AceShowbiz -

The first trailer for "Life Itself", a Sundance documentary about film critic Robert Ebert, has hit the web. The two-minute touching video shows some friends and colleagues looking back on the late Pulitzer Prize winner's wonderful life.

They recall Ebert as the one who scripted Russ Meyer's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" and wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. The clip also offers some footage of the famed critic working while dealing with an illness which later took his life.

"He's a soldier of cinema, who cannot even speak anymore, and he plows on. And that touches my heart very deeply," filmmaker Werner Herzog says of Ebert in the clip.

"Life Itself", which is based on Ebert's memoir of the same title, was directed by Steve James. Magnolia Picture acquired the film after its Sundance premiere. The documentary will open in U.S. theaters on July 4.

Ebert died in 2013 following a long battle with thyroid cancer. His passing is still a big loss for the film community.