Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, a documentary about the famed trumpeter and bandleader, will debut at the Sundance Film Festival, which runs Thursday, Jan. 24 through Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019 in Park City, Utah. The movie is directed by the respected documentarian Stanley Nelson, who previously helmed the four-time Emmy-winning Freedom Riders, among many others.
In making the film, Nelson had full access to the Miles Davis estate, and Birth of the Cool contains some footage that has never been seen before, along with studio outtakes from recording sessions and interviews with such luminaries as Quincy Jones, Carlos Santana, Clive Davis, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter.
“Miles Davis is an undisputed musical legend, but what I hoped to discover was the man behind the myth,” Nelson said in a press release. “By unpacking his upbringing, his methodology, his relationships, and his demons, we begin to understand the man who would redefine the original American musical genre, jazz, and has influenced generations of musicians in rock, funk, and hip-hop.”
The film is scheduled for global theatrical release in the summer of 2019. It is also slated to have its U.S. broadcast premiere on PBS—as part of the network’s American Masters series—and its U.K. broadcast premiere on BBC2; dates for those premieres are still to be announced.
