Life Itself: Watch the Roger Ebert documentary's touching first trailer

After a string of film-festival screenings that have earned universally positive reviews, the first trailer for Life Itself — a documentary which traces the life and career of legendary film critic Roger Ebert, who died in April 2013 at age 70 — has finally debuted.

Life Itself, which derives its title from Ebert's memoir of the same name, tells the story of Ebert's rise to icon status. It covers everything from his famously combative exchanges with Gene Siskel to his Pultizer Prize to his diagnosis with thyroid cancer, which he refused to let derail his career as a critic.

"He's a soldier of cinema, who cannot even speak anymore, and he plows on. And that touches my heart very deeply," says filmmaker Werner Herzog in an interview about Ebert. Ebert's story seems just as likely to touch the hearts of cinephiles across America, who will get the chance to see Life Itself on the big screen come July. --Scott Meslow

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