Archive for the 2023 FILMS Category

2022 (USA) 106 minutes

Directed by: Sacha Jenkins

Musician and documentary filmmaker Sacha Jenkins accessed the personal archive of legendary jazz trumpeter and singer Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. Tapping into Louis’ own audio recordings, representing a meticulous account of his personal life, Jenkins offers insights into the man behind the music-his private conversations juxtaposed with his public persona as one of the most famous musicians and performers in the world. Archival footage and a soundtrack containing some of Satchmo’s bestknown songs and performances bring Louis to life and show him as a barrier-breaking Black entertainer who navigated the times he lived in to keep at his craft over a 50+-year career.

Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room – December 3 – 6:00pm

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2022 (USA) 102 minutes

Directed by: Denny Tedesco

From Denny Tedesco, the award-winning director of The Wrecking Crew!, comes a new documentary charting the journey of a group of close friends who became the premiere studio band for the musical icons of the ’70s and beyond. They may not be as familiar as the stars they collaborated with, but you’ll find their names in the liner notes of many favorite albums of the singer-songwriter era. These five talented musicians — Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, and Steve Postell — musically clicked together and became the coveted session players for a new generation of hitmakers. Interviewees include their collaborators James Taylor, Don Henley, Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne, Phil Collins, Carole King, Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards, Steve Jordan, and dozens more who take us behind the scenes on the songs that shaped an era. This is the up-close-and-personal story of the artists who shunned the spotlight but loved being on the road and in the studio with their heroes, steering the course of musical history to this day.

2023 Boulder International Film Festival – Best Documentary
2023 Calgary International Film Festival – Audience Award

Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room – December 1 – 8:30pm

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2023 (USA) 96 minutes

Directed by: Alison Ellwood

Cyndi Lauper anxiously rides in the backseat of a car stuck in
New York City traffic. In her distinctively thick New York accent,
she reflects on her career, saying “I didn’t want anyone to tell
me what I could and couldn’t do.” On her longevity and unique
ability to adapt to shifting social trends, she says “I never think
of it as reinvention. I want to learn.” Alison Ellwood’s spirited
documentary Let the Canary Sing takes the audience on a
nostalgic exploration of the life and career of legendary pop
icon Cyndi Lauper, with a boisterous narrative anchored by the
inimitable Lauper herself. The film traverses her upbringing in a
lower-class Queens neighborhood through her rebellious youth
pushing back against intolerance, all the way to her meteoric
rise in the music scene crafting classic songs that are vibrant and
catchy as well as socially resonant. Ellwood presents a revealing
and honest Lauper alongside lively archival footage of her cheeky
personality and many absorbing performances through the years.
The result is a film that captures Lauper’s body of work as an
outspoken feminist artist who has been a stalwart advocate and
champion for others.

2023 Tribeca Film Festival
2023 Edinburgh International Film Festival

Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room – December 1 – 6:30pm

2023 (USA) 113 minutes

Directed by: Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, Karen O’Connor

In her 20s, Joan Baez was the undisputed queen of folk music, one of the first people to recognize Bob Dylan’s talent and record his songs (the two would also make another kind of music together for a while), and someone who used her rising celebrity to fight for civil rights and justice and against the war in Vietnam. This entrancing documentary takes a long look back at Baez’s wild ride while following the longtime San Mateo County resident on her 2018/2019 Fare Thee Well Tour. The final Baez standing
after the deaths of her two sisters and her parents, Baez gives an account not just of her singular life of art and activism but also spins a complicated family story. Music, archival material, and oral history combine for a stunning glimpse into the voice of a generation.

2023 Berlin International Film Festival
2023 South by Southwest Film Festival
2023 San Francisco International Film Festival

Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room – November 30 – 8:00pm

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2023 (USA) – Episode 1 – 71 minutes – Episode 2 – 74 minutes

Directed by: Alison Ellwood and Anoosh Tertzakian

San Francisco Sounds: A Place in Time is a two-part docu-series that celebrates the musical and artistic renaissance that exploded in the San Francisco Bay Area from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. Told through first-hand accounts of artists who lived it, the series explores the creative spirit that led to the
emergence of psychedelic rock music, light shows and poster art; the origin of the rock concert with the Filmore and Avalon ballrooms; the birth of “freeform” radio; and the new rock journalism that defined a generation – and generations to come. The series is an intricately crafted musical journey that weaves
personal stories with never-before-seen archival footage, photos and audio. Featuring the music of Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Steve Miller, Moby Grape, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, the Doobie Brothers and many more.

