The Apollo (2019 film)

The Apollo is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Roger Ross Williams. The Apollo had its world premiere on April 24, 2019, at the Tribeca Film Festival. It received positive reviews and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special in 2020 while also being shortlisted for nomination of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.^[1][2]

The Apollo
Directed by	Roger Ross Williams
Written by	Roger Ross Williams Cassidy Hartmann Jean Tsien
Produced by	Roger Ross Williams Lisa Cortés Jeanne Elfant Festa Cassidy Hartmann
Cinematography	Michael Dwyer
Edited by	Jean Tsien John S. Fisher
Music by	Robert Glasper
Production companies	White Horse Pictures Impact Partners HBO Documentary Films The Apollo Theatre Foundation
Distributed by	HBO
Release date	April 24, 2019 (2019-04-24)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Summary

The film looks at the unique history and contemporary legacy of the iconic Apollo Theater while following the Apollo's inaugural staging of Ta-Nehisi Coates' acclaimed "Between the World and Me."^[3]

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 22 critics and assessed 21 as positive and 1 as negative for a 95% rating. Metacritic determined an average rating of 7.7/10.

Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly scored The Apollo an A−, writing "Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams stacks his story accordingly, drawing warm testimonials from some of the biggest names to ever grace its stage, including Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Jamie Foxx, and Pharrell Williams. But the [film] also works beautifully as a mosaic, unfurling its rich history without failing to acknowledge that it takes more than nostalgia to keep a cultural institution alive. In that sense, The Apollo feels like both a necessary lesson and a gift."^[4]

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
2019	IDA Documentary Awards	Best Music Documentary	Roger Ross Williams, Lisa Cortés, Jeanne Elfant Festa, and Cassidy Hartmann	Nominated	[5]
	Satellite Awards	Best Motion Picture – Documentary	The Apollo	Nominated	[6]
2020	AARP Movies for Grownups Awards	Best Documentary		Nominated	[7]
	Black Reel Awards	Outstanding Documentary	Roger Ross Williams	Nominated	[8]
		Outstanding Original Song	"Don't Turn Back" – Robert Glasper and Ledisi	Nominated
	Golden Reel Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Non-Theatrical Documentary	Christopher Barnett, Al Nelson, and Benny Burtt	Nominated	[9]
	Guild of Music Supervisors Awards	Best Music Supervision for a Documentary	G. Marq Roswell and Dondi Bastone	Nominated	[10]
	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Documentary (Film)	The Apollo	Nominated	[11]
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special	Roger Ross Williams, Lisa Cortés, Jeanne Elfant Festa, Cassidy Hartmann, Dan Cogan, Nicholas Ferrall, and Julie Goldman	Won	[12]