make you uneasy,...

Merce Cunningham wasn’t concerned with labels or conventions, the kind of guy who would shrug off not just claims that he was one of best choreographers of all time, but even the claims that he was a choreographer (“I’m a dancer,” he’d tell people). The modern dance pioneer helped not only bring the art form to American eyes, but also managed to shape it in his own image. Over the course of a career that spanned seven decades, he crafted his own style, built a successful dance company, and worked with other artists from every corner of the creative world. In short, he’s the perfect candidate for a deep dive documentary about both the personality and his process.

Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham,” though appropriately stunning to the eyes and often in tune with Cunningham’s unique wavelength, is not that documentary. While Kovgan, a Russian filmmaker...

This highbrow study is fascinating less for its fancy 3D footsteps than for its insight into choreographer Merce Cunningham’s life and work

The 3D format, all the rage for about five minutes after Avatar, makes a comeback. Not deployed for a Hollywood blockbuster, but to capture dance in a documentary about the pioneering choreographer Merce Cunningham, who died in 2009 aged 90. The headachey effect of the technology (and faff for the glasses-wearers of having to put 3D goggles over our specs) justifies itself with some gorgeous closeups that take the viewer right inside the sequences. Yet the most exhilarating footage is the black-and-white archive of the young Cunningham dancing with uncanny animal alertness. He had the most beautiful feet: exquisite long articulate toes, each one a dancer in its own right, a personal troupe of 10.

Related: Now in 3D! Merce Cunningham's mind-blowing dance...

Cunningham director Alla Kovgan on Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage: 'In a way they are timeless' Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze In the second half of my conversation with Alla Kovgan on Cunningham (read the first half here), we discussed her appreciation for the significant role Derrick Tseng played in getting the film made, Director of Choreography Jennifer Goggans and Supervising Director of Choreography Robert Swinston and Notes on Choreography, storyboarding for locations in New York and shooting in Germany with Mko Malkhasyan.

Also: The timelessness of the collaborations by Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage and Merce Cunningham and the transcendence of time that Karl Ove Knausgård in My Struggle assigns to works of art as compared to science.

Merce Cunningham, Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Cynthia Stone, Marilyn Wood, and Remy Charlip in Summerspace Photo: Robert Rutledge Cunningham has a flawless score by Hauschka aka Volker Bertelmann (BAFTA and Oscar-nominated...

Chicago – In the post World War II art scene, when New York City took over the cutting edge while Europe lay in tatters, there emerged a dance creator who influenced the avant garde like no other. Merce Cunningham lived until age 90, and from the time he began in dance to the end of his life, the legacy was his impactful contribution. In an affecting new 3D documentary entitled “Cunningham,” director Alla Kovgan goes over the life and times of the dancer and the artist.

’Cunningham,’ Directed by Alla Kovgan

Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures

Merce Cunningham began his career with dance legend Martha Graham in 1939, and gave his first solo presentation in collaboration with composer (and life long partner) John Cage in 1944. He broke out on his own in 1953 with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953, and was Artistic Director of that company until his death in 2009.

Director Alla Kovgan of...

“He’s one of the most influential choreographers the world has known,” declares Alla Kovgan about dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, the subject of Kovgan’s new documentary “Cunningham.” The film features recreations of many of Cunningham’s most famous dances filmed in 3-D in specially chosen locations in New York and Europe. In our exclusive video interview (watch the video above), Kovgan discusses the more than seven year journey to bring this story to the big screen, as well as her passion for combining dance with cinema.

SEEAlmost 100 Interviews with 2020 Oscar Contenders

Kovgan was inspired to incorporate 3-D with dance after seeing Wim Wenders‘ Oscar-nominated documentary “Pina” about the life of choreographer of Pina Bausch. “When I watched it,” Kovgan remembers, “I really felt that there was some other possibility here with 3D and dance that hasn’t been realized.” The director wanted to do more than create a retrospective of Cunningham’s work.

Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham” is a documentary that stages excerpts from some of Merce Cunningham’s most representative dances in 3D, and these 3D dances take up about one third of the film’s 90-minute running time. They are often exciting but sometimes frustrating, and Cunningham himself makes for an enigmatic subject.

Cunningham made dances that were built around an ideal of freedom and possibility — one of his favorite words — but with dark underpinnings. He rehearsed them without music, and he was not too interested in costumes or sets. Cunningham was dedicated to pure movement, which meant that he was not concerned with what his dances could mean to others on the level of interpretation or narrative; his best work involves a series of movements so unexpected that they cause a kind of jolt to the senses.

Before he died in 2009, Cunningham left behind templates for how his dances might go forward without him.

Alla Kovgan at Magnolia Pictures on Cunningham composer Hauschka: “He became almost like a ceramic artist who would give a shape to the entire film.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Alla Kovgan’s Cunningham, shot by Mko Malkhasyan with Joséphine Derobe (Wim Wenders’ Les Beaux Jours D'Aranjuez with Reda Kateb and Sophie Semin; Everything Will Be Fine; The Berlin Philharmonie in Cathedrals Of Culture; Pina and If Buildings Could Talk with Alain Derobe) as the Director of Stereography, Director of Choreography Jennifer Goggans with Supervising Director of Choreography Robert Swinston and a flawless score by Hauschka aka Volker Bertelmann (BAFTA and Oscar nominated composer with Dustin O'Halloran for Garth Davis’s Lion) takes us creatively into the world of Merce Cunningham.

John Cage with Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg Photo: Douglas Jeffrey

In the first half of my conversation with Alla Kovgan we discussed Merce Cunningham’s collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg and...

UK-based documentary specialists announce sales on The Kingmaker, Sing Me A Song, The Cave, and Cunningham.

UK-based documentary specialists Dogwoof has announced a series of all-rights theatrical and TV sales for their Idfa slate.

The Kingmaker by Lauren Greenfield, which profiles the former first lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, sold to Piece of Magic (Benelux), with TV sales going to Svt (Sweden), Nrk (Norway), Yle (Finland), and Movistar (Spain). The film premiered in Venice and also screened in Telluride, Toronto, and BFI London Film Festival. Dogwoof will release in the UK on 13 December following its Us release earlier this month.

The centenary of choreographer Merce Cunningham’s birth has brought commemorations and performances of his work from the U.S. to Europe and Australia. At a symposium in London in March, Oxford University professor Susan Jones noted his “radical dance aesthetic” and “deconstruction of stage space.” And scholar Hélène Neveu Kringelbach observed, “Cunningham is perhaps the choreographer who forces us most to rethink what dance is and is not.”

As the end of the year approaches a new tribute to Merce is coming in the form of the documentary Cunningham, directed by Alla Kovgan. The film, shot in 3D, opens in theaters December 13 and has qualified for Oscar consideration as Best Documentary Feature. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Ida Documentary Awards.

“[Cunningham] was a revolutionary figure in the 20th century, and I do think his legacy extends in the 21st century,” Kovgan tells Deadline.

"We don't interpret something, we present something." Magnolia Pictures has debuted an official trailer for the documentary Cunningham, about legendary dancer Merce Cunningham, born in Washington State. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews, and plays at the New York, Zurich, Vancouver, and London Film Festivals next before it opens in theaters this December. This vibrant, inspiring tribute to Cunningham features all kinds of never-before-seen footage. The iconic Merce Cunningham as well as the last generation of his dance company is stunningly profiled in Alla Kovgan's new 3D documentary, through recreations of his landmark works and archival footage of Cunningham, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg. Cunningham resisted "avant-garde" or any other label. "I don't describe it. I do it," he once said. One review says the film can renew your "appreciation of the many wonders of the human body." Give this a look below. Here's the official...

