Batiste also took a spin in the spotlight to announce his collaboration with Heineman on American Symphony, a feature documentary about his path to creating the stage show of the same name that debuted at Carnegie Hall last fall. The film is said to be an intimate look at his creative process and an unprecedented look at his personal life during the highs of winning five Grammys (including album of the year for “We Are”) and lows of facing his wife’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.

2023 film directed by Blitz Bazawule

When his mom deposits him at the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn to spend the summer with the grandfather he’s never met, young Flik may as well have landed on Mars. Fresh from his cushy life in Atlanta, he’s bored and friendless, and his strict grandfather, Enoch, a firebrand preacher, is bent on getting him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Only Chazz, the feisty girl from church, provides a diversion from the drudgery. As hot summer simmers and Sunday mornings brim with Enoch’s operatic sermons, things turn anything but dull as people’s conflicting agendas collide.