Cinedigm Acquires North American Distribution Rights To Shaul Schwarz’s Sundance 2013 Competition Title “Narco Cultura”

Cinedigm (NASDAQ: CIDM) has acquired North American distribution rights to Israeli photographer and filmmaker Shaul Schwarz’s NARCO CULTURA, which world premiered last week at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in the Documentary Competition section. The film was produced by Parts & Labor’s Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy and Ocean Size Pictures’ Todd Hagopian; executive produced by Fred Warren and Robin Warren; and edited by Bryan Chang and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg. It will next screen at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section. Cinedigm plans a theatrical release and awards qualifying run for the film in 2013.

To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco-traffickers have become iconic outlaws, glorified by musicians who praise their new models of fame and success. To this new constituency, they represent a pathway out of the ghetto, nurturing a new American dream fueled by an addiction to money, drugs, and violence. NARCO CULTURA is an explosive look at the drug cartels’ pop culture influence on both sides of the border as seen through the eyes of an LA narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.

“Through its unprecedented access and shocking imagery, NARCO CULTURA reveals the complex interplay between the tyranny wrought by the drug cartels, as well as their prominent role in defining the culture at large,” said Vincent Scordino, Vice President of Acquisitions, Theatrical, for Cinedigm. “We are so proud to be working with Shaul and the producers to bring NARCO CULTURA to audiences, who upon seeing the film, will not be able to ignore this crisis any longer.”

“From the first time I went to Juarez in 2008 as a photojournalist, I knew I wanted to tell the complex story of the drug war not from the side of policy, police, or cartel, but instead from the lives of people who are directly and indirectly affected by the endless cycle of violence,” said Schwarz. “Today I am ecstatic that Cinedigm has come onboard to distribute this film. We had an amazing reception at Sundance and now I know more people will get a chance to see the reality that is commonly ignored as the drug war rages on.”

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