(Brigitte Berman, US 1985, 115 min., DCP)
Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1986, Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got has never been on broadcast television, home video, or streaming platforms and has only been shown theatrically a handful of times — a few Oscar qualifying screenings in Los Angeles, some international film festival screenings, and its recent, highly successful U.S. theatrical premiere at New York’s Film Forum. A legal entanglement with Shaw over control of the film and a greater profit participation after the Oscar win prevented director Brigitte Berman from giving it wider distribution until, after sixteen years of litigation, she prevailed in both Canadian and California courts. The film 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. Shaw lived a fascinating life and contributed an incredible legacy to American music across a decade in the 1930s and ‘40s.