Tribeca Film Institute®, Points North Institute, CNN Films Announce Third Annual Filmmaker Retreat
Camden/TFI Filmmaker Retreat presented by CNN Films to take place in Maine
Tribeca Film Institute® (TFI) today announced the third annual filmmaker retreat in partnership with the Points North Institute and CNN Films. The Camden/TFI Retreat presented by CNN Films kicks off June 19 in Camden and Rockport, Maine and will run for six days, providing five U.S.-based documentary filmmaking teams with professional guidance and mentorship to help them advance their filmmaking careers.
This year’s selected projects represent a variety of thought-provoking themes around American culture and social issues, from an exploration of Islamic radicalization, to immigration, birth tourism, reproductive rights, and even national parks. Each tells a unique and vital story that embodies an issue facing Americans today.
Members of each of the five filmmaking teams will attend the scenic retreat in Maine for a series of mentoring sessions, workshops and master classes led by a cross-section of industry experts and professionals. Through these sessions, each filmmaker will advance their filmmaking skills and learn about impact producing, financing, the state of the documentary marketplace, and more.
“We’re excited to be hosting this retreat for the third year in a row with our partners CNN Films and Points North Institute,” said Amy Hobby, executive director of TFI. “The stories these filmmakers tell are compelling, vital, and relatable. We look forward to helping cultivate their voices and following their future successes, as we have with so many past Camden/TFI participants.”
“CNN Films is proud to partner with Tribeca Film Institute and Points North Institute for another incredible summer week of mentoring,” said Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent and content development for CNN Worldwide. “Along with these very talented established filmmakers, we are pleased to contribute to the development of emerging documentary makers as part of our commitment to the industry,” she said. FULL POST
Television Academy Honors CNN Films for WE WILL RISE: Michelle Obama's Mission to Educate Girls Around the World
CNN Films WE WILL RISE: Michelle Obama's Mission to Educate Girls Around the World was celebrated with five other honorees last night in Los Angeles by the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences with a Television Academy Honors Award. The Television Academy Honors are conferred for exceptional programming that changes hearts and minds about challenging social issues.
VIDEO of the acceptance remarks is available here: http://www.emmys.com/video/2017-television-academy-honors-we-will-rise-michelle-obamas-mission-educate-girls-around-world
WE WILL RISE featured the former First Lady Michelle Obama, actors and human rights activists Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto, and CNN's Isha Sesay as they explored the inspirational stories of girls in Liberia and Morocco overcoming incredible odds to pursue their educations. The film first premiered on CNN/U.S. and CNN International on October 11, 2016.
Actor Dana Delany presented the award last night to CNN's Isha Sesay and to the film's director, Tony Gerber of Market Road Films and The Documentary Group, which produced the film for CNN Films.
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CNN Films Debuts UNSEEN ENEMY for World Health Day Presentation
The world’s urgent call to action on pandemics like Zika, Ebola, flu has global premiere April 7
UNSEEN ENEMY, about the potential looming crisis of disease pandemics, will debut as a CNN Films broadcast for a World Health Day presentation Friday, April 7 at 10:00pm Eastern on CNN/U.S. The film is exclusively presented by Johnson & Johnson. All broadcasts will have limited commercial interruptions.
UNSEEN ENEMY is narrated by Emmy® and Golden Globe award-winning actor Jeffrey Wright and is written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Janet Tobias. CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD, is an executive producer and consultant for the film. Philanthropist Paul G. Allen, known for his catalytic leadership during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, is also an executive producer.
‘THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD’ – Fareed Zakaria on the Rise, Reign, and Aims of Vladimir Putin
New documentary makes global broadcast premiere Monday, March 13 at 9:00pmET on CNN/U.S. and CNN International
What is the true nature of the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – and, what are the implications of their relationship for America and the world? CNN’s Fareed Zakaria searches for answers to these essential questions in ‘The MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD.’ The one-hour documentary simulcasts Monday, March 13 at 9:00pm on CNN/U.S. and CNN International, and then replays on CNN/U.S. at 12:00am. Both times Eastern.
