the National Educational Film and Video Festival in Oakland, California in May, 1990. The film was distributed in Europe and Japan but was never widely shown in the United States. In June, 2021, the film is scheduled to be broadcast online as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. SFJAZZ originally premiered the film in 1985. Critical reception Writing in the Los Angeles Times, jazz critic Leonard Feather called the documentary "surely the best jazz film in at least 25 years" and "an affectionate tribute, exquisitely expressed in words and music." A review in the Los Angeles Daily News said that the film "stands today as one of the greatest jazz films ever made", a "masterful piece of work", and "the model for future jazz film endeavors." In the Peninsula Times Tribune, a reviewer wrote, "The film's most outstanding attribute is its commitment to let Monk's own music stand as a kind of musical biography." The same reviewer later wrote that the film's "aggregate effect makes it one of the most honest and moving films about jazz in several decades. Above all, the film presents a complete impression of Monk - as a musician and as a human being." Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, a reviewer said that the film is a "superbly crafted documentary that tells the story of his art by deftly mixing footage of Monk performances with interviews with musicians and family, still photographs, live performances of Monk's music by musicians who'd worked with him, and Jon Hendrick's pithy, lyrical narration." A jazz reviewer for the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a warm, loving memorial." Awards In 1984, the film won a bronze medal at the New York Film Festival. In 1985, the film was a finalist in the Best Performance Film category at the Rose d'Or festival in Montreux. References American documentary films 1983 documentary films 1983 films Jazz films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films