| “IT MUST SCHWING! THE BLUE NOTE STORY, executive produced by Wim Wenders, captivated the DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival. The sold-out New York premiere graced by the presence of Blue Note artists including Lou “Sweet Poppa Lou” Donaldson, Bennie Maupin, Cecil McBee and Charles Tolliver made the screening a real celebration of the Blue Note vision. Director, Eric Friedler, together with Executive Producer, three time Oscar nominated filmmaker, Wim Wenders, were there in person.
Photos From Group photo with Lou Donaldson, Eric Friedler, jazz producer, Michael Cuscuna, and Wim Wenders |
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| “IT MUST SCHWING!” tells the story of legendary Blue Note Records, founded in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, German Jewish refugees who fled Hitler, reinventing themselves in New York as jazz record producers. From the 1940s to their retirement in the 1960s, this unlikely duo assembled a superlative roster of the most visionary jazz artists of their era. IT MUST SCHWING! tells the moving story of two friends, united by a passionate love for jazz, and their profound belief in equality. Featuring Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Quincy Jones and Ron Carter among many others.
The film’s world premiere took place at the International Munich Film Festival and was also screened at the Telluride Film Festival as well as the Warsaw Film Festival among others. The Wall Street Journal singled out IT MUST SCHWING! in its Telluride overview as “an unusually lustrous…gem”. Rolling Stone writes that it is “a unique and intimate look at the most exciting era in Jazz, one that changed the world forever … impressive!” Some of the German press reviews include: “IT MUST SCHWING! is the most elaborate, visually brilliant and unexpected documentary on the topic…A cinematic, historical, socio-political and acoustic masterpiece.” Radio Brandenburg Berlin “A Gesamtkunstwerk – the creative collaboration between producer Alfred Lion and the sound engineer, Van Gelder’s studio recordings, the immortal photos of Francis Wolff and the simple but distinctly modern cover design of Reid Miles, the film chronicles how the legacy of Blue Note was created. IT MUST SCHWING! totally breathes new life into their work.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The film was directed by Eric Friedler, one of the most acclaimed and prolific documentary filmmakers in Germany. Friedler’s innovative films have won numerous national and international prizes. Executive producer Wim Wenders is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999) PINA (2011), and SALT OF THE EARTH (2014). His acclaimed feature narratives include PARIS; TEXAS which won the Palme d’Or (1984) Cannes Film Festival and WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) for which he won Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. More information, including a trailer, is at https://itmustschwing.com/en High resolution photos can be downloaded from itmustschwing.com/press Please contact the US producer at renee@otherislandsfilms.com if you need additional Information or Thomas Beyer at t.beyer.fm@ndr.de |
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