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Louis Armstrong is one of those icons who\u2019s so well-known, so universally recognized, that you may realize you actually don\u2019t know that much about him.<\/p>\n
That realization was part of what made director Sacha Jenkins and producer Julie Anderson gravitate toward making a film about his life, \u201cLouis Armstrong\u2019s Black & Blues,\u201d for Apple TV+. Both spoke to executive managing editor Christian Blauvelt at the IndieWire FYC Consider This Brunch on November 18 to discuss their intentions for the film, a top awards contender heading into Oscar season.<\/p>\n
Armstrong\u2019s incandescent technical ability possessed an otherworldly quality that still resonates today \u2014 and his presence was indeed otherworldly at one particular moment during filming. When asked about what we can learn from Armstrong\u2019s lifetime that can be applied to today, Jenkins told an eerie story: \u201cI\u2019m waiting for someone to tell me that he\u2019s going to walk through the door. He\u2019s not dead. For instance, there\u2019s a scene at the very end of the film where we\u2019re shooting his actual turntable [in his house in Queens, which is a museum today], and the last record he played an hour or so before he died. There are reel-to-reels that form the backbone of the movie, conversations with friends, interviews he did. We had access to all this stuff\u2026 you\u2019ll see it in the film. We got the reel-to-reel to work\u2026 The turntable, however, you couldn\u2019t get to work. We decided that we had to spin the record manually and then shoot it. The record turned. The turntable started to work, and nobody could figure out where it was plugged in. The dude is very around. He\u2019s the co-director.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson said that you can still get a \u201ctour of that house, and every room is set up exactly the way it was [when he died in 1971]. You feel his presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can use the restroom knowing that he\u2019s into laxatives, he\u2019d probably be OK with that,\u201d Jenkins said, as Armstrong was apparently known for his affinity for laxatives.<\/p>\n
Jenkins is a music journalist turned nonfiction filmmaker best known for the documentaries \u201cFresh Dressed\u201d and docuseries \u201cWu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men.\u201d That influence is felt in \u201cBlack & Blues\u201d as Jenkins\u2019 friend Nas voices Louis Armstrong, bringing to life letters and diary entries that the jazz great wrote himself.<\/p>\n
Anderson has had an eclectic career starting in reality TV and docuseries before devoting most of her time to documentary features such as \u201cGod Is the Bigger Elvis,\u201d about Dolores Hart, the actress who starred opposite Elvis Presley in \u201cKing Creole\u201d before leaving Hollywood to become a nun; and \u201cDreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLouis Armstrong\u2019s Black & Blues\u201d was an opening night selection at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in September, where it received strong reviews and became tipped as an Oscar contender for documentary feature.<\/p>\n
View this article at IndieWire<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Louis Armstrong\u2019s Black & Blues\u2019 Filmmakers Suspect His Ghost Co-Directed It at One Eerie Moment: Louis Armstrong is one of those icons who\u2019s so well-known, so universally recognized, that you may realize you actually don\u2019t know that much about him. That realization was part of what made director Sacha Jenkins and producer Julie Anderson gravitate
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