Courtesy of Apple TV

Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room – December 2 – 6:00pm (Episode 1) & 7:30pm (Episode 2)

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2023 (USA) 87 minutes

Directed by: Rudy Valdez

At the age of 5, in his native Mexico, he learned to play the violin. At 8, he developed a lifelong love for the guitar. At 14, he honed those guitar virtuoso skills and his performance style working as a street musician, starting his own band not long after while still a teenager. And at 22 – just before his first album was released to acclaim – Carlos Santana became one of the major discoveries of Woodstock, anchoring the famous festival’s second afternoon on August 16, 1969. A music industry legend for 50 years and a 10-time Grammy winning global sensation, as well as a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor and a Billboard Century Award, Santana continues to be one of the music world’s premiere artists, blending jazz, blues, and the Mariachi sound with rock n’ roll spirituality and a sense of connection to music’s primal connection to our deepest emotions. The electric documentary CARLOS utilizes new interviews with Santana and his family alongside extraordinary, never-before-seen archival footage – including home video recordings Santana himself made; concert footage; and behind-the scenes moments – as two time Emmy winning director Rudy Valdez creates an intimate, rich documentary about a man whose sound casts a spell on fans who love – as one of Santana’s famous titles says – “how his rhythm goes.”

2023 Tribeca Film Festival

Incline Village Cinema – November 30 – 8:00pm

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2022 (USA) 120 minutes

Directed by: Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli

It is the most sacred place on earth, the birthplace of the Lakota that has shaped thought, identity and philosophy for the Océti Šakówin since time immemorial–the life-giving land known as the Black Hills. Yet with the arrival of the first Europeans in 1492, the sacred land has been the site of conflict between the people it has nurtured and the settler state seeking to exploit and redefine it in its own image. Beginning with the Indian Wars of the 1800s, which saw the U.S. Army continually on the losing-end against Sioux and Arapaho warriors, and leading to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 — one of many broken treaties separating the Oyate from their land — the Black Hills have witnessed a greed-driven gold rush, the systematic erasure of its original inhabitants, and the creation of a most ironic shrine to white supremacy, Mount Rushmore.

2023 Tribeca Film Festival
2023 Chicago International Film Festival

Incline Village Cinema – December 2 – 2:00pm

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2023 (USA) 91 minutes

Directed by: Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Lisa Cortés

From National Geographic Documentary Films comes The Space Race, an emotive and educational exploration of the experiences of the first Black astronauts. Featuring candid interviews from Ed Dwight, Guion Bluford, Charles Bolden, and Victor Glover, the documentary spotlights the oft-omitted racial injustice
narratives and present-day realities of these pioneers. This film weaves together archival footage of U.S. space expeditions, Afrofuturist cultural milestones, and stories told by Black astronauts into an enlightening dialogue about the expectations placed on trailblazers. Tackling defining moments of American history, from the Kennedy assassination to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to the George Floyd uprising, these dynamic discussions posit new meditations on the fight for equality. Asthe documentary transverses space and decades, it encourages a reclamation of the past as a way to create a limitless future.

2023 Tribeca Film Festival
2023 Chicago International Film Festival

Incline Village Cinema – December 3 – 2:00pm

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2023 (USA) 95 minutes

Directed by: Frank Marshall

Frank Marshall’s incisive documentary is a long-overdue tribute
to an icon of journalism, a late-in-life Twitter superstar, a father,
husband, and a voice of reason, compassion, and brilliance: Dan
Rather. To older generations, his name may be synonymous
with quality journalism and stalwart diplomacy, but to younger
audience members unfamiliar with his career, Rather provides
the opportunity to travel back in time through his remarkable
experiences and sharp-witted commentary. From his days
embedded in the Vietnam War to his on-the-ground coverage of
JFK’s assassination to his presence at the foot of the Berlin Wall
as it fell, Dan Rather has reported on an astonishing number of
iconic moments in history. Now, as a 92-year-old reflecting on
seven decades of service and looking to the future of democracy,
we meet a man freed from the auspices of any overarching
network or deadline — a big-hearted human fueled by a tireless
work ethic and dedication to the truth. Sprinkled with deadpan
humor and often with a tear in his eye, Rather narrates the stories
that define both him as a person and our nation’s alternately
shameful and celebratory recent past.

2023 Tribeca Film Festival

Incline Village Cinema – December 3 – 4:00pm

2023 (USA) 89 minutes

Directed by: Tom Donahue

There is perhaps no more polarizing subject in American politics than the discussion around how to resolve our issues of gun violence and gun control throughout the country. An all-out war between rural vs. urban, left vs. right, and red states vs. blue states has been waged by politicians, lobbyists, and media outlets intent on making their point of view heard and felt — yet the country is no closer to finding a middle ground. “The Great Divide” takes on the hot-button topic by examining the origins of violence in America, from its roots in slavery and Native American genocide to the modern-day epidemic of mass shootings. The so-called red flag laws, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders, allow the state to restrict access or even remove firearms from people deemed a risk by “family or household member or a law enforcement officer established by clear and convincing evidence that a person poses a significant risk to self or others by having a firearm in his or her custody.”

2023 Aspen Film Festival
2023 RiverRun Film Festival

Incline Village Cinema – December 2 – 4:00pm