EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has picked up North American rights to the sports documentary Big Crow from director Kris Kaczor, slating it for release on VOD platforms on August 1.
Premiering at last year’s Santa Barbara Film Festival, the film tells the story of how young Lakota basketball star SuAnne Big Crow became an activist, and how her message of hope continues to help her people reclaim their culture 30 years after her tragic death. Part biography and part social commentary, the doc is a tale about the power of hope in the most destitute place in America, South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Inila Wakan wrote the pic and Kevin Bayson produced, with Walter Matteson aboard as EP. Freestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal to acquire it with Alex Nohe of Blood Sweat and Honey. View a trailer for the film below.
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Adele and Keith Hanks in First Responders in Crisis
EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to the documentary First Responders in Crisis, about the mental health struggles of firefighters, police officers and EMTs, with plans for an October release. Rob Riggle narrates the pic, helmed by Corey Moss and Scot Ruggles, which has Entourage creator Doug Ellin amongst its EPs.
Pic looks at PTSD and mental health through the lens of the first responder community in a small New England town, given that in America, first responders make up less than 2% of the population, but account for a disproportionate number of suicides. It spotlights how these American heroes have turned to therapy, meditation, life coaching and even farming to help save themselves from the depths of depression, so they can be there to save you.
The film hails from Moss and Brad T. Gottfred’s Bold Soul Studios, Ruggles’ No Huddle Productions and Riggle’s New Mission Media. Gottfred, Riggle and Michael Masukawa joined Ellin as exec producers. View the trailer for First Responders in Crisis below.