LEE FIELDS: FAITHFUL MAN, A Film by Jessamyn Ansary and Joyce Mishaan

From His Rise and Fall in the 1970s to His Comeback in the 21st Century with a New Generation of Fans, Soul/Funk Legend Lee Fields is Chronicled in the Award-Winning Documentary, Lee Fields: Faithful Man

Coming to TVOD Via Gravitas Ventures on Feb. 27, 2024

During Black History Month

(Now Ready for Pre-Ordering on Apple)

Lee Fields is a funk and soul legend 50 years in the making. Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Charlotte Film Festival 2022 and an Official Selection of sold-out premiere at DOC NYC 2022, Lee Fields: Faithful Man, the feature documentary directed by Jessamyn Ansary and Joyce Mishaan, chronicles Fields’ journey to find his place in soul music history, from vinyl to virtual — and back again. Gravitas Ventures, an Anthem Sports & Entertainment Company, is releasing the film on all major Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) platforms (Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Vimeo, Microsoft and YouTube) on Feb. 27 during Black History Month. Lee Fields: Faithful Man is now ready for pre-ordering on Apple by clicking here.

His voice has been compared to James Brown, but Lee Fields is no knock-off. He’s the real thing. Listening to the soul sounds coming through his transistor radio in the fifties and sixties, Fields was hooked. Through the seventies, he made his living as a singer touring alongside some of the greatest names in blues and soul history, including a stint with Kool and the Gang before their rise to fame. But, as the seventies came to a close, disco began its reign and Lee's soul career plummeted. For decades, he thought his music dreams were dead. But with one phone call, everything changed.

Interspersed with striking, never-before seen performances of new and classic Lee Fields songs, Lee Fields: Faithful Man takes us through Lee's memories from the moment soul music began, to his hard-won present-day success, and shows how 50 years of changing technology have conspired to create one beautiful but fleeting moment in music history. As Fields will tell you, it’s all about timing.

Fields hails from a performance tradition of an all but lost musical era. Impassioned, immediate, with classic moves - his music brings the past into the present with authenticity rather than imitation. While he’s been working towards this current moment his entire career, Lee has gone through a lifetime of ups and downs. He’s experienced brushes with fame and failure, only to come back again stronger, more true to his own sound and style, more ready.

Now, his classic sound has found a new audience in the millennial generation, and they can't get enough. Lee has watched his star rise among fans that have come of age as music, and every facet of our lives, have been taken by a digital storm. Since 2009 he’s released six hit records with his band, The Expressions, and in 2022, he reunited with Daptone Records to release "Sentimental Fool." He's played to packed houses around the world, and at music festivals like Bonnaroo, South by Southwest, and Coachella. But what lies ahead? In the last decade, a wave of classic artists, including Lee’s dear friends, Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, have passed away. As more and more of the originators and celebrators of the genre leave us, Lee stands as the greatest soul singer still alive and making music today – and the responsibility of carrying this music forward into the next generation rests on his shoulders.

The magic of his voice, the deep living history embedded in his music, the raw power of his live performances – these things are happening now – and they won’t last forever. Filmmaking duo Jessamyn Ansary and Joyce Mishaan have been working with Fields on this documentary over the course of a decade, capturing this critical moment in his life, and in music history.

Ansary said she was first introduced to Lee’s music in 2013, when she stumbled across a music video for “Faithful Man.” “I was immediately struck by the power of his voice, and, after looking into him further, was convinced that his story needed to be told,” she said.” Ansary then approached Joyce Mishaan about partnering on the project as co-directors. “At first I was reluctant to commit to such a massive undertaking, but Jessamyn persuaded me to spend a day filming with Lee. One day was all it took. I experienced what we later came to call, ‘the power of Lee’ – that dynamic draw that nearly everyone gets when first in his company. It’s the feeling of being in the presence of a legend,” said Mishaan.

“On the surface, we couldn’t be more different from Lee – by way of age, background, or life experience – but in working with him we came to recognize a synergy that is also echoed in his fan-base. Most of his fans are closer to our age than to his, and Lee’s relationship to his new, young generation of fans — and his journey to bring this music forward into the 21st century — became a key thread in the film. So began an 10-year odyssey to understand ‘the power of Lee’,” said Ansary and Mishaan.

