‘Touch’ Trailer: Filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s Romantic Thriller Opens July 12

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor A muse, a mother, a fashionista, an actor, a rock ‘n’ roll icon — it’s hard to describe exactly why Anita Pallenberg remains such a compelling figure more than a half-century after the captivating blonde sang backing vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and starred in movies like “Performance” and “Barbarella.” The new documentary “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” delves into both the beautiful and tragic moments of her eventful life with the help of a treasure trove of home movies and interviews, as well as an unpublished memoir penned by Pallenberg and narrated by Scarlett Johansson. The footage is coupled with interviews of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, with whom she had a significant relationship, their children Marlon and Angela Richards, director Volker Schlondorff, who cast her in some of his films, and her former friends and associates.

Jennie Punter The demise of disco was greatly accelerated by the cultural impact of the infamous Disco Demolition Night of 1979 in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. While rockers have used the word in a pejorative sense for years, DJs, artists, impresarios, and aficionados know that disco—both the genre and the subculture—not only has deep roots but has lived on under various aliases, inspiring the evolution of music and keeping people moving in various funky ways.

Carlos Aguilar When filmmaker Rachel Elizabeth Seed first hears the recorded voice of her late mother Sheila Turner Seed, who died when she was only 18 months old, a long-buried sense of connection is instantly reawakened. Seed, also a photographer, has spent years trying to construct a portrait of Turner from the substantial archival materials she left behind following a career as an adventurous, globe-trotting journalist.

Lexi Carson Disney’s “Launchpad,” the anthology series of American independent short films will return for its third season. Submissions for the new season are now open through June 2.

Lifetime has set the premiere date and unveiled a trailer for The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, a two night documentary event that sheds new light on her life on the eve of the 30th anniversary of her tragic and untimely death.

EXCLUSIVE: Venezuelan Filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz, best known for Resistance and Hands of Stone, has signed on to direct the feature Cottonwood for Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures. 

EXCLUSIVE: Cameras have started rolling in Sofia, Bulgaria, on the survival-thriller Savage Hunt from Dutch filmmaker Roel Reiné (Halo). 

Apologies to Thomas Wolfe, but it appears you can go home again. 

EXCLUSIVE: Artist International Group has signed renowned Japanese filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Producers Esmail Corp (Mr. Robot) and K Period Media (Manchester By The Sea) are teaming up with Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon (The Age Of Shadows) on an English and Korean-language movie adaptation of novel The Hole.

Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Bowen Yang (SNL) have been tapped to star in a reimagining of Ang Lee’s classic romance The Wedding Banquet from filmmaker Andrew Ahn (Fire Island), Deadline can confirm.

Stephen Cognetti, the writer-director behind the cult classic horror movie franchise Hell House LLC, has signed with Anonymous Content for representation.

The news last weekthat Participant Media would be shutting down shocked the entertainment industry, but it hit the documentary community with particular force. 

EXCLUSIVE: Zero Gravity Management has signed Nigerian filmmaker Editi Effiong, whose debut feature The Black Book last year established itself as Netflix’s most viewed English-language African film.

From almost all accounts, it seems like Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has another hit on his hands with “Challengers,” a new tennis drama from MGM Studios that’s actually more of a love-triangle romance bundled into the sports genre. Starring Zendaya (Marvel’s “Spider-Man” franchise and the “Dune” series), Josh O’Connor (“Dr.

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, has died at the age of 80.The Mexican director, producer and writer, perhaps best known for the 1986 film The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, passed away in her San Francisco home.Portillo was known for her bold filmmaking style that confronted issues around race, sexuality and social justice, and often featured stories and experiences of Latin American, Mexican and Chicano culture.Born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1943, she moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, where she became part of a Marxist filmmaking collective, Cine Manifest, in the ‘70s, eventually working on her first film, After the Earthquake, in 1979.In addition to her extensive work in documentary features, Portillo went on to gain a reputation in the worlds of video installation and screenwriting, and also worked in investigative journalism and visual art.She co-directed The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo with Susana Blaustein Muñoz.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinetic Media has signed New York-based documentary filmmaker Contessa Gayles for management across all media.

Lourdes Portillo, the Mexican-born, Chicana-identified filmmaker who crafted nuanced film and video works that center the emotions and circumstances of diverse Latinx experiences, died on Saturday, April 20 at her home in San Francisco. She died peacefully, surrounded by her three sons and a younger sister, according to a friend.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The Universal horror movie “Abigail” began as a modern-day twist on “Dracula’s Daughter,” but making a film about the legendary vampire’s blood-sucking scion wasn’t the reason why the filmmaking trio Radio Silence — producer Chad Villella and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett — wanted to make the project their follow-up to 2022’s “Scream” and 2023’s “Scream VI.” “As freeing as it is to challenge the format of what a ‘Scream’ movie is, you’re playing in a pretty specific sandbox,” Gillett says.

EXCLUSIVE: The Arab Film Club, a popular monthly film club on Arab cinema based in London, is expanding.