Despite their non-fiction foundation, documentary films are seemingly limitless in their presentation. Sure, you can go the tried-and-true method of presenting talking heads, archival footage, and some narration to tell the story that you intend. Or, as in the case of “Cunningham,” you can give the information that you feel is necessary, but also immerse the audience in the subject, allowing them to see the beauty of the work themselves.

Read More: ‘Wrinkles The Clown’ Trailer: Michael Beach Nichols’ Chronicles A Youtube Clown Paid To Scare Children

As seen in the new trailer for “Cunningham,” the film is obviously a look at the life and career of one of the most respected and acclaimed dancers/choreographers of all time — Merce Cunningham.

Continue reading ‘Cunningham’ Trailer: Dance Takes Centerstage In New Doc Focused On The Life & Career Of Merce Cunningham at The Playlist.

Legendary modern dance choreographer Pina Bausch presaged her American contemporary Merce Cunningham in a few non-dance-related areas: the lauded German artist passed away mere weeks before Cunningham did in 2009, and her work inspired a jaw-dropping 3D film eight years before Cunningham’s received the same sort of cinematic treatment. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting double feature than Wim Wenders’ “Pina” and Alla Kovgan’s upcoming “Cunningham,” a pair of 3D documentary features that bring to vivid life the work and artistry of two icons of modern dance through contemporary means.

Much like “Pina,” Kovgan’s film attempts to translate the magic of Cunningham’s live work to the big screen through 3D technology and an array of key archival material. Also like Bausch and the many devoted students she left behind, “Cunningham” grapples with the question of a choreographer’s legacy and what can actually remain of...

Good nonfiction storytelling requires artistry beyond talking heads and archives, though creative vision sometimes feels purposely concealed or standardized in documentaries to prioritize substance over style. But here’s a dance documentary that splendidly flaunts its artistic point of view, and fittingly so. This is a good time to remember that nonfiction films can be theatrical experiences that demand to be seen on the largest screen possible.

Shot in glorious 3D that makes the technical mode feel indispensable, Kovgan’s ode to choreography master Merce Cunningham is sensational in every sense of the word. Renewing one’s appreciation of the many wonders of the human body and the space in which it fills and drifts, “Cunningham” celebrates all the things our joints and flexed muscles are capable of, as seen through the mind and poetic dances of an iconic creator.

The artist Kovgan celebrates throughout the vivid frames and staging...

Nanni Moretti's Santiago, Italia to screen in the Spotlight on Documentary section Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Film at Lincoln Center has announced the 57th New York Film Festival Spotlight on Documentary selections. The program includes 45 Seconds Of Laughter, directed by Tim Robbins; Dw Young's The Booksellers, executive produced by Parker Posey, featuring Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, and Gay Talese; Nick Broomfield's My Father And Me; Ric Burns's Oliver Sacks: His Own Life; Michael Apted's 63 Up; Alla Kovgan's Cunningham 3D on Merce Cunningham; Ivy Meeropol's Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story Of Roy Cohn, which features interviews with Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Tony Kushner, Nathan Lane and John Waters, and Nanni Moretti's Santiago, Italia.

Gay Talese is interviewed for Dw Young's The Booksellers Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In all, there are 13 feature documentaries and one short, Nicholas Ma's (producer of Morgan Neville's Won’t You Be My Neighbor?...

Films on Merce Cunningham, Roy Cohn and Oliver Sacks are among the notable titles set for the Spotlight on Documentary lineup at the 57th New York Film Festival.

Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham 3D” centers on dancer and choreographer Cunningham, who was at the forefront of American modern dance for half a century. The Cohn documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim” is directed by Ivy Meeropol, whose grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were prosecuted by Cohn. Ric Burns’s “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life,” examines the British neurologist and author.

