News

It’s a difficult task to capture the love of reading. The affecting act happens between a book and the person captivated by the words on a page that draw them into uncharted places. However, the clever minds behind “Reading Rainbow” were able to contextualize what happens when adolescents open picture books and embark on exciting literary journeys. They figured out it could empower not only the reader, but also cause a ripple effect in communities through the knowledge, imagination and empathy imparted. From its premiere in 1983 until its finale in 2006, the show was a beacon for youngsters encouraged to explore beyond a book’s covers and learn about the world surrounding them.

Directors Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb’s documentary “Butterfly in the Sky,” now available to rent and streaming on Netflix, captures how a few pioneering educators assembled to create such indelible children’s programming. Their tribute blends cozy,...

LeVar Burton found fame for portraying the role of Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek franchise for quite many years. Alongside the role, Burton also became the host of a children’s show called Reading Rainbow.

LeVar Burton in Star Trek: The Next Generation| Paramount

The concept wasn’t something grandiose or game-changing. It was simply Burton reading kids’ books and giving the children stories that taught morals and fun. However, LeVar Burton had an immense love for the show.

LeVar Burton And The Reading Rainbow

The proposition to have a narrator read children’s books to kids wasn’t that endearing for actors. However, this was a crucial step in history since the show encouraged kids to read alongside the host.

LeVar Burton in a still from Reading Room |On Screen Entertainment

LeVar Burton was on the six o’clock news at the time while the crew behind...

"He was on TV as himself. That's power." Xtr & Roco Films have revealed the trailer for the documentary film Butterfly in the Sky, a look back at the magic & brilliance of the "Reading Rainbow" TV program. This first premiered in 2022 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and at the Calgary, Hot Springs, Philadelphia, & Heartland Film Festivals. Finally set for a release in theaters first (at AMC locations) in March before hitting VOD in April. The inspirational doc chronicles the journeys of broadcasters, educators and filmmakers who believed television could inspire a lifelong love of reading. Featuring LeVar Burton (the Reading Rainbow host), along with many more: Whoopi Goldberg (Guest Star), Jason Reynolds (Former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature), Twila Liggett (Reading Rainbow co-creator), Larry Lancit & Cecily Truett Lancit (Reading Rainbow co-creators), Tony Buttino (Reading Rainbow co-creator), Steve Horelick (series composer), Ed & Orly Wiseman (Reading Rainbow director / producer) and also lots...

Click here to read the full article.

Because the documentary marketplace is every bit as beholden to the sway of nostalgia as any other, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that one of its most lucrative genres has focused on TV shows that helped form a target demographic.

If you’re trying to woo a hesitant audience of Gen X or millennial viewers — less a worry with today’s documentary-filled streaming landscape than it might have been a decade ago — looking back on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) or Sesame Street (Street Gang) represents an easy way to do it.

Not coincidentally, those shows are the two longest-running children’s series in PBS history, followed by Reading Rainbow, which gets its own documentary retrospective with Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb’s Butterfly in the Sky, debuting at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

While Won’t You Be My Neighbor?...

The children’s television program “Reading Rainbow” aired on PBS from 1983 to 2006, and “Butterfly in the Sky” is the story of how that show came to be, what it was like to work on it and its afterlife. The people interviewed here are all so nice, warm and likable that watching this movie is like sinking into a warm bath.

The key creators of the show were Twila Liggett, who started out as a teacher of eight- and nine-year-old kids, and Cecily Truett Lancit and Larry Lancit, a married couple who had a production company in New York. Liggett left teaching because she didn’t like the excessive and superficial testing of young kids, and she wanted to take what she had learned and bring it to television, which was seen as an enemy of reading for children in the early 1980s.

LeVar Burton had become a star on TV...

"Hopefully we win and we don't have to work regular jobs no more." An official trailer has launched for a music documentary called Blues on Beale, made by filmmaker Larry Lancit. Filmed entirely in the Blues clubs on famed Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee (Google Maps), this doc captures the people, the soul, and music of the 36th International Blues Challenge, an annual event organized and staged by The Blues Foundation. Experience 5 days of rocking, crowd pumping Blues competition packed with passion, music, and suspense. Discover the people who keep The Blues alive and the powerful international impact of America's musical gift to the world. Big ambitions. Bigger hearts. Better world. The doc interviews a lot of the musicians and discusses the local scene in Memphis as well. This actually sounds like a great time, not only listening to all of them talk about their passion for Blues music, but...