When Berlin’s prestigious Short Film Festival ended its seventh annual run on July 5th, it was a big win for the City of Brotherly Love. “Once in a Hundred Years: The Life & Legacy of Marian Anderson,” the entry from Philadelphia’s Going The Distance Films took home two of the top prizes: Best Short Feature and one of five Audience Awards representing the favorite films of the festival’s international attendees.
The prizes were the latest in what has been a busy award season for the documentary, which was produced and directed by Philadelphian Bill Nicoletti. Having been selected by eight major film festivals and still under consideration for another ten, the film previously won the “Breaking Boundaries” Award at Rhode Island’s Flickers International Film Festival, the Audience Choice Award in Los Angeles at the Pan African Film Festival, and Best Documentary Feature at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival. It was even selected by the Kennedy
Center to be screened at the opening of its new arts venue, The Reach, in September of 2019.
Combining performance and archival footage with interviews of those who knew and admired the groundbreaking contralto from South Philadelphia who helped to break the color bar in classical music with her impeccable technique and the unprecedented emotional depth of her singing, the film was a labor of love for Nicoletti. “Growing up in and around the music scene here in Philadelphia first as a sound engineer, Marian Anderson’s was one of the names I’ve always connected with a certain kind of courage and artistic truth that is unique to this city,” he recalls.
Thanks in large part to the warm reception for “Once In A Hundred Years,” which has aired nationally on PBS and ABC Disney, as well as internationally on Amazon Prime, Nicoletti has attracted some notable assistance for his next project. “Wake Up Everybody,” which will document another remarkable chapter in music history, the 1970s phenomenon known as The Sound of Philadelphia, is being co-produced by musician and entrepreneur John Legend, who became ensconced in the city’s musical culture as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, and by TV icon Al Roker who is equally accomplished as an actor, producer, and writer. We look forward to covering this project and talking to Bill Nicoletti further.
About Author
