Tagline:  Filmed by You

Synopsis:  What do you get when you ask the people of the world to chronicle a single day in their lives?  You get 80,000 submissions, 4500 hours of footage, from 192 countries. Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create a user-generated
feature film shot in a single day. On July 24, you have 24 hours to
capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and
distinctive footage will be edited into a feature film,  Kevin Macdonald has taken this raw material and created a 90-minute triumph to what it means to be human in the world today.

Release Date: July 24, 2011 (limited)

Every Tuesday night in August, renowned documentarian Morgan Spurlock will be counting down the 50 Documentaries To See Before You Die, the most remarkable and moving documentaries released in the past 25 years. Join us each week as we explore how the documentary feature has evolved into an increasingly popular genre, becoming a major box office draw and impacting contemporary culture in ways never seen before.

Airs August 2nd @10pm on Current TV

Get a glimpse inside one of the most powerful news media outlets in the world today.

Synopsis:  During the most tumultuous time for media in generations, filmmaker Andrew Rossi gains unprecedented access to the newsroom at The New York Times. For a year, he follows journalists on the paper's Media Desk, a department created to cover the transformation of the media industry. Through this prism, a complex view emerges of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity, especially at the Times itself.

Just Me
I'm a sucker for documentaries so my opinion will be a little biased.  However I have to say from looking at this trailer, this movie looks pretty fascinating.  I would love to see what it's like inside of that newsroom.  Given that the filmmakers behind this documentary brought us Waiting For Superman and Food Inc., I have no doubt this movie will be very entertaining and more importantly informative to the public.  Plus anyone with a journalism background would not want to miss this film.

Release Date: June 26, 2011

UNSUNG  on TV One

From the TV One website...

TV One's UnSung is back with ALL NEW episodes with the artists you've been dying to see!

TV One's signature music biography series sheds much-do light on some of the most influential, talented and yet, somehow forgotten R&B, Soul and Gospel artists of the last 30 years. While Aretha, Whitney, Diana, Stevie, Marvin and the Winans have been recognized over and over again-there are several artists like Phyllis Hyman and The Clark Sisters who haven't been as honored.

This season, we'll dig deep into the lives of Deniece Williams, Big Daddy Kane, The Spinners, The Ohio Players, Alexander O'Neal & Cherrelle and Evelyn "Champagne" King. Airing Monday nights, Unsung uncovers the hidden truth behind the fading of your favorite stars.

This new and exciting season will reveal the business and personal struggles that kept these artists from achieving the iconic commercial status they deserved.  Don't miss Unsung when it returns!

Returns June 6 @10pm (ET)

Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

Having forged a 20-year run as one of the most innovative and influential hip hop bands of all time, the Queens NY collective known as 'A Tribe Called Quest' have kept a generation hungry for more of their groundbreaking music since their much publicized breakup in 1998. Michael Rapaport documents the inner workings and behind the scenes drama that follows the band to this day. He explores what's next for, what many claim, are the pioneers of alternative rap.

Just Me
I love this rap group and miss them dearly.  The Tribe is one of the most unique groups out there who used to lace my ears with positive, melodic, hip hop anthems such as Bonita Applebum, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, Electric Relaxation, and my all time favorite Check the Rhime.  Since the movie is directed by actor Michael Rappaport, who I swear is actually Black and a true hip hop head, I know who will stay true to the real story behind these mega artists.       
Release Date:  July 2011

I had the wonderful opportunity of interviewing Greg Jacobs after one of his showings of Louder Than a Bomb at the Drexel Theater.  Jacobs (pictured on the right) is a native of Columbus Ohio and one half of the talented and successful documentary film production team, Siskel/Jacobs Productions.  The company was formed in 2005 and very quickly made a name for itself in television. 

Tagline:  The fate of our country won't be decided on a battlefield, it will be determined in a classroom.

Waiting for Superman is a new documentary film about the U.S.'s under-performing educational system.  Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) explores the lives of five families from urban communities in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and our nation's capital as the parents try to get their kids into better schools.  The idea for this film was sparked by Guggenheim reading an article in the New York Times about the 'lottery system' that was set in place for admitting students to a prominent boarding school in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Statistics:  The United States ranks 25th in Mathematics and 21st in Science.  And it has already been projected that the next generation will be less literate than the one before.

So who is going to save our educational system?  The producers of this film don't just want you to watch the film.  They want you to take action.

Release Date:  September 24, 2010

Premiering tonight on ESPN is One Night in Vegas.  It is part of ESPN's 30 for 30 film series.  This particular episode will take you back to the notorious night of September 7, 1996 in Las Vegas when Mike Tyson fought Bruce Seldon for the WBC heavyweight championship.  And this is also the night hip-hip and the African American community lost one of its storytellers, poet, actor, and revolutionaries: Tupac Shakur.  

Director Reggie Rock Bythewood will go into the friendship Mike Tyson and Tupac shared with each other while rising to be stars from poverty.  This documentary will include commentary from friends, associates, and onlookers from that evening including Maya Angelou and Michael Eric Dyson.

Now I haven't seen any of these movies yet.  But they are on my list.  Since we're moving into the winter season, it's a must I upgrade my Netflix membership.  I don't do well in the cold.  So I will be watching a lot of movies in the next couple of months.  Here are three movies that look interesting.  If you've seen any of them, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Sugar

Synopsis:  Miguel Santos, a.k.a Azucar, a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris, struggles to make it to the big leagues and pull himself and his family out of poverty. Playing professionally at the Kansas City Knights baseball academy, Miguel finally gets his break at age 19 when he advances to the United States' minor league system. Miguel travels from his tight knit community in the Dominican Republic to a small town in Iowa, corn country, where he and a couple other Latin American teammates are the only Spanish-speaking people in the vicinity. As Miguel struggles with the new language and culture, despite the welcoming efforts of his host family, he is faced with an isolation he never before experienced. When his play on the mound falters, he begins examining more closely the world around him and his place within it, and ultimately questions the single-mindedness of his life's ambition.

Even though I didn’t catch this movie right out of the gate,  I just had to go see it because of all the controversy surrounding this  documentary.  So I persuaded my friend to  come with me to check out the film despite the fact she’s not the biggest Chris Rock fan.

If you need a little background on the film, you can refer  to my earlier post.  I’m going to go  right in to my review.

I will start off with  what immediately happened following the film.   I noticed a couple sitting behind us who were leaving the theater.  And me being me, I’m always interested in  other people’s thoughts and opinions.  So  I decided to ask them what they thought of the film.   The guy stated that he thought it was well  “balanced”.  Hmmm….well balanced I  thought.  Now I didn’t ask him to  elaborate but based on what I thought he meant I would have to agree.  The movie provided the audience with a great mixture of the forces behind a woman’s hair in the black community. 

ATTENTION:   FOR REAL HIP-HOP HEADS ONLY!!!