Apple Original Films has released the trailer for “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” a revealing documentary about the beloved jazz legend.
Offering an intimate, never-before-seen look at the world-changing musician, and presented through a lens of archival footage and previously unheard home recordings and personal conversations, the documentary will premiere in select theaters and stream globally on Apple TV+ on Oct. 28.
“Do you think you’ve lost a step by being born Black in a white country?” an interviewer asks Armstrong in the trailer’s opening clip. “No,” the musician responds. “I don’t look at it that way.”
Per the feature’s synopsis, “This definitive documentary, directed by Sacha Jenkins, honors Armstrong’s legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States. The film shows how Armstrong’s own life spans the shift from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, and how he became a lightning rod figure in that turbulent era. With the full support of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the filmmakers have access to a treasure trove of rare archival materials, including hundreds of hours of audio recordings, film footage, photographs, personal diaries, and a life’s worth of ephemera for exclusive use in the first significant documentary dedicated entirely to his life.”
Emmy nominee Jenkins (“Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”) is also attached as producer for the feature alongside Imagine Documentaries, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes and Julie Anderson.
“Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” is executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and produced with Universal Music Group’s Polygram Entertainment with Michele Anthony and David Blackman also serving as executive producers.