About the Filmmakers:

Director/Producer – Jessamyn Ansary is a writer, producer and filmmaker with 15+ years of experience creating content for networks and platforms like HBO Max, Hulu, National Geographic, Travel Channel, Oxygen, Food Network and many others. Ansary got her start as an associate producer on acclaimed director Michael Apted’s documentary Married in America. She was part of the producing team on the Emmy-nominated healthcare documentary Escape Fire, and on multiple HBO feature docs and series, including Americans in Bed and Real Sex. Recent projects include writing true crime scripts for Oxygen channel’s popular series’ Snapped and Killer Couples; co-producing The Jewel Thief, a feature true crime documentary for Hulu; casting the leads on the HBO Max series Swiping America; producing a series of short branded documentaries for eBay; and writing for Time Stamped, the e-commerce wing of Time Magazine. Follow Jessamyn Ansary on IG: @chapstickfever.

Director/Producer/Cinematographer - Joyce Mishaan is a filmmaker and producer from Brooklyn. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, she has created short and long form content for major networks including HBO, Nat Geo, Discovery+, TLC, Food Network and branded documentary content for clients including Nike, eBay and more. She has created documentary shorts for Yahoo’s Makers Conference, and for former Vice President Al Gore’s 24 Hours of Reality. She was part of the producing team for the 2014 Emmy-nominated feature documentary Escape Fire: the Fight to Rescue American Healthcare. In TV, she was Showrunner and Executive Producer of Food Network’s Ciao House and Me or the Menu, and Senior Producer for the hit show Chopped. She was also one of the Executive Producers on TLC’s famed 90 Day Fiancé franchise. Joyce is the Producer and Co-EP of Brooklynification, a comedy series about gentrification for BRIC TV/Amazon Prime, and she is currently Producing a hybrid narrative/documentary feature with director Keith Miller, in post-production. Lee Fields: Faithful Man is her directorial debut for a feature documentary, with Jessamyn Ansary. When not making films, Joyce is also a coach for filmmakers and other creative professionals, helping them to take the leap into creative work that truly ignites them. Follow Joyce Mishaan on IG: @joycehm.

About Gravitas Ventures

Gravitas Ventures is a leading all rights distributor of independent feature films and documentaries. Founded in 2006, Gravitas connects independent filmmakers and producers with distribution opportunities across the globe. Working with talented directors and producers, Gravitas Ventures has distributed thousands of films into over a hundred million homes in North America - over one billion homes worldwide. Their recent wide theatrical release ‘Mack & Rita’ starring Academy Award Winner Diane Keaton released under the new label Gravitas Premiere. Recent Gravitas Venture releases include The King’s Daughter directed by Sean McNamara,Queen Bees directed by Michael Lembeck, Our Friend directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, starring Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, and Jason Segel,Vanguard, directed by Stanley Tong and starring Jackie Chan, The Secret: Dare to Dream, directed by Andy Tennant and starring Katie Holmes; For more information, please visit www.gravitasventures.com, and follow @GravitasVOD on Twitter and @gravitasventures on Instagram.

About Anthem Sports & Entertainment, Inc.

Anthem Sports & Entertainment Inc. is a global multi-platform media company with offices and studios in Toronto, Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville, New York, Kansas City and Cleveland. Anthem's portfolio includes AXS TV, a leading music, entertainment and lifestyle television channel and digital media company; global film distribution company Gravitas Ventures; Fight Network, the world's premier combat sports channel with broadcast distribution across 10+ countries and available globally through multiple OTT platforms; IMPACT Wrestling, one of the world's leading wrestling organizations; Invicta Fighting Championships, the world’s premier all-women mixed martial arts promotion; Game+, the leader in sports wagering, Esports and gaming content; GameTV , the home of game shows and competition-based reality series; and HDNet Movies, which features theatrically released films and documentaries. Anthem also has a significant ownership interest in Pursuit Channel, one of the top outdoor channels in the U.S. For more information, visit www.anthemse.com