THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF UNSUNG HERO ARCHBISHOP CARL BEAN IS SET TO PREMIERE AT TRIBECA 2025 IN THE NEW DOCUMENTARY “I WAS BORN THIS WAY”
- Tammy Reese
- 19 minutes ago
- 7 min read
By Tammy Reese
THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE UNSUNG AMERICAN HERO — ARCHBISHOP CARL BEAN — IS SET TO PREMIERE AT TRIBECA 2025 IN THE NEW DOCUMENTARY “I WAS BORN THIS WAY” DIRECTED BY THE OSCAR® AND EMMY AWARD WINNING TEAM OF DANIEL JUNGE AND SAM POLLARD AND PRODUCED BY WELLINGTON LOVE AND JED ALAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY QUESTLOVE, BILLY PORTER AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS, THE FILM FEATURES INTERVIEWS WITH LADY GAGA, DIONNE WARWICK, REP. MAXINE WATERS, TOGETHER WITH QUESTLOVE AND PORTER AND WILL LAUNCH ON JUNE 5 IN NEW YORK CITY AT THE VILLAGE EAST CINEMA BY ANGELIKA
From executive producers Questlove, Billy Porter, and Jamie Lee Curtis, and the Oscar and Emmy winning directing team of Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard, I WAS BORN THIS WAY is the feature documentary on the untold story of Archbishop Carl Bean, who sang the world’s first gay anthem — the Motown disco club hit “I Was Born This Way.”
Six years in the making, the film follows the little known story of Bean’s life from his turbulent childhood growing up Black and queer, through his surprising music career, including the 1977 Billboard top 10 Disco hit and gay anthem “I Was Born This Way,” and his departure from the music industry to start the prolific Minority AIDS Project and the world’s first LGBTQ+ church for people of color, Unity Fellowship.
I WAS BORN THIS WAY also tracks the surprising back-story of the song and the legacy of Bean’s version, which inspired Lady Gaga’s new modern LGBTQ+ anthem, “Born This Way.”
I WAS BORN THIS WAY features intimate interviews with Lady Gaga, Questlove, Billy Porter, Dionne Warwick, and Rep. Maxine Waters. It also uses innovative rotoscope animation and features a trove of incredible archival footage and classic music, including the titular song.
Junge and Pollard first collaborated on the HBO film THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY, which was nominated for an Emmy and short-listed for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
“Carl’s story is such a treasure for documentary storytellers like Sam and me,” says Junge, “so we took great effort to tell it in the most impactful way possible.”
The film is also produced by Wellington Love (THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY) and a team of filmmakers — many of whom are people of color and LGBTQ identifying.
“We’re living in a time when our government is systematically erasing LGBTQ and BIPOC people from our collective American history, so a film like I WAS BORN THIS WAY is not only a means of ensuring a selfless humanitarian like Archbishop Carl Bean is not lost or forgotten, it is also an act of resistance,” says producer Love.
I WAS BORN THIS WAY spans his life from a traumatic childhood on the streets of Baltimore to an inspired music career to the enormous and diverse church he built where everyone was embraced and loved, regardless of race, sexuality or gender identity. Archbishop Bean was ahead of his time as he practiced and preached radical love. Utilizing never before seen archival footage, rotoscope animation, and intimate interviews with family and loved ones, the film becomes a moving and insightful testament to Archbishop Bean’s legacy.
I WAS BORN THIS WAY premieres in the Documentary Spotlight Section of the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5th followed by a robust series of film festival showings throughout the year including DC DOX in Washington DC, FRAMELINE FILM FESTIVAL in San Francisco and the SHEFFIELD DOC FEST in Sheffield, England.
I WAS BORN THIS WAY is an acquisition title at Tribeca with CAA representing the film for sales purposes.
