Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #94. Untitled Roger Ross Williams – Apollo Theater Docu

Published on November 23, 2018

A celebrated docu filmmaker (his 2010 short Music by Prudence won Oscar) outside of the festival, Roger Ross Williams‘ second home is indeed Park City as the former TV producer presented God Loves Uganda (2013) and Life, Animated (2016) there. He is getting his narrative fiction game on having participated in the labs for The Life and Death of Cassandro, but we’ll squeeze out more docu from him with the currently untitled Apollo Theater documentary – a project that went into production at the beginning of 2018.

Gist: Written by Williams and Cassidy Hartmann, this will detail the lifespan of the Apollo Theater through the stories of the present-day Apollo and the challenges of those who run it, the film will illuminate the theater’s musical and cultural history, and explore how it has managed to stay at the center of America’s conversation about race and social progress since 1934. The film will look to explore the legendary music, dance, and comedy performances that graced the Apollo’s stage.

Production Co./Producers: Lisa Cortes (Precious), White Horse’s Nigel Sinclair, Jeanne Elfant Festa, Cassidy Hartmann, Roger Ross Williams.

Prediction: Docu Premieres.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Endeavor Content (domestic/international).

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).