Cinedigm launches new film series, preps streaming service
Century City-based Cinedigm unveiled on Monday a seven-week screening series that will include seven documentaries shown at theaters across the country, including several in the Los Angeles area.
The Docurama series begins April 22 and will include the documentaries “G-Dog,” “Viva Los Antipados,” “The World Before Her,” “The Fruit Hunters,” “Charge,” “Ping Pong” and “London: The Modern Babylon.”
The films will be shown at five area Laemmle Theatres, including outposts in Pasadena and North Hollywood. Cinedigm Chief Executive Chris McGurk said that the series will mark the first time each of the seven pictures will be screened for the public outside of a film festival.
The series is named for Docurama Films, the documentary label of New Video Group, a New York-based distributor of independent films, television shows and other media that Cinedigm acquired in April 2012. McGurk said that his company had eyed the Docurama label before acquiring New Video.
“We always thought it was a really good asset that they had -- the brand and the library of movies,” he said.
McGurk said that a new documentary will premiere each week of the series.
“Hopefully we establish a destination day for documentaries in theaters,” said McGurk, a former senior executive at Walt Disney Studios, MGM and Universal Pictures. “We think that is really important.”
Cinedigm manages a library of 1,200 documentaries, which it will exploit for an upcoming Docurama channel that will be available on the Internet, mobile devices and other platforms. The Docurama channel, which will allow the documentaries to be streamed by consumers for free, is slated to be launched by summer.
The movies to be shown as part of the Docurama screening series will be available on the channel.
Cinedigm also has a digital cinema services arm that helped theaters in the U.S. and Canada convert from film to digital.
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