Documentary

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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‘A Life Ascending’, from director Stephen Grynberg will be available on DVD February 28.

More than 8 years after a tragic avalanche took the lives of 7 skiers exploring the Canadian Alps, Ptarmigan Films will release “A Life Ascending”,  a documentary following Ruedi Beglinger, the legendary mountain guide who led that fateful expedition.  Award-winning filmmaker Stephen Grynberg, himself a loyal, longtime client of Beglinger’s Selkirk Mountain Experience, intimately explores the unique lives of Beglinger and his family as they attempt to move past the tragedy that catapulted them into international headlines.

Featuring breathtaking scenery and personal interviews with Beglinger’s family members, guests and staff, “A Life Ascending”, allows viewers insight into a truly unique family living in an unknown world.  The tight-knit Beglingers live and work in the unforgiving wilderness of the Canadian Alps and embody the simple, adventurous ethos of a family living off the land.  Beglinger, along with his wife Nicoline and daughters, Charlotte and Florina, manages to exude tremendous warmth and familial joy in the coldest, most extreme of settings.  “A Life Ascending” is sure to appeal to mountaineers and skiers, but also to anyone interested in universal and human stories about struggle, triumph and redemption.

The film has already garnered critical acclaim and recognition following screenings at various film festivals, winning awards at the Banff Mountain, DocuWest, Kendal Mountain, BendFilm, Yosemite International, and Red Rock Film Festivals, as well as honorable mentions at several other festivals.

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Just before its premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, in the U.S. Documentary Competition, HBO Documentary Films has acquired the feature documentary ME @THE ZOO. Directed by Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch, ME @THE ZOO is an in-depth exploration of the new phenomenon of internet celebrity.

Focusing on the story of Chris Crocker, the video blogger who exploded into the international spotlight after his infamous “Leave Britney Alone” YouTube declaration, ME @THE ZOO explores how video sharing and social platforms have shaped the way people tell their stories and mediate their lives.

This film marks the directorial debut for both Moukarbel and Veatch.

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Pink Ribbons, Inc., which had its world premiere in September 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival and its European premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, opens theatrically on over 30 screens in cities across Canada, beginning February 3, 2012.

In the documentary film Pink Ribbons, Inc.  director Léa Pool talks to women with breast cancer, experts, authors, activists and medical researchers, as well as the leading players in breast cancer fundraising and cause-related marketing, to paint a shocking portrait of how the pink ribbon campaign benefits businesses more than women with breast cancer.

Inspired by the book Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy by Samantha King, Pink Ribbons, Inc. shows how some companies use breast cancer cause-marketing to boost sales, while often contributing only a tiny fraction of proceeds to the cause. It also explores how companies that pollute or sell products containing dangerous chemicals are in on the action, too, using “pink washing” to polish their images, and even shaping the direction of cancer research. The end result is that the environmental causes of breast cancer have been largely ignored, with only a minuscule fraction of the funds going to prevention research.

Pink Ribbons, Inc. also takes us back to the questionable origins of the ubiquitous ribbon. Charlotte Haley was a 68-year-old American woman using peach-coloured ribbons to specifically call attention to the lack of funding for breast cancer prevention. When a cosmetics giant wanted in, Haley refused, because she believed that the company was out to boost profits rather than help women. But she couldn’t stop them when they changed the colour of the ribbon to pink.

Most heartbreaking are the sick and dying women who’ve been pushed to the margins because they don’t suit the triumphal upbeat image of the pink ribbon narrative, what author Samantha King calls “the tyranny of cheerfulness.”

Pink Ribbons, Inc. makes a powerful case that the pink ribbon campaign is failing to achieve the most crucial goal of all: it isn’t helping women live longer, healthier lives. Breast cancer rates are rising. We’ve only seen incremental improvements in chemotherapy and surgery treatments, over decades. Prevention is being vastly underfunded. Something has to change.

But as Pink Ribbons, Inc. argues, until we force a change in the business model for cancer research, that’s not going to happen.

Most of us have had our lives affected by breast cancer, in one way or another. If you have, you owe it to yourself to see this film.

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Re:Generation Music Project, a new documentary directed by award-winning documentarian, Amir Bar-Lev (The Tillman Story, My Kid Could Paint That), follows five electronic DJs/producers as they re-imagine music collaborating with influential artists from each genre. In the film, The Crystal Method, DJ Premier, Pretty Lights, Mark Ronson, and Skrillex use technology to mix musical styles and generations for the creation of five original tracks. Re:Generation Music Project will enjoy a unique nationwide, one-night only theatrical release in select cities and venues on Feb. 16, 2012.  Encore screenings to be scheduled for Feb 23rd.

In the film, current GRAMMY®-nominated artist Skrillex heads into a Los Angeles studio with members of the iconic rock band, The Doors, to collaborate on a new song, “Breakn’ A Sweat.” Meanwhile, The Crystal Method touched down in Detroit to work with Martha Reeves of The Vandellas and The Funk Brothers on the R&B number, “I’m Not Leaving.” Mark Ronson created a southern brew of New Orleans jazz in “A La Modeliste” that boasts a veritable all-star cast of Erykah Badu, Trombone Shorty, Mos Def, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Members of The Dap Kings. DJ Premier tapped NAS and Boston’s very own Berklee Symphony Orchestra for his “Regeneration,” and the documentary culminates in Nashville on the dusty intergalactic twang of Pretty Lights’ “Wayfaring Stranger” featuring vocals from LeAnn Rimes and Dr. Ralph Stanley.

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