More Press for "Dear Zachary"
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Subject: "Dear Zachary" to launch MSNBC Films label / plays to
standing ovations at Silverdocs
Hello Everyone,
Kurt here; hope you're having a great June. I'm writing with some
very exciting news that I've been dying to tell you all for some time
now...and at last I'm allowed to, as the paperwork is now done and the
company has issued a press release...
"Dear Zachary" has been acquired by MSNBC and will be the first film
to launch its newly formed MSNBC Films division, a platform through
which they will be presenting provocative & award-winning films on
television, while also supporting films during their festival run and
theatrical release. It will have its North American television
premiere on MSNBC later this fall following a theatrical release that
is currently being negotiated and which I hope to be able to announce
in the next month. I do know for certain, however, that it will be
playing theatrically for a week in both New York City & Los Angeles
during the month of August - which it must do by August 31st to
qualify for Academy Awards consideration, which I'm contractually
obliged to do for MSNBC - though I do not know the exact dates & times
of those screenings just yet. I should know in a couple of weeks and
will send that information along as soon as I have it. That will be a
wonderful opportunity for all of my good friends in Los Angeles & New
York who have been repeatedly asking, "When do we get to see this
movie?" to finally do so. :) There are also several more festivals
in the film's future, which will be announced as the festivals
announce their slates...
A few articles have broken on line today about the MSNBC deal and I've
been told there will likely be more in Wednesday's print versions of
Variety & The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/documentary.html
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6573084.html
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988009.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i39a618183fe30fd51131ecbecaaa70a6
While I can't talk specifics about the deal, the proceeds from this
whole arrangement - which will, of course, be going to the Dr. Bagby
Scholarship at Latrobe Area Hospital and the Dr. Andrew Bagby and son
Zachary Bursary at Memorial University of Newfoundland - look to be
more than I dared hope for when I began this venture. They'll come in
installments over the course of the next two years, and I'm thrilled
that my dream of this movie helping to fund these scholarships is
finally becoming a reality. Thank you again to all of you out there
who helped make this happen!! In addition to the wonderful execs at
MSNBC, I have to give an enormous thanks to our wizardly distribution
advisor Josh Braun and the whole gang at his company, Submarine
Entertainment. He brought everyone together and made this all happen,
and I couldn't be more thankful or pleased. And another round of
thanks to Sebastian Twardosz for introducing me to Josh in the first
place! :)
In other exciting news, "Dear Zachary" played in Washington, D.C. this
past weekend at Silverdocs, the AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Film
Festival, once again to standing ovations at both screenings.
Silverdocs nominated "Dear Zachary" for its inaugural Writers Guild of
America Documentary Screenplay Award, recognizing excellence in
writing for documentary films. It was nominated alongside 6 other
world-class productions (including the new film from last year's
documentary Oscar winner), so it was quite a humbling honor to be
included in such company. The whole festival was a fantastic
experience.
I mentioned in my last update that prior to the Canadian premiere at
Hot Docs in April, I sent letters to all 400+ members of Canadian
Parliament requesting the opportunity to screen this film for them. I
have started to hear back from several of them and have been finding
some supporters in the legislature, with whom I'm continuing to talk,
to work toward setting up a screening of "Dear Zachary" for Parliament
in the fall when they reconvene (they're currently on summer break).
Will keep you posted!
Lastly, for those interested, another wonderful review came out on
Ain't It Cool News a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36945
Once again, thank you to all of you who helped us get to this point.
We couldn't have done it without you! I'll be in touch soon with
updates on festivals and theatrical play dates.
Happy Wednesday,
Kurt
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