Celebrating the centennials of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Jazz on Film presents Elevator to the Gallows, including a short recorded performance by Davis, who scored the film. Also featured are documentaries illuminating the lives and music of Sun Ra, Billy Strayhorn, and Mary Lou Williams, plus rare short films.

Schedule of events

• Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’échafaud) - June 5 and June 21
  The directorial debut of Louis Malle, this atmospheric thriller features the role that catapulted the career of actress Jeanne Moreau. With rich black-and-white cinematography by Henri Decaë and an evocative musical score by jazz great Miles Davis, this noir-meets-New-Wave film marked a turning point in French cinema, and its legendary score signaled new musical directions for Davis. The film will be preceded by a 1959 filmed recording of Davis performing with a quintet including John Coltrane and the Gil Evans Orchestra.
• Sun Ra: Do the Impossible - June 6
  Christine Turner’s new documentary is an inspiring portrait of the complex man and multifaceted artist whose audacious vision, otherworldly imagination, and uncompromising artistry helped to reshape the cultural landscape for generations.Sun Ra produced more than 200 albums, stretching the boundaries of free-form jazz while weaving interstellar metaphors and historic and scientific musings into a singular vision of Afrofuturism. Exploring Ra’s youth, jazz roots, musical innovations, and ceaseless artistic and social quests, the film incorporates recollections from devoted Arkestra musicians and dancers and a plethora of unforgettable archival interviews and performance footage of Ra.
• Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band - June 12
  Beginning in the late 1920s, pianist, composer, and arranger Mary Lou Williams dazzled audiences in shows and recordings, wrote and arranged for big-bandleaders including Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and was an influential friend and teacher to bebop greats Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. But Williams’s wider notoriety was continually undercut by issues with her gender, race, and fierce individualism. Following her from child prodigy to “Boogie-Woogie Queen” to groundbreaking composer and educator, the documentary sheds light on the traumas and triumphs of this complex and under-recognized artist.
• Jazz on Film: Short Documentaries - June 13
  Experience rarely seen short documentaries from the early 1970s. Alice Coltrane: A Love Supreme (1970) finds the artist reflecting on her late husband John Coltrane, her family, and spirituality, as well as her performance with a band featuring Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali. In Max and Abbey (1970), drummer Max Roachand vocalist Abbey Lincoln discuss music and their relationship and perform atNorfolk State College. Tony Williams in Africa (1973) documents the drummer improvising with traditional drummers in Senegal and the Gambia. The film will be preceded by 1963 performance footage of the John Coltrane Quartet to celebrate his centennial.
• Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life - June 20
  Between the 1940s and 1960s, Billy Strayhorn was a major force in creating the sound of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, composing such beloved classics as Take the ‘A’ Train and Lush Life. An openly gay man who remained in the Duke’s shadow, most were unfamiliar with Strayhorn’s accomplishments when he died at 51 in1967, and he remains under-recognized today. Discover him in this award-winning documentary about this pioneering composer, arranger, and pianist, with early footage, interviews, and performances by Elvis Costello, Ellington, Hank Jones,Dianne Reeves, and others to summon up the breadth of Strayhorn’s genius.