SnagFilms Acquires Exclusive Digital Rights For Six Acclaimed Documentaries

“Windfall,” “Southern Comfort,” “PUSH: Madison versus Madison,” “Never Make it Home,” “City Lax” and “Soccer City” to Make Their Digital Platform Debuts

LOS ANGELES & WASHINGTON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--SnagFilms has acquired the exclusive digital rights to six acclaimed documentaries, it will be announced today at the Paid Content Entertainment conference by Rick Allen, SnagFilms CEO. The films, Windfall, Southern Comfort, PUSH: Madison versus Madison, Never Make it Home, City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story and Soccer City, will make their digital debuts via its transactional partners, including Comcast Xfinity, FiOS, DIRECTV, iTunes, Amazon and VUDU. SnagFilms also announced today the exclusive acquisition of the award-winning Capturing the Friedmans for digital platforms.

“Though the film is known by general audiences worldwide -- and recently opened as a musical -- there are no doubt millions of young and tech savvy viewers who will discover this transgender love story in ways only now possible, thanks to Snag.”

“SnagFilms is pleased to bring these festival favorites and award winners to digital audiences in the comfort of their homes,” said Rick Allen, SnagFilms CEO. “These are six amazing true stories, incredibly well told. We look forward to bringing them to film fans worldwide, first on a transactional basis and ultimately on snagfilms.com and via our online network, mobile apps and connected TV devices.”

These announcements follow SnagFilms’ recent acquisition of two 2011 award-winners: South By Southwest Grand Jury winner Dragonslayer, opening theatrically in New York tomorrow and Los Angeles next week to outstanding early reviews (including as the indieWire Pick of the Week), and Splinters, another multi-festival award winner which was selected for the IDFA film festival later this month.

A grand prize winner at the 2010 DOC NYC, selected for the Toronto Film Festival, the IDFA Green Screen Competition and 25 other festivals, Windfall is an eye opening film about the dark side of wind power, required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy. Windfall takes a look at a small upstate NY town, Meredith, as a wind power developer's proposal for 40 industrial wind turbines divides the community. First Run Features will open Windfall in theaters beginning January 20. http://windfallthemovie.com/index_1.html

“I am very excited to work with Snag on the release of Windfall because I know that the broadest possible audience will be able to experience the film,” stated director and producer Laura Israel. “This access is important so Windfall can motivate balanced, productive discussion about the future of renewable energy in communities across the US.”

Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner and Emmy nominee Southern Comfort documents the final year in the life of Robert Eads, a female-to-male transsexual, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and turned down for treatment by two dozen doctors out of fear that such treatment would hurt their reputations. By the time Eads received treatment, the cancer was too advanced to save his life. http://www.nextwavefilms.com/southern/index.html#synopsis

“I am thrilled to be working with SnagFilms to help Southern Comfort reach a new audience using the latest technologies,” stated director and producer Kate Davis. “Though the film is known by general audiences worldwide -- and recently opened as a musical -- there are no doubt millions of young and tech savvy viewers who will discover this transgender love story in ways only now possible, thanks to Snag.”

PUSH: Madison versus Madison won the Audience Award as the top film in this year’s Boston Independent Film Festival and the Best Documentary award in this year’s Roxbury International Film Festival, as well as selections to a number of other film festivals. It is the story of a dysfunctional but talented inner-city high school basketball team. As the players struggle on and off the court, the team has gone 15-0 and has a shot at the state championship for the first time. At the center of this kettle of hope and chaos is Coach Dennis Wilson, a former semi-pro player, philosophizing history teacher and motor-mouthing disciplinarian. But is Coach Wilson the solution or just getting sucked into the problem? The film is driven by a score from award-winning composer and producer Malik Williams. SnagFilms will also pursue television distribution for this title. http://pushmadison.com/

"We are incredibly fortunate and beyond excited to have partnered with a distributor like SnagFilms that has the experience, knowledge and sensibilities for a film like PUSH: Madison versus Madison,” stated Rudy Hypolite, director and producer of the film. “It is quite evident that SnagFilms has the wingspan in all areas of broadcast television and digital media to ensure our film, with important messages and insights about the mounting challenges facing our inner-city black youth, teachers and coaches involved in sports and the public educational system, reaches the broadest possible audiences. This outcome is most important to us. We look forward to a long partnership between SnagFilms and KreateABuzz Documentary Films.”

