Sam Pollard: Celebs Rumors

The full Tribeca Film Festival lineup of 109 feature films from 40 countries and 88 world premieres for the 2022 event that takes place June 9-18 has been announced. It’ll be interesting to see if some of the films at the festival will end up being popular breakouts, land major studio/streamer distribution, or eventually move on to get recognized during awards season.

Emmy-nominated American writer and film director Stefan Forbes, known for making the documentary “Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story,” is back with another fantastic documentary, this time focusing on conflict resolution and how you can’t fight fire with fire in the aptly titled, “Hold Your Fire.” The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and was quickly acquired by IFC Films.

Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard has been announced.This will be the first official documentary on ODB and is co-produced by his widow Icelene Jones.Ol’ Dirty Bastard, real name Russell Tyrone Jones, was a founding member of the legendary hip-hop group. He passed away in November 2004 at the age of 35 following an accidental drug overdose.Currently under the working title Biography: Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the film will be co-directed by Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Citizen Ashe) and his son Jason Pollard (Bitchin’: The Sound And Fury Of Rick James).A&E Network, who will be releasing the documentary, promises a “definitive” look at ODB, produced with the cooperation of the rapper’s estate and featuring “a never-before-seen personal archive shot by his wife, Icelene Jones, and access to his closest friends and family.”“This culture-defining special humanizes ODB as a man, a father, and a husband like never before,” a statement added, “providing an intimate picture of ODB’s life and reflecting on his lasting impact on music and culture.”The documentary will focus on the ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ rapper’s solo career, “from his first album release in 1995 until his untimely passing from a drug overdose in 2004,” according to a release.“A celebration of his artistry and legacy, the documentary is an unflinching look at the complexities of his life including addiction, adultery, fame, mental illness, sudden wealth, race and criminal justice, and will ask the question of just how complicit the media and music industry were in hastening his demise.”Jones said she was “thrilled to tell the full story of my husband” and looked forward to the film shining a light on “the son, the husband, the father, and the artist”.

A&E Network has signed on for a feature documentary about Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the late founding member of pioneering hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures today announced the first round of exhibition rotations scheduled for the 2022–2023 season, which further its mission to advance the understanding, celebration, and preservation of cinema.

EXCLUSIVE: Award-winning filmmakers Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard are partnering on a documentary about the late Archbishop Carl Bean, the pioneering gay African American singer turned pastor and AIDS activist.

Angelique Jackson NBA legend Bill Russell is getting the definitive documentary treatment from Netflix.The Boston Celtics great is the subject of a yet-to-be-titled documentary directed by Oscar nominee Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI,” “Citizen Ashe”), with a team of producers including Larry Gordon (“Field of Dreams,” “Die Hard”), Ross Greenburg (“Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals,” “Miracle”) and Mike Richardson (“Hellboy,” “The Umbrella Academy”).Produced by High Five Productions, LLC, the film will feature personal interviews with Russell and make use of the sprawling personal archives from the life and career of the five-time NBA MVP, 12-time All-Star and Olympic gold medalist.The official synopsis explains that the documentary serves as the “definitive bio-doc” on “the greatest champion in the history of American sports,” tracing Russell’s history on the court and off, paying special reverence to his work as a Civil Rights pioneer. When President Barack Obama awarded Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, he described the Hall of Fame player as “someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men.” “From the humblest of beginnings, Russell went on to lead each and every one of his basketball teams to championships — two California State High School Championships, two back-to-back NCAA titles, a gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and 11 championship titles in his 13-year career as a Boston Celtic (his last two as the first Black head coach in NBA history, while still playing for the Celtics),” the description reads.

Award-winning director Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Citizen Ashe) is helming an untitled doc about the life and legacy of NBA legend Bill Russell for Netflix, the streamer announced today.

Sam Pollard, the Peabody winning director of “Mr. Soul!” and “Sammy Davis, Jr.: I Gotta Be Me,” has set another documentary feature called “The Sound of Philadelphia” about music icons Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell and the musical genre they helped proliferate, Philly Soul.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor“The Sound of Philadelphia,” a documentary on the 1970s “Philly Soul” sound and its masterminds Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell, is coming from Warner Music Entertainment, Warner Chappell Music, and Imagine Documentaries, in partnership with Jigsaw Productions, the companies announced on Wednesday. The lushly orchestrated but soulful sound — exemplified by songs like “Love Train” by the O’Jays, “If You Don’t Know Me Now” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, “Me and Mrs.

