News

9.14 Pictures and Xyz Films will produce Untitled Paris Hilton Documentary, to be directed by Don Argott and Sheena Joyce. Xyz commences sales in Cannes this week.

The authorised documentary will be produced by Hilton, Jamie Freed and 9.14 Pictures, with Xyz Films on board as executive producer and worldwide sales agent.

A production start has been earmarked for Ibiza at the end of summer.

The film will focus on Hilton’s life as socialite, entrepreneur and media icon. The subject will discuss her celebrity and examine her impact on young women.

“Paris Hilton is a modern day Marilyn Monroe – beautiful, iconised, world-famous, shaped by mass media, and misunderstood,” said Argott and Joyce.

“We are thrilled to work with Paris to explore her complicated relationship with the public, the press, and the politics that shape our perception of a modern celebrity.”

Argott and Joyce are best known for such critically acclaimed documentary films as Rock School, Last Days Here and [link...

A new documentary, Unstuck In Time, covers the story of Kurt Vonnegut over a period of almost 20 years...

One of the most important American writers of the 20th century, Kurt Vonnegut's novels were full of intelligence and dry humour. Perhaps his most famous work, the semi-autobiographical novel Slaughterhouse-Five, was both a horrifying account of the firebombing of Dresden and a dark time travel comedy.

Such books as Cat's Cradle, Player Piano and Breakfast Of Champions offered up amusing and often worryingly accurate portraits of human nature at its lowest, where lives are ruined or existences snuffed out through naivety or plain madness. In short, Vonnegut was one of the sharpest sci-fi writers of all time.

In 1982, filmmaker Robert Weide wrote to Vonnegut in the hope that the author would let him make a documentary about his life. To Weide's surprise, Vonnegut agreed. Between 1988 and 2007, Weide met with Vonnegut many times,...

Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Directed by Lee Daniels

Written by Danny Strong

USA, 2013

Lee Daniels’ The Butler is an intensely silly film, but all things considered, it’s silly for unexpected reasons. A movie that offers up the image of John Cusack playing President Richard Nixon, with the only distinction between Cusack’s normal visage and his Nixonian veneer being a Pinocchio-like nasal extension, should have its silliness all sewn up in such goofy celebrity casting. But instead, what makes Lee Daniels’ The Butler almost entertainingly ridiculous is less the eclectic, deliberately weird cameos and more a flat, sappy, and inconsistent-to-the-point-of-being-schizophrenic script that very badly wants to tie its title character to Important Events of the 20th Century without fleshing said character in at all.

Forest Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, a kind young man who becomes one of the butlers at the White House in the mid-1950s after rising...

Below directors Don Argott and Demian Fenton ("Rock School," "The Art of the Steal") share a scene from their rousing music documentary, "Last Days Here." It premiered at last year's SXSW Film Festival and comes out March 2 via Sundance Selects (March 16 on VOD). The Film "Last Days Here" is a film about Bobby Liebling, a fifty-something-year-old rocker who, with the help of friend/fan/manager Sean "Pellet" Pelletier, tries to pull himself out of his parents' basement despite decades of drug addiction and trouble. It’s the unbelievable true story about a man at the crossroads of life and death. The Scene In this scene, Bobby and Pellet clearly state their goals and come up with a plan to help Bobby escape the sub-basement. The interesting thing about "Last Days Here" is that our main characters really have two separate visions for the future. Pellet envisions a...

Nashville's Madi Diaz appeared in the 2005 documentary "Rock School" (which later inspired Richard Linklater's "School of Rock"), but she first caught my attention only last year with an incredible Stevie Nicks cover and then a sweaty performance of "Let's Go," shot in a van at the dangerously intemperate, Bonnaroo festival. She's just finished a proper collaborative video for the song with director Matt Amato -- much of the footage shot by herself and her pals using the retro-digital Harinezumi camera, which purposely lends a nostalgic image quality by mimicking the charm of super 8. I asked her about this, but that was really just an excuse to get her to talk about kissing and Fleetwood Mac.

Tell me about the origins of this infectious pop song, from what place did it spring forth?

I'm not sure, but I think it was on my basement ceiling just wandering, floating around waiting...

Though it wouldn't necessarily be fair to label Don Argott and Demian Fenton's latest film "Last Days Here" as a bookend to their wonderfully inspiring 2005 doc "Rock School," there are definitely parallels between the two. Covering both ends of rock 'n' roll spectrum, the latter featured pre-teens picking up guitars and discovering the joys of Black Sabbath while the former depicts the painful descent of Bobby Liebling, the lead singer of the heavy metal band Pentagram who looks like death when we first meet him after drugs, alcohol and a host of bad decisions have left him in his parents' basement with little hope for recovery at the age of 54.

