By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO BESS KARGMAN’S DANCE DOC FIRST POSITION

Posted Thursday, October 6th, 2011 - Comments Off on SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO BESS KARGMAN’S DANCE DOC FIRST POSITION
Be Sociable, Share!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY (October 6, 2011) – Sundance Selects announced today that the company is acquiring North American rights to director Bess Kargman’s documentary FIRST POSITION. The film, which was also produced by Kargman, features some of the world’s most talented aspiring ballet dancers. FIRST POSITION made its world premiere last month at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and won the audience choice first runner up award for best documentary. The movie will be screening at several festivals this fall including the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival and DOC NYC.

FIRST POSITION is a documentary that follows six young dancers as they compete for elite scholarships and job contracts at one of the most prestigious student ballet competitions in the world: the Youth America Grand Prix. Dancers from around the globe travel to New York each year for this hard-earned chance to compete in the finals. Eleven-year-old Aran lives in Naples, Italy, with his United States– military family and travels two hours every morning to practice with his French ballet teacher in Rome. Adopted from an orphanage in SierraLeone when she was very young, fourteen-year-old Michaela dreams of going tothe American Ballet Theatre’s JKO School. Seventeen-year-old Rebecca is finishing high school, looks like the quintessential classical ballet dancer and hopes to find a paid position with a corps de ballet, even though opportunities are slim. In a ballet-driven family, ten-year-old Jules and twelve-year-old Miko train together daily, but differ in their passion and commitment to the art form. Born in Colombia but separated from his family because of training, sixteen-year-old Joan Sebastian works tirelessly in the hopes of landing a scholarship with The Royal Ballet School in London. Director Kargman interviews the competitors, their families, their ballet teachers and choreographers, and we learn of the many sacrifices — physical, emotional and financial — all for the sake of ballet. The kids’ love for dance helps them struggle through bloodied feet, near exhaustion and debilitating injuries, all while navigating the drama and changes that come with adolescence.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects, said: “This is a touching and inspirational documentary with great suspense that will keep audience riveted.  Bess Kargman has made a beautiful film that captures the grace of these phenomenal performers.  We think it’s really going to connect with audiences nationwide and look forward to working with her and our good friends at Submarine.”

Added Kargman: “After the remarkable response in Toronto, I am excited to team up with Sundance Selects in releasing FIRST POSITION, and thrilled that my film will have the opportunity to contribute to their amazing run of success in documentary releases.”

The deal for FIRST POSITION was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions, and Betsy Rodgers, Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Afffairs, for Sundance Selects with Josh Braun at Submarine on behalf of the filmmaker with counsel from Marc H. Simon at Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP. The film also closed a six-figure deal with Hopscotch for distribution in Australia and New Zealand.

Sundance Selects is a sister division to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks, Inc.

*                      *                      *                      *

About SUNDANCE SELECTS:

Established in 2009 and based in New York City, Sundance Selects is a leading U.S. distributor of prestige films focusing on American independents, documentaries and world cinema.  Its unique distribution model makes independent prestige films available to a national audience by releasing them in theaters as well as on cable’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, reaching nearly 50 million homes. Some of the company’s successes include Abbas Kiarostami’s CERTIFIED COPY starring Juliette Binoche, Sundance audience award-winner BUCK, Academy Award® winner Errol Morris’ documentary TABLOID, and Werner Herzog’s 3D documentary CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, which at $5.2 million and counting has become the company’s biggest grossing success since MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING. Current and upcoming Sundance Selects releases include Sundance award-winning THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE: 1967-1974, SXSW award-winner WEEKEND, director Wim Wenders’ 3D PINA which is Germany’s Official entry to the 2012 Academy Awards, Werner Herzog’s acclaimed documentary INTO THE ABYSS, Cannes Grand Prix winner THE KID WITH A BIKE directed by the Dardennes brothers, and Maiwenn’s Cannes Prix du Jury winner POLISS. Sundance Selects is a sister division to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks, Inc.

# # #

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO BESS KARGMAN’S DANCE DOC FIRST POSITION

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon