Every week, I get several press releases, screening invitations and other notifications from a handful of studio contacts. While I won’t be sharing any information regarding my screening invites, some of the press releases might be of interest to my readers, so I thought I’d start sharing them in toto with all of you. These could include new image galleries for various films or important updates to upcoming releases from various smaller studios and art house production companies.

• Image Gallery: Man of Steel
• Image Gallery: The Family
• Image Gallery: Free Birds
• Press Release: Focus Features Obtains Rights to Mike Leigh’s “J.M.W.” and Amy Winehouse Documentary
• Press Release: “Death By China” On DVD July 2
• Press Release: “Shun Li and the Poet” Available on DVD July 9
• Press Release: “Gideon’s Army” Debuts on HBO on July 1

Image Gallery: Man of Steel

Click Here for the Gallery

Image Gallery: The Family

Image Gallery: FreeBirds

Press Release: Focus Features Obtains Rights to Mike Leigh’s “J.M.W.” and Amy Winehouse Documentary

FOCUS FEATURES INTERNATIONAL LOCKS MULTI-TERRITORY SALES FOR AMY WINEHOUSE DOCUMENTARY AND MIKE LEIGH’S J.M.W. TURNER PIC

Company also closes Italy for Jude Law Starrer Black Sea, Germany for Mike Flanagan’s Oculus

London (June 3, 2013) – Alison Thompson, co-president of Focus Features International (FFI), announced multi-territory sales on director Asif Kapadia’s (Senna, The Warrior) untitled documentary on five-time Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse. FFI also saw strong sales on seven-time Academy Award-nominated writer/director Mike Leigh’s (Another Year, Vera Drake, Secrets & Lies) J.M.W. Turner film, which stars Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, Secrets & Lies).

FFI has secured the following territories and respective distributors on behalf of Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse documentary: France – Mars Films; Germany – Prokino; Benelux – Cineart; Greece – Odeon; Iceland – Sena; Israel – Lev Cinema; Middle East – Italia Film; Portugal – Lusomundo Audiovisuals; Turkey – D Productions; Hong Kong – Edko Films; India – PVR Limited; Singapore – Shaw Renters; Thailand – IPA Pacific; Australia/NZ – eOne; and South Africa – Ster-Kinekor. Focus Features International is currently fielding multiple offers for the UK, CIS, and Italy.

The untitled Amy Winehouse documentary is produced by James Gay-Rees (Senna, Exit Through the Gift Shop) through Playmaker Films, Gay-Rees and Kapadia’s new production entity and co-produced by Universal Music. Gay-Rees and Kapadia collaborated on the acclaimed documentary Senna, which won numerous awards including BAFTA Awards for Best Documentary and Editing in 2012.

For Mike Leigh’s latest, FFI has secured the following territories and respective distributors: Benelux – eOne; Greece – Odeon; Iceland – Sena; Israel – Lev Cinema; Portugal – Lusomundo Audiovisuals; Scandinavia – Svensk Filmindustri; Switzerland – Monopole Pathe; India – PVR Limited; Singapore – Shaw Renters; Thailand – IPA Pacific; Australia/NZ – Transmission Films; and South Africa – Ster-Kinekor. Previously announced partners who will distribute the film in their respective territories include France’s Diaphna; Germany’s Prokino and UK’s Momentum. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights for North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

The J.M.W. Turner project is produced by Georgina Lowe (Another Year) and executive-produced by Gail Egan (Vera Drake, Topsy-Turvy, Another Year). Production partners on the film include Film4, British Film Institute, Focus Features International, Lipsync, and Ingenious (Xofa Productions). The project marks the second collaboration between Mike Leigh and FFI, following the critically acclaimed release of Another Year, for which FFI also handled worldwide sales and co-financed.

Further to previously announced sales, Focus Features International has also closed Italy with Notorious for Academy Award and BAFTA-winning director Kevin Macdonald’s (Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void) heist thriller Black Sea, starring two-time Academy Award nominee Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes, Anna Karenina), as well as Germany with Square One Entertainment for the psychological thriller Oculus, directed by Mike Flanagan.

The FFI slate also includes the true-life dramatic thriller Kill the Messenger, to be directed by Michael Cuesta and star Jeremy Renner; Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, starring Alec Baldwin and Cate Blanchett; Closed Circuit, the suspense thriller directed by John Crowley and starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall; and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ruairi Robinson’s thriller The Last Days on Mars starring Liev Schreiber, Olivia Williams, and Romola Garai, which world-premiered at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight.

About Focus Features International
Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. One of the world’s leading international sales agents, FFI also encompasses international distribution, marketing and publicity.

Focus Features and Focus Features International are part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is owned by Comcast Corporation.