Never Make it Home was selected for six film festivals including the 2011 Leeds International Film Festival. Kirk Rundstrom is the electric, hell-raising singer/guitarist of the hard-driving country band Split Lip Rayfield, whose doctors have given him two months to live. Set across America’s heartland, this moving documentary captures the rowdy, heart-wrenching, and ultimately joyous performances of Kirk Rundstrom’s “Final Tour” where each show was performed as if it would be the last. http://nevermakeithome.com

“I am thrilled that SnagFilms is distributing Never Make It Home,” stated director G.J. Echternkamp. “I promised Kirk Rundstrom that I would put his story and his music out for the world to see, and I'm very happy that I can fulfill this promise.”

City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story won both the Best Documentary Award and the Audience Award at the 2010 Sonoma International Film Festival, and selections to the SilverDocs, Vail and Santa Barbara Festivals and has been acquired by ESPN for telecast. One of the film’s stars is a poet, another a musician. Several have fathers who have been killed. They are all from Denver’s inner-city. They are all 12-years-old. And they have all found a hint of salvation from their violent neighborhood in a most unlikely sport: lacrosse. From the moment these kids discover what a lacrosse stick is, to the heart-stopping finale at the state championships, this film, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and produced by Tor Myhren, takes the audience on an unforgettable journey. http://citylaxthemovie.com/

“I’m fired up to be working with SnagFilms,” said Jake Steinfeld, City Lax’s Executive Producer. “Like our movie’s young stars, filmmakers prove that passion and dreams can beat the longest odds – if they’ve got the right folks on their team. With Snag, we have what it takes to win over new audiences in new ways.”

Soccer City appeared in two US film festivals in 2011 and has been acquired by ESPN for telecast. With the first-ever FIFA World Cup in Africa as a backdrop, the cultural importance of soccer in township South Africa is explored through the lives of five individuals born and raised in the oldest and toughest of South Africa’s townships, Alexandra, locally known as ‘Alex.’ The film takes the audience into a culture dominated by soccer and into a storied township still largely unknown and misunderstood even among South Africans. Race. Class. Poverty. Faith. Hope. Soccer. http://soccer-city.tv/

“A filmmaker's greatest joy and ambition is to share their work with the broadest and best possible audience,” stated Soccer City director Nick Fitzhugh. “As a first-time filmmaker, it is a dream come true to have found partners of the caliber of National Geographic, ESPN and SnagFilms who not only love Soccer City but understand its importance. Making a quality film requires an incredible amount of help from a heap of extremely talented people––an all-star team if you will. I'm thrilled to be able to say that for Soccer City that's exactly what I have.”

About SnagFilms

SnagFilms features free, sponsor-supported, on demand viewing of more than 2,700 award-winning, fiction and non-fiction titles from some of the greatest names in film. SnagFilms’ curated film collection is viewed on its own site and a digital network of more than 110,000 affiliated sites and webpages worldwide, including partners such as AOL/Huffington Post, Comcast's XfinityTV.com, Hulu, the Starbucks Digital Network, IMDb, hundreds of non-profits, news and special interest sites and blogs — and via its applications for the iPad and connected TV platforms Roku and Boxee, and launching soon on Android-based smartphones and Android and Blackberry PlayBook tablets, and connected TVs from Sony, Samsung and Vizio. SnagFilms’ titles have been featured on more than 3.5 billion pageviews across its network.

SnagFilms also offers selected titles via pay video on demand with Comcast and FiOS, as well as on iTunes, Hulu Plus, Amazon, YouTube Movies, and will soon be launching on DIRECTV and digital streaming providers VUDU, Samsung Media Hub and Xbox Live. SnagFilms was recently named one of the fastest growing technology companies in Washington, DC area. Gizmodo has named SnagFilms as a “Best iPad App,” and OVGuide has twice named SnagFilms a Top Site. The SnagFilms family also includes indieWIRE, for more than 15 years the web’s top source of news, reviews and information about independent film.