Putin is subject to neither a legislature nor a court, and there is little free press in Russia. Reared in Soviet poverty, Putin served as a KGB officer in East Germany before maneuvering his rapid rise from deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to president of post-Soviet Russia. FULL POST
Sick, dying and raped in America’s nursing homes – a CNN Investigation
They go to nursing homes to be cared for. Instead, the unthinkable is happening at facilities across the country: Vulnerable seniors are being raped and sexually abused by the very people paid to care for them.
Senior Writers Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken provide a shocking and detailed account of the rape and sexual abuse occurring in nursing homes across the country — and the systemic failures of nursing homes and state regulators to stop it.
The graphic reports of abuse they uncovered are horrifying.
- 83-year-old Sonja Fischer fled war-time Indonesia as a young girl only to be raped by a nursing assistant during the “final, most vulnerable days of her life."
- An 88-year-old California woman only had sex with one man her entire life - her husband of nearly 70 years — then contracted a sexually transmitted disease from her alleged rapist.
- One elderly man with paralysis was sexually abused and forced to eat feces out of his adult diapers by a group of nursing aides.
Content Media Corporation and CNN Films Announce Acquisitions for ‘ELIÁN’ Film
CNN Films confirms acquisition of U.S. and Canadian broadcast exhibition rights, Content Media Corporation acquires international distribution rights, from Fine Point Films
Los Angeles, CA, February 06, 2017 – Content Media Corporation and CNN Films have announced their acquisitions of content rights for the gripping new documentary, ELIÁN, co-directed by Tim Golden and Ross McDonnell, and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Alex Gibney.
CNN Films has acquired television broadcast and CNN-branded authenticated television exhibition rights from Fine Point Films for ELIÁN in the U.S. and Canada. Content Media Corporation has acquired international sales rights to the film.
Content’s president of film, Jamie Carmichael and executive vice president for sales and distribution, Jonathan Ford, will introduce ELIÁN to distributors at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin next week.
ELIÁN is the remarkable story of Elián Gonzalez, a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits, and how the fight for his future changed the course of U.S.-Cuba relations. Featuring powerful personal testimony, candid interviews, and an extraordinary news archive, this riveting documentary recounts Elián’s remarkable rescue on Thanksgiving Day in November 1999, after his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba perished at sea. The custody battle between the boy’s Cuban father and his Miami-based relatives, and the momentous political fight that came to surround it, changed the course of history.
Trevor Birney (“Bobby Sands: 66 Days”) produced the film through his Fine Point Films banner. Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent and content development for CNN Worldwide is an executive producer for ELIÁN. Courtney Sexton, vice president for CNN Films, is supervising producer.
“Tim’s and Ross’ thoughtful film will receive broad international exhibition for audiences around the world through this partnership with Content Media Corporation,” said Entelis.
Offering a never-before-seen intimate portrait of Elián today, the film is a story of family and the challenges of reconciliation. The wounds of this once-close family reflect the wider divisions of the Cuban people, and the complicated relations between Cuba and the United States. The film also explores the possibility that there might finally be peace for the family, and the two nations, some 17 years after these events.
