Movie: Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas

Top 8 Billed Cast

Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee

Self (archive footage)

Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan

Self (archive footage)

Nina Simone
Nina Simone

Self (archive footage)

Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald

Self (archive footage)

Annie Ross
Annie Ross

Self

Melody Gardot
Melody Gardot

Self

Madeleine Peyroux
Madeleine Peyroux

Self

Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday

Self (archive footage)

  • HomePage

    Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas

  • Overview

    The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.

  • Release Date

    2013-05-10

  • Average

    0

  • Rating:

    0.0 starts
  • Tagline

  • Genres

  • Languages:

    English
  • Keywords

Similar Movies

Foo-Foo Dust
54%

Foo-Foo Dust(en)

2003-06-19

This less-than-feature-length documentary chronicles the endless cycle of addiction perpetrated by a mother and son living in a squalid tenement in San Francisco. 22-year-old Ryan and his mother Stephanie are both drug addicts: Although he'll take whatever comes along, her substance of choice is crack cocaine, and she demands that her son provide her with some. As they navigate their respective addictions, each comes close to overdosing just before they're evicted from their apartment.

Stop for Bud
66%

Stop for Bud(da)

1963-12-17

Stop for Bud is Jørgen Leth's first film and the first in his long collaboration with Ole John. […] they wanted to "blow up cinematic conventions and invent cinematic language from scratch". The jazz pianist Bud Powell moves around Copenhagen -- through King's Garden, along the quay at Kalkbrænderihavnen, across a waste dump. […] Bud is alone, accompanied only by his music. […] Image and sound are two different things -- that's Leth's and John's principle. Dexter Gordon, the narrator, tells stories about Powell's famous left hand. In an obituary for Powell, dated 3 August 1966, Leth wrote: "He quite willingly, or better still, unresistingly, mechanically, let himself be directed. The film attempts to depict his strange duality about his surroundings. His touch on the keys was like he was burning his fingers -- that's what it looked like, and that's how it sounded. But outside his playing, and often right in the middle of it, too, he was simply gone, not there."

Page Deleted
0%

Page Deleted(pt)

2023-06-11

Questions about celebrating 200 years of independence from Brazil with 300 years of slavery.

Un racisme à peine voilé
52%

Un racisme à peine voilé(en)

2004-01-01

October 2003, Alma and Lila Levy are excluded from the Lycée Henri Wallon in Aubervilliers solely because they were wearing a headscarf. What follows is a deafening political and media debate, justifying in most cases the exclusion of girls wearing head-scarves to school. February 2004, a law was eventually passed by the National Assembly. "A thinly veiled racism" is about this controversy since the affair of Creil in 1989 (where two schoolgirls were excluded for the same reasons) and attempts to "reveal" that maybe what hides behind is the desire to exclude these girls. This film gives them a voice as well as others - teachers, community activists, feminists, researchers - gathered around the group "A School for You-All" fighting for the repeal of this law they consider sexist and racist ... This movie was censured in Septembre 2004 in France.

Meet the Feebles
63%

Meet the Feebles(en)

1989-08-12

Heidi, star of the "Meet The Feebles Variety Hour" discovers her lover Bletch the Walrus is cheating on her. And with all the world waiting for the show, the assorted co-stars must contend with drug addiction, extortion, robbery, disease, drug dealing, and murder.

The First Day
0%

The First Day(en)

2019-07-16

Chris Herren, former professional basketball player, author and wellness advocate, has shared his story of recovery with over 1 million people nationwide. The First Day film chronicles this journey revealing Herren’s vulnerability and his profound connections with high school students who, in turn, have shared their stories of struggle and strength. Through the power of storytelling, The First Day addresses issues that school systems, communities and people across the country are impacted by, directly or indirectly, each day including substance use, other harmful behaviors and mental wellness.

To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View
0%

To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View(en)

2022-10-11

A 60th anniversary retrospective documentary on the influence and context of the 1962 film, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Tom Waits for No One
50%

Tom Waits for No One(en)

1979-01-01

In this rotoscope animation, Tom Waits sings about "The One That Got Away."

Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work
100%

Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work(fr)

2001-11-30

It is the evocation of a life as brief as it is dense. An encounter with a dazzling thought, that of Frantz Fanon, a psychiatrist of West Indian origin, who will reflect on the alienation of black people. It is the evocation of a man of reflection who refuses to close his eyes, of the man of action who devoted himself body and soul to the liberation struggle of the Algerian people and who will become, through his political commitment, his fight, and his writings, one of the figures of the anti-colonialist struggle. Before being killed at the age of 36 by leukemia, on December 6, 1961. His body was buried by Chadli Bendjedid, who later became Algerian president, in Algeria, at the Chouhadas cemetery (cemetery of war martyrs ). With him, three of his works are buried: “Black Skin, White Masks”, “L’An V De La Révolution Algérien” and “The Wretched of the Earth”.

Nichts für die Ewigkeit
30%

Nichts für die Ewigkeit(de)

2011-11-10

A sister shares an apartment with her heroin-addicted brother. Over the course of twelve years, she records the constant struggle and the constant losing.

Forest of Crocodiles
0%

Forest of Crocodiles(en)

2009-12-02

How do white South Africans deal with their fears of crime and violence? Like crocodiles, some survive without evolving, living with their fears. Others make fear their friend and evolve in ways you'd never imagine.

Step N' Soul
0%

Step N' Soul(de)

2012-01-01

White Out, Black In
66%

White Out, Black In(pt)

2014-09-20

Shots fired inside a club frequented by black Brazilians in the outskirts of Brasilia leave two men wounded. A third man arrives from the future in order to investigate the incident and prove that the fault lies in the repressive society.

Seattle is Dying
80%

Seattle is Dying(en)

2019-03-14

KOMO Anchor Eric Johnson takes an in-depth look at the impact the drug and homelessness problem is having on our city and possible solutions in "Seattle is Dying," a news documentary that aired on KOMO-TV in March, 2019.

Resan till dej
50%

Resan till dej(sv)

1953-12-19

The marriage of the newlyweds Gun and Emil is strained when Gun sings in a radio show and makes a breakthrough.

Profiled
0%

Profiled(en)

2016-01-01

Profiled is a feature length documentary that knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latin unarmed youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Driven by anger when their demands for justice are ignored the women transition from grieving parents to activists participating in the grass roots movement now spreading across the country since the much-publicized deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Almost Famous
75%

Almost Famous(en)

2000-09-15

In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.

Karmen Gei
45%

Karmen Gei(fr)

2001-06-27

Bizet's Carmen gets a modern adaptation. Seducting, provocating, sensual. All the ingredients for a perfect drama. With her charm, Karmen gets out of many situations.

Ray
74%

Ray(en)

2004-10-29

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

Earl "Fatha" Hines - Blues Alley, Washington DC
0%

Earl "Fatha" Hines - Blues Alley, Washington DC(en)

A 1975 documentary on the great Blues pianist Earl Hines, one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano.