Posted July 31, 2009
SnagFilms To Feature Top Festival Documentary “45365” In SummerFest Limited-Time Showing Of Unreleased Films
Online-Only Short Selections from Morgan Spurlock’s “SUPER SIZE ME” Also Launch
July 27, 2009 - SnagFilms announced that the much-anticipated documentary “45365”, Grand Jury Award Winner for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s acclaimed South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), will be the second featured film in its online SummerFest.
“45365” will be screened online at SnagFilms.com and throughout the SnagFilms network (including Hulu.com, AOL.com and Fancast.com) for one week, starting on July 31 and concluding on August 6, marking the first time that the film will be available to a broad audience.
SnagFilms brings the best nonfiction films to the web audience, promotes viral web distribution through virtual movie theater widgets, and engages viewers to assist in charitable and community efforts. Taking its mission one step further with SummerFest, SnagFilms is hosting one-week screenings of previously unreleased documentaries before they head for theatrical or television release.
The acclaimed film “45365” is SummerFest’s second title and comes to its special SnagFilms online premiere July 31, after an award-winning festival run that garnered major honors at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Newport International Film Festival, and the Athens International Film Festival, in addition to taking the top prize with its world premiere at SXSW. The film explores daily life in an American town - Sidney, Ohio (whose zip code provides the movie’s title). Through a patient and inquisitive look at everyday life in Middle America - the lives and landscapes that make up this community of 20,000 people – “45365” captures the complexities and ambiguities of the residents’ shared experiences and sketches a portrait of people who seem somehow familiar in a landscape that is increasingly unveiled.
[Note: for early access to screen “45365” for review, contact Ross Koenig ]
“Beverly Hills’ 90210 may have greater glamour, but ‘45365’ will seem more familiar to most Americans,” said SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen. “Filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross have captured the web of relationships that make daily life both familiar and profound. We are proud to bring this award-winning film to the broad online audience.”
“We are absolutely honored that 45365 has been invited to be a part of the inaugural SummerFest Film Festival. SnagFilms and their affiliates constitute our largest worldwide audience thus far,” said Directors Bill and Turner Ross. “We would like to thank SummerFest and their viewers for providing two independent filmmakers with such an amazing platform - an avenue for films like ours to be watched and discussed by film lovers the world over.”
SnagFilms has liberated documentaries that originally screened only at festivals or in the traditional 200-seat theatrical venues by placing them online and giving them the largest audiences possible. Through SummerFest, film fans can get a sneak peek of titles headed for the theaters or television. The online festival’s first premiere, THE ENTREPRENEUR, debuted online on July 24 and tells the story of Malcolm Bricklin – the automotive pioneer who brought Subaru and Yugo to the US - who attempts the nearly impossible: to create, from scratch, a new American car company. The film, directed by Bricklin’s son Jonathan, is Executive Produced by Academy Award®-nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. As a parable of what it takes to be an American entrepreneur, and a window into what is wrong with the automotive industry, the film could not be timelier. It screens on the SnagFilms network through July 30. In its first weekend of release, THE ENTREPRENEUR was the number one film on the SnagFilms Network.
In addition to premiering documentaries to the public, SnagFilms continues to find innovative ways to increase the visibility of these non-fiction films and their assets. Working with director Morgan Spurlock, SnagFilms has created four “Super Size Me Selects”, short “bite-sized” excerpts from the Oscar®-nominated documentary that carry key lessons about eating-related health issues that Spurlock entertainingly conveys in the film. Individual websites can now stream the lessons from Spurlock’s film from an embedded “virtual movie theater widget” on their pages on health, lifestyle and nutrition, without charge to the site or its visitors. The selections are available individually or via a special “Super Size Me Selects” Widget on SnagFilms.com, and through the SnagFilms distribution network, which includes AOL Health.
Selections include:
Selection One: Explores whether smoking tobacco and over-eating are equally addictive - and equally condemned by the public. To find out Morgan Spurlock interviews former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD; Jacob Sullum, Senior Editor, Reason Magazine; and John Banzhaf III, Law Professor, George Washington University.
Selection Two: Discusses how obesity rates are increasing in the United States, and so are the health problems that result from over-eating. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock discusses what diseases stem from obesity. He interviews former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD and William Klish, MD, Head of Department of Medicine at Texas Children’s Hospital about lifespan lost as a result of childhood diabetes.
Selection Three: Examines the drastic responses that some have to resolve the drastic problems brought on by obesity, by looking at gastric bypass surgery, sometimes individuals’ last resort. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock interviews Laparoscopic Surgeons Adam Naaman, MD and Carl Geisler, MD about gastric bypass surgery, as well as patient Bruce Howlett, and shows portions of Howlett’s surgery.
Selection Four: Explores the addictive chemistry of food, and how overeating fast foods can become addictive. Neal Barnard, MD, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine discusses the addictive qualities of some foods, and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock polls nutritionists on how often people should be eating fast food.
“Morgan Spurlock is a visionary director and producer, and ‘Super Size Me’ is deservedly one of the most popular documentaries of all time. The same chutzpa that had him eat only fast food for a month led him to make his own great film even more relevant to the web’s huge audience for health information,” said Rick Allen, CEO of SnagFilms. “Shorts on specialized topics are perfect for focused sites, and any viewer will inevitably want more … a hunger for the full film that they’ll be able to satisfy at SnagFilms.”
“I am very excited about SnagFilms and their approach to premiering documentaries through their network and making other aspects of non-fiction films available to the general public,” stated Morgan Spurlock. “When I approached them about partnering up and providing these ‘short selects’, we all agreed that this would be a great idea especially for ‘Super Size Me’ and its message of getting people to eat better and know more about what they eat. We are looking forward to its success and are hopeful that other docus could take advantage of this type of opportunity, as well.”
About SnagFilms
SnagFilms features free ad-supported viewing of more than 840 award-winning titles from some of the greatest names in documentary film production and distribution. Since its launch in July 2008, SnagFilms’ library has been featured on over 1 billion web pageviews, via more than 25,000 web pages, including throughout the AOL channels, and the websites of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Politico, hundreds of blogs, and thousands of social network pages. OVGuide named SnagFilms a Top Site of 2008 and MovieMaker Magazine named SnagFilms to its annual list of “50 Best Websites for Moviemakers.”
indieWIRE, the 13-year old leading news, information and networking site for independent-minded filmmakers, the industry and moviegoers alike, has been a vital part of SnagFilms since its acquisition in August, 2008.
The company was founded by digital entrepreneur, documentary film producer, professional sports teams’ owner and philanthropist Ted Leonsis, and is additionally backed by AOL co-founder and Revolution LLC Chairman, Steve Case; philanthropist and former digital executive Jean Case; operating executive and philanthropic venture capitalist Miles Gilburne; and a group led by Ted and Jim Pedas, founders of Circle Films.
Contact
Noah Black
SnagFilms
202-295-8797
SnagFilms Features Top Festival Doc “45365” and Super Size Me Selects