The Spotlight on Documentary also include Michael Apted’s “63 Up,” the ninth iteration of his “Up” series that followed the lives of 14 British children since 1964; Nick Broomfield’s “My Father and Me,” a portrait of his relationship with his father Maurice Broomfield; and Nicholas Ma’s short documentary “Suite No. 1, Prelude,” which captures the perfectionist tendencies of his father Yo-Yo Ma.

Two...

Section will include films from Nick Broomfield, Nanni Moretti and Michael Apted.

The New York Film Festival has unveiled a Spotlight on Documentary section that includes North American premieres for Nick Broomfield’s My Father and Me and Nanni Moretti’s Santiago, Italia and a Us premiere for Michael Apted’s 63 Up.

The festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and running from September 27 to October 13, will also include world premieres for Lynn Novick’s College Behind Bars and Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread.

The full Spotlight on Documentary line-up:

45 Seconds of Laughter

Tim Robbins, USA. Us premiere

A...

The New York Film Festival on Wednesday unveiled the lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, which include films from Nick Broomfield, Lynn Novick, Nicholas Ma, Nanni Moretti, Tim Robbins and Michael Apted and subjects ranging from dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham to Roy Cohn and Oliver Sacks.

Apted’s 63 Up, the ninth entry in his long-running film series, is making its U.S. debut at the fest, which runs September 27-October 13 and opens with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.

The full lineup also features six world premieres and five U.S. premieres.

Here’s the full slate:

45 Seconds of Laughter

Dir. Tim Robbins, USA, 95m

U.S. Premiere

A selected group of inmates at the Calipatria State maximum-security facility have convened for a highly unlikely workshop. In prison they normally segregate themselves by gang or by race, but here they are all mixed together, sitting in a circle.

A film examining the life and death of conservative power broker Roy Cohn and Tim Robbins' film about prison inmates participating in an acting workshop are among the highlights of the New York Film Festival's documentary lineup.

The Cohn film, Bully. Coward. Victim., directed by Ivy Meeropol, will have its world premiere at the Nyff, while Robbins' 45 Seconds of Laughter will get a U.S. premiere.

Other films set to screen as part the Spotlight on Documentary section include films from Nick Broomfield and Nanni Moretti as well as a portrait of dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham in Alla ...

A film examining the life and death of conservative power broker Roy Cohn and Tim Robbins' film about prison inmates participating in an acting workshop are among the highlights of the New York Film Festival's documentary lineup.

The Cohn film, Bully. Coward. Victim., directed by Ivy Meeropol, will have its world premiere at the Nyff, while Robbins' 45 Seconds of Laughter will get a U.S. premiere.

Other films set to screen as part the Spotlight on Documentary section include films from Nick Broomfield and Nanni Moretti as well as a portrait of dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham in Alla ...

Two of the Toronto International Film Festival’s signature programs have today unveiled their full slates, including both the genre-bending Midnight Madness program and the wide-ranging Tiff Docs section. Both slates will feature a number of highly anticipated premieres, with the lauded documentary section playing home to films like Feras Fayyad’s “The Cave” (which will open Tiff Docs), Mark Cousins’ 14-hour “Women Make Film,” Bryce Dallas Howard making her feature directorial debut with the documentary “Dads,” along with new films from Barbara Kopple, Alex Gibney, and Lauren Greenfield.

The Tiff Docs lineup includes 25 non-fiction works, including 18 world premieres with representation from 18 countries. The films cover many high-profile figures, both famous and infamous — including Truman Capote, Merce Cunningham, Ron Howard, Bikram Choudhury, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Imelda Marcos — and a broad range of themes, including artistic achievement, the power of journalism, immigration, global politics, and resistance against corrupt leaders.

“This year...

While only a handful of documentary features have been selected for Cannes’ Official Selection, plenty of non-fiction action can be found in Cannes Market’s Doc Corner and environs, where doc professionals converge to get first looks at — or the first word on — titles with potential to connect with audiences on screens, large and small, in the near future.