Press Release: “Death By China” On DVD July 2

AS JOBS, MONEY, AND HOPE LEAVE AMERICAN SHORES, THIS PROVOCATIVE FILM LOOKS AT WHERE THEY ARE GOING

DEATH BY CHINA

Best-selling Author and Respected Economist Peter Navarro Exposes Destructive U.S.-China Trade Relations in Hard-Hitting Documentary on DVD/VOD July 2, 2013

“…A lucid wake-up call to the imminent dangers of the U.S trade imbalance…”
– Ronnie Scheib,Variety

“A truly life-changing, mouth-dropping documentary film…Peter Navarro’s ‘Death by China’ grabs you by the throat and never lets go”
-Francesca McCaffery, Blackbook Magazine

June 5, 2013 – More than 50,000 factories have been shuttered in the United States in the last decade. Nearly 10 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. An estimated 25 million Americans cannot find a decent job. These issues and possible solutions are explored in DEATH BY CHINA, an eye-opening documentary directed by Harvard-trained economist Peter Navarro. Just in time for Independence Day, this gripping film about America’s growing dependence on a dangerous adversary will be available on DVD July 2, 2013 for just $13.99.

Anyone hoping to understand why the American economy is improving at such a sluggish pace need look no further than China’s unfair trade practices and the multinational companies like Apple, Boeing and Caterpillar that export millions of American jobs to improve their bottom line. Through compelling interviews with voices across the political and economic spectrum, DEATH BY CHINA exposes just how badly the U.S.-China relationship is broken – and why it must be fixed if the world is going to be a place of peace and prosperity.

Narrated by Martin Sheen, this comprehensive yet approachable film is a must-see for anyone seeking to understand the complicated and precarious relationship between the U.S. and China. It features impassioned appearances by prominent politicians like Congressmen Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), labor leaders like AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka and Thea Lee, corporate leaders like Leo Hindery and Revere Copper’s Brian O’Shaunessy, astute China watchers like Forbes’ Gordon Chang and Canada’s Nobel Peace Prize nominee David Kilgour, and victims of Chinese oppression like Harry Wu, who spent 19 years of torture and isolation in China’s forced labor camps.

DEATH BY CHINA played theatrically in over 50 cities across the U.S. including key manufacturing cities such as Akron, Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, Cincinnati, Columbus, Milwaukee, Youngstown and many more. In addition, DEATH BY CHINA has received numerous festival awards, including Best Documentary at the Beverly Hills, Durango, and Studio City Film Festivals.

A regular contributor on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and the Huffington Post, Director Peter Navarro is an internationally acclaimed expert on U.S.-China relations. To Navarro, the success of the film will be measured by the ability of the public to spur politicians to finally recognize that “the best jobs program for America is trade reform with China – not more empty fiscal and monetary stimulus.”

Navarro comments: “My goal in creating the film is to draw attention to the urgent need for trade reform with China, and to ensure that it becomes a top priority for legislators. We hope to give the highest possible visibility to an issue that is all too often ignored by politicians, journalists and consumers alike – the incredibly corrosive loss of America’s once formidable manufacturing base to a cheating China. The fact that our government has turned a blind eye to China’s deceitful policies has had an enormously negative impact on the American economy and the standard of living of millions of Americans.”

Navarro also hopes to have a very direct impact on American consumers. His message is clear: “Don’t buy Made in China if you care about your jobs, your health, and this country’s future.

DEATH BY CHINA DVD can be purchased exclusively at www.deathbychina.com and www.amazon.com. The DVD contains numerous bonus features, including an in-depth “Director’s Commentary,” original songs from the film, and the award-winning documentary short Death By Chinese Junk.

Pricing: $13.99 US
Runtime: 79 mins.
Rating: NR
Language: English/Closed Captioned
Color: Color
Audio Format: Stereo
Genre: Documentary
ISDN: 978-0-9858596-4-0
SKU#: 8-2385716912-2

About Director Peter Navarro PETER NAVARRO, Ph.D., Writer/Director/Producer of Death by China, Professor at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine

Peter Navarro received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and is a business professor at The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California-Irvine. He is a regular CNBC contributor, and author of the bestselling books, The Coming China Wars and Death By China, which the film is based upon. Professor Navarro’s other books include the path-breaking management book, The Well-Timed Strategy, and the bestselling investment book, If It Rains in Brazil, Buy Starbucks.

Professor Navarro has been featured on 60 Minutes, and his articles have appeared in a wide range of publications, from Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal to the HarvardBusiness Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, and the Journal of Business.

About Distributor Area23a
Area23a is a bi-coastal, independently owned “event” based theatrical distribution company, co-founded by distribution specialists Richard Abramowitz and Kirt Eftekhar.