EXCLUSIVE: The story of Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell, who created the sound of Philly Soul, is to be chronicled in a new feature documentary.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: Documentary, featuring all 25 panels from our Sunday event showcasing the filmmakers behind the buzziest nonfiction feature films of the awards season.

Arthur Ashe is an icon in the tennis world, breaking barriers to become the first Black male champion of three Grand Slams: the Australian Open; the U.S. Open; and, most famously, beating Jimmy Conners in 1975 to win Wimbledon. But on the other side of the net is Ashe’s work as an activist, which becomes the focus of CNN Films’ documentary Citizen Ashe.

Tennis legend Arthur Ashe did not have the gusto of Cassius Clay or Jim Brown, and yet when it came to his work as an activist fighting against apartheid or raising HIV awareness, Ashe quietly made noise and an impact in his own way.“Citizen Ashe,” a new documentary that explores the career of Ashe and grapples specifically with how he was viewed as an African American public figure, puts him in the context of other Black athletes who stood out for their efforts to bring change.

Addie Morfoot ContributorThe 12th edition of DOC NYC kicks off today — exactly one month before the AMPAS documentary branch begins voting to determine the 2022 Oscar documentary shortlist.The nine-day affair, which runs until Nov. 18, will feature over 125 short docus and 127 feature-length nonfiction films that will screen at New York City’s IFC Center, SVA Theater and Cinépolis Chelsea.

With “King Richard” on the release horizon later this month, tennis fans already have one movie to look forward to this Fall. However, there’s a film about another American tennis great who broke through racial barriers a generation before Venus and Serena out soon, too.

Clayton Davis Magnolia Pictures has come aboard the documentary “Citizen Ashe” from Emmy winner Rex Miller and Academy Award nominee Sam Pollard. The nonfiction awards hopeful will be heading to theaters on Dec.

EXCLUSIVE: Growing up in the 60s, director Sam Pollard lived in a household that loved baseball, specifically the St. Louis Cardinals. It was that 1961 team that consisted of a large list of African-American players that stood out to Pollard, especially in a time when rosters that looked like this were very scarce across the MLB. That team would be the beginning of his love affair with baseball and the history of the sport, specifically the Negro League and the impact it would have not only on sports history but American history in the years to come.

This week many people will head to the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York, to attend matches of the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Telluride Film Festival programmers refer to its annual feature program, is back this year with a wide array of documentary award season contenders.Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Jacques Cousteau, Anthony Fauci, Francisco Fellove and the Velvet Underground are the subjects of various docus in this year’s lineup. The nonfiction lineup also includes films about cows, rivers, caves, and family dynamics.The secretive Telluride team unveiled the 2021 program just 24 hours before the festival begins.

Arthur Ashe DocCNN Films and HBO Max have partnered with Dogwoof on a documentary – Citizen Ashe – that will explore the impact Arthur Ashe had on tennis and HIV activism. During his momentous tennis career, Ashe won three Grand Slam singles titles and became the first-ever Black player to join the United States Davis Cup team.

EXCLUSIVE: Peabody on Thursday said that documentary producer-director and film and TV editor Sam Pollard has been awarded the Peabody Career Achievement Award, while longtime PBS and CNN anchor Judy Woodruff has won the Peabody Award for Journalistic Integrity.

An intimate portrait of girlhood following three determined sisters in Brooklyn as they race against all odds on a journey toward hope, belonging, and a brighter future, “Sisters On Track” is a compelling-looking documentary. Perhaps further demonstrating its power, “Sisters On Track” will have its North American Premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to filmmaker Sam Pollard about his new HBO art documentary “Black Art: In The Absence of Light,” but I also couldn’t resist asking about his critically-acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. documentary, “MLK/FBI,” which centers on the way the civil rights leaders like King are often treated by U.S.

