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Bvlgari and Tribeca Studios have recruited Oscar-nominee Cynthia Erivo to host its Female Trailblazers Series focused on highlighting resilient and extraordinary women through short films.

On Monday, the singer-actress will host virtual panels for two films, Lot 448 and Ezinma. The series, which starts at 6 p.m. Et, will kick off with Bella Monticelli’s Lot 448. Monticelli’s short work follows an art activist as she attempts to stop a rare artifact from falling into corrupt hands.

Ezinma, from Alison Chernick, follows a violinist who is revolutionizing the world of classical music. The titular character takes her rigorous classical training and transforms it into a fresh, radical and intersectional genre of her own, gaining the recognition of notable artists including Beyoncé.

The two films are among the six titles produced across Bvlgari’s three-year partnership with Tribeca Studios and the final to premiere in association with Tribeca Film Festival. The complete...

Nothing takes you back to time and a place like the music of a particular era. That’s one big reason why music documentaries are flourishing at a time of enormous demand for high-end docu productions.

This year’s five Grammy Award nominees for best music film reflect the appetite for stories about renowned and beloved musical figures, from Whitney Houston to Itzhak Perlman to Elvis Presley to Quincy Jones. Music docus have a natural commercial appeal and a built-in core target audience, which provides a foundation for marketing efforts to spur word-of-mouth about a title.

“What’s beautiful about doing a music documentary is that it immediately transcends the borders of the docu-loving audience and the community of an artist’s fans,” said Vinnie Malhotra, Showtime’s head of documentary programming. “They’re emotional. There’s a nostalgia factor to them. At their best they give you new perspective...

Distributor plans early 2019 theatrical release.

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired Us rights to the Emily Dickinson drama and SXSW selection Wild Nights With Emily starring Molly Shannon.

Madeleine Olnek wrote and directed the feature about the life and love of the celebrated 19th century American poet and depicts her lesser-known vivaciousness and irreverence, including her lifelong romance with another woman.

The filmmakers secured permission from Harvard University Press to use Dickisnon’s own words in the film, and received research support from the Guggenheim foundation.

“Madeleine’s witty, madcap yet poignant and absolutely necessary version of Emily’s life is an...

Documentarian Alison Chernick has made a career of profiling artists from Jeff Koons and Matthew Barney in features to Roy Lichtenstein and Rick Rubin in shorts. Her latest subject is renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman — a victim of polio as a child in Israel who found himself at Julliard before earning Grammys, Emmys, and countless international awards. He overcame a disability (walking on crutches when not in his wheelchair) that never impaired his playing, but constantly hung over his head as a psychological hindrance in the minds of those with the opportunity to help his education. It took Ed Sullivan and an assumed desire to showcase a teenaged Itzhak’s skill despite his handicap rather than removed from it to bring him to New York and carve his path forward.

Itzhak is a hybrid of sorts that doesn’t merely draw his linear trajectory from birth to the present or focus...

Updated at 12:10Pm Pt with more numbers and analysis. The Orchard sprouted a hit over the weekend, opening teen comedy Flower, starring Zoey Deutch, in just three theaters and grossing a rousing $57,851.

That tally yielded the highest per-theater average of the weekend, though right behind it was IFC Films’ The Death of Stalin, which came in with $18,143 per situation in its second frame even while expanding to 32 runs.

Focus Features’ 7 Days in Entebbe went out to over 800 theaters on Friday with a so-so $1.63M start, while Good Deed Entertainment’s Journey’s End debuted in two locations, grossing $12,700.

Classical music doc Itzhak expanded to 19 runs in its second weekend, conducting $37,500, while SPC’s The Leisure Seeker with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland camped in 49 theaters in its second outing, taking in $149K. Also in Week Two was Focus’ Thoroughbreds, which collected $470K. Best Foreign Language winner A Fantastic Woman...

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A Wrinkle in Time [IMDb] pictured

Ava DuVernay directs and Jennifer Lee cowrites the tale of a girl (Storm Reid) who travels into space to find her missing father, with the help of three mysterious aliens (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling).

Strangers: Prey at Night [IMDb]

Christina Hendricks and Bailee Madison costar as members of a family terrorized by psychopaths. (male writers and director)

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The Homeless Chorus Speaks [official site]

Documentarian Susan Polis Schutz profiles the members of a San Diego choir of homeless men and women.

Itzhak [IMDb]

Documentarian Alison Chernick profiles a legendary (male) violinist.

Viva Kino! [La Times review]

Filmmaker Lia Beltrami pays documentary tribute to a Jesuit priest who founded missions in the 17th century in what is today the American southwest.

Girls vs Gangsters [IMDb]

Zhenzhen Huang directs and cowrites this comedy about a bachelorette party gone wrong, starring Junning Zhang, Yihan Chen, Kaiqi Xue, and Tiantian Fan.

