Documentary

[caption id="attachment_2857" align="alignnone" width="550"]Curtis 50 Cent Jackson in How to Make Money Selling Drugs distributed by Tribeca Film. Photo courtesy of Tribeca Film. [/caption]

Tribeca Film will release Bert Marcus Productions’ How to Make Money Selling Drugs, which had its world premiere on Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival. The provocative documentary offers an in-depth look at the high-stakes world of drug dealing and drug enforcement by blending authentic reportage with pop culture references. Directed by Matthew Cooke, the film reunites producers Bert Marcus of Bert Marcus Productions and Adrian Grenier (HBO’s Entourage), the team that created the breakout hit Teenage Paparazzo.

Tribeca Film plans a 2013 theatrical release day.

 

How To Make Money Selling Drugs offers a captivating glimpse into the lives of those on both sides of the “war on drugs,” delivering a diverse and unique perspective on the controversial subject through interviews with 50 Cent, The Wire producer David Simon, Arianna Huffington, Woody Harrelson, Eminem and Susan Sarandon, as well as infamous drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross. Presenting a shockingly candid examination of how a street dealer can rise to cartel lord with relative ease, the documentary reveals how public policy and government drug enforcement have struggled to creatively adapt to and effectively disincentive Americans from dealing drugs. Bert Marcus Productions was granted unprecedented access from top‐ranking government officials, from the U.S. Drug Czar to the Drug Enforcement Agency, all providing unique and honest viewpoints on this pervasive global topic.

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YOGAWOMAN, the award winning documentary (narrated by Annette Bening, a keen yoga advocate)will open at Angelika Film Center in NYC on October 19 and at Laemmle Monica 4-Plex; NoHo 7 and Playhouse 7 on October 26, 2012.  A national release will follow.

The film is described as … “Through rich personal stories, YOGAWOMAN reveals how yoga has utterly transformed the lives of thousands of over-stimulated, over-scheduled, and multi tasking modern women. From the buzzing streets of Manhattan to the dusty slums of Kenya, from the golden beaches of Australia to the serene piazzas of Italy, the film follows the heart-rending stories of women who have found a lifeline through this magical and mystical practice.

How did the ancient practice of yoga, designed in India thousands of years ago – for men, become so relevant and increasingly popular in the lives of millions of American women? There are over 20 million people now practicing yoga in the United States, 80 percent of whom are women.

Yoga was brought to the west from India by a lineage of male teachers. Now there’s a generation of women who are leading the way. They’re strong, they’re inspiring, and they’re radically changing people’s lives.  YOGAWOMAN uncovers a global phenomenon that has changed the face of yoga forever. Led by a new generation of dynamic female teachers, this “new” yoga replaces the male-centered, more rigid style with a distinctly feminine practice that honors intuition, family, strength, flow, connection, community, activism and the cyclical nature of women’s lives.

In intimate interviews with the world’s leading experts, many who have become worldwide icons with rock-star status, YOGAWOMAN captures how these teachers have blazed a new trail for women. World-renowned teachers appearing in YOGAWOMAN include Patricia Walden, Sharon Gannon, Shiva Rea, Angela Farmer, Cyndi Lee, Seane Corn, Donna Farhi and forward-thinking medical professionals such as integrative physician Dr. Sara Gottfried and world-renowned research scientist Dr. Shirley Telles. YOGAWOMAN is the first film of its kind to bring together these luminaries, distilling their wisdom and spreading their message of peace and empowerment for the benefit of women everywhere.

A revolution brews in yoga studios, hospitals, prison cells and living rooms around the globe. In record numbers women are discovering their own strength, vitality, peace and power through yoga. Claiming this ancient spiritual path from its traditionally male form, the result is a radical transformation of yoga into an international multi billion dollar industry.”

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Zeitgeist will release in the US, Yung Chang’s latest film ‘China Heavyweight’ that premiered earlier this year at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. A Summer 2012 release date is planned.

In southwestern China, a Master coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. Through hard work and discipline, these boys and girls come of age, trained in the art of boxing and the game of life. They are filled with Olympic dreams, hoping to become China’s next amateur heroes.  Their charismatic coach, Qi Moxiang–with his own dreams of winning back the championship–hopes to show them the way. The top student boxers face dramatic choices as they graduate–should they fight for the collective good as amateurs or for themselves and their own personal gain as professionals? It’s a metaphor for the choices that everyone faces now, in the New China.

