Synopsis: This exposé chronicles the private dramas of irreverent, legendary comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers as she fights tooth and nail to keep her American dream alive. The film offers a rare glimpse of the comedic process and the crazy mixture of self-doubt and anger that often fuels it. A unique look inside America's obsession with fame and celebrity, Rivers's story is both an outrageously funny journey and brutally honest look at the ruthless entertainment industry, the trappings of success, and the ultimate vulnerability of the first queen of comedy. Being able to break through Rivers’s self-made façade is a tribute to filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg. It is obvious the magic of this film is the inherent trust between filmmakers and subject. Shot over the course of a year, the film enlists a resilient cinema vérité style to craft a moving look at this iconic performer, stripping away her comedy masks and laying bare the truth of her life and inspiration. [Synopsis courtesy of Sundance Film Festival]
"It's been years since I've last been on these. I thought it was something you don't forget how to do, but you do," the political documentarian Anand Patwardhan bantered as he returned his roller skates to the counter. Sheffield Doc/Fest may be the only one of the fifty film festival's profiled i...
Read More »After a few rather uneventful weekends at the specialty box office, a quartet of very strong debuts should lift the spirits of many a distributor this Sunday afternoon. According to estimates provided by Rentrak earlier this afternoon, four films opened to $15,000+ per-theater-averages, including t...
Read More »Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's Sundance doc "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" has been picked up by IFC Films.
Read More »A unlikely duo of Sundance 2010 alums are giving this summer a much needed boost of critical acclaim this weekend, with Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's doc "Joan RIvers: A Piece of Work" and Debra Granik's U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner "Winter's Bone" each beginning their limited releases c...
Read More »With late night television dominating entertainment headlines this year in a less-than-flattering light, the time seems ripe to revisit the public's neglect of Joan Rivers. The 77-year-old comic's reputation sank from rising star to showbiz disaster over the course of a decade, mainly due to a shift...
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