'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris (2006)

"'Tis Autumn: The Search For Jackie Paris" is a feature documentary about a great but unheralded jazz singer that explores the very nature of what it is to live the life of an artist--any artist. Filmmaker Raymond De Felitta examines the life of cult favorite jazz singer Jackie Paris, but at the same time he might well be exploring the life of any artist in any discipline, too many of whom share the same fate that Paris did: the explosive debut followed by the years of ups and downs; the constant hope that success, though out of reach, is around the corner; the private tragedies that grow out of artistic frustration; and the final, self-inflicted wounds which all too often cause the once promising to descend into bitterness and chaos, a prelude to vanishing completely. Working with rare found footage and new interviews with jazz legends such as Billy Taylor, George Wein, Mark Murphy and Ruth Price, as well as the final concert footage and last interviews Jackie Paris ever gave -- De Felitta constructs an emotional mystery story which asks the question: who or what is to blame when a great talent goes from sensation to footnote during their life span?