ABOUT I WAS BORN THIS WAY DOCUMENTARY
A JungeFilm Production in association with w/Love Productions, Goodform, Incognegro Productions, Two One Five Entertainment, Milkhaus, Polygram Entertainment; Edited by Tessa Malsam and Davis Coombe; Director of Photography — Jerry Henry; Original Music by John Jennings Boyd and Deandre James Allen-Toole; Consulting Producer — Victor Mignatti; Art Director — Chad Herschberger; Executive Producers — Billy Porter, Questlove, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cori Robinson, Josh Green, Zarah Zohlman, Shawn Gee, Tarik Trotter, D.J. Gugenheim, Barbara Bridges, William LaBahn, Kristen Wolf, John Caulkins, Craig Hartzman, James John, Andrew Tobias, Kaylin & Kimala Gray, Lynne Butler, Corey Klaasmayer and Neal Baer. Produced by Wellington Love, Daniel Junge and Jed Alan. Directed by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
DANIEL JUNGE
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Daniel Junge is an Oscar-winning (2-time nominated) and Emmy-winning (6-time nominated) documentary filmmaker. Junge’s films include Oscar-winner Inaugural Tribeca Grand Jury Prize winner CHIEFS, Oscar-winner SAVING FACE, Sundance-premiere BEING EVEL, Toronto-premiere IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA, Netflix-broadcast FIGHT CHURCH, Tribeca-premiere A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY, Oscar-nominee THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF GOVERNOR BOOTH GARDNER and Oscar-short-listed THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY. Junge also served as showrunner and director on the AMC series SECRET HISTORY OF COMICS, and the Emmy-nominated CHALLENGER: THE FINAL FLIGHT, for Netflix. Junge has taught documentary filmmaking at USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, among other institutions. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
SAM POLLARD
DIRECTOR
SAM POLLARD is an accomplished feature film and television editor, and documentary producer/director. Between 1990 and 2010, Pollard edited several Spike Lee films: MO’ BETTER BLUES, JUNGLE FEVER, GIRL 6, CLOCKERS, and BAMBOOZLED. Pollard and Lee co-produced a several documentary productions for the small and big screen, FOUR LITTLE GIRLS, a feature-length documentary about the 1963 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award and WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, a four-part documentary that won numerous awards, including a Peabody and three Emmy Awards. Five years later 2010 he co-produced and supervised the edit on the LEVEES follow-up film, IF GOD IS WILLING AND DA CREEK DON’T RISE.
Since 2012, Pollard has completed as a producer/director SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME, a 90-minute documentary for PBS that was in competition at the Sundance Film Festival; AUGUST WILSON: THE GROUND ON WHICH I STAND a 90-minute documentary in 2015 for American Masters; TWO TRAINS RUNNIN,’ a feature length documentary in 2016 that premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival. SAMMY DAVIS JR., I’VE GOTTA BE ME for American Masters premièred at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019 Pollard co-directed the Six Part Series WHY WE HATE that premiered on The Discovery Channel.
In 2020 he was one of the directors on the 2020 HBO Series ATLANTA’S MISSING AND MURDERED: THE LOST CHILDREN. He also completed in 2020 MLK/FBI which premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. In 2021 HBO premiered two of his films BLACK ART: IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT AND CITIZEN ASHE. The years 2022 and 2023 have been very productive for Pollard. He completed LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, a film he co-directed with Gandbhir, the two-part documentary, BILL RUSSELL: LEGEND, about the legendary Boston Celtic and civil rights icon that premiered on Netflix in 2023. And that same year he premiered MAX ROACH: THE DRUM ALSO WALTZES, a film he co-directed with Ben Shapiro, that had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. And the film SOUTH TO BLACK POWER, inspired by New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, co-directed by Pollard and Llewellyn Smith premiered on HBO in 2023.
WELLINGTON LOVE
PRODUCER
A film industry veteran of more than 30 years, Wellington Love is the president of w/Love Productions, which recently produced Daniel Peddle’s critically acclaimed feature documentary Beyond The Aggressives. Currently streaming on Paramount+ w/Showtime, the film won the GLAAD 2024 Outstanding Documentary Award. Love served as Co-Producer on Lee Daniels’ 2021 The United States vs. Billie Holiday, starring Golden Globe winner Andra Day. With veteran producer Effie Brown (The Inspection), Love produced Spread the Vote’s 2020 PSA campaign #WorkThePolls, which incorporated spots directed by Oscar-nominated Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Tony award-winning John Cameron Mitchell. Other projects in development include Peddle’s narrative feature Rose Moon, a twisted love story about a female parole officer who has a tempestuous affair with her parolee; and the limited series Uncle Bobby, created by novelist Tim Murphy (Christodora), in which a young man travels back in time to try to prevent his uncle’s death from AIDS. Love is a member of AMPAS and lives in New York City.
JED ALAN
PRODUCER
Born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Alan is a 2007 Emerson College Film graduate and Los Angeles-based Cinematographer with nearly 15 years of experience. His collaborations with renowned directors like Peter Berg, Daniel Junge, and Matt Tyrnauer span award-winning documentaries, doc-series, commercials, and promos. A founding partner of both Goodform and Rare Breeds, Alan leads with a simple belief: success in filmmaking is born from the connections we forge while creating work we deeply care about. His companies embody this philosophy.
I WAS BORN THIS WAY premieres in the Documentary Spotlight Section of the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5th followed by a robust series of film festival showings throughout the year including DC DOX in Washington DC, FRAMELINE FILM FESTIVAL in San Francisco and the SHEFFIELD DOC FEST in Sheffield, England. Having this film premiere in the month of June during Pride Month world-wide feels so right on time!
To learn more about the film — www.IWasBornThisWayFilm.com
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