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SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS, directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, which documents the final days of LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, will be released in special one-night-only engagements in theaters nationwide this summer. SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and an encore presentation at last month’s SXSW Film and Music Festival.

Described in the press release with the line “If it’s a funeral… let’s have the best funeral ever.”

The film storyline follows, “One year ago today, LCD Soundsystem played its final show at Madison Square Garden. LCD frontman James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career. The instantly sold out, near four-hour extravaganza did just that, moving the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with New York Magazine calling the event “a marvel of pure craft” and TIME magazine lamenting “we may never dance again.” SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS is simultaneously a document of a once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of Murphy as he navigates both the personal and professional ramifications of his meteoric decision.”

Adam Yauch, Beastie Boy and Head of Oscilloscope Laboratories, the company distributing the film said, “Perhaps having grown up in a band for most of my life – a band that formed when I was 16 years old – and having released our first record when I was still in high school, this film addresses so many questions. For instance, it can be pretty clear when a band starts, but perhaps less so when it ends, or how it should end. In that sense, it’s brilliant of James to end it in such a definitive way.”

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Oscilloscope Laboratories will release the documentary SAMSARA, the third feature from filmmakers Mark Magidson and Ron Fricke, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.  The film will be released in theaters nationally this summer.

Fricke and Magidson previously collaborated on the award-winning films BARAKA and CHRONOS, which brought a new visual and magical artistry to theaters.

Filmed over a period of more than four years in twenty-five countries on five continents, SAMSARA transports us via 65mm cinematography to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.  By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, SAMSARA subverts the expectations of a traditional documentary and encourages new interpretations, inspired by breathtaking images and transcendent music.  Taking its name from the Sanskrit word for “the ever turning wheel of life,” SAMSARA explores the wonders of our world, from the mundane to the miraculous.  The lyrical film will push modern theater-going technology to the limit with never before seen technical feats, providing a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience through both traditional film and all-new 4K digital projection.

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“The Invisible War”, winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival’s “U.S. Documentary Audience Award.” was just picked up for distribution by Cinedigm Entertainment Group and entertainment distributor New Video, with a summer theatrical release planned.

“The Invisible War” marks the first acquisition under the partnership between the two companies.

Described as .. An emotionally powerful investigative documentary, “The Invisible War” reveals the profound personal and social consequences of the rape epidemic in the U.S. military. Directed by Oscar(R) and Emmy(R) Award-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick (“This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” “Twist of Faith”) and produced by Emmy(R) Award-nominated Amy Ziering (“Outrage,” “Derrida”), “The Invisible War” is a groundbreaking documentary that explores alarming facts about America’s shameful secret: today, a female soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. The number of assaults in the last decade alone is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands (according to the “Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military” issued by the Department of Defense).

“The Invisible War” is a moving indictment of the systemic cover-up of military sex crimes as well as a chronicle of the women’s struggles to rebuild their lives while seeking justice. “The Invisible War” features hard-hitting interviews with high-ranking military officials and members of Congress that reveal the perfect storm of conditions that exist for rape in the military; its long-hidden history and ongoing cover-up, and what can be done to bring about much-needed change.

“We are honored that our first New Video/Cinedigm acquisition is ‘The Invisible War,'” said Chris McGurk, Chairman and CEO of Cinedigm. “The film is incredibly powerful and deserves — in fact demands — to be seen by as many people as possible. We very much look forward to working with Kirby, Amy and their team to share this important film with audiences across the nation.”

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Sony Pictures Classics have acquired worldwide rights to Academy Award®nominated filmmaker Amy Berg’s (DELIVER US FROM EVIL) high profile documentary WEST OF MEMPHIS, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. 

WEST OF MEMPHIS is a powerful documentary that chronicles the new investigation surrounding the “West Memphis Three,” which ultimately broke the case open and led to the freedom of three innocent men: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. Beginning with a searing examination of the fatally flawed police investigation into the 1993 murders of three, eight year old boys in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, the film goes on to reveal personal insight into Echols’ fight to save his own life; how he survived eighteen years on death row and eventually freed himself from the hatred and ignorance of those who had tried to destroy him.  The film asks the question that still haunts Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley to this day – what value do we, as a society place on the truth?

