It’s been a little over a year since Roger Ebert, perhaps the most influential film critic of all time, passed after a long battle with cancer. It was and still is a titanic loss for the film community, and for readers everywhere. But we now have the first trailer for Life Itself, the Ebert documentary that looks more than up to the task of honoring the late critic’s work and wisdom.
The film looks fairly comprehensive: we get glimpses of Ebert’s famous rivalry with Gene Siskel, his ascent to the preeminent position in American criticism, and his courage and continued joy for film when surgery rendered him incapable of speech. Filmmakers like Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese also pay homage to the critic. Life Itself’s director is Steve James, whose Hoop Dreams Ebert called “the great American documentary” and the best film of the ‘90s; the movie will hit theaters July 4.
