[Trailer] Life Itself
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Roger Ebert touched my life in a number of ways, not only as a film critic or a fan of movies, but as a Chicagoan. Somehow, Ebert became the de facto voice in film criticism during his long tenure at the Chicago Sun-Times. I'll never become half the critic he was, but I acknowledge his influence every time I sit down to watch a film and every time I sit down to gather my thoughts together for a review. Everybody knew who Ebert was, highlighting just how iconic he became in his lifetime while writing for a local newspaper (that was distributed nationally, to be fair). Ebert never lost his voice, even after he very literally lost his voice to cancer towards the end of his life. Finally, a fitting testimony to his legacy will be appearing in theaters across the country later this summer.
Entitled Life Itself, the documentary follows Ebert's life as an amateur writer to becoming the icon he eventually became, complete with the trials and tribulations he had to face. I wrote a bit about the documentary while its crowd funding campaign was going on last year. While I unfortunately missed the doc back at Sundance, I look forward to seeing what director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) was able to put together.
Life Itself will be released on July 4th.
[Video] Help fund the Roger Ebert documentary, Life Itself
Roger Ebert's death earlier this year was felt not only in Chicago, but in the film community all around the world. Whether you loved him or loathed him, it's hard to argue against how influential Ebert was for film criticism and journalism. I've shared my thoughts on how Ebert personally impacted me previously, but now, people can truly show support for the iconic film critic.
Life Itself, named after Ebert's memoir of the same name, is a documentary about Ebert's life that attempts to show Ebert not as the film icon he was known for, but as the fully-realized person that he was outside of his status. Director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters) is handling the documentary with famed director Martin Scorsese (The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street) serving as executive producer. James began production four months before Ebert's untimely death, gathering interviews from colleagues and filmmakers as well.
While the majority of the budget has been made and the documentary has entered post-production, the crowdfunding campaign is to help cover extra costs for the documentary for things such as hiring a composer for an original soundtrack, high quality graphics and animations, music licensing, video archives, and much more. Supporters have access to a number of incentives, including an early online link to stream Life Itself in its entirety, limited-edition signed copies of the doc on DVD and blu-ray, shirts, and more.
If you're interested in donating money to the Life Itself campaign, visit its Indie GoGo page for more information. Below is James' video proposal for the Life Itself campaign.
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[via Indie GoGo]