“In 2009 Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Lorri Davis approached me to make a film which documented the defense’s battle to overturn the guilty verdicts in the case of the West Memphis Three. After spending more than two years on the ground filming in Arkansas, the blatant injustice of the case was very apparent; my hope is that WEST OF MEMPHIS will lead to full exoneration for Damien, Jason and Jessie. In addition, I hope the film will serve as a platform for a broader discussion about the failures of our criminal justice system nationwide. I’m very excited for this powerful story to be making its way to theaters and know that having Sony Pictures Classics as our partner is the surest way to catapult our film to the widest possible audience,” says Director Amy Berg.

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Sundance Selects will release director Alison Klayman’s AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY which just screened as an Official Selection in the Berlinale Special at the Berlin Film Festival following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance.  Sundance Selects is planning a major summer theatrical release which will coincide with Ai Weiwei’s first trip outside of China since his detention.

Ai Weiwei is China’s most famous international artist and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.  AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.

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The Indomina Group will release The Imposter, Bart Layton’s directorial debut which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be shown at the upcoming SXSW festival.  Indomina is planning a theatrical release later this year, 2012.

Layton’s documentary, The Imposter, is a chilling factual thriller that chronicles the story of a 13-year-old boy who disappears without a trace from San Antonio, Texas in 1994. Three and a half years later he is found alive, thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a story of kidnapping and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems. The boy bears many of the same distinguishing marks he always had, but why does he now have a strange accent? Why does he look so different? Any why doesn’t the family seem to notice these glaring inconsistencies? It’s only when an investigator starts asking questions that this strange tale takes an even stranger turn.

The stranger than fiction mystery, which features many twists and turns, is told in a cinematic language that combines documentary and stylized visualizations.   Perception is challenged at every turn, and just as the truth begins to dawn on you, another truth merges leaving you even more on edge.

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It basically bombed at the Box Office but Sarah Palin documentary movie “The Undefeated” is getting a second life and will make its network television premiere on REELZ on Sunday, March 11 at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT.

“The Undefeated” chronicles the rise from obscurity to national prominence of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Starting during the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989 when Palin worked a commercial fishing boat she owned with her blue-collar husband, “The Undefeated” shows the struggles, the victories and the setbacks during a controversial career. “The Undefeated” was written / directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Glenn Evans and Dan Fleuette of the Victory Film Group.

The film also includes leading prominent political commentators Mark Levin, Tammy Bruce and Andrew Breitbart as well as conservative activists Kate Obenshain, Sonnie Johnson and Jamie Radtke. Additionally, the film features interviews with Alaskan civil servants, elected officials and advisors who were involved in Alaskan politics during Governor Palin’s tenure.

Encore Presentations for “The Undefeated” on REELZ:

-Monday, March 12 at 10pm ET/ 7pm PT

-Sunday, March 25 at 5:30pm ET/ 2:30pm PT

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The documentary RAISING RENEE will premiere on HBO 2 on February 22.  The documentary is a touching look at two sisters, Renee, who is is a mentally disabled 43-year old named Renee who functions at the level of a third grader and her sister Beverly, a painter who vows to their mother that she will care for Renee.   Filmed over the course of six years, the film takes a look at the lives of Renee and Beverly and how they change each other’s lives.

Artist Beverly McIver was enjoying a skyrocketing career as a painter when a casual yet life-changing promise made to her mother Ethel years before – to take care of her mentally disabled sister Renee – came due. RAISING RENEE follows the McIver family from the time when Ethel and Renee shared a home in Greensboro, NC, through Ethel’s illness and death, to the pivotal moment in 2004 when Beverly brought Renee to live with her in Phoenix, Arizona. The film chronicles Beverly’s promise to “raise” her sister, a 43-year-old woman who functions at the level of a third grader, and the way it transforms Beverly’s life at a time when she had hoped to focus on her burgeoning career and on finding a life partner. Raising Renee unfolds with humor, drama and unexpected twists, and provides a deeply intimate view of a unique family of women, the tenacity of family bonds, and the power of art to transform experience into something beyond words.

Academy Award® nominated husband and wife filmmaking team Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan have been making documentary and fiction films for over 20 years and RAISING RENEE is the third in their Family Trilogy, including “Troublesome Creek” and “So Much So Fast.”  “Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern,” won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance, the Prix Italia, Peabody and IDA awards, and an Academy Award® nomination. Previously, “So Much So Fast” premiered at Sundance and was broadcast worldwide, including a special presentation on PBS’ “Frontline.”

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