Stand-Up Documentary
Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work Ricki Stern
USA, Scotland, UK, 2010 HDcam, color, 84 min
Ricki Stern:
Director: Ricki Stern Co-director: Annie Sundberg Photography: Charles Miller Editing: Penelope Falk Sound: Brad Bergbom, Seth Keal Music: Paul Brill Production: Seth Keal & Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg for Break Thru Films Inc. World Sales: IFC Films Screening Copy: Break Thru Films, Inc. Website: www.joanriversapieceofwork.com
The Trials of Darryl Hunt (2006) The Devil Came on Horseback (2007) The End of America (2008) Burma Soldier (2011) The Sky Is Not the Limit (2012) Knuckleball (2012) Let Them Wear Towels (2013)
In My Corner (1998)
Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg:
The American comedienne Joan Rivers was born in 1933 and she’s always been hard at work, but now it’s 2009 and her career is in the doldrums. Her greatest fear is staring her in the face: an empty calendar. Director Ricki Stern follows Rivers over a year of deep lows, high points and a great deal of uncertainty. Rivers’s forthright account hides huge insecurity – something that also seems to be at the root of her liberal use of plastic surgery. Her own story combines with that of her entourage and her only daughter Melissa to create a juicily funny and tragic portrayal of a remarkable, self-deprecating and hugely driven woman. It seems that big city theater performances are a thing of the past; “Kathy Griffin is taking all of those away,” Rivers jokes. And following the umpteenth show in some small town, she can’t help but be frustrated. “Forty years in the business and this is where I fucking end up?” But then she’s invited onto Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice. She jumps for joy, because she would have been happy to wear a diaper for an incontinence ad. Anything for a bit of face time.
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic Marina Zenovich
Marina Zenovich: USA, UK, 2013 HDcam, color/black-and-white, 85 min Independent’s Day (1998) Director: Marina Zenovich Photography: Christine Burrill Editing: Chris Peterson Music: Erin Davis, Mocean Worker Production: Sara Hutchison Executive Production: Roy Ackerman for Fresh One, Jennifer Lee Pryor for Tarnished Angel Inc World Sales: CBS International Screening Copy: Fresh One Involved TV Channels: Showtime Networks Inc., BBC
Who is Bernard Tapie? (2001) Estonia Dreams of Eurovision! (2002) Tim Noble & Sue Webster: Now Here (fiction, 2006) Vanessa Beecroft in Berlin (fiction, 2006) Robert Wilson: Video Portraits (2008) Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008) Heroes Among Us (fiction, 2010) Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out (2012)
Comedian Richard Pryor died in 2005 at 65 years old. He was both a self-made and a selfunmade man. As a stand-up comic, he broke racial and social taboos during America’s civil rights era, and he brought black street slang to the general public. He titled his successful debut album That Nigger’s Crazy, much to the discomfort of white interviewers. Film recordings of his shows demonstrate how his controversial character earned him many fans, but it also cost him lucrative work in Las Vegas as well as the starring role in Mel Brooks’s 1974 film Blazing Saddles (which Pryor co-wrote), and his own TV series The Richard Pryor Show. Besides abundant and often unique archive footage, this film features interviews with a string of ex-wives and friends including Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams and Jesse Jackson, all of whom paint a picture of a troubled comedian. Despite a spiritual journey to Africa, it was ultimately the drugs that were his undoing. Watching TV while he was high, Pryor saw a Vietnamese monk setting fire to himself and decided to do the same – an event that this documentary illustrates with scenes from his 1986 autobiographical feature Jo Jo Dancer. Fortunately, Pryor was always able to draw on his personal misfortunes in his stand-up work, up to and including the multiple sclerosis that finally killed him. As he said, “Nothing was too sad some humor couldn’t be found in it.”
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