The Docs-in-Progress series, running May 18-20, a main attraction of Doc Corner, presents four works-in-progress apiece from Argentina, Canada, Chile, Norway, Palestine and South Africa. These sessions are programmed with documentary or film partner organizations from the respective countries. This year the Monaco-based International Emerging Film Talent Assn. is sponsoring a €10,000, jury-selected prize that will be given to one of the projects to support completion.

Last month, at the close of the pitch program of Visions du Reel, the Swiss rendezvous for documentary film, filmmaker Alessandra Celesia’s “The Flats (Once...

The Cannes Film Festival competition began today with the premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die,” but top North American distributors can’t afford to be distracted. They serve a market in which only the most carefully calibrated selections will thrive — and those who hesitate will almost certainly lose to the streaming buyers. With some of the best stuff already bought, theatrical distributors are forced to to look toward films that have yet to be shot.

Before the festival, HBO Sports scooped up “Diego Maradona,” British documentarian Asif Kapadia’s follow-up to Oscar-winning Cannes hit “Amy.” And after a 20-year symbiotic relationship, Spc acquired Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain & Glory” at the script stage two years ago, which now looks like an early contender for top prizes. Spc now has rights to all his films, and will book repertory Almodovar tributes in many cities around the film’s October opening.

The Cannes Film Festival competition began today with the premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die,” but top North American distributors can’t afford to be distracted. They serve a market in which only the most carefully calibrated selections will thrive — and those who hesitate will almost certainly lose to the streaming buyers. With some of the best stuff already bought, theatrical distributors are forced to to look toward films that have yet to be shot.

Before the festival, HBO Sports scooped up “Diego Maradona,” British documentarian Asif Kapadia’s follow-up to Oscar-winning Cannes hit “Amy.” And after a 20-year symbiotic relationship, Spc acquired Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain & Glory” at the script stage two years ago, which now looks like an early contender for top prizes. Spc now has rights to all his films, and will book repertory Almodovar tributes in many cities around the film’s October opening.

Diane, State Like Sleep, A Family Submerged among other hot sellers.

Heading into Cannes, Visit Films has reported a strong response to its line-up and has licensed mountain climbing documentary The Sanctity Of Space to Dogwoof in the UK, and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand.

Currently in post-production, the film is directed by Renan Ozturk, who co-directed the critically acclaimed Sherpa and was the cinematographer and one of the main subjects of Sundance award winner Meru, and Freddie Wilkinson, a renowned Alpinist and adventure writer.

The Sanctity Of Space is in the vein of Oscar winner Free Solo and Dawn Wall,...

The “Avengers: Endgame” tidal wave pushed away all boats this weekend. Most specialty companies waived the counterprogramming option, even though specialized audiences make a point of finding alternatives. Most distributors decided not to take that risk.

Sony Pictures Classics bravely opened “The White Crow,” a biopic about young Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, with a decent initial result in New York and Los Angeles. Also showing some interest was the New York exclusive date for music documentary “Carmine Street Guitars” (Abramorama).

Landing and keeping dates in crossover theaters this weekend, with every available screen going to Marvel and Disney, was a challenge. But still building buzz is Aretha Franklin concert film “Amazing Grace” (Neon), which doubled the gross of any wider released specialized title this week.

Opening

The White Crow (Sony Pictures Classics) – Metacritic: 61; Festivals include: Telluride 2018

$80,675 in 5 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $16,175

Ralph Fiennes directed the true story...

Magnolia Pictures has acquired distribution rights to Merce Cunningham documentary “Cunningham,” which includes never-before-seen footage of the choreographer.

“Cunningham,” written and directed by Alla Kovgan, will be an immersive look into the life of the choreographer who started as a dancer in post-wwii New York. The film will be released in honor of what would have been Cunningham’s 100th birthday. He died of natural causes in New York in 2009.

“Alla Kovgan’s stunning cinematic tribute to the genius of Merce Cunningham is destined to end up as a classic of the genre,” said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles. “We’re thrilled to be bringing it to the public.”

