EXPLORE
THE EXTRAORDINARY AND
GROUNDBREAKING
LIFE OF ONE OF THE NOTORIOUS RAT PACK MEMBERS IN
“AMERICAN
MASTERS:
SAMMY
DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME”
Features Interviews with Billy Crystal, Norman
Lear, Jerry Lewis,
Whoopi Goldberg, and more
Click
Here to View a Preview of
the Program
Available
on DVD February 17 and Digital February 20
Arlington, Va. – January
XX, 2019 – PBS Distribution announces the release of the new AMERICAN
MASTERS program, “SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME”
on DVD and digital February 17. This is the first major film documentary to
examine the performer’s vast career and his journey for identity through the
shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress during 20th-century
America. Sammy Davis, Jr. had the kind of career that was
indisputably legendary, vast
in scope and scale. And yet, his life was complex, complicated and
contradictory. Davis strove to achieve the American Dream in a time of racial
prejudice and shifting political territory. He was a veteran of increasingly
outdated show business traditions and worked tirelessly to stay relevant, even
as he frequently found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and
the distaste of black America. Davis was the most public black figure to
embrace Judaism, thereby yoking his identity to that of another persecuted
minority. In Duke Ellington’s words, he was “beyond category.”
Featuring interviews with such
luminaries as Billy Crystal, Norman Lear,
Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg and Kim
Novak, with never-before-seen photographs from Davis' vast personal
collection and footage of his electric performances, this film explores the
life and art of a uniquely gifted entertainer whose trajectory highlighted the
major flashpoints of American society from the Depression through the 1980s.
Other programs available from PBS
Distribution include, “AMERICAN MASTERS: MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I
RISE,” “AMERICAN MASTERS: AUGUST WILSON: THE GROUND ON WHICH I STAND,”
and “AMERICAN
MASTERS: NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU.”
“AMERICAN
MASTERS – SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE
GOTTA BE ME” is a production of
THIRTEEN Productions LLC’s American Masters for WNET in
coproduction with ZDF in collaboration with ARTE. Directed by Sam Pollard.
Produced by Sally Rosenthal and Michael Kantor. Edited by Steven Wechsler.
Written by Laurence Maslon. Michael Kantor is executive producer.
Major support for “AMERICAN MASTERS – SAMMY
DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME” is
provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support for
this film is provided by The Leslie and Roslyn Goldstein Foundation, Cheryl and
Philip Milstein Family, Seton Melvin, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation,
Judith and Burton Resnick, Ellen and James S. Marcus, and Lillian Goldman
Programming Endowment.
About American
Masters
American Masters explores the lives and
creative journeys of America’s most enduring artistic and cultural giants. Now
in its 33rd season on PBS, the series has earned 28 Emmy Awards —
including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding
Non-Fiction Special — 13 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, two Producers Guild
Awards and many other honors. To further explore the lives and works of masters
past and present, American Masters offers streaming video of select films,
outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the American
Masters Podcast, educational resources and more. The series is a production
of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET and also seen on the WORLD channel.
Major support for American
Masters is provided by AARP. Additional support is provided by the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Rosalind P. Walter, Rolf and Elizabeth
Rosenthal, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Vital Projects Fund,
Rhoda Herrick, Jack Rudin, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael
& Helen Schaffer Foundation, and public television viewers.
About
WNET
WNET
is America’s flagship PBS station: parent company of New York’s THIRTEEN
and WLIW21
and operator of NJTV,
the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its new ALL
ARTS multi-platform initiative, its broadcast channels, three cable
services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET
brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five
million viewers each month. WNET produces and presents a wide range of
acclaimed PBS series, including Nature, Great Performances,
American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, and the
nightly interview program Amanpour and Company. In addition, WNET
produces numerous documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and
cultural offerings, as well as multi-platform initiatives addressing poverty
and climate. Through THIRTEEN Passport and WLIW Passport, station members can
stream new and archival THIRTEEN, WLIW and PBS programming anytime, anywhere.
About
PBS Distribution
PBS Distribution is a leading distributor of public
media content around the world, reaching audiences through multiple platforms
and formats including direct-to-consumer subscription video-on-demand
(DTC-SVOD), transactional video-on-demand (TVOD), subscription video-on-demand
(SVOD) licensing, and physical products on DVD and Blu-ray. In addition,
the company operates two Prime Video channels - PBS MASTERPIECE and PBS KIDS,
as well as a theatrical releasing division, and educational, non-theatrical,
inflight and international licensing businesses.
PBS Distribution offers consumers and
educators over 4,000 programming hours of the highest quality factual, scripted
and children’s programming, including films from producer Ken Burns, hit dramas
from MASTERPIECE, entertaining and educational children’s series and award-winning
documentaries from NOVA, FRONTLINE, AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE, AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE and many independent producers. For over 20 years, the company has
extended the reach of programming beyond broadcast while generating revenue for
the public television system, stations and producers.
AMERICAN MASTERS: SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA
BE ME
Street
Date: February 17, 2019
Genre: History : Biography
Run
Time: 100 minutes on 1 disc
SRP:
DVD, $24.99
Format:
DVD, Digital
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