Deal Happens Preceding CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP’S Premiere at Hot Docs on Saturday

Today, Films We Like proudly announces it has acquired Canadian distribution rights to Rodman Flender’s comic documentary CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP, which premieres Saturday evening at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. Films We LIke will handle theatrical distribution of the film which is slated to open this July across Canada.

In 2010, after a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC’s Tonight Show – and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network – O’Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” was O’Brien’s answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show. Flender’s resulting documentary, CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base. At times angry, mostly hilarious, O’Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers. We see a comic who does not stop—performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself.


“Ron and Films We Like have shown tremendous passion for our film and we’re really happy they have come on board. We love that they share our vision and we fully support their future plans for the film” said the film’s two producers Gavin Polone and Rachel Griffin.

Films We Like, headed by doc vet Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential) said “CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP is hands down the most entertaining and funniest film at this year’s Hot Docs, and I’m thrilled that my company will be able to release it theatrically across the country.

The deal was negotiated by Liesl Copland at WME Global on behalf of the filmmakers, with Ron Mann of Films We Like.

Films We Like is currently releasing in theatres the box office sensation "Bill Cunningham New York" by Richard Press.

For more information contact filmswelike : mann@sphinxproductions.com

Tags: Aquisition, HotDocs

The best conspiracy is one that is actually true. Such is the case of the fascinating Toynee Tile phenomenon. Director John Foy creates a magnificently suspenseful and engrossing investigative Sherlock Holmes-worthy mystery following three young men, equally obsessed, as they go about solving the urban mystery and surreal meaning of hundreds of cryptic tiled messages that, since the early 1980s, have been appearing enbedded in the asphalt of seemingly random city streets. Primarily in Philadelphia, but as far apart as New York, St. Louis, Santiago, and Buenos Aires, each tile has a similar wording:

Toynbee Idea
In Kubrick's 2001
Resurrect Dead
On Planet Jupiter

For over 20 years a cult has developed around these messages, which still remains unsolved.

Street art? A prank? A message from space?

That the origins of a street tile can be so captivating is testament to both the men's passion and Foy’s filmmaking. Resurrect Dead thrusts us into the black hole of this fantastic mystery, a collection of leads, false leads and red herrings. Believe it or not, weaving into the evidence is an old David Mamet one act play from 1983, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the literature of American philosopher Arnold Toynbee, shortwave radio fanatics as well as a group of fascinating neighbourhood Philly folk who help the threesome uncover the mystery.

There is no public or private agency dedicated to conserving Toynbee tiles. Many tiles now exist only as photographs taken before their destruction. Despite this, the tiles have enjoyed attention from major American and European media outlets.
Resurrect Dead won the Directing Award at the 2011 Sundance Festival / U.S. Documentary category.

Hot Docs: Tues May 3 (9pm) @ TIFF Bell Lightbox
Hot Docs: Wed May 4 (11:45pm) @ Bloor
Hot Docs: Sat May 7 (9:15pm) @ Cumberland

Theatrical release coming Summer 2011

Tags: HotDocs

WE WERE HERE instantly leaps to the front rank of films about the AIDS epidemic. In the early 1970s, in the shadow of the Stonewall riots and the free-love movement, gay men and lesbians flocked to San Francisco to find acceptance.

They formed a thriving, tight-knit community until the arrival of AIDS in the early 1980s drove them under siege. David Weissman and Bill Weber (who co-directed the 2001 documentary, The Cockettes, chronicling San Francisco’s legendary theater troupe of hippies and drag queens, 1969 – 1972) revisits San Francisco a decade later, as its flourishing gay community is hit with an unimaginable disaster. It takes a reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS through the stories of five individuals who lived through the best and the worst of the era. The film speaks to our capacity as individuals to rise to the occasion, and to the incredible power of a community coming together with love, compassion, and determination.

It has the force of a great war documentary. There are moments that are almost unbearable. These are followed by still other moments, equally unbearable, until the emotional strain of hearing of other people's sorrow and tribulation becomes simply too much - certainly too much for words. And always, there's this thought: If just hearing this is so devastating, what must it have been like to live through it. Or not live through it.

Hot Docs: Tues May 3 (9:30pm) @ TIFF Bell Lightbox
Hot Docs: Thurs May 5 (1:45pm) @ ROM Theatre

Theatrical release coming Summer 2011

WE WERE HERE (trailer) from David Weissman on Vimeo.

Tags: HotDocs

Before JACKASS, TOM GREEN, TRAILER PARK BOYS and YOUTUBE, and before wrecking stuff, performing insane stunts and brutalizing your body were high art (and profitable), THERE WAS RALPH ZAVADIL...



CANADIAN PREMIERE: HOT DOCS
Fri April 29 (6:45pm) & Sat May 7 (4:15pm) @ Isabel Bader Theatre
Wed May 4 (7:30pm) @ London Tap House Rooftop (250 Adelaide West @ Duncan)

SEE THE TRAILER

His St. Catherines cable-access television show, The Cap'n Video Show, ran from 1990 to 1995, spawning a small but loyal cult following. Each week Ralph performed a series of idiotic and occasionally dangerous stunts, challenging the sensibilities of his small Southern Ontario audience.

With the advent of the internet and reality television still years away, his unique brand of gross-out stunt comedy was truly ahead of its time. All it took was a broken neck for him to get noticed.

OPENS ACROSS CANADA: MAY 27

Tags: HotDocs

LENNONNYC a film by Michael Epstein

As the world remembers John Lennon on what would have been his 70th birthday, and the 30th anniversary of his death, LENNONYC takes an intimate look at the time Lennon, Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, spent living in New York City during the 1970s. LENNONYC features never-before heard studio recordings from the Double Fantasy sessions, never-before-seen outtakes from Lennon in concert, and home movies that have only recently been transferred to video. Featuring exclusive interviews with Ono - who cooperated extensively with the production and offers an unprecedented level of access - and with artists who worked closely with Lennon during this period (including Elton John and photographer Bob Gruen), LENNONYC paints a revealing portrait of the legend’s momentous years in Manhattan, the final years of a remarkable life cut remarkably short.



Hot Docs Screenings
Wednesday, 11/3/10 6:30PM & 9:15PM
Purchase Tix!

LennonNYC is available for benefit screenings only.
Also available for television sales and will be coming to DVD in January 2011.

Tags: Aquisition, HotDocs