Cunningham is considered to be one of the greatest modern dancers, earning two Guggenheim fellowships in the 1950s and a Kennedy Center Honors and MacArthur Fellowship in the 1980s. Over Cunningham’s 70 year career, he worked closely with composer John Cage to...

Magnolia Pictures has acquired the North American rights to Cunningham Alla Kovgan’s documentary about Merce Cunningham, one of the world’s most influential and groundbreaking choreographers. The film immerses viewers in the choreographer’s world and will be released in both 2D and 3D later this year. Dogwoof will release in the UK, Sophie Dulac Distribution in France, and Camino Films in Germany.

Cunningham follows Merce’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery (1944–1972). It will trace his career from his early years as a struggling dancer in postwar New York to his emergence as one of the world’s most visionary choreographers. The 3D technology weaves together Merce’s philosophies and stories, creating a journey into his innovative work. The film will be a tribute to one of the world’s greatest modern dance artists with never-before-seen material and promises a breathtaking experience of dance.

“3D...

The 3D immersive film is set for release later this year, the centenary of Merce Cunningham’s birth.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Cunningham, the 3D documentary about choreographer Merce Cunningham.

Magnolia plans to release the film, directed by Alla Kovgan, in both 2D and 3D formats in the Us later this year, the centenary of Cunningham’s birth.

Dogwoof, which took on worldwide sales of the immersive dance documentary last autumn, is set to release in the UK and the film has been pre-sold to Sophie Dulac Distribution for France and Camino Films for Germany.

Cunningham...

Visit Films also launching sales on Slamdance selection Lost Holiday.

Visit Films has added a handful of new titles in time for Efm and arrives in Berlin to launch sales on Sundance winner The Sharks and Rotterdam and Slamdance selection Lost Holiday.

Ryan Kampe and his team will screen neo-noir State Like Sleep starring Katherine Waterston and Michael Shannon, Toronto selections Jirga and Helmet Heads, La Film Festival selections This Teacher and Spell, and Merce Cunningham documentary If the Dancer Dances.

The Sharks earned Lucía Garibaldi the best director prize in World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance and stars newcomer...

Roster includes previously announced Jirga, A Land Imagined.

Visit Films will kick off international sales at Afm this week on the Michael Shannon noir State Like Sleep.

The feature from Sight Unseen Pictures and Scythia Films premiered at Tribeca last spring and stars Katherine Waterston as a photographer who returns to Brussels to unravel the mystery surrounding the final days of her celebrity husband.

Luke Evans, Michiel Huisman, and Mary Kay Place round out the key cast and Eddie Vasiman, Julia Lebedev, and Angel Lopez served as producers. Writer-director Meredith Danluck makes her narrative debut and The Orchard will distribute in the Us.

Dogwoof has acquired world sales rights to 3D documentary “Cunningham,” the U.K.-based documentary specialist has revealed to Variety. Dogwoof, which is also set to distribute the feature in the U.K. and Ireland, will present a first-look teaser from the film to international buyers at the upcoming American Film Market.

“Cunningham,” which is currently in production, tells the story of legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham. It is set to see its U.K. release through Dogwoof, as well as releases in pre-sold markets France and Germany via Sophie Dulac and Camino Films respectively, in Spring 2019 to coincide with the centenary of the choreographer’s birth.

Filming in 3D, the documentary, which is described as a “breath-taking explosion of dance and music,” is directed by Alla Kovgan and edited by Andrew Bird. It traces Cunningham’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery from his early years...

