01 May CONTENT TO HANDLE WORLDWIDE SALES ON AMY BERG’S DOCUMENTARY ON LEGENDARY SINGER-SONGWRITER JANIS JOPLIN
Academy Award®-winner Alex Gibney to Produce Janis: Little Girl Blue with Sales Beginning at the Cannes International Film Festival Next Month
Los Angeles, April 30, 2014 – Content announced today that Disarming Films’ Academy Award®-nominated Amy Berg (DELIVER US FROM EVIL, WEST OF MEMPHIS) is directing and producing the upcoming Janis Joplin documentary, JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE. Academy Award®-winner Alex Gibney (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, THE ARMSTRONG LIE) is producing under his Jigsaw Productions banner with Jeff Jampol from JAM, Inc and Billy McMillin (WEST OF MEMPHIS, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS) is editing. The documentary is executive produced by Noah Haeussner, Susan Lacy, Michael Kantor and Michael Raimondi. Content will be handling worldwide sales and introducing the documentary to buyers at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Disarming Films, Jigsaw Productions and THIRTEEN Productions LLC’s AMERICAN MASTERS are co-producing JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE in association with Sony Music Entertainment and UEG (union entertainment group). The film will have its U.S. broadcast premiere on the AMERICAN MASTERS series on PBS.
Currently in production, Berg’s documentary strips away Janis’ rock ‘n’ roll persona to reveal the gentle, trusting, innocent, but powerful woman behind the legend, in the quintessential story of the short, turbulent and epic existence that changed music forever.
Director Amy Berg said: “I’m thrilled that I have the opportunity to tell Janis’ story. She’s an amazing rock icon who paved the way for generations of women to come. We have a great producing team coming together to make this film and I hope we make her proud.”
Content’s Jamie Carmichael said: “I’m a great fan of Janis Joplin, but I don’t think I’d ever heard her real story until now. The incomparable Amy Berg is showing us the woman behind the myth, and the result is fascinating, tragic, amusing and very emotional. Janis’ talent was extraordinary, and she paid for it with her life.”
Janis Joplin was a rock icon and a goddess of sound, but there was actually far more to her than that. Janis serves as the narrator for her own life story – intimate, personal letters she wrote to her family, friends and lovers take us on a journey starting from her childhood. Her talent and magnetism is self-evident in rare and never-before-seen footage. We follow Janis performing at Monterey Pop in 1967, Woodstock in 1969, and Festival Express in 1970 as well as witness interviews with her family, friends and rock star contemporaries who paint a new, intimate portrait of Janis the woman and tell the heartbreaking tale of her demise.
Featuring a soundtrack of Janis’ greatest hits – Cry Baby, Mercedes Benz, Piece of My Heart and many more, JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE will join the pantheon of great music documentaries by providing a glimpse into the private life and inner struggles of one of the world’s most influential rock icons.
The Content sales slate also includes: JIMI: ALL IS BY MY SIDE directed by John Ridley and starring Andre Benjamin which premiered in Toronto; the family adventure PUDSEY: THE MOVIE, the supernatural horror DARK SUMMER directed by Paul Solet; the intense horror THE DIABOLICAL starring Ali Larter; the Steve McQueen documentary The Man & Le Mans; Dan Bush’s supernatural heist thriller THE TRUST; and Caradog James’ psychologically terrifying DON’T KNOCK TWICE.
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About Content
Content Film is the worldwide film and library sales arm of Content Media Corporation Ltd., which owns and distributes a significant library of high quality and commercial feature films, television and digital assets. In addition to handling worldwide sales, marketing, and publicity — the company assists film producers in securing finance. The Feature Film Library arm also manages international sales on over 255 titles. Content Film is being managed in an executive capacity by Jamie Carmichael, President – Film Division.
Content Media most recently closed a multi-faceted deal with Bruno Wu’s Beijing-based Seven Stars Entertainment and Media, Ltd., in which Content acquired the Alive Group of companies allowing Content to distribute its extensive library of film and television rights through the Alive Group to the Chinese market, as well as a direct equity investment by Seven Stars into Content.