Ailey

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2:07

Ailey

PG-13

2021

1h 22m

Documentary

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Popcornmeter

90%

Tomatometer

80 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Alvin Ailey was a trailblazing pioneer who found salvation through dance. AILEY traces the full contours of this brilliant and enigmatic man whose search for the truth in movement resulted in enduring choreography that centers on the Black American experience with grace, strength, and unparalleled beauty. Told through Ailey's own words and featuring evocative archival footage and interviews with those who intimately knew him, director Jamila Wignot weaves together a resonant biography of an elusive visionary.

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Critics Consensus

Ailey pays invigorating tribute to its subject's brilliant legacy -- and offers a tantalizing introduction to the rest of a fascinating story.

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Simran Hans

Observer (UK)

Jan 10, 2022

3/5

Ailey's story is interspersed with rehearsal scenes of a new work celebrating the 50th anniversary of the company he founded.

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Kevin Maher

The Times (UK)

Jan 7, 2022

3/5

This captivating documentary portrait of the choreographer Alvin Ailey, who died in 1989, treads a fine line between loving memorial and unfettered hagiography.

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Marina Ashioti

Little White Lies

Jan 7, 2022

3/5

Poeticism ebbs and flows throughout Wignot's impressonistic mediation, fluctuating in parts.

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Carmen Paddock

TAKE ONE Magazine

Nov 30, 2023

AILEY is a loving look at a dance pioneer, meticulously thorough in its content yet never losing the joy, rage, and striving for excellence that characterised Ailey and generations of his disciples... Thoroughly engrossing and historically rich...

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Sarah Vincent

Cambridge Day

Aug 16, 2023

2/4

The film works best when his collaborators, particularly artistic director Judith Jamison and guest choreographer Bill T. Jones, provide insight into Ailey’s private nature and his lonely artistic sojourn

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Cody Dericks

Next Best Picture

Jul 8, 2022

8/10

A moving and vibrant look into the life of an artist that is structured in such a way that any viewer can take something meaningful from it.

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Margaret H

Aug 19, 2021

Good blend of performances recorded when the ballets were developed, and interviews with people who were part of his compny, and interviews that he did. It reflects Aileys lifetime (segregation, poverty, the AIDS epidemic).

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HAYNES

Aug 18, 2021

this is a Moving and Timeless doc

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Jill V C

Aug 13, 2021

Delightful and heartbreaking… he was wonderful and is truly missed.

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Michal

Aug 12, 2021

Real clips from newsreels and those amazing performances. Unvarnished information about his challenges and illness.

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Linda

Aug 8, 2021

There could have been more about how he learned to dance and where.

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Steven

Aug 8, 2021

Great film. I do wish they could have gone into greater detail about how Ailey came to create some of greatest works.

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Jamila Wignot

Director

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Actor

Lauren DeFilippo

Producer

Jamila Wignot

Producer

Emily Blavatnik

Executive Producer

Geralyn White Dreyfous

Executive Producer

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Ailey: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Alvin Ailey was a trailblazing pioneer who found salvation through dance. AILEY traces the full contours of this brilliant and enigmatic man whose search for the truth in movement resulted in enduring choreography that centers on the Black American experience with grace, strength, and unparalleled beauty. Told through Ailey's own words and featuring evocative archival footage and interviews with those who intimately knew him, director Jamila Wignot weaves together a resonant biography of an elusive visionary.

Director: Jamila Wignot
Producer: Lauren DeFilippo, Jamila Wignot
Distributor: NEON
Production Co: American Masters Pictures, Black Public Media, Ford Foundation - Just Films, Impact Partners, XTR, Insignia Films, Artemis Rising Foundation, ITVS
Rating: PG-13 (Brief Strong Language)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 23, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 12, 2021
Box Office (Gross USA): $188.6K
Runtime: 1h 22m

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