The company focuses on event driven films, providing value-added distribution through alternative ways to reach audiences across the country, releasing films in convention and community centers, night clubs, casinos, libraries, museums, and college campuses, in addition to traditional venues like theaters, cinematheques and festivals.

Area23a distributes award-winning films such as Dan Sturman and Bill Guttentag’s SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION, Michael Paul Stephenson’s BEST WORST MOVIE, Gerardine Wurzburg’s WRETCHES and JABBERERS, Adrian Grenier’s TEENAGE PAPARAZZO, Chris Paine’s REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR and Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez’s BURN. www.area23a.com

Press Release: “Shun Li and the Poet” Available on DVD July 9

“SHUN LI AND THE POET”, AVAILABLE ON DVD JULY 9th, 2013

Italian Drama to be Distributed in all of North America

June 7th, 2013 (NY, NY) – Film Movement (www.filmmovement.com), the distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films, announces today that the Venice Film Festival Official Selection SHUN LI AND THE POET (Io Sono Li) will be released on DVD on July 9th, 2013 in North America. This drama from Italian veteran documentary filmmaker, Andrea Segre, is his first narrative film and features a pair of old souls from different cultures and different times—speaking different languages—who none-the-less forge a strong and meaningful friendship. The film is in Italian and Mandarin with English subtitles.

All Film Movement DVD releases include a short film—this month’s selection, SHANGHAI LOVE MARKET, is from director Craig Rosenthal. This endearing comedy follows the mother of a young man eager to see him wed and single-minded enough to advertise for brides in Shanghai’s famous People’s Park.

The DVD will be available at Film Movement (www.filmmovement.com), and also through major retailers such as Amazon and Netflix.

Accolades for SHUN LI AND THE POET:

“Truly poetic and poignant…magnificently captures this world of traditional fishing and the Venice waters beyond.” – Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal International

“A gem! Splendid photography… A first-class cast [and] a brilliant script.” – Sight and Sound

Synopsis of SHUN LI AND THE POET:
Shun Li works in a textile factory near Rome, slowly paying off the broker that brought her from China to Italy, while saving money so she can bring her young son to join her. She is suddenly transferred to work as a bartender at a pub in a small town along the Venetian Lagoon. The pub is the hangout of the local fishermen, including Bepi, a handsome old Slav immigrant nicknamed “The Poet.” A tender, delicate friendship grows between Shun Li and Bepi. But gossip soon threatens their innocent relationship, a bond that had once transcended two very different, yet not at all distant cultures.

– SHUN LI AND THE POET is 100 minutes in length; in Italian and Mandarin with English subtitles.

– Additional information can be found here: http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=303

Acclaim for SHUN LI AND THE POET:

WINNER – LUX PRIZE awarded by the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
WINNER – Best Actress at the DAVID DI DONATELLO AWARDS (Italian Academy Awards®)
WINNER – Best Feature Film Award, LONDON BFI Film Festival

Official Selection – Venice Film Festival
Official Selection – Reykjavik Int’l Film Festival
Official Selection – Goteborg Film Festival

About Film Movement:
Launched in 2003, Film Movement is a full-service North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films, based in New York City. Film Movement has released more than 250 feature films and shorts from 50 countries on six continents, including top prize winners from Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, Tribeca and other prestigious festivals. Film Movement releases its films through numerous distribution channels, including thousands of art-house cinemas, universities and libraries; home video (Netflix and Amazon); television outlets (Sundance Channel, HBO, IFC and Showtime); Cable Video on Demand (including its very own branded cable VOD platform—Film Festival on Demand—available in over 40 million US homes); In-flight Entertainment (Continental/United, Alaska and Air Canada) and broadband outlets (iTunes, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube).

Press Release: “Gideon’s Army” Debuts on HBO on July 1

GIDEON’S ARMY, AN INSIDE LOOK AT the criminal justice system THROUGH THE EYES of IDEALISTIC YOUNG PUBLIC DEFENDERS IN THE SOUTH, DEBUTS JULY 1 ON HBO

Documentary Won 2013 Sundance Editing Award

In 1961, Clarence Earl Gideon was arrested for stealing soda and a few dollars from a pool hall. Unable to afford an attorney, he was convicted after representing himself at trial. Gideon appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that the right to counsel in a criminal case is fundamental to the American system of justice.

More than 12 million people are arrested in the United States each year. Fiftyyears after the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright case, most of them will be represented by one of the United States’ 15,000 public defenders.

Directed by attorney Dawn Porter and winner of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Editing Award for U.S. Documentary Competition, GIDEON’S ARMY follows a group of idealistic young public defenders in the Deep South, where lawyers face particularly difficult challenges due to high bonds, minimum mandatory sentencing and a culture that is traditionally “tough on crime.” The thought-provoking film debuts MONDAY, JULY 1 (9:00-10:45 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: July 1 (5:20 a.m.), 7 (1:05 p.m.), 9 (4:00 p.m., 12:15 a.m.), 13 (9:45 a.m.) and 19 (8:15 a.m.)

