A STORY OF SURVIVAL …






A Film by Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden


Opens at Cinema Village August 15, 2008



ANITA O’DAY THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER, a captivating documentary directed by Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden, and produced by Melissa Davis along with Cavolina and McCrudden is set to open its New York engagement at the Cinema Village theater on August 15, 2008. The film chronicles the extraordinary life of Anita O’Day, one of the most legendary female jazz vocalists of all time. It has swept through more than two dozen national and international film festivals winning accolades and awards along the way. Now lucky viewers can catch it when ANITA O’DAY THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER opens its NY engagement.



The film is an intimate portrait of the maverick jazz vocalist Anita O’Day, a self-professed “song-stylist” and rightly known as one of the greatest jazz divas of all time. Filmmakers Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden have devoted four years in order to perfectly capture O’Day’s seven decade career. ANITA O’DAY THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER documents her wild ride; following her career from the early days singing alongside the likes of Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge, Stan Kenton, Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael through her many great adversities which she fought to overcome; a 20-year heroin and alcohol addiction, several failed marriages, abortions and arrests and finally, her last-hurrah album, completed just before the singer’s 2006 death at age 87.



Most exciting is to see Miss O’Day in action. There is incredible footage from her incomparable career starting as far back as the 1940’s through the recording of her last album, and the joy of hearing a woman do what she did best – sing. We see, and hear Anita singing more than 30 songs, including "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Honeysuckle Rose,” "Tea for Two," "Let's Fall in Love" and from her legendary performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, “Sweet Georgia Brown.”



Aside from being a musical genius, Anita O Day’s captivating stage presence, sophisticated good looks, unique phrasing and rich smoky voice made her an inspirational performer and the only white female singer considered to be in the same jazz league as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan.
That she failed to attain the fame of the aforementioned greats was in part because of her being her own worst enemy. This and more is discussed by a roster of record industry professionals, jazz critics and musicians in ANITA O'DAY THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER.





More info: http://www.anitaoday.com/documentary.html