Born to Arkansas cotton pickers in 1915, Rosetta Nubin first began singing and playing guitar at the age of four. Soon she was playing in a traveling evangelical troupe alongside her mother and being hailed as nothing short of miraculous.

Rosetta moved to Chicago with her mother and gained significant fame for her rhythmic gospel performances. After a brief marriage to a preacher named Thomas Thorpe, she adopted the stage name Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

She was married several times in her life, but was believed by close friends to be lesbian or bisexual.

In 1938, she moved to New York and recorded four of her gospel songs for the first time, with the backing of Lucky Millinder’s orchestra. They were instantly successful. Her melding of religious lyrics with lively, rollicking music was unheard of, and alienated some conservative listeners while attracting secular audiences.

The first trailer for Loving Vincent (previously) was just released and it promises stunning visuals in a novel format: the film was created from a staggering 12 oil paintings per second in styles inspired by the famous Dutch painter’s brushstrokes. The upcoming movie will detail the story of Van Gogh’s life leading up to the tumultuous time surrounding his death some 125 years ago. According to the filmmakers, over 100 painters have contributed frames to the ambitious feature-length film that is still in progress at their headquarters in Gdansk, Poland. The film is currently being produced by Oscar-winning studios BreakThru Films and Trademark Films, and you can follow their progress or even get involved yourself on their website. (via Devour)

vimeo.com/154385195

Dawn Porter didn’t know that the release of her documentary, Trapped, would coincide with the Supreme Court case that will either enforce or dismantle the very abortion restrictions Trapped aims to illuminate.

She did know, though, that she had met an exceptional character in the form of Dr. Willie Parker. Parker, a black physician from Alabama, has dedicated his career to providing reproductive healthcare, including abortions, for women in the South. He travels among Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi to serve as many women as he can. He is a religious man and believes his work aligns with, rather than contradicts, his faith, though the protesters outside the clinics he visits not-so-respectfully disagree.

Porter met Parker after the 2013 premiere of her second film, Gideon’s Army, which focused on three public defenders in the Deep South. In the restrictive world of the TRAP laws for which her documentary is named — Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers, which is exactly what it sounds like — Porter found a story about people she sensed she hadn’t heard enough about before: Low-income women and women of color who seek abortions. She was stunned at the lengths to which clinics need to go to stay open when conservative politicians want to legislate them out of existence.

Trapped premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, and opens in theaters on March 4. It follows a handful of abortion providers and lawyers who navigate the labyrinthine hellscape that is basic reproductive healthcare. I spoke with Porter by phone about the cinematic limitations of telling a story that mostly takes place in clinics and centers on women who, understandably, have reservations about appearing on camera, resisting the impulse to only include “sympathetic” characters, and what audience she hopes her film has the power to reach.

Hope for a New Life
A man passes a baby through the fence at the Hungarian-Serbian border in Röszke, Hungary, 28 August 2015.
-Warren Richardson

March Against Police Violence
Lamon Reccord stares down a police sergeant during a protest following the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by police in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
-John J. Kim

Into the Light
Raheleh, who was born blind, stands behind the window in the morning. She likes the warmness of the sunlight on her face.
-Zohreh Saberi

Under the Cover of Darkness
Refugees travel in darkness through Europe to avoid detection in Lesbos, Greece.
-Paul Hansen

The Power of Nature
Colima Volcano in Mexico shows a powerful night explosion with lightning, ballistic projectiles and incandescent rockfalls; image taken in the Comala municipality in Colima, Mexico.
-Sergio Tapiro

vimeo.com/154385195

Dawn Porter didn’t know that the release of her documentary, Trapped, would coincide with the Supreme Court case that will either enforce or dismantle the very abortion restrictions Trapped aims to illuminate.

She did know, though, that she had met an exceptional character in the form of Dr. Willie Parker. Parker, a black physician from Alabama, has dedicated his career to providing reproductive healthcare, including abortions, for women in the South. He travels among Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi to serve as many women as he can. He is a religious man and believes his work aligns with, rather than contradicts, his faith, though the protesters outside the clinics he visits not-so-respectfully disagree.

Porter met Parker after the 2013 premiere of her second film, Gideon’s Army, which focused on three public defenders in the Deep South. In the restrictive world of the TRAP laws for which her documentary is named — Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers, which is exactly what it sounds like — Porter found a story about people she sensed she hadn’t heard enough about before: Low-income women and women of color who seek abortions. She was stunned at the lengths to which clinics need to go to stay open when conservative politicians want to legislate them out of existence.

Trapped premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, and opens in theaters on March 4. It follows a handful of abortion providers and lawyers who navigate the labyrinthine hellscape that is basic reproductive healthcare. I spoke with Porter by phone about the cinematic limitations of telling a story that mostly takes place in clinics and centers on women who, understandably, have reservations about appearing on camera, resisting the impulse to only include “sympathetic” characters, and what audience she hopes her film has the power to reach.

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“Instead, pour that energy, investigation and money into people’s records,” she advised. “Whether they’re a businessman like Trump or they’re politicians like Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Look at their records, what have they done. Compare their rhetoric to what they have done throughout their life.”

Stelter argued that there was “value” in knowing what proportion of the electorate supported a candidate’s message.

“Well, you find that out with an election,” Goodman replied. “You find it out with a primary and a caucus.”

“People should just count the times that every network flashes the polls,” she remarked. “Are we telling people what to think?”