Gravitas Ventures acquires U.S. distribution rights for Greg Barker’s ‘Legion of Brothers’ produced by Passion Pictures/CNN Films at Sundance
Additional screenings at Sundance scheduled
for Saturday, Jan. 28 & Sunday, Jan. 29
Park City, Utah – CNN Films and Gravitas Ventures have closed on a deal for the sale of U.S. content distribution rights, other than television, for acclaimed filmmaker Greg Barker’s LEGION OF BROTHERS, fewer than 36 hours following the film’s several minute-standing ovation reception at its 2017 Sundance Film Festival world premiere. The deal means Gravitas Ventures will acquire theatrical, SVOD, electronic sell-through, and other platform exhibition rights; CNN Films will retain rights to broadcast the film on CNN/U.S. and on CNN-branded authenticated television platforms. The film will continue to screen with the U.S. Documentary Premieres (Saturday, Jan. 28, and Sunday Jan. 29). FULL POST
The Orchard & CNN Films Acquire North American Rights to Shaul Schwarz's, Christina Clusiau's Documentary TROPHY at 2017 Sundance Film Festival
On the day of its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, The Orchard and CNN Films announced that they had acquired North American rights to Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau's documentary TROPHY, produced by Lauren Haber, and Julia Nottingham of Pulse Films.
The Orchard will handle all North American rights except television. CNN has acquired U.S. and Canadian television rights. A studio is closing international rights to the film. A startling exploration of the evolving relationship between big-game hunting and wildlife conservation, TROPHY screens at the festival in U.S. Documentary Competition. The Orchard will release the film later this year on a minimum of 150 screens.
Endangered African species like elephants, rhinos and lions march closer to extinction each year. Their devastating decline is fueled in part by a global desire to consume these majestic animals. TROPHY investigates the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation. Through the eyes of impassioned individuals who drive these industries—from a Texas-based trophy hunter to the world’s largest private rhino breeder in South Africa—the film grapples with the consequences of imposing economic value on animals. What are the implications of treating animals as commodities? Do breeding, farming and hunting offer some of the few remaining options to conserve our endangered animals? TROPHY will leave viewers debating what is right, what is wrong and what is necessary in order to save the great species of the world. FULL POST
International Rights for Greg Barker’s ‘Legion of Brothers’ Acquired on Eve of Sundance by Content Media Corporation
CNN Films and Passion Pictures-produced documentary had World Premiere
at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 21
Park City, Utah – On the eve of the Sundance Film Festival, Content Media Corporation and CNN Films jointly announced an agreement for the international distribution rights to LEGION OF BROTHERS, a film produced by CNN Films and Passion Pictures.
Directed by Greg Barker and produced by John Battsek, Barker, Peter Bergen, Tresha Mabile and executive produced by Amy Entelis and Vinnie Malhotra, the film had its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 21, at the MARC in Park City, Utah. The next public screenings for the film are Saturday, January 28 at 8:30pm at the Prospector Square Theatre in Park City, and Sunday, January 29 at 6:15pm at the Grand Theatre in Salt Lake City. FULL POST
The End: Inside The Last Days of the Obama White House Premieres Jan. 18 on CNN/U.S. and CNN International
New CNN Film includes remarks by President Obama
The new CNN Film, The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House, will premiere in simulcast on CNN/U.S. and CNN International Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 9:00pm. The two-hour film will encore Thursday, Jan. 19 on CNN/U.S. at 12:00am. All three premiere telecasts will be presented with limited commercial interruption. The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House, will encore Sunday, Jan. 22 on CNN/U.S. at 8:00pm Eastern. All times Eastern.
Filming for The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House began shortly after Election Day 2016, and concluded with President Obama’s farewell address. The film includes reflections by President Barack Obama on his work and hopes for the nation.
Leading voices in the film include Josh Earnest, White House press secretary; Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor; Cody Keenan, director of speech writing for the White House; Jen Psaki, White House communications director; Angella Reid, chief usher of the White House; and Tina Tchen, assistant to the President and chief of staff for First Lady Michelle Obama. Each granted exclusive access to key meetings, their work, and their personal thoughts on their final days inside the White House. The rare interviews capture the nostalgia of the people who have worked closest to the Obamas during their White House tenure.
“This unique epilogue for the Obama Administration captures the President’s views and his staff’s views about what their lives in public service have meant to them as they prepare to leave the White House,” said Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development. “This film will serve as a key public record of an historic presidency, as the Obama Administration transitions executive power to the incoming Trump Administration,” Entelis said.
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