‘Sidney’: Toronto Film Festival Review And Interview With Oprah Winfrey And Reginald Hudlin
deadline.comThe great acting legend Sidney Poitier died in January at age 94. He did not live to see the thrilling new documentary on his life and career, Sidney, which had its World Premiere Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.
However it had its blessing, and that of his family, for the film which has been percolating and in development and then production for five years.
And although Poitier himself didn’t get to see the finished work, everyone else will beginning on Friday September 23 when it begins streaming on Apple TV+ and playing in selected theatres.With Oprah Winfrey on board as a producer (with Derik Murray) and Reginald Hudlin as director, Poitier gets extraordinarily comprehensive and wide ranging look at his life told in linear fashion and narrated by himself through the use of 8 hours of interview footage done in 2012 with Winfrey, as well as other archival interviews.
This is right way to tell this story, because it is quite a journey from beginning to end for a man who almost died as a baby, spent his early years in the almost all Black community in the Bahamas, had a terrifying encounter with the Klan, learned English primarily from watching news anchors when he finally hit Miami and then New York City where he worked odd jobs and got that ever-so-lucky break as an understudy who went on just as so happened a big Broadway producer was in the house.It all led eventually to a film debut in 1950’s No Way Out, such movies as Blackboard Jungle, Something Of Value, and The Defiant Ones, the landmark film that won him his first Oscar nomination.
Read more on deadline.com
