Following the highly successful debut for “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” at the 2023 Santa Fe Film Festival, where it was named Best Documentary Feature, Director Michael Lippert’s debut feature has appeared in 32 prestigious film festivals worldwide, earning 12 Best Documentary honors to-date. Now, the extraordinary film is set for release on global film and exhibition platform Kinema.
As announced by Lippert, Executive Producers Stephen Barefoot and L. Taylor Arnold, and Producers Donna Campbell and Georgann Eubanks, “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” will debut on https://kinema.com on October 1st, where it will be available worldwide for video-on-demand, live, and virtual screenings. The film is also available for independent bookings.
“Because it is so difficult for any indie filmmaker to get work distributed right now, arriving at this point with ‘Sloane’ is especially exciting for us all,” Lippert explained. “Knowing that Carol Sloane’s story really matters, we are beyond excited to have a platform like Kinema, where thoughtful work by acclaimed filmmakers is promoted, offering more than just the mainstream biopics and true crime you see everywhere right now in the documentary space.”
“Over six years of filming, exhaustive fundraising to cover extensive music rights, and a whirlwind festival run, we’ve had the honor of watching fans and strangers alike pack into theaters and leave with tears in their eyes,” Barefoot added. “We were able to capture an incredibly special and personal film about a truly unmatched talent, and now everyone can get to know this incredible woman who I was lucky enough to call my friend.”
“A Superior Musical Tour de Force”
Artfully presented through an intimate documentary focus on legendary singer Carol Sloane – deftly interwoven with rare network TV footage, and spirited interview commentary from a host of prestigious reviewers, contemporaries, and fellow artists – “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” is a profound cinematic experience for music lovers and dreamers of all ages.
Once a highly acclaimed jazz singer regularly invited to appear on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, Sloane actually spent most of her life struggling to pay her rent. As she prepares for her final live recording at New York City’s iconic Birdland in 2019, she recounts her epic but largely forgotten musical career, which hit incredible heights in the 1960s alongside Ella Fitzgerald, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and many other all-time musical greats.
Spoiler Alert: Ultimately, Sloane’s final Birdland performance sold out. Recorded on September 20 and 21, 2019, Club44 Records released “Carol Sloane: Live at Birdland” to adoring praise in 2022. With Sloane’s passing in 2023, this film she treasured and dedicated to her late musical partner Mike Renzi – who is interviewed and performs brilliantly in the film, including at Birdland – perfectly embodies Sloane’s unforgettable story.
An award-winning writer, director, and editor, Lippert’s acclaim for genre-spanning original films is on the rise. While developing these works and promoting them through premier festivals and platforms over the past decade-plus, he has also stayed very busy editing spots at Cutters Studios. Paired consistently with the creative industry’s avant-garde, over the past several years alone, Lippert’s campaign edits for global brands have won far-ranging distinction and industry honors.
Personally responsible for all aspects of this film’s physical production, editing, post-production finishing and mastering, Lippert offers his highest praise to his fellow producers, the film’s Cinematographer Donald R. Monroe, Music Supervisor Aurelia Belfield of Trailblazer Studios, Sound Recordists Tom Hauser and Gunnar Nagle, and Colorist Rob Besette of Boston’s Color Refinery. Given Cutters Studios’ wealth of resources, the director also wisely invited contributions from many artists he has come up with since starting as an Assistant Editor in Chicago in 2007 and rising to Cutters Editor in 2012.
These talents include Mixer Drew Weir and Another Country’s Gabby Henderson, Brett Rossiter, Logan Vines, and Executive Producer Tim Konn; Technical Support Experts Eric Houtz, Julie Klos, Isabella Paulitz, and Ryan Schnizlein; Colby Capes of Flavor for title design and motion graphics; and more graphics help from Cutters Assistant Sam Kelly.
Signed to Columbia Records in 1961, Sloane recorded dozens of albums in her career. Inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2016, the organization’s profile cited the review of The Washington Post’s Matt Schudel for her 2007 album, “Dearest Duke.” “If Carol Sloane isn’t America’s greatest living jazz singer,” he wrote, “then no one deserves the title.”
As documented in the film, Sloane enjoyed a unique relationship with Stephen Barefoot, with whom she partnered for the Chapel Hill-based nightclub Stephen’s, After All (1981-1983). Reminding him of her desire to be considered one of the best, “Sloane: A Jazz Singer” now stands as Barefoot’s testament to her greatness.
In the words of American singer, pianist and music revivalist Michael Feinstein, who is renowned as the Ambassador of the Great American Songbook, “SLOANE is a superior musical tour de force and virtual shot in the arm, documenting not only Carol’s career through her emotional story, but also brilliantly encapsulating a history of popular music through changing times and passing fancies. Blessedly, thanks to this important film, Carol Sloane is here to stay.”
The film’s growing list of accolades can be found here: https://www.sloanefilm.com/praise
Attending festivals, hosting screenings, and pursuing distribution opportunities for their film, the filmmakers partnered with Iris Indie International earlier this year, leading to an exclusive screening at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Those promising efforts and negotiations continue. Meanwhile, having learned about Kinema as an opportunity to own distribution, Barefoot, Lippert and their colleagues are thrilled to arrive at the place where viewers around the world will soon have full access to Sloane’s story.
About “Sloane: A Jazz Singer”
In this important, beautifully documented feature film from goingbarefoot, late jazz legend Carol Sloane finally gets her due. Sixty years ago, Carol Sloane was a highly acclaimed jazz singer who was regularly invited to appear, alongside pop-culture’s Who’s Who, on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. A top-tier Columbia records talent with dozens of records to her name, her extensive achievements include opening for Oscar Peterson at The Village Vanguard, and being named to the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2016. Often compared to Ella Fitzgerald in her heyday, in truth, Sloane spent most of her life struggling to pay her rent. See – and hear – her unforgettable story now: https://www.sloanefilm.com.
