FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kelly Hargraves
Phone: 1-323-662-1930

kelly.hargraves@firstrunfeatures.com
 
     
  Press Releases below for:
BRICK CITY  |  PRIMA BALLERINA  |  A FINISHED LIFE  | GHOSTED
 
     
   
BRICK CITY
A 5-episode Sundance Channel documentary series
 

260 minutes on 2 discs, color, 2009

 
UPC: 7-20229-91410-9
Catalog #: FRF 914109D
SRP: $29.95
 
 
Street Date: December 8
 
 

Newark: the hardest, most ghetto city in America, possibly the world. If you think your city is ghetto, come here and prepare to be blown away. -UrbanDictionary.com

BRICK CITY is a provocative and eye-opening documentary series that fans out around the city of Newark, New Jersey to capture the daily drama of a community striving to become a better, safer, stronger place to live.

Against great odds, Newark’s citizens and its Mayor, Cory Booker, fight to raise the city out of a half century of violence, poverty and corruption. Booker, an outspoken and charismatic mayor who many compare to Barack Obama, works with Police Director Garry McCarthy, youth mentors, Blood and Crip gang members and other citizens on the front line to bring peace and prosperity to their once-proud city.

Bringing to life the true challenges and adventures of social transformation and urban renewal, BRICK CITY goes from City Hall to the street to create a vivid portrait of a city at a critical moment in history.

 
 
 

“Engrossing... Rich and remarkably entertaining. A nonfiction blend of The Wire and West Wing.” - ASSOCIATED PRESS

“Enthralling!” - MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE

“Unflinching...like a real-life version of The Wire.” - ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Lively and interesting...a vibrant portrait of a city’s attempt to better itself.” - CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“All you fans of The Wire...it's time to watch Brick City, a sprawling, absorbing documentary about life and crime in Newark. Its long, and worth it.” - WASHINGTON POST

 

PRIMA BALLERINA
Two film portraits by Laurent Gentot
 

52 minutes, color, Russian w/English subtitles, 2009

 

UPC: 7-20229-91409-3
Catalog #: FRF914093D
SRP: $24.95

 
 
Street Date: December 8
 
 

FROM THE GRAND TRADITION OF OF THE BALLET RUSSES, TWO FILM PORTRAITS OF BALLERINAS

PRIMA BALLERINA is a double portrait of two icons of contemporary Russian ballet. Svetlana Zakharova of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and Ulyana Lopatkina from the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg are perhaps unmatched in today's ballet, and might be ranked amongst the greatest ballerinas of all time. Each have their own unique style and personality, on stage and off, as shown in these breathtaking films.

Revealing interviews with Zakharova and Lopatkina, as well as their fellow dancers, coaches and dance critics provide an inside perspective on the motives, the agonies and the joys of a prima ballerina at the top of her game. Extended and transporting sequences from classics of the repertoire such as Swan Lake, Shehezradze, Sleeping Beauty, The Legend of Love and many others provide a front row seat to an incomparable art.

 
    A FINISHED LIFE  
A film by Michelle Boyaner and Barbara Green
 

81 minutes, color, 2008

 
UPC: 7-20229-91413-0
Catalog #: FRF 914130D
SRP: $24.95
 
 
Street Date: December 8
 
 

A FINISHED LIFE follows the “Goodbye & No Regrets Tour” of Gregg Gour, a 48-year-old gay man with AIDS, who, when given six months to live, takes the road trip of his life.

Discontinuing his medication, Gregg embarks on an emotional and surprisingly upbeat trip across America to visit, for the last time, friends and family before ending his life - on his own terms.

• Winner! Audience Award, Best Documentary, Southwest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
• Official Selection - Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival

• Official Selection - Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

 
     
 

“One of the most positive, life-affirming films out there.” - SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT

“A powerful and unflinching documentary that deeply honors the experience of dying, a person's right to choose, the fragility of human relationships, and the difficulty of letting go.”
- FRAMELINE SAN FRANCISCO INT'L LGBT FILM FESTIVAL

A Finished Life is mesmerizing, heartbreaking, resonating, powerful... It is so many things that describing it here will never do the film justice. It is an immaculate example of what courageous documentary film-making looks like. If you see this film, you will tell your friends about it. You will cry. And you will wonder why in the world you never heard about it before. A Finished Life should not only be heard of, it should be trumpeted across rooftops and in movie houses until the rest of the world takes notice.” - LAIST

 
    GHOSTED  
A film by Monika Treut (Female Misbehavior, Seduction: The Cruel Woman)
 

89 minutes + 56 minute bonus film, color, English, German and Mandarin w/English subtitles, 2009

 
DVD Bonus Features • Bonus Film: Tiger Women Grow Wings
 

UPC: 7-20229-91408-6
Catalog #: FRF914086D
SRP: $24.95
/CAN.: $29.95

 
 
Street Date: December 8
 
 

Monika Treut, the noted director of provocative films such as Seduction: The Cruel Woman, Female Misbehavior and Gendernauts, returns with a mysterious love story set in Taiwan and Germany.

In GHOSTED, German artist Sophie is trying to come to terms with the unsolved murder of her Taiwanese lover Ai-Ling. After a run-in with the seductive Mei-Li, a journalist investigating Ai-Ling’s death, Sophie flees back to Germany. But when Mei-Li turns up on her Hamburg doorstep, the mystery deepens.

INCLUDES BONUS FILM Monika Treut’s documentary Tiger Women Grow Wings looks at three Taiwanese women from different generations (famed opera singer Hsieh Yue-hsia; award-winning novelist Li Ang; and filmmaker Chen Ying-rong) against the backdrop of the radical changes taking place in modern-day Taiwan.

 
 
 

“Thoughtful storytelling and a refreshingly matter-of-fact view of lesbian relationships.”
- THE NEW YORK TIMES

“A romantic, lush mystery. Close in spirit to Aimee & Jaguar.” - BOX OFFICE MAGAZINE

“Intriguing, oddly fascinating... Touches of Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now.” - FILM COMMENT

“An erotically charged, culture-clash thriller.” - IFC.COM

“Supernatural overtones made all the more worthwhile by spectacular Taipei locales and its celebration of Chinese culture.” - NEWSBLAZE

 
 
 
 
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