Industry

Showtime Networks Inc. has acquired their latest documentary, FIGHTVILLE, for release in the US. The premium network closed a deal on the film, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, shortly after its rousing world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX last month.

FIGHTVILLE chronicles the story of a minor league Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion run by Gil “The Thrill” Guillory in Lafayette, Louisiana—a place where, for many, fighting is as much ritual as it is sport. In FIGHTVILLE, life is a contest, and the area around Lafayette, which includes a neighborhood that is the namesake of the film, has no shortage of up-and-coming fighters willing to fight their way out of the dusty rodeo arenas of Louisiana to the big lights of Las Vegas. Many of them train with veteran UFC fighter “Crazy” Tim Credeur at his Gladiators Academy, where he seeks to “build better men,” while developing champion fighters.

One of those fighters, Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier, quickly became the focus of the film after a series of dramatic victories.  His story forms the backbone of the film.  “The first time we saw Dustin fight, we were immediately taken with him,” states co-director Michael Tucker.  “You could tell that the kid was going places.”  “More than just fighting, FIGHTVILLE is about what it takes to be the best at anything,” adds Tucker. “We hope that FIGHTVILLE will introduce a wider audience to the beauty and passion of MMA while elevating the mainstream perception of the sport.”

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7th Art Releasing will release Britta Wauer’s In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee in the US, reports The Hollwyood Reporter. In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Panorama Audience Award; and is currently at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto.

North of Berlin’s noisy city centre, tucked away in a residential area and surrounded by a jungle of trees and lush foliage, lies the peaceful and secluded 130-year-old Weißensee Jewish Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery still in use in Europe. One hundred acres hold 115,000 graves and a meticulous archive record. The cemetery has never been closed, and was one of the few institutions to remain in Jewish hands under the Nazi regime. Award-winning director Britta Wauer’s charming portrait creates a serene experience navigating the cemetery, and follows a delightful array of characters from around the world: mourners, tourists, a young family residing at the cemetery, a third-generation gravedigger and an ornithologist studying rare birds of prey. Winner of an audience award at the Berlinale, In Heaven Underground is an enchanting journey into history that celebrates life and the immortality of memories. [ Hot Docs ]

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Sony Pictures Classics acquired Asghar Farhadi’s NADER AND SIMIN, A SEPARATION for release in the US.  The film won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Farhadi was awarded Best Director for his previous film, ABOUT ELLY at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival.

Set in Contemporary Iran, NADER AND SIMIN, A SEPARATION is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage.  Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father. Her request having failed, Simin goes back to her parents’, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader…

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Focus Features has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Moonrise Kingdom, the new feature from two-time Academy Award nominee Wes Anderson. Filming has begun, and Mr. Anderson is directing from an original screenplay that he wrote with Roman Coppola.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, Moonrise Kingdom follows a young boy and girl falling in love. When they are moved to run away together, various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down – which might not be such a bad thing. Bruce Willis plays the town sheriff; two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton is cast as a camp leader; Academy Award nominee Bill Murray and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents; the cast also includes Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman. The young boy and girl are played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.

 

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The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced several program award winners and grantees at the TFI Awards Luncheon at Riverpark NYC during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, totaling $125,000 in funds.

During the TFI Awards Ceremony at Riverpark NYC in Manhattan, the following Tribeca All Access Creative Promise winners were announced:

TAA Creative Promise Award for Documentary
Gideon’s Army

Every day, more and more people are arrested, handcuffed, shoved into a squad car, and booked. Weeks turn into months and their only line of defense is in the hands of a public defender. “Gideon’s Army” asks, are public defenders up to the fight?
Dawn Porter (Director)

TAA Creative Promise Award for Narrative
County Line

A Southern town’s underbelly exposed when its sheriff tries to rid himself of a drug alliance with a family friend and investigate the deaths of his female informants. In the process, he must confront his son’s addiction to the drugs he’s allowed in his county.
Tina Mabry (Director, Producer)
Morgan R. Stiff (Producer, Screenwriter, Editor)
Lee V. Stiff, (Producer, Executive Producer)

TAA also extended its programming and support for alumni this year including $25,000 in grants and fellowships for past TAA projects in development or new works by program alumni. The following grants were announced today:

Tribeca All Access Ontrack Grant Narrative
When I Saw You
Jordan, 1960s. An eccentric and unbounded boy runs away from home knowing full well his young mother will follow in this search for freedom.
Annemarie Jacir (Director, Producer, Screenwriter)

Tribeca All Access Ontrack Grant Documentary
Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary
Set against the backdrop of various LGBTQ-friendly communities, Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary captures the experiences of several LGBTQ seniors as they navigate the adventures, challenges and surprises of their “golden years.”
PJ Raval (Director, Producer)
Sara Giustini (Producer)           
Kyle Henry (Editor)

