Film News in Brief: Amazon Debuts Trailer for Stacey Abrams Voting Rights Documentary

MONDAY, AUG. 17

Amazon Unveils Footage of Stacey Abrams Documentary

Amazon Studios has released a powerful trailer for the Stacey Abrams voting rights documentary “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” less than three months before the Nov. 3 election.

“If the power of the right to vote was truly made available to everyone in America, it would change the future of this nation,” Abrams asserts in the three-minute promotional clip, released Monday.

The film will be released in theaters on Sept. 9 and on Amazon Prime Video on Sept. 18. Abrams ran as the Democratic Party’s nominee in the 2018 gubernatorial election in Georgia and was the first Black woman to be a major-party gubernatorial nominee in the United States. She narrowly lost to Republican Brian Kemp, who was accused by Abrams of voter suppression activities after he refused to resign as secretary of state while campaigning for governor.

Magnolia Buys ‘Some Kind of Heaven’ Documentary

Magnolia Pictures has bought worldwide rights, excluding Canada, from Los Angeles Media Fund to director Lance Oppenheim’s documentary feature debut “Some Kind of Heaven.”

The film, produced by Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa, The New York Times and Los Angeles Media Fund (which financed the film), profiles the surreal world of The Villages, the nation’s largest retirement community, located in Central Florida. “Some Kind of Heaven” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

“’Some Kind of Heaven’ is a remarkable achievement from a striking new voice in film,” said Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles. “Lance Oppenheim demonstrates an incredible command of his craft and more importantly, a clear-eyed vision of the world around him. It also makes me want to learn pickleball.”

Black Bear Hires Leigh Kittay, Launches TV Division

Black Bear Pictures has hired Leigh Kittay as head of film with responsibility for continuing to grow the company’s slate of feature films.

She previously served as head of film for Noah Hawley’s 26 Keys and executive produced “Lucy in the Sky.” She previously worked at Parkes+MacDonald Productions and at J.J. Abrams’ “Bad Robot” working on “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” “Cloverfield” and “Lost.”

Ben Stillman, who has been at Black Bear since the company’s inception, will transition from feature film to run Black Bear’s newly created independent TV studio, Black Bear Television. Black Bear TV recently announced it had optioned the rights to Irish writer Naoise Dolan’s debut novel “Exciting Times.”