HBO2 playdate: July 3 (11:15 a.m., 8:00 p.m.)

HBO Documentary Films presents another weekly series this summer, debuting provocative new specials every Monday through August 12. Other July films include: “Gasland Part II” (July 8); “The Crash Reel” (July 15); “The Cheshire Murders” (July 24); and “First Comes Love” (July 29).

Brandy Alexander, Travis Williams and June Hardwick have dedicated themselves to defending those who otherwise would not receive representation, contending with a day-to-day life of low pay, long hours and staggering caseloads. Despite these obstacles, with the help of the Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC), these young professionals are inspired to take on this unique challenge in the name of public service.

Travis Williams is a Gainesville, Ga. lawyer whose client, Branden Lee Mullin, has been accused of armed robbery and faces a minimum of ten years to a maximum of life in prison. Brandy Alexander has served as a public defender in both Georgia and Florida and is preparing to go to trial on behalf of her client, Demontes Regary Wright, a young man also charged with armed robbery.

The demands on these public defenders can be overwhelming: The average caseload for a public defender in Miami Dade County, Fla. is 500 felonies and 225 misdemeanors. Not surprisingly, many public defender offices across the nation have an incredibly high turnover rate. The pace is exhausting, and the legal wrangling intense, but these young public defenders persevere. Knowing the stakes are high – and their clients’ lives will be deeply affected by what they do, or fail to do – they push themselves to the limit over and over again.

Does their work have to be this difficult? Experts cite the nation’s approach to criminal justice to explain the dire state of indigent defense. In many southern states, bonds for misdemeanor crimes are exorbitantly high, as much as $40,000 for misdemeanor crimes like shoplifting, which most defendants cannot afford. This leads to a high rate of pretrial detention for indigent clients, with many serving months or even years in prison without a trial. Another factor is the rate of plea bargaining intended simply to end pretrial detention. Notes Brett Willis, a senior public defender featured in the film, “The reality is 90% or 95% of the people who get charged with something plead guilty…because the system is designed to force them to plead guilty and it punishes their failure to comply.”

In addition to lengthy prison sentences, clients found guilty can face severe civil sanctions, which can result in such extreme punishments as: losing eligibility for public benefits, such as federal student loans; losing the ability to live in public housing with one’s family; losing the right to vote; and, in some regions, losing the right to hold a driver’s license, which can be a severe obstacle to finding post-incarceration employment.

Along with the perilous circumstances facing the accused, public defenders typically face a multitude of trying professional and personal circumstances, for which no amount of training can prepare them. Notes Travis Williams, “I have huge student loan debt. After I pay my student loans and my rent, all I have left is probably $300 a month to pay extra bills like gas and the car, all that kind of stuff, groceries. But I don’t see how you can do this work for any period of time and not begin to love it. If you don’t, then it’ll just drive you insane.”

These committed attorneys are backed by mentor Jonathan Rapping,the dynamic leader of the Atlanta-based Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC), designed to fill a void in the training currently available to young public defenders. The center offers a comprehensive curriculum designed specifically for public defenders and geared toward the improvement of indigent defense representation and raising the standard of practice in jurisdictions nationwide. The group often provides emotional support, in addition to practical instruction, as the young public defenders talk about their work and empathize over similar situations.

As Rapping states in one of their seminars, “This will be a battle that will be won, and your children will look back on this struggle to save people from this unjust, cruel, inhumane criminal justice system. And you all will be the foot soldiers, you will be the ones who brought that about.”

The U.S. incarcerates more citizens annually than any other industrialized nation. At the beginning of 2008, 2.3 million Americans were behind bars, followed by China with 1.5 million. Director Dawn Porter explains, “Americans are fascinated with crime, and yet few know the truth about how the criminal justice system really works. GIDEON’S ARMY presents a rare true look at the criminal justice system from the vantage point of the accused. I wanted to be sure the inspiring, challenging nature of the work these public defenders do, which involves a tremendous amount of personal sacrifice in service to our constitutional rights, was given the attention it deserved.”

The film is produced in association with the Ford Foundation.

For more information on the documentary, visit: Facebook: facebook.com/hbodocs; and Twitter: @HBODocs #GideonsArmy.

GIDEON’S ARMY is directed and produced by Dawn Porter; producer, Julie Goldman; editor, Matthew Hamachek; co-producer, Summer Damon; original music, Paul Brill. For HBO: senior producers, Nancy Abraham and Jacqueline Glover; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.