Liebling's story certainly isn't how all rock star stories turn out, but it's also not exactly atypical, which is why "Last Days Here" would appear to be a more nuanced episode of "Behind the Music" at first, except for...

The Art of the Steal is one of the most taut political thrillers I have ever seen. The fact that the film is a documentary only lends to its intrigue.

Helmed by Rock School documentarian Don Argott, Art centers on the ups and downs of the world’s grandest Post-Impressionist art collection dubbed The Barnes. Now, admittedly, this simple description was what kept me from moving the film up on my Netflix queue. Sure, it sounded interesting – but I kept favoring flicks that looked exciting. Don’t be similarly fooled. The Art of the Steal is far more engrossing and accessible than I’d imagined. It’s history doc meets heist flick, and it literally kept me on the edge of my seat.

The doc begins by introducing an eccentric but pivotal figure in the modern art world. Albert C. Barnes was a turn-of-the-Century self-made man, who spent his great...

The Art of the Steal is a documentary about the art world, which is the perfect combination for an unbearably pretentious movie. Shockingly, this movie is anything but pretentious.The Art of the Stealrails against government corruption, the use of art as a status symbol, and exploitation of art for monetary gain. The Barnes Collection represented good art and art education, and what ultimately happened to the Barnes Collection was the exact opposite of that.

The Art of the Steal follows the real-life story of the Barnes Collection, a multi-billion dollar art collection owned by Dr. Albert C. Barnes. Barnes did not care about whether his art would bring him prestige or move him up another rung on the social ladder. All that Barnes cared about was whether he liked the art, and whether it would further his cause of education. When he first opened his house to the critics,...

Don Argott is a cinematographer, producer and director. His latest film, "The Art of the Steal," chronicles the long struggle for control over the multibillion-dollar Barnes collection of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art. A former Dp and camera operator for Fox Sports, Espn, NBC and Tlc/Discovery, Argott started 9.14 Pictures with producer Sheena M. Joyce. The company’s first two feature-length documentaries, "Rock School" and "Two Days in April," are available on DVD.

Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's new weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week, we hear from the director of The Art of the Steal, opening Friday in New York and Philadelphia, March 12 in Los Angeles and currently available for on-demand viewing via Sundance Selects, iTunes and Netflix.

If, as its subject has said, the tightrope-walking exploits detailed in Man on Wire were the "artistic crime of the century," then the skulduggery reported in Don Argott's new documentary The Art of the Steal might be the artistic crime of the 21st century. The film orbits around the Barnes Foundation, a venerated 90-year-old arts repository and educational center just outside Philadelphia, and the home of billions of dollars worth of post-impressionist and early-Modern work by Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and other masters. Before dying in 1951, its founder, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, left a will explicitly stating...

More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]

[Repertory Calendar]

[Jason Reitman's Favorites]

Over 85 films will be filing through arthouses and multiplexes between now and the end of April, but nearly triple that number will be accessible from the comfort of home, whether it's on demand, online or on DVD. Here's what will be hitting televisions, computer screens, Netflix queues and store shelves this spring.

On Demand

Once you get through the masterful six-hour "Red Riding Trilogy" currently available on demand through May, IFC Films and their Sundance Selects label have quite the collection of festival favorites available to beam directly onto your TV in the next few months. It starts on February 17th with the Festival Direct release of the acclaimed John Bryant comedy "The Overbrook Brothers," about two siblings who find out they're adopted, as well as the Sundance Selects release of "Flannel Pajamas" director Jeff Lipsky's multi-generational comedy "Once More With Feeling," starring Chazz Palminteri as...

• #12. The Art Of The Steal Director: Don ArgottDistributor: Rights Available. Buzz: I wasn't a fan of Argott's extremely popular Rock School, but when it comes to docs my interest usually lies with the subject, and not previous misfires. Having nothing to do with baseball's Rickey Henderson, playing at both Tiff and highly selective Nyff, if this is being pitched as a whodunit in the art world, I could see as a favorite among the public and as the must see title for doc film buyers. Gotta love the title. This is the film's world premiere screening. The Gist: This art-world whodunit investigates what happened to the Barnes collection of Post-Impressionist paintings—valued in the billions—that fell prey to a power struggle after the death of owner Albert Barnes. Tiff Schedule: Click here for screening times ...

