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Thomas Kinkade is best known for his kitschy paintings of picturesque towns, but the late artist’s personal life contains a few shocking twists. The new documentary “Art for Everybody” captures Kinkade’s legacy as the “Painter of Light” and the mysterious man.

The official synopsis reads: “You’ve seen his cozy cottages, idyllic gardens, and welcoming village streets on everything from canvas to commemorative plates. Both celebrated and disparaged for his kitschy signature settings, the ‘Painter of Light’ Thomas Kinkade rocketed to popularity in the ‘90s by marketing himself to American evangelicals and pitting himself against the elite art establishment. Yet beneath the pristine public persona were demons that would drive him to alcoholism, scandal, and death from an overdose in 2012 at age 54. After his passing, Kinkade’s daughters uncovered a trove of unseen, unexpectedly dark paintings, a discovery that launched an investigation into their father’s true personality.

When Faith Ringgold visited the women’s house on Rikers island in 1971, commissioned to produce a painting for it, she asked the inmates what they wanted. One of them told her that the thing she most needed to see was a road out of there. The work subsequently developed went far beyond any literal interpretation of that. The route it depicted saw women becoming empowered in ways wholly unexpected at the time. It spoke to a much deeper-rooted problem, to the absence of freedom that led many of the women there to become incarcerated in the first place. It was an inspiration to many – and yet, in a strange turn of events, the painting itself would go on to become a prisoner.

Catherine Gund’s latest searing documentary tells the story of the painting and of Faith’s subsequent struggle to liberate it. Filmed during the last few months of the artist’s.

Emmy-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted documentarian Catherine Gund’s new film “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” tells the story of how art and the women’s prison system intersect. Gund centers on the legacy of late artist Faith Ringgold, whose 1971 painting “For the Women’s House” made it from Rikers Island to the Brooklyn Museum. The 50-year journey for Ringgold’s masterpiece to be placed in a museum is at the crux of the feature. Ringgold died in 2024; she was 93.

The official synopsis reads: “A great painting tells a compelling story. When its provenance deepens that story, it becomes an extraordinary and impactful performance piece. Emmy-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted documentarian and activist Catherine Gund tracks the labyrinthine ordeal born by Faith Ringgold’s 1971 painting ‘For the Women’s House’ — originally created for the women incarcerated on Rikers Island, then relegated to mishandling, defacing, and deep storage. Artist and rapper Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter,...

7th Sun Productions, the company founded by Yara and Keri Shahidi, have tapped Kauveh Khozein Carrera to lead development.

Khozein Carrera previously worked for Angelina Jolie and Netflix’s Original Series team, which was responsible for Firefly Lane and My Life with the Walter Boys. He also worked for media financier Picturestart and Scott Free Television.

“What a thrill to shepherd Yara and Keri’s vision, marrying creative genius with exemplary community involvement during a momentous time for the company. I’ve always been drawn to the power of storytelling, which has been expertly harnessed in the Shahidi’s long-standing relationship with Disney, and look forward to the journey ahead with them as we fire on all cylinders in TV, film, and beyond,” said Khozein Carrera.

7th Sun Productions continues to operate under an overall deal at ABC Signature in partnership with Onyx Collective, where they have active development at play.

French art museum Musee Rodin was filled with mosaic artwork from some of American artist Faith Ringgold’s most known painting series, Freedom Woman Now and Woman Free Yourself, on Monday. The museum was the setting for Dior’s Fall Winter 2024 Haute Couture show in Paris.

The show’s backdrop included political posters challenging the way African American and gender identity has been portrayed in the world, along with a nod to the upcoming 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games set to take place next month.

Upon entering the space, guests were greeted with a recreation of Ringgold’s L.A. Subway Commission Mosaics hanging on the walls. The work, featuring 32 life-sized athletes in action, was done by Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft. Dior’s creative director for women and haute couture, Maria Grazia Chiuri, bridges the gap between fashion and sport by using Ringgold’s work.

The show...

Blackish star Yara Shahidi and her mother Keri Shahidi have made the move into audio production, calling a collaboration between their production company and SiriusXM “something we were waiting for.”

The mother-daughter duo – co-founders of 7th Sun Productions – told the Cannes Lions festival why they had teamed up with SiriusXM for their first audio offering, The Optimist Project.

“I feel if people knew how little TV we watch and how many podcasts we listen to, the question would be, why TV?” said Yara Shahidi. “We watched TV for an hour on Saturdays growing up. Blackish was the first time I watched TV during the week.

“Audio has been a big part of our family. We needed to find the right entry point. After so many years of tinkering with podcast ideas, there was a natural alignment and inspiration with The Optimist Project. It’s why we took this foray, it...

“Black-ish” and “Grown-ish” star Yara Shahidi has signed on to executive produce the documentary “Paint Me a Road Out of Here,” which will make its world premiere at the DC/Dox Film Festival next month.

Directed by Catherine Gund, “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” features artists Faith Ringgold and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter and “uncovers the whitewashed history of Ringgold’s masterpiece ‘For the Women’s House,’ following the painting’s 50-year journey from the Rikers Jail to the Brooklyn Museum in a heartbreaking, funny and true parable for a world without mass incarceration.”

Of the painting Ringgold has said: “The women wanted to be free, they wanted to be out of there of course but it was obvious to me that the reason many of them were there was because they had a lack of freedom in the first place. They were arrested for doing things for other people.

DC/Dox has unveiled the lineup for its second annual edition, which takes place in Washington, D.C., from June 13-16. The documentary festival will kick things off with “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” the Warner Bros. Discovery film that premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

The second edition of the fest includes 51 features and 47 shorts from 17 countries. That’s up from last year’s state of 31 features and 21 shorts from eight countries. This year’s lineup is made of 60% of filmmakers identifying as women or non-binary. Films will screen at venues including Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, the Burke Theatre at the U.S. Navy Memorial, and the National Archives.

“The films on the 2024 slate highlight the remarkable breadth and depth of documentary storytelling today,” says DC/Dox co-founder and festival director Sky Sitney. “From filmmakers around the world, these works recalibrate the past through archival footage, immerse themselves...

Muppeteer Jim Henson’s rarities, late quilt artist Faith Ringgold’s earliest interview, and an ad for Jacuzzi rival Vibrabath saw the light of day at the 14th Orphan Film Symposium.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary earlier this week, the NYU-produced Orphans (first founded by University of South Carolina turned NYU professor Dan Streible in 1999) gathered scholars, archivists, and preservationists for a range of media obscurities: including home videos, newsreels, and medical films abandoned by their copyright holders at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI). Blame low commercial value, the deterioration of VHS/celluloid copies in the Dcp era, or the shrouding of sociopolitical messages from the masses for their loss.

This year’s theme was the broadly named “Work and Play.” According to the convening’s open call, “Work” alludes to labor, occupations, and machines. Conversely, “Play” implies joy, games, entertainment, and sex. Yet, the two realms intersect...