Sedona News – The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the Academy Award-winning film “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” showing July 12-15 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
Brigitte Berman’s “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” (1985) is a portrait of the mercurial bandleader, clarinetist, composer and author. This new 4K restoration of the original film is returning to the big screen for a very limited time.
Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1986, the film has never been on broadcast television, home video, or streaming platforms and has only been show theatrically a handful of times.
“Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” is anchored by an incisive interview with its then 72-year-old subject, looking back on a five-decade career, along with interviews with Shaw’s contemporaries and a wealth of photos and archival film footage.
Born Arthur Arshawsky on New York’s Lower East Side, “King of the Clarinet” Artie Shaw (1910-2004), became one of the most popular stars of the 1930s and ’40s Swing era — notably as rival to “King of Swing” Benny Goodman. In an era of separate white and Black bands, Shaw broke the color barrier by hiring legendary African American musicians like Billie Holiday, Oran “Hot Lips” Page, and Roy Eldridge for his bands.
Shaw’s restlessness and intellectual curiosity (he would author four books of fiction and non-fiction) led him to shun celebrity and retire from show business in the late 1940s, with only occasional comebacks after. Known also as a ladies’ man, Shaw’s eight wives included actresses Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Doris Dowling, and Evelyn Keyes, and Kathleen Windsor, author of the notorious racy novel Forever Amber.
In addition to Shaw, who tells his own story, Berman’s interviews include vocalist Mel Tormé, drummer Buddy Rich, and actress/ex-wife Evelyn Keyes (she played Scarlett O’Hara’s younger sister in Gone with the Wind), whose other ex-husbands included director John Huston.
“Dazzling. An unfailingly entertaining saga.” — The New York Times
“Shaw comes alive for you in ways that go way beyond his physical presence.” — Los Angeles Times
“Superb! A documentary masterpiece. Shaw’s life story is told in sensitivity and detail.” — POV Magazine
“Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Friday and Sunday, July 12 and 14 at 4:00 p.m. and Monday, July 15 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $12, or $9 for Film Festival members. For tickets and more information, please call 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona. For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.org.