Itzhak Greenwich Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Alison Chernick Cast: Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Alan Alda, Amnon Weisntein, Stefan Valcuha, Billy Joel, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, Evgeny Kissin, the Klezmatics Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 3/2/18 Opens: March 16, 2018 Why do so many Jews play violin? That’s a question dealt with in this intriguing […]

The post Itzhak Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Itzhak, the Alison Chernick-directed documentary that served as the opening-night film at the most recent Hamptons Film Festival, has been acquired by newbie distributor Greenwich Entertainment. The plan is for a theatrical release nationwide beginning March 9 in New York. It will also be broadcast as part of PBS' American Masters series. The film, which takes an in-depth look at Itzhak Perlman, widely considered the world’s best violinist, will be the first theatrical…...

Newly formed indie distributor Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Itzhak, Alison Chernick’s documentary about violinist Itzhak Perlman.

The film, which screened as the opening night film at the Hamptons International Film Festival and also played Doc NYC and the Palm Springs Film Festival, will be released theatrically beginning May 9 in New York and will be broadcast on PBS’ American Masters in October as part of their National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Itzhak was produced by Chernick and executive produced by Michael Kantor and Penny Lieberman.

New York-based Greenwich was launched in September...

 

Alison Chernick's documentary about famed violinist Itzhak Perlman does a thorough job of showcasing the venerable musician's engaging personality and deep passion for music. Unfortunately, Itzhak proves less successful in biographical terms, making it more suitable for Perlman's longtime fans than those who have only a cursory knowledge of his life and career. Having recently received its world premiere as the opening night film of the Hamptons International Film Festival, the documentary will be broadcast in 2018 on PBS' American Masters.

Itzhak briefly relates the story of the violinist's early years, including his being afflicted with polio and making...

The Hamptons International Film Festival has set the world premiere of the Itzhak Perlman documentary, Itzhak, as the opening-night film for its 25th anniversary edition. The conductor, who is an East End resident, will be in attendance at the screening of director Alison Chernick's film about the life and music of the man widely considered to be the world's greatest living violinist.

Additionally, the festival will host world premieres for Jennifer Garner-starrer The Tribes of Palos Verdes, with Garner expected to attend the event, and docs about makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin and the day of the 2016 election. 

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The Hamptons Film Festival revealed this morning that Alison Chernick's Itzhak Perlman documentary Itzhak will be the opening-night film at this year’s 25th anniversary fest, which kicks off October 5 in East Hampton, NY. The famed violinist and conductor, who lives in the East End, will attend for the world premiere. The fest unveiled seven more world bows to go along with its already announced Centerpiece film, Andy Serkis’ Breathe. New titles include the Dylan Baker-sta…...

Opening with long meditative, carefully composed tracking shots through tunnels, passages and man-made caves, Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow is a portrait with little context of the artist Anselm Kiefer. We learn in text Kiefer moved from his native Germany to Barjac, France, the studio where this work has been filmed.

The film sheds light on an experience in a way that a TV documentary on the same subject perhaps could not. However, like all cinema this is a manipulated experience that contains as much filmmakers Sophie Fiennes hand as it does Kiefer’s. The experience of the work cannot be replicated in Fiennes’ carefully composed frames and tracking shots, all intensified with a musical score lacking subtlety.

Kiefer’s work had been previously unknown to me, an advantage in that the film invites you to do discover his work and process with little commentary, aside from an interview...

The Jeff Koons Show is an Alison Chernick film about which Jerry Saltz (Senior Art Critic, New York magazine) says, “Chernick cracks through the façade of Koons’ enigmatic ebullience to reveal the phantasmagorical depth of a tremendously complex and creative emptiness.” What more does a film need to recommend it?Who is Jeff Koons? Jeff Koons is a man who saw an opening—the world’s greatest living artist--and decided to fill it . As a child, he went from house to house selling gift wrap to his neighbors; as an adult he became a stockbroker in order to finance...

If artist Jeff Koons had never said a word about himself or his work, he might not have developed a reputation as a huckster and a boor among so many in the art world. Then again, if Koons had clammed up, he also likely wouldn’t have been able to command a seven-figure payday for an explicit sculpture of himself having sex with his Italian porn-star wife. Alison Chernick’s documentary The Jeff Koons Show surveys Koons’ career to date, emphasizing the “show” part of her title. She begins with a 1992 Koons interview in which he claims that only ...

NEW YORK -- IFC Entertainment and the Weinstein Co. have co-acquired North American rights to the artist documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint, featuring Bjork and about 40,000 pounds of petroleum jelly, for IFC's First Take program.

Producer-director Alison Chernick's feature follows Barney and wife Bjork to Japan, chronicling their collaboration on the 2005 art film Drawing Restraint 9. During the six-month project, shot on a whaling vessel near Nagasaki, Barney attempts to create a "narrative sculpture" conveying the story of two land mammals who turn into whales.

Chernick examines the soundscape created by Bjork, the artists' culture clash with local crew members and the method behind the madness of Barney's Cremaster films. Fashion designer agnes b. served as executive producer.

No Restraint premiered at this year's Berlin International Film Festival. It will be released Dec. 20 at New York's IFC Center and on video-on-demand.

Chernick last directed another artist docu, The Jeff Koons Show, for television in 2004.

The deal was negotiated by Genna Terranova and Eileen Rodriguez for the Weinstein Co.