Trailer For The PBS Documentary SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I'VE GOTTA BE ME
"Sammy Davis, Jr's whole life was about confronting obstacles."
PBS has released a trailer for a wonderful looking feature-length documentary called Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me. As you can tell from the title, the doc will focus on legendary Rat Pack member Sammy Davis, Jr.
This is said to be the "first major film documentary to examine Davis' vast talent and his journey for identity through the shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress during 20th-century America." The film also "explores the life and art of a uniquely gifted entertainer whose trajectory blazed across the major flashpoints of American society from the Depression through the 1980s."
The doc features interviews with Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg, and Kim Novak. It will also include never-before-seen photographs from Davis' personal collection, and footage from his performances.
Sammy Davis, Jr. had the kind of career that was indisputably legendary, so vast and multi-faceted that it was dizzying in its scope and scale. And yet, his life was complex, complicated and contradictory. Davis strove to achieve the American Dream in a time of racial prejudice and shifting political territory. He was the veteran of increasingly outdated show business traditions trying to stay relevant; he frequently found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and the distaste of black America; he was the most public black figure to embrace Judaism, thereby yoking his identity to another persecuted minority.
PBS will premiere the doc starting February 19th, 2019.