American moments
“A documentary about one of the greatest American photographers of the 20th century.” – Deadline
ABOUT THE FILM: A groundbreaking Black photographer reflects on his career inside the country’s most influential publications during the height of America’s pictorial magazine era, when his vivid images—from the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. to the Attica uprising— helped define how the nation saw itself.
From the lakeside cottage where he spent his later years, John Shearer looks back at an era when magazines like LIFE and Look shaped the national consciousness through photography. His work—beautiful, wrenching, vibrant, raw—bore witness to a turbulent period of civil unrest and cultural transformation, and conveyed its emotional weight to millions of Americans.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Academy Award® nominee James Spione, founder of Morninglight Films, has been an independent producer-director for over thirty years. His work has screened at numerous international film festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, AFI, HotDocs, Camden, and the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, among many others. Mr. Spione’s films have been broadcast on four continents and distributed on digital platforms worldwide, including Netflix, iTunes, PBS, Amazon and Fandango at Home. American Moments is his 14th documentary.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: New York City-based jazz saxophonist Alison Shearer, who is the daughter of Mr. Shearer and the composer of the film’s soundtrack, was called “a force on the rise” by Jazz Times magazine. Her 2022 debut solo album View from Above, which was inspired by her intense creative connection with her father and his loss in 2019, was one of NPR’s Top Ten Albums of the Year and a Jazz Times Editor’s Choice. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music, Alison has toured around the world with her eponymous quartet as well as a diverse array of artists and collaborators, including the jazz hip hop fusion group PitchBlak Brass Band (which she cofounded), and the psychedelic bhangra band Red Baraat, appearing at venues including Joe’s Pub, Rockwood Music Hall, the Blue Note, Brooklyn Bowl, the Kennedy Center and the Kaufman Music Center. She has appeared at notable festivals like the San Francisco, Saratoga and Rochester Jazz Festivals, Music Mela, Moab Music Festival and the Dubai Expo. In 2024, Ms. Shearer wrote and premiered her first chamber work for the classical stage, which was commissioned by the University of South Carolina. Her 2025-26 season included the release of her sophomore album In The Garden for Pinch Records, the premiere of another chamber commission by USC, and the premiere of her first orchestral work for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra, commissioned by ROCO Symphony in Houston, Texas.