Love to Love You, Donna Summer | |
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Directed by | |
Produced by |
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Edited by |
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Music by | T. Griffin |
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Distributed by | HBO |
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Running time | 105 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Love to Love You, Donna Summer is a 2023 American documentary film directed by Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano. It follows the life and career of Donna Summer.
The film had its world premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023. It was released on May 20, 2023, by HBO. The project was nominated at the 8th Critics' Choice Documentary Awards for Best Music Documentary. [2]
It follows the life and career of Donna Summer.
Brooklyn Sudano wanted to make a documentary revolving around her mother, Donna Summer, after realizing there was more to her than people knew. [3] Roger Ross Williams also wanted to make a documentary revolving around Summer, while discussing a potential project with Julie Goldman, Goldman connected the two. [4] [5] Williams and Sudano did not want the project to be a puff piece, instead exploring difficult aspects of Summer's life and career. [6] Sudano and Williams opted to use Summer speaking in her own words, using audiotapes recorded for her memoir Ordinary Girl. [7]
In December 2021, it was announced Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano would direct a documentary film revolving around Donna Summer. [8]
The film had its world premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023. [9] [10] It also screened at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023. [1] [11] It was released on May 20, 2023, by HBO. [12] [13]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "An enigmatic documentary about an equally enigmatic singer, Love to Love You, Donna Summer's got you covered from disco to soul." [14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [15]
Donna Adrian Gaines, known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.
Thank God It's Friday is a 1978 American musical-comedy film directed by Robert Klane and produced by Motown Productions and Casablanca FilmWorks for Columbia Pictures. Produced at the height of the disco craze, the film features The Commodores performing "Too Hot ta Trot", and Donna Summer performing "Last Dance", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1978. The film features an early performance by Jeff Goldblum and the first major screen appearance by Debra Winger. The film also features Terri Nunn, who later achieved fame in the 1980s new wave group Berlin. This was one of several Columbia Pictures films in which the studio's "Torch Lady" came to life in the opening credits, showing off her moves for a few seconds before the start of the film.
Brooklyn Sudano is an American actress and director. She starred as Vanessa Scott in the ABC comedy series My Wife and Kids and later played the leading role in the 2006 drama film Rain. Sudano has appeared in films such as Alone in the Dark II (2008), Turn the Beat Around (2010) and With This Ring (2015), and starred in the NBC action series, Taken (2017).
The Donna Summer Anthology is a double compilation album by the American singer Donna Summer, released by Polygram Records in 1993. The compilation featured the majority of Summer's best known songs right from the start of her success to the present day. Summer had originally made her name during the disco era in the 1970s and in the decade that followed had experimented with different styles. Most of the tracks on this compilation are the original album versions of the songs, which were sometimes edited down for their release as a single. Included for the first time are two remixed tracks from her then unreleased album I'm a Rainbow, which had been recorded in 1981 but was shelved by her record company. The album also featured the Giorgio Moroder-penned and produced song "Carry On"', marking the first time Summer and Moroder had worked together since 1981. Summer and Moroder, together with Pete Bellotte had written the vast majority of her 1970s disco hits. Four years later, "Carry On" would be remixed and become a big dance hit. It also won Summer a Grammy for Best Dance Recording, her first win since 1984 and her fifth win in total.
Brooklyn Dreams were an American singing group of the late 1970s, mixing R&B harmonies with contemporary dance/disco music and best known for a number of collaborations with singer Donna Summer. The band consisted of Joe "Bean" Esposito, Eddie Hokenson and Bruce Sudano. Esposito provided lead vocals for the band and played guitar, while Sudano played keyboards and Hokenson played drums and occasionally sang lead vocals.
Bruce Charles Sudano is an American musician and songwriter noted for creating songs for artists such as Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and his late wife, the Grammy Award-winning singer Donna Summer. Sudano is the founder of indie record label Purple Heart Recording Company.
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Roger Ross Williams is an American director, producer and writer and the first African American director to win an Academy Award (Oscar), with his short film Music by Prudence; this film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 2009.
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Cruel Summer is an American teen drama mystery thriller anthology television series created by Bert V. Royal. Each season follows a new cast of characters going through a traumatic event that spans several timelines and how their lives are impacted as a result. The events in the series occur during the summer with every episode taking place on or around a particular day but in three time periods.
The Fallout is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Megan Park in her feature film directorial debut. The film stars Jenna Ortega as Vada Cavell, a high school student who navigates significant emotional trauma following a school shooting. The film also stars Maddie Ziegler, Julie Bowen, John Ortiz, Niles Fitch, Will Ropp, and Shailene Woodley in supporting roles. The score is composed by American musician and actor Finneas O'Connell.
Rachel Anne Sennott is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her starring roles in the films Shiva Baby (2020), Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), and Bottoms (2023) and in the HBO drama series The Idol (2023).
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100 Foot Wave is an American documentary television series directed by Chris Smith, revolving around big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara as he traveled to Nazaré, Portugal with the goal of conquering a 100-foot wave. It premiered on HBO on July 18, 2021.
Fire of Love is a 2022 independent documentary film about the lives and careers of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. Directed, written, and produced by Sara Dosa, the film had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2022, where it won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award. It was released on July 6, 2022, by National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon. It received acclaim from critics, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.
Omar Mullick is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer. He has directed and served as cinematographer on These Birds Walk (2013), The Vow (2020), and Flight/Risk (2022).