Antigone, Tacita Dean, 2018. Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris.This summer, the British artist Tacita Dean lead a trio of exhibitions, scattered geographically across three old-guard London institutions—the National Gallery (est. 1824), National Portrait Gallery (est. 1856), and the Royal Academy (est. 1786)—in a cross-city collaboration frequently (if grandiosely) declared as “unprecedented.” Unprecedented in its playfulness, the interconnected production did depart from Dean’s last major show, Film—a high-profile takeover of Tate Modern’s then-new Turbine Hall in 2011—instead spanning Still Life, Portrait, and Landscape: three genres generally associated with painting, categories that enforce certain specific rules and relationships between form and content, and unlikely subject matter to be assigned to an active film preservationist best-known as a moving image artist. Though right-on in temporarily relocating contemporary moving image work outside of museums of modern art, the project’s more exciting, expansive...

As we make our way through April, we’ve got more spring season performances to be inspired by than we can add to our calendar! This is an exceptionally exciting week as the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Tickets to the Joyce are selling fast as The Martha Graham Dance Company and The Joffrey Ballet will also be joining this company to celebrate this incredible milestone. Happy dancing, artists! PERFORMANCESLar Lubovitch Dance Company will be celebrating their 50th anniversary at The Joyce April 17–22 with a world premiere and signature works by the revered master choreographer. The Martha Graham Dance Company and the Joffrey Ballet will also appear to present works by Lubovitch in honor of this rare milestone. (Tickets start at $10) Caterina Rago Dance Company will be holding their gala performance April 19 at the Martha Graham Dance Studio Theater. All proceeds will benefit the creation of...

Whether you’re new to L.A., a seasoned professional, or just looking for some inspiration, we’ve gathered information on upcoming performances, events, dance auditions and more for you to check out this month! Let’s finish the year with more passion for dance than ever. Performances The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater will be showing the 41st edition of Studio: Fall 2017 on Nov. 4th to showcase the new and in-progress works of L.A.’s next-gen artists. Also at the theater is“Tesseract,” a virtuosic experience created by former Merce Cunningham dancers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener and video artist Charles Atlas, opening Nov. 30. More information here. Ebony Repertory Theater, Dance@TheHolden, and Jazzantiqua Dance & Music Ensemble present “Breath: Part 2.” Don’t miss this jazzy, evocative, and bubbling textures of these artists Nov. 11 at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. Tickets and more info here! Brockus Project is holding Dance/Back,...

Andrew Bolton in front of Body Meets Dress - Dress Meets Body on Rei Kawakubo and collaboration: "I think with Merce Cunningham, they both share notions of chance." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Andrew Rossi's The First Monday In May (2016 Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night Gala selection) brilliantly captured the work behind the scenes for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute China: Through The Looking Glass exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton with The Grandmaster's Wong Kar Wai as Artistic Director, and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour's Costume Institute Gala Benefit. The first Monday in May is here again.

Object/Subject - Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art Of The In-Between Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Julianne Moore, Lena Dunham (seen at Tribeca in Laurie Simmons' My Art), Felicity Jones, Claire Foy, Ruth Negga, Lupita Nyong'o, Reese Witherspoon, Katie Holmes, Sarah Paulson, Madonna, Jeff Koons (Pappi Corsicato's Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait,...

Aaron Brookner with Paterson and Gimme Danger director Jim Jarmusch - Sara Driver on Uncle Howard: "I knew Howard’s nephew Aaron was interested in filmmaking ..."

In Aaron Brookner's search in the making of Uncle Howard, with timely editing by Masahiro Hirakubo (Orlando von Einsiedel's Virunga), we see glimpses of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Philip Glass, John Giorno, Laurie Anderson, Anne Waldman, Jim Carroll, Frank Zappa, and Patti Smith at the Entermedia Nova Convention - Andy Warhol having Cities Of The Red Night inscribed by William Burroughs - clips from Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars - and a telling interview with Lindsay Law on Howard Brookner's film Bloodhounds Of Broadway, based on Damon Runyon stories, with Matt Dillon, Rutger Hauer, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Grey, Madonna, Anita Morris, Fisher Stevens, Richard Edson, and Steve Buscemi.

Sara Driver with Paul Bowles scholar Francis Poole and Richard Peña...