FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Sundance Channel acquires Award-Winning Road Trip Documentary Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop for US premiere on Independence Day, July 4th “
CANNES, April 18, 2007-- HRH Media and Open Door Co. are pleased to announce from MIPTV that their award-winning documentary has been acquired by Sundance Channel and will have its U.S. television debut on July 4th 2007, as part of the Sundance Channel's Independence Day celebrations.
"This film is our personal declaration of independence," says filmmaker/director Hanson Hosein. "It was daunting to leave our jobs in mainstream media and drive across America to shoot Independent America by ourselves. But with that same spirit, we built our own independently-minded grass roots audience and now have found a natural broadcast partner with the Sundance Channel. It just feels right.”
Tom Powers of Open Door, the film’s Executive Producer, adds: “We are thrilled and very proud that Independent America has been acquired by Sundance Channel. It is a perfect home for the film and we look forward to our July 4th premiere. The film’s messages about American ingenuity and self reliance in the face of big corporate America’s assault on independent business will resonate with Sundance’s audience.”
“Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop” follows former NBC News journalists Hanson Hosein (Emmy and Overseas Press Club winner) and his wife, Heather Hughes as they travel 13 thousand miles through 32 states in search of Independent America. They do it all while abiding by two simple rules of the road:
1) No Interstates: They can only travel on secondary highways and country roads
2) They can only do business with Mom & Pop. No McDonald’s. No Best Westerns. No Wal-Marts.
The documentary uncovers the growing discontent with big box, corporate America. The filmmakers capture pockets of resistance across the country, which add up to a nationwide opposition: Starbucks is vandalized in Colorado. Supporters of an anti-big box law in Arizona are compared to Nazis. A rebellious Texan city forces Borders Books into retreat. Patriotic residents of America's "Fourth of July" capital in Nebraska start to turn on their new superstore. An entire town in Wyoming goes into business for itself after it's abandoned by chain retail.
And what does the world’s largest retailer have to say about it all? The filmmakers stop in Bentonville, Arkansas – home to Wal-Mart – to find out.
“Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop” is a film that encourages people to think hard about where they spend their money. And it offers a rare, and comprehensive view of a nation that maintains surprisingly diverse opinions about how it should do business – and with whom.
It was recently profiled on the front page of Yahoo!'s "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone," as well as on BusinessWeek.com. It has been purchased by international broadcasters in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The film also won "Audience Favorite" at the Port Townsend Film Festival and has been viewed by thousands of Americans to incredibly positive reviews, including ABC News, which praised the film, calling it "an old-fashioned kind of shoe-leather journalism." Others have declared the documentary to be "wonderfully subversive" and "fascinating, affirming, intelligent, frightening!"
About HRH Media
HRH Media is an independent production company
headed by Emmy Award winner and NBC foreign correspondent, Hanson
Hosein and his partner, network news journalist Heather Hughes (NBC,
MSNBC). Independent America is their first feature documentary.
(www.hrhmedia.com).
About Open Door Co.
Launched in 2005 by Tom Powers, Toronto based
Open Door is in the business of producing, acquiring, distributing and
investing in Content That Matters across all media platforms
(www.opendoorco.com). Open Door is the producer of the recent HBO
documentary Cracked Not Broken.
About Sundance Channel
Under the creative direction of Robert
Redford, Sundance Channel is the television destination for
independent-minded viewers seeking something different. Bold,
uncompromising and irreverent, Sundance Channel offers audiences a
diverse and engaging selection of films, documentaries, and original
programs, all unedited and commercial free. Launched in 1996, Sundance
Channel is a venture of NBC Universal, CBS and Robert Redford.
Sundance Channel operates independently of the non-profit Sundance
Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, but shares the overall
Sundance mission of encouraging artistic freedom of expression.
Sundance Channel’s website address is www.sundancechannel.com.
Contacts:
More info, to request a screener or set up interview
contact: Tom Powers, Executive Producer: 1 416 587 0541
tpowers@opendoorco.com
Sarah Eaton, SVP Public Relations, Sundance Channel 212.708.8043 sarah.eaton@sundancechannel.com
Photo download & trailer are available at www.independentamerica.net
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