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Like Gillian Welch and her inseparable, unbilled cohort David Rawlings, Madi Diaz is actually a duo. One half is Diaz herself, and the other is her performing and songwriting partner Kyle Ryan, whom she met while studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. The two had begun playing music in their teens, and Diaz even had an odd, early brush with the spotlight: At 16, while attending Philadelphia’s now-infamous Paul Green School of Rock Music, she appeared in the documentary Rock School, which inspired the 2003 Jack Black flick.

Since then, with Ryan at her side, Diaz has matured into a fine, up-and-coming artist. She caught Paste's attention at this year's SXSW Music Conference with her laidback yet arresting performance at the historic Driskill Hotel’s Victorian Room. We caught up with Diaz and Ryan over sushi in their newly adopted hometown of Nashville, Tenn., last Sunday night. Just back...

• Netflix' theatrical distributor Red Envelope and B-Side Entertainment are pairing for Two Days In April - a doc that comes across like a blend between Hoop Dreams and Jerry Maguire. Directed by Don Argott (the filmmaker of 2005's Rock School, this follows the story of 4 college football players signed by the sports agency Img, as they bring them to a training facility in Florida and both physically and mentally prepare them for the NFL draft. Look for an April day-and-date release in theatres, on DVD and on internet store....

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"So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star," the Byrds once cheekily sang. In Philadelphia, there's always been more of a path for rocker wannabees: Dick Clark used to plug and pump local talent on American Bandstand, and now there's a guy in Philly who runs a school in how to become a rock star. The school's a bit unconventional as this kick-ass documentary on the Paul Green School of Rock Music shows. This release from Newmarket Films received a rousing ovation at Sundance earlier this year and such enthusiasm transposes to great word-of-mouth for Rock School.

Great leaders or teachers know how to push their followers' buttons. Rock School founder Paul Green is a master of inspiration and, as this film shows, manipulation. A tyrant, an egomaniac, a master-blaster, Green essentially runs a musical boot camp. And the kids, who range from 9–17, love it. Green preens, badgers and inspires and at times seems the most immature "kid" in the room. But his musical madness is packed with method: Practice, practice, practice is his dictum. No Juilliard or Berklee instructor demands more. He's a pain in the butt, but the students, for the most part, keep coming back.

In this day of dumbing down and coddling students, it's refreshing to see a teacher push his students to levels of accomplishment they didn't think was possible. Like a piano teacher beginning with Bach and crescendoing toward Liszt, Green insists that they play the classics. In his mind, that means Frank Zappa, whose music degree of technical difficulty, represents to him the Mount Everest of rock. No strummy three-chord players for Green. Leave that for the garage.

Director Don Argott's filming is attuned not just to the musical dynamics but, better yet, to the personal chords. We come to learn about the school not only through Green's histrionics but through the eyes and ears of five different students. They are a diverse mix, including a clinically depressed loner (Will), a defiant Quaker girl (Madi), 9-year-old angelic/satanic twins (Asa and Tucker) and a virtuoso lead guitarist (CJ).

Rock School rips out in the gritty-underdogs-conquer-the-world story progression. In this real-life scenario, Green whips them into shape for a triumphant performance at a Zappa Festival in East Germany.

Cinematographer-director Argott has the technical virtuoso of a lead guitarist, while editor Demian Fenton is a combo bass guitarist, drummer with his pulsating pace.

Rock School

Newmarket Films

9.14 Pictures

Credits:

Producers: Sheena M. Joyce, Don Argott

Director/ director of photography: Don Argott

Editor: Demian Fenton

MPAA rating R

Running time -- 93 minutes...

LAS VEGAS -- Ambitious, creative grass-roots marketers from local theater chains nationwide were honored for their innovative and philanthropic promotional initiatives in 2004 as the 24th annual Hollywood Reporter Showmanship Awards took place Tuesday at a ShoWest luncheon. Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller presided over the event, which was kicked off by a throbbing live performance by Paul Green's School of Rock band, which will be featured in Newmarket Films' upcoming Rock School docu. "Teller and I set up a school of magic, but all we were doing was killing rabbits," cracked Jillette, before introducing Robert J. Dowling, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. Dowling highlighted the importance of local movie promotions during a time when consumers are increasingly distracted by emerging forms of digital media. "If you think about it, one of the most challenging words in business today is fragmentation," Dowling said.