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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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First Run Features to Release Award-Winning Documentary
Aaron Schock’s acclaimed film, which has appeared at many world festivals and is the most recent winner of the Jury Award at the Hampton’s International Film Festival, is one of the most compelling documentaries seen in years. Set in the cinematically rich milieu of a century-old traveling circus in rural Mexico, CIRCO follows the family-run "Circo Mexico" as they struggle to stay together despite mounting debt, dwindling audiences, and a simmering family conflict. The hardscrabble founders, the Ponce family, have lived and performed on the back roads of Mexico since the 19th century. Tino, the ringmaster, is driven by his dream to lead his parents' circus to greater success. He corrals the energy of his whole family, including his parents, his brother and his four young children, towards this singular goal. But his wife Ivonne is determined to make a change. Feeling exploited by her in-laws, she longs to return her kids to a childhood lost to laboring in the circus. Through an intricately woven story of a marriage in trouble and of a century-old family tradition that hangs in the balance, CIRCO asks: To whom and to what should we ultimately owe our allegiances? Gorgeously filmed along the back roads of rural Mexico, CIRCO is a road movie that opens the viewer to the luminous world of a traveling circus while examining the universal themes of family bonds, filial responsibility, and the weight of cultural inheritance. An original score by indie rockers Calexico rounds out this "gem of a documentary" (Time Out London). Aaron Schock (Director / Producer / Cinematographer / Writer) is a Columbia University graduate and worked for several years in non-profit community development in New York City before moving into filmmaking. CIRCO is his first feature. First Run Features has been a leading indie film distributor since 1979. Last year the company celebrated its 30th Anniversary with a retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Recent releases include Joe Berlinger's CRUDE, the Academy Award-nominated documentary THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS, and KINGS OF PASTRY, from the legendary filmmaking team of D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
" Press materials are available at: firstrunfeatures.com/circo_press.html |
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First Run Features will open Aaron Schock's award-winning film CIRCO, at New York’s IFC Center on Friday April 1st, 2011 with a national roll out to follow.
A GEM OF A DOCUMENTARY... Crisply shot, emotionally frank, and genuinely moving."