Description:
The
Cold War and Civil Rights collide in this remarkable story of music,
diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1956, when America asked its
greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors,
Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their mixed-race
band members, faced a painful dilemma: how could they represent a
country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?
Biography: Hugo Berkeley has
worked extensively as a writer, director, producer and editor of
documentaries, TV shows and music films. Prior to The Jazz
Ambassadors, Hugo recently directed a 4-part true-crime series
for Sky Italy and the BBC, in which he unraveled one of the most
complex DNA murder investigations ever undertaken. He won a Peabody
Award for Land Rush, about land grabbing in Africa. And he
received the Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Award for A
Normal Life about post-war Kosovo.
Mick Csàky has produced and directed more than 100 and executive produced
more than 600 documentary films for the cinema, television and DVD,
covering areas including biography, history, science, politics,
economics, religion, music and arts. His programs have won numerous
international awards, including both US National and International
Emmys. In 1998 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Television
Society “In recognition of an outstanding contribution to the
furtherance of television.” He has been the Chief Executive &
Creative Director of Antelope since 1990. Mick’s films include: Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll for
American Masters, about one of gospel’s greatest innovators; Africa
Life: The Roll Back Malaria Concert, a star-studded concert in
West Africa to raise awareness and funds for malaria prevention; and Chasing a Rainbow: The Life of Josephine Baker, which won
numerous awards including an International Emmy.
