EMMY winning film on Louis Armstrong’s daughter comes to Alexandria – Louis Armstrong’s secret daughter reveals a new side of the music and cultural icon’s personal life in the acclaimed PBS film Little Satchmo, winner of the Southeast EMMY Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary, which comes to the Kress Theatre on the Hearn Stage, Monday, November 6 at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Made possible by a partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts, the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of South Arts who has selected Little Satchmo to tour Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana this November. The Emmy-winning team behind the film, director John Alexander and producer JC Guest, will be representing the film in five cities across the three states, participating in post-screening Q&A’s after each of screenings.
Sharon Preston-Folta comes forward in the documentary after living closely in the shadows of her father, unveiling a family and their relationship that was kept entirely invisible for more than 50 years. The story is told almost exclusively from the first-person perspective of a daughter who was loved and cared for her by her father until the end of his life. The documentary is based on Preston-Folta’s memoir of the same title, detailing how Sharon, the product of a two-decade love affair between Satchmo and Harlem dancer Lucille ‘Sweets’ Preston, had no option but to harbor and conceal her identity for decades before making it public. It resonates with complex themes of race, father/daughterhood, family, identity, and single-parent households.
The Emmy winner was a sponsored project of the Southern Documentary Fund and made its broadcast debut as the Season Premiere of PBS Reel South Season 7, and continues to run nationally and internationally on television, as well as in art house theaters, at film festivals, and in educational and institutional screenings worldwide. It has picked up top prizes in France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Japan, and the USA. PBS International handles the film’s global release.
The November 6th 7pm screening will be the first public live in-person screening in Alexandria and is presented by the Arts Council of Central Louisiana. For more details please visit their page here.
Director John Alexander and producer JC Guest previously made award-winning Rudy Love documentary This Is Love. Little Satchmo is also produced by the late Lea Umberger, and executive produced by Sharon Preston-Folta, Emily Bonavia and Susan Houston. The film features narration by John Boutté and original music with Wycliffe Gordon from Emmy/Grammy winner and nominee, composer Eddie Korvin.
For more information, visit: littlesatchmodoc.com and southarts.org
