The Miles Davis Story

Rare archival footage of Miles Davis’ interviews meets the memories and intimate perspectives of his family, friends and many of the great musicians who have played with him. Starting from Davis early years in East St. Louis, Illinois – marked by the life in a middle-class family, but also by racial segregation –, The Miles Davis Story explores the oeuvre and the man behind the public figure up until his later years touring the world. The film highlights the way Davis’ journey has intertwined with some of the greatest moments in the evolution of jazz since the 1940s: from his partnership with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie while studying at Juilliard, to the recordings of the influential Birth of the Cool (1949), his collaborations with Gil Evans, his historic quintets with John Coltrane (in the 50s) and with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter (in the 60s) up until the ground-breaking development of jazz fusion and funk.

Duration: 124
Production year: 2001
Country: United Kingdom
Subtitles: Subtitles: PT

International Emmy Awards – Emmy in the Documentary Art Category (Channel 4 Television Corporation)

Mike Dibb

Mike Dibb is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, most of which made for television, covering film, art, literature, music, science, sport and popular culture. After completing a degree at Trinity College, Dublin, he was hired in 1963 by BBC TV. He worked as an editor in the Film department until 1967, when he moved to the Music and Arts department, where he remained until 1981. During this period he directed several films, including multiple collaborations with writer John Berger (who in 2015 was a guest at LEFFEST ), the most well-known of which is the four-part series Ways of Seeing, awarded the BAFTA for Best Specialty Series and which later became a book translated and published worldwide, one of the most important for several generations of artists and students of art. Dibb has also made some films about writers, such as Octavio Paz, Lorca, A-S. Byatt or Elmore Leonard. In 1981, he joined Third Eyes Productions, where he continued to direct and produce, primarily for Channel Four. In 1986, he created his own production company, Dibb Directions Ltd. He collaborated with the BBC once again, making films and series such as Made In Latin America, about Latin American culture. In 1994, he co-directed with Stephen Frears the documentary Typically British, about the history of British cinema. His film The Miles Davis Story won the Royal Philharmonic Society Television Award and an Emmy for Best Art Documentary of the Year (2001). He also made a film about Keith Jarrett and another about the composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazolla.

Original title: The Miles Davis Story

Mike Dibb

Credits