EXCLUSIVE: Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon Docs has come aboard to handle worldwide sales on Ben Chace’s Music Pictures: New Orleans, which is set to bow at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. The company will introduce the film to buyers during the Cannes Market.
A Lilting Films production, Music Pictures is comprised of legacy portraits of four New Orleans music figures. They include Grammy Award winner Irma Thomas, whose song “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is” featured in the Fifteen Millions Merits episode of Black Mirror; The Tremé Brass Band, a recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship; Little Freddie King, a charter member of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; and the late Ellis Marsalis, father of Branford and Wynton, who was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2018. The film includes Marsalis’ last recorded interviews and sessions.
Cercamon Docs Head Suzanne Nodale said, “Music Pictures allows us to experience the energy and soul of New Orleans. Ben offers to four artists, whose love of music has kept them going through decades, the spotlight they deserve. We are confident audiences will embrace this heartfelt documentary and its amazing soundtrack mixing Blues, Jazz and Soul in every shot.”
Chace added, “This film was a pleasure to make, and I cannot wait for the first screening at Tribeca and reactions to it. I’m excited for Cercamon to share these beautiful sounds and stories of New Orleans with the widest audience possible. They have an impressive catalogue which I am proud for my documentary to be a part of.”
This is Chace’s third feature, following Wah Do Dem which won Best Narrative at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and 2016 release Sin Alas, which was the first American feature filmed in Cuba since 1959.