Julie Cohen: Last News

Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, the new documentary from directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen.

EXCLUSIVE: NBCU Academy and NBC News’ documentary division, NBC News Studios, have set Damon Davis (Chain of Rocks), Stephanie Wang-Breal (Florence from Ohio), Eric Juhola (The Queer Beat), Set Hernandez Rongkilyo (unseen), Brett Story and Stephen Maing (Untitled Labor Union Documentary), and Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler (Untitled Muscogee Nation Documentary) as the participants for their second annual Original Voices fellowship.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAlmost two decades after her death, Julia Child is back in the media spotlight, the subject of a trio of projects.The Sony Pictures Classics documentary “Julia,” from the “RBG” team of Julie Cohen and Betsy West, was first out of the gate when it debuted on the fest circuit in September, followed March 16 by “The Julia Child Challenge” cooking competition on Food Network. The HBO Max scripted series “Julia” will arrive later this month, with Sarah Lancashire portraying the iconic chef.In the reality show, eight self-proclaimed disciples of Child vie for the chance to win an all-expenses-paid, three-month cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu, where she studied in 1950, by whipping up their own spins on her iconic dishes.

Lisa Kennedy “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” begins with the former Arizona representative placing flowers in memorial vases for victims of gun violence. With a voiceover rife with potent pauses, her cadence sounds for a moment like a spoken word poem. While her rhythm is indeed intentional and meaningful, it’s not out of a sense of artistry.

Having its premiere today at SXSW, this CNN Films theatrical documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down is a truly inspirational offering an almost verite kind of fly-on-the-wall account of what can only be termed as a comeback story like no other. In 2011 Giffords, an Arizona congresswoman and rising star in the Democratic party had the wind at her back with talk of possibly a Senate or Governor run in the future, even maybe a Presidential one. She was married to astronaut Mark Kelly, and was even looking at adding a new addtion to their family which included his two daughters from a previous marriage. Then it all came crashing down when at a campaign event, she and several others attending were felled by a gunman run amok. Several died that day including a 12 year old girl who was interested in civic studies and tagged along to the rally. Giffords herself took a single bullet to the head and was actually reported by media as having died. That report was erroneous and in fact doctors told Kelly that she likely would survive, but in what condition they couldn’t say.

Addie Morfoot ContributorAt this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival, three documentaries – Camille Hardman and Gary Lane’s “Still Working 9 to 5,” Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” and  Ron Howard’s “We Feed People” – use a celebrity lens to take a deep dive into hot button political issues.Hardman’s “Still Working 9 to 5” explores the origins and success of the 1980 film “9 to 5,” which addresses gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace and stars Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman. All four stars appear in the docu to discuss the iconic comedy.

PBS was the top winner in the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards on Tuesday, with four honors for outstanding broadcast and digital reporting in the public interest.

Julia Child knew her way around a sauce the way Leonard Bernstein knew his way around a sympathy, the way Patrick Mahomes knows his way through a defense. That is to say, with panache.