Tribeca All Access Trans Media Award Narrative
Chinafornia
America, 2018. Unable to pay the ten trillion dollars it owes to China, the U.S. comes up with a plan: it gives China the  state of California. ANIMATION
Ellie Lee (Director, Screenwriter)
Peter Dowd (Screenwriter)

Tribeca All Access Trans Media Award Documentary
Untitled Mu Xin Project (Working Title)
In the sweep of China’s turbulent history, Mu Xin sacrificed everything for his art. Starting while he was illegally imprisoned, he transformed his experiences into a body of work merging East, West, classicism, modernism, terror and transcendence.
He has avoided speaking of the horrors he has seen – until now.
Francisco Bello (Director, Producer, Director of Photography)
Tim Sternberg (Director, Producer, Editor)

The TAA Adrienne Shelly Foundation Filmmaker Grant
El Jardin
El Jardin is a portrait of a cemetery in the drug heartland of México. Since the war on drugs began in 2007 it has claimed over 35,000 lives. The cemetery has doubled in size and the mausoleums have doubled in height.
Natalia Almada (Director/Producer)

The Games for Change Fellowship for TAA Alumni
The Undocumented
The Undocumented is a feature length documentary which chronicles Arizona’s deadly summer months, following Border Patrol agents who fight to prevent migrant deaths, medical investigators and the Mexican Consulate who work to identify migrants who die crossing the border, and Mexican families who struggle to accept the loss of loved ones.
Marco Williams (Director)

Audience Activation Grant
The Ipo Boys (aka They Are All My Brothers)
Several boys at a home for abandoned youth in Mexico rebuild their lives while contributing to the social enterprise that sustains them: world-renowned French artisan goat cheese. DOCUMENTARY
Nicole Opper (Director, Producer)

The Latin America Media Arts Fund also announced four winners to support innovative film and video artists who are living or working in Mexico, Central and South America. The awards announced today included:

The Battle for Land (Columbia), Directed by Juan Mejia– The Battle for Land delves deep into the complexities of mass displacement pushing us past prevailing ideas where displacement is seen as an aberration of war, and progressively revealing a more intricate and terrifying picture. It is above all a journey deep into the heart of uprooting and the dark side of progress.

Cocaine Prison  (Bolivia), Directed by Violeta Ayala– Trying to establish a cocaine business inside Bolivia’s craziest prison an unlikely friendship develops, between two ‘little fish’, a young ambitious trafficker and a middle-aged cocaine worker fighting for release, personifying the country’s love affair with cocaine.

Toys (Mexico), Directed by Alba Mora-Roca– Toys explores how a family’s peculiar love for toys helps children overcome the effects of violence in Mexico. It follows a Mexican-Japanese family who, having gathered the largest toy collection in Latin America, travels north to do workshops with victims of the violence generated by fighting drug cartels.

When Two Worlds Collide (Peru), Directed by Taira Akbar and Heidi Brandenburg– An indigenous leader forced into exile and facing 20 years in prison for resisting the environmental ruin of Amazonian lands by big business. Refusing to surrender he continues his quest, shedding light on conflicting visions shaping the fate of the Amazon and the climate future of our world.

Four additional grantees of the TFI Documentary Fund were also announced through the backing of NY-based Insurgent Media. Insurgent Media was founded by Andrew Karsch, Erik Gordon and Fisher Stevens and is a central innovator in the production and distribution of thought-provoking filmed content. The recipients announced today include:

Teenage, Directed by Matt Wolf and written by Jon Savage– Teenage is an unconventional historical film about youth culture based on an acclaimed book by the punk author Jon Savage. The film examines the invention of modern teenagers in wartime America with profiles of extraordinary adolescents.

Of Monsters and Men, Directed by Morgan Matthews– Of Monsters and Men is a fascinating and touching portrait of men who are obsessed with monsters and their adventures to find them.

Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, Directed by Havana Marking and Producer by Mike Lerner– Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, in their own words, the most successful jewel thieves of all time take you into their world: the post-Milosovic Balkans, the modern diamond trade and a 21st Century crime gang.

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, Directed by Ramona Diaz – Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey follows the real life rock-n-roll fairy tale story of Filipino Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from You Tube to become the front man for iconic American rock band, Journey, thereby becoming the latest performer to go from the Internet to real life celebrity. 

During this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1), TFI filmmakers from programs including Tribeca All Access and the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, participated in one-on-one industry meetings on Tuesday, April 26 and Wednesday, April 27 to network with film industry executives, potential investors, development executives, producers and agents.

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Mark Cuban is reportedly exploring a possible sale of his movie theater group Landmark Theatres and independent film distributor Magnolia Pictures by putting them up for auction. In an email to The Hollywood Reporter, he emphasized that he still feels the companies are “a great business” and thatt he is “just testing the market.”

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Film Independent has launched a new Documentary Lab with 14 filmmakers and 9 projects participating.  Taking place in Los Angeles, the Documentary Lab is an intensive seven-week program, with a main focus of assisting documentary filmmakers on their works-in-progress and providing creative feedback.

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