By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

STANDOUT DOC BROOKLYN CASTLE TO RECEIVE FALL 2012 RELEASE FROM PRODUCERS DISTRIBUTION AGENCY

Posted Thursday, July 19th, 2012 - Comments Off on STANDOUT DOC BROOKLYN CASTLE TO RECEIVE FALL 2012 RELEASE FROM PRODUCERS DISTRIBUTION AGENCY
Be Sociable, Share!

For Immediate Release // July 19, 2012

NEW YORK – Producers Distribution Agency, the distribution initiative created by Cinetic Media’s John Sloss and Bart Walker, announced today the upcoming theatrical release of BROOKLYN CASTLE.  The film will be the fourth PDA release, following the commercially successful and critically acclaimed national theatrical campaigns of SENNA, THE WAY, and the Academy Award® nominated documentary EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP.  As with those films, Richard Abramowitz of Abramorama and Marc Schiller of Bond Strategy and Influence will play an integral part in the theatrical release, currently set for October 19, with expansion to continue through awards season.  The film, directed by Katie Dellamaggiore, made its world premiere at SXSW in April, where it won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature.

BROOKLYN CASTLE is the remarkable and improbable true story of I.S. 318 in Brooklyn. The school, where 65% of students live below the federal poverty level, has the highest ranked junior high chess team in the nation. The heart of the film is the engaging young students who populate the team: Rochelle, who has the goal of becoming the first female African-American chess master; Pobo, the team’s charismatic leader; Justus, an entering student who must manage the high expectations that come with achieving master status at an early age; Alexis, who feels the pressure of his immigrant parents’ desire for him to realize the American dream; Patrick, who uses chess to help overcome his ADHD; and James, the young rapping maestro and budding chess talent; among several others.

PDA will be working in tandem with its usual roster of experienced film veterans: Richard Abramowitz for marketing and distribution, Marc Schiller for online messaging, Tierney Kelly for regional marketing and publicity, and FilmBuff for digital distribution. Adam J. Segal of The 2050 Group and Nancy Willen of Acme PR will be managing national publicity.

The filmmaking team – director and producer Katie Dellamaggiore, editor and producer Nelson Dellamaggiore, and director of photography and producer Brian Schulz – states: “We are extremely excited to be working with the PDA team.  Their comprehensive, roll-up-your sleeves distribution methodology perfectly fits the subject matter and numerous target audiences for the film.  We are thrilled.”

PDA’s John Sloss notes, “BROOKLYN CASTLE is exactly the kind of film that fits with the PDA approach to distribution.  We believe this film is hugely playable and will resonate not only with those who are interested in the future of our country’s educational system, and the millions of chess players in the US, but also the traditional documentary audience, and everyone who loves a great story, well told.  The film has significant crossover potential.  All of us at PDA have fallen in love with these kids and their inspiring stories.”

Adds Richard Abramowitz:  “As PDA has proven on previous releases, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a massive advertising campaign to pique the interest of theatregoers.  The key ingredients are finding a film that plays, and targeting the right audiences with the right kind of grassroots, word of mouth campaign.”

BROOKLYN CASTLE had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Feature Documentary.  It played at HotDocs and Silverdocs, and was an opening night film at the Brooklyn Film Festival.  During SXSW, Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures acquired the remake rights to the film. Variety called it “irresistibly uplifting” and noted that “this crowd-pleasing pic could flex its own commercial muscle by moving beyond fest and arthouse grids to capture crossover auds.”  Linda Holmes of NPR commented: “A wonderful doc. If I could pick only one film from the South By Southwest film festival and bodily force everyone I know to see it, it would be Brooklyn Castle.

# # #

About PRODUCERS DISTRIBUTION AGENCY

John Sloss and Bart Walker co-founded Producers Distribution Agency in 2010 to offer an alternative theatrical distribution model for unique films in a constantly changing marketplace.

PDA’s initial distribution effort, the Banksy street-art documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” was both a commercial and critical success.  After a five-month nationwide theatrical rollout, the film became one of the top 40 grossing documentaries of all time.  It was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, numerous other awards, including a BAFTA, and named to myriad critics’ top ten lists.

In summer 2011, PDA released the documentary “Senna,” based on the life of the Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna. The film, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, as well as two BAFTAs, is currently available on DVD, iTunes, Netflix and cable video on demand.  It will be released on BluRay in North America in July.

PDA’s third release was Emilio Estevez’ “The Way,” distributed in partnership with ARC Entertainment.  Written and directed by Estevez and starring Martin Sheen, “The Way” is an inspirational story which takes place along Spain’s Camino de Santiago.  In support of the film, Estevez and Sheen undertook a month-long North American bus tour prior to the film’s wide release.  The film was one of the indie financial success stories of fall 2011, grossing nearly $4.5M at the domestic box office.  “The Way” is currently available on cable video on demand, iTunes, and other digital platforms.  It was released on DVD and BluRay in late February 2012, as part of a unique partnership with Walmart stores.

About BROOKLYN CASTLE

Brooklyn Castle is a production of Rescued Media in association with Indelible Marks and Chicken and Egg Pictures. The film is executive produced by Robert McClellan, Geoff Gibson, Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand and co-executive produced by Neal Flaherty and Le CASTLE Film Works. Additional production and outreach support has been provided by The Fledgling Fund, Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), IDA, Working Films, Bertha Brit Doc Connect Fund and The Good Pitch.

###

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on STANDOUT DOC BROOKLYN CASTLE TO RECEIVE FALL 2012 RELEASE FROM PRODUCERS DISTRIBUTION AGENCY

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