Epix Sets Premiere Date for BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY Docuseries

Premium television network EPIX® announced today that four-part docuseries By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of GODFATHER OF HARLEM will premiere on November 8, 2020 at 10 PM ET/PT. Inspired by the music and subjects featured in the EPIX original series Godfather of Harlem, this documentary series brings alive the dramatic true story of Harlem and its music during the 1960's, and connects that history to our present moment.

Featuring interviews with the stars of Godfather of Harlem, including Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, Giancarlo Esposito and Ilfenesh Hadera and musicians Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves, Herbie Hancock, Nile Rogers, A$AP Ferg, Chika, Joe Bataan and Freddie Stone, this series will take audiences on a musical journey that brings to life the excitement of 1960's Harlem, and introduces the artists who dared to use their voices, instruments and lyrics to take a stand against oppression. Other notables in the series include activist Al Sharpton, former U.S. Representative Charles Rangel and poet Sonia Sanchez. Through archival footage and evocative imagery, audiences will see beyond the black and white historical images into the multicolored souls of musicians unafraid to use music as a weapon against change.

By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of GODFATHER OF HARLEM is executive produced by Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker from Significant Productions, along with Keith McQuirter (Decoder Media).

The first season of Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed drama Godfather of Harlem, produced by ABC Signature Studios, is currently available for streaming. Season two will commence production this fall.

Significant Productions is a multicultural production company founded by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker and his producing partner, Nina Yang Bongiovi in 2010 -- covering motion pictures, television, documentaries, creative development and physical production, alongside a knack for discovering and championing talent, like that of Ryan Coogler (Marvel's Black Panther), whose first film, Fruitvale Station (2013) was produced by Nina and Forest. Together under their banner, they have produced a number of award-winning, critically-acclaimed feature films by auteur directors, including Dope (2015) by Rick Famuyiwa, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) by Chloe Zhao, Roxanne Roxanne (2018) by Michael Larnell and Sorry To Bother You (2018) by Boots Riley.

Currently, Forest and Nina are in post-production on Passing, Rebecca Hall's feature directorial debut based on Nella Larsen's Harlem Renaissance novel of the same name, starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, Andre Holland and Alexander Skarsgard. They also serve as executive producers on EPIX's hit television show, Godfather of Harlem, which is heading into Season 2.

The producing duo are members of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) and the Television Academy.

Founded in 2008 by award-winning producer and director Keith McQuirter, Decoder Media is a New York City-based production company that brings meaningful stories to the world about real people, elevating the mediums of documentary filmmaking, commercials and branded content.

By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem, is only the latest foray into documentaries for Decoder Media and McQuirter, who is Executive Producing and Directing the Harlem series, in collaboration with Executive Producers -- Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi.

Known for its digital media and commercial credits, Decoder Media's documentary work unflinchingly declares that stories about people of color matter and its imperative that they are told to audiences across all media platforms. McQuirter produced three episodes of the nine-part The Innocence Files docuseries on wrongful convictions that debuted on Netflix in Spring 2020. Decoder Media and McQuirter also have a feature documentary in development about the criminal justice system.

This follows the feature documentary Milwaukee 53206 directed and produced by McQuirter, which aired on WORLD Channel's AMERICA REFRAMED in 2018 and won Best Feature Documentary at the 2017 Urbanworld Film Festival. McQuirter, a New York University Tisch School film and television production graduate, also co-produced season one of Brick City, the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated docuseries for the Sundance Channel.

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