As the memory of a jazz legend fades, his soulmate discovers their connection is timeless within the music that shaped their love. Through shared melodies, love is redefined and music becomes their enduring bond.

SYNOPSIS

The love story of Gloria Clayborne and renowned jazz pianist Junior Mance, whose charmed career spans seventy years.

Junior has played with Dizzy, Dinah, Cannonball––all the greats. But it’s not until 1996, that he meets his great love: Gloria Clayborne. They quickly marry, she becomes his manager, and they travel the world together, with music at the center of their relationship.

Then in 2012, Junior has a stroke and develops dementia. Although his musical abilities are still impeccable, Gloria knows their time is limited. She’s compelled to consider-- who will he be without the music? Who will she be? Who will they be together?

A buoyant pragmatist, Gloria keeps them both on key, but slowly accepts that she cannot control everything with sheer will. Ultimately she is forced to let go and learns to improvise.

Gloria and Junior’s relationship, in its enduring complexity, imperfection and connection, offers insight into navigating life’s challenges with love and empathy.

Sunset and the Mockingbird, filmed over 10 years, is told from Gloria’s perspective. It is loosely structured around her personal journal entries, functioning in a way like the spine of a jazz composition. Using verité footage intertwined with archival photos and film, the film fluidly moves from past to present, as memory does.

The Filmmakers

Jyllian is an Emmy-award winning multimedia storyteller. She is currently in production on an unannounced feature documentary for HBO about Robin Byrd, which she is co-directing and producing with longtime collaborator Stephanie Schwam.

Her last award-winning feature doc, The New Public, aired on PBS, distributed by Kino Lorber. Her first critically-acclaimed doc, Pull Out, was an official selection of numerous national and international film festivals and is in development as a series for television.

Other credits include: Director, Writer, & Co-Executive Producer of the HBO rom doc series, Swiping America; Director/Writer on multiple episodes of the NBC Emmy award-winning series, Who Do You Think You Are; ABC’s The Last Defense, Prod/Writer for the Amazon/New Yorker Magazine series, The New Yorker Presents.

She won a Christopher Award for her work as EP/Director of the History/A&E documentary, Black Patriots: Heroes of the American Revolution.

With a diverse background rooted in Italy, Argentina, and Denmark Nicolás has established himself as a distinguished filmmaker. His acclaimed works include: "Cold Case Hammarskjöld," which won the Directing Award at Sundance 2019. "The Mole" (2020) named Documentary of the Year at the Danish Film Academy Awards in 2021 and "The Lost Leonardo" (2021).

His most recent documentary "Hacking Hate," was awarded Best Documentary Feature at Tribeca 2024 further solidifying his reputation. Additionally Nicolás earned recognition from The Grierson Trust with the British Documentary Award in 2021. His films have captivated audiences worldwide both in theaters and on television. He excels in weaving intricate narratives with humor and a keen sense of musicality giving his dramatic creations a unique touch.

Kali Holloway is the Director of the Make It Right Project, a new national campaign to take down Confederate Monuments and tell the truth about history; she is also a Senior Correspondent at the Independent Media Institute.

She previously was Senior Writer and Associate Editor of Media & Culture at progressive news site AlterNet. She co-curated the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MetLiveArts 2017 summer performance and film series “Theater of the Resist.”

She was Director of Outreach and Audience Engagement for the HBO documentary Southern Rites, PBS documentary The New Public, and the Emmy-nominated film Brooklyn Castle, and Outreach Consultant on the award-winning documentary The New Black.

She worked in production and programming on the long-running PBS documentary film series POV. Prior to that, she was speechwriter for a New York City Commissioner and Deputy Director of Communications for the New York State court system.

Her writing has appeared in The Nation, The Daily Beast, Salon, The Guardian, TIME, Huffington Post, The National Memo, Yahoo!

Mary Harron's debut film, “I Shot Andy Warhol,” was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, and went on to pick up awards at the Sundance, Stockholm and Gijón International Film Festivals. Her 2000 film “American Psycho,” based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, has become a fervently loved cult favorite.Other credits include the Netflix mini series, “Alias Grace.” She executive produced “The Weather Underground,” a documentary which offered a look at the radical 1970s political organization. Television credits include: Graceland, The Following, Oz, Six Feet Under, Homicide: Life on the Street, The L Word and Big Love. Currently, she is working on a film based on the book Please Kill Me, an oral history of the New York punk scene in which she was a key player. A co-founder of the legendary magazine Punk, she was the first journalist to interview the Sex Pistols for an American outlet.

Contact

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Donors & Supporters

THANKS TO THE SUPPORTERS BELOW WHO DONATED $150 OR MORE TO OUR KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN!

Thank you to the following folks for supporting our efforts with in-kind donations: Jonathan Lethem, David Shenk, Jonathan Gray, Michael Palms for BAM and the Scripp family, Rachel Esquilin, Bruce Jenkins, Michael Steinman, and of course, Gloria and Junior Mance.

UPCOMING

DECEMBER 2025—JANUARY 2026: FLYING FILM FESTIVAL

OCTOBER 16th—26th, 2025: MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL

SEPTEMBER 27th, 2025: MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL BLACK FILM FESTIVAL

PAST

JUNE 1ST—JULY 20th, 2025: SANTA CRUZ ARGENTINA FILM FESTIVAL

JUNE 13th 2025: DC/DOX FILM FESTIVAL. Gloria Mance and Jyllian Gunther were in attendance.

APRIL 27th 2025: ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL. Gloria Mance and Jyllian Gunther were in attendance.

FEBRUARY 2025: TRUE/FALSE FILM FESTIVAL. Our Premiere. Gloria Mance was an invited storyteller at this years Campfire Stories event on Friday night at the festival. Packed houses.

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