A film on jazz legend Miles Davis and a documentary exploring the impacts of turbulent environmental conditions on songbirds open April 22 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
Oscar-nominee Don Cheadle directs and stars in “Miles Ahead,” a biopic on the dazzling and prolific career of Davis, a modern jazz innovator. Davis virtually disappeared from public view in the late 1970s. Alone and holed up in his home, Davis was beset by chronic pain from a deteriorating hip, his musical voice stifled and numbed by drugs and pain medications, his mind haunted by unsettling ghosts from the past.
“Miles Ahead” shows through May 5. The film is rated R for language, drug use, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence.
Also opening at the Ross on April 22 is “The Messenger,” a documentary that chronicles the struggle of songbirds worldwide trying to survive environmental conditions brought about by humans.
The film, by award-winning director Su Rynard, argues that songbirds’ demise could signify the crash of ecosystems globally, akin to the disappearance of honeybees and the melting of glaciers. The film will premiere at 7:30 p.m. at the Ross.
More than a dozen scientists were featured in the film, including Bridget Stutchbury, biologist at York University in Toronto. Stuchbury and JoAnne Jackson, producer, will participate in a question-and-answer session following the film premiere at the Ross.
Jackson is an award-winning documentary and television producer. She has supervised many series and specials at YTV, WTN, Animal Planet Canada and Discovery HD.
For more information on films at the Ross, including show times, click here or call 402-472-5353.
