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Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres

Documentary Competition

World Premiere

FEATURE | United States | 102 MINUTES | English | English subtitles

LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE & TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRES

Documentary, Music, Politics, Biography, Journalism

Even if the name “Ben Fong-Torres” doesn’t ring a bell, you’ve probably read his work. Soon after graduating from San Francisco State College, he started writing for Rolling Stone in 1968. The next year, he was hired as an editor and writer. Fong-Torres’s cover stories on Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, and Jefferson Airplane helped to shape the way a country understood its counterculture, while Rolling Stone, under Fong-Torres’s guidance as a senior editor, became Rolling Stone.


Suzanne Joe Kai’s documentary is much more than a time capsule of an era: it’s a portrait of someone who can’t be reduced to a profession. Fong-Torres walks us through his upbringing as the child of Chinese immigrants in the 1950s, his earliest interest in rock and soul as a way of belonging, and the remarkable career that followed. Through conversations with colleagues and friends like Annie Leibovitz, Cameron Crowe, and Steve Martin, as well as authentic recordings from Fong-Torres’s archives—including Elton John—we understand why Fong-Torres was the interviewer that most bands actually requested: he treated each musician with a deep admiration for their craft, and saw them as people rather than icons.
—Cara Cusumano

Sponsored by:


CAST & CREDITS

Directed by Suzanne Joe Kai

Suzanne Joe Kai received two Emmy® Award nominations and was named Best Woman News Reporter while a broadcast journalist at San Francisco’s NBC affiliate KRON-TV. She worked at KCBS Radio (CBS) and television stations KTVU (FOX), KGO (ABC), KGUN (ABC), and RottenTomatoes.com. Kai holds a master's in documentary film from Stanford University.

Director
Suzanne Joe Kai
Producer
Suzanne Joe Kai
Additional Executive Producers
Andy Hsieh, Kathryn Everett
Screenwriter
Suzanne Joe Kai
Cinematographer
Hiroshi Hara, Jason Joseffer, Fraser Bradshaw
Editor
Doug Blush, Dan Lawrence, Greg Byers, William Gilmore
Executive Producer
Freida Lee Mock, Doug Blush, Tony Hsieh, Bryn Mooser
Associate Producer
Justin Lacob
Co-Producer
Greg Byers
Cast
Ben Fong-Torres, Elton John, Carlos Santana, Steve Martin, Quincy Jones, Bob Weir, Cameron Crowe, Annie Leibovitz, and many more

CONTACTS

Press Contact
David Magdael
David Magdael & Associates
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Phone: 213 624 7827
dmagdael@dmagpr.com
Print Source
Suzanne Joe Kai
StudioLA.TV
Newport Beach, California 92660
Phone: 949-275-0880
suzanne@studiola.tv
US Sales Contact
Suzanne Joe Kai
StudioLA.TV
Newport Beach, California 92660
Phone: 949-275-0880
suzanne@studiola.tv
International Sales Contact
Suzanne Joe Kai
StudioLA.TV
Newport Beach, California 92660
Phone: 949-275-0880
suzanne@studiola.tv