After wowing audiences in “Black Panther” and “Us,” Winston Duke has found his next standout role, as he’s just been cast as political activist Marcus Garvey in Amazon Studios‘ “Marked Man.” READ MORE: Director Sam Pollard on HBO’s ‘Black Art,’ ‘MLK/FBI’ His Work With Spike Lee & More [Deep Focus] Deadline reports that Duke is set to play Garvey in the upcoming biographical drama “Marked Man” for Amazon.

At 70-years-old, filmmaker Sam Pollard has had a massive career spanning five decades as a dedicated chronicler of the Black experienced in America. But it’s arguably just getting its due in a major way and unlike never before (“The phone’s been ringing off the hook,” he said).

A version of this story about “MLK/FBI” and Sam Pollard first appeared in the Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.The documentary “MLK/FBI” delves into the years in the 1960s when the FBI engaged in a clandestine campaign to spy on and discredit civil rights activist and leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Director Sam Pollard’s film is a portrait of a turbulent time when the country was divided and race relations were a flashpoint for conflict — and it appears now in a different era, but one that is bitterly divided in its own way.The film premiered at 2020’s Toronto International Film Festival, in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests around the country.

Best Feature: “Crip Camp” Directors and Producers: Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht. Producer: Sara BolderBest Director: Garrett Bradley, “Time”Best Short: “John Was Trying to Contact Aliens” Director and Producer: Matthew KillipBest Curated Series: “American Experience” Executive Producers: Susan Bellows and Mark SamelsBest Episodic Series: “Last Chance U” Director and Executive Producer: Greg Whiteley.

The IFC Films documentary MLK/FBI from filmmaker Sam Pollard (Two Trains Runnin’, Eyes on the Prize) makes its debut in select theaters today as well as on demand. The release aligns with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18 and it is super relevant to America’s wild inequity and racist treatment of the Black community — specifically Black activists.

Also Read: 'Tiger' Directors on Documentary's Powerful Opening Scene That Almost Didn't HappenHBO’s two-part “Tiger” doc is driven (that’s a golf pun, get it?) by never-before-seen footage and revealing interviews with those who were once close with Woods, including his former caddy and close friend Steve Williams; Earl Woods’ friend and biographer, Pete McDaniel; Tiger’s first love, Dina Parr; and Rachel Uchitel, the woman at the center of the sex scandal that forever altered Woods’ world.“Tiger” hails from HBO Sports and Jigsaw Productions in association with Our Time Projects, boasts Uchitel’s first-ever sit-down interview about her relationship with Woods.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaSam Pollard’s “MLK/FBI” is an arresting look at how J. Edgar Hoover used the country’s top law enforcement agency to wage a surveillance campaign against Dr.

Also Read: 10 Best Documentaries of 2020, From 'Crip Camp' to 'Totally Under Control' (Photos)The new films in the race, by far the largest number of films in any of the Academy’s monthly additions to the Documentary Branch screening room, are still being processed and are not all ready for viewing yet.The films are largely low-profile docs that have not won prizes or nominations at the nonfiction awards shows that have taken place so far.

Damon Wise Sam Pollard’s “MLK/FBI” follows the dirty war that America’s FBI declared on civil rights figurehead Martin Luther King, a vendetta that began in the 50s and ended with his assassination in 1968, inspired by recent revelations (as well as credible long-held suspicions), and backed up by declassified secret government documents. Documentary festival IDFA, which runs until Dec.

Despite a lack of theatrical distribution, 2020 has been another banner year for documentaries. It’s no surprise then that a number of acclaimed Oscar contenders didn’t make the cut for the prestigious IDA Documentary Awards.

Best Feature“Collective” (Romania / Magnolia Pictures, Participant. Director/Producer: Alexander Nanau. Producer: Bianca Oana)“Crip Camp” (USA / Netflix.

Amanda N'Duka pmc-editorial-managerEXCLUSIVE: Sam Pollard has been tapped to direct The League, a documentary centered on the tumultuous journey of Negro league baseball. Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson of the Roots is serving as executive producer along with Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick and Jen Isaacson of RadicalMedia.Told through the personal experience of notable Negro League umpire Bob Motley, the pic explores  Black baseball as a stage for some of the world’s best athletes, an economic and social pillar of Black communities, and the unintended consequences of MLB integration.