WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SnagFilms today released its third annual SummerFest line-up, once again offering a summer-scorched audience an opportunity to stream a slate of films making their online world premieres -- for free, on-demand and in the comforts of their air-conditioned homes. Every Friday, beginning August 5, SnagFilms’ SummerFest 2011 will offer a new critically acclaimed non-fiction film, available on SnagFilms.com, the SnagFilms iPad app, as well as the company’s distribution network, including Hulu. Each film will be available for two weeks only, before heading onward to theatrical or television distribution.
This year’s SnagFilms’ SummerFest Films include:
Who
is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?
– August 5
Winnebago Man – August 12
Last
Summer at Coney Island – August 19
Charlotte – August 26
The
First Movie – September 2
Since 2009, SnagFilms’ unique summer program has provided documentary filmmakers the opportunity to build a fan base for their work, while enabling viewers to get free access to great new films. Past SummerFest films have included “The Entrepreneur,” “The Age of Stupid,” and “A Fighting Chance.”
“Each year, we’ve offered film fans a chance to beat the dog days of summer by watching some of the best non-fiction films for free. SummerFest 2011 continues this great tradition by providing online audiences with some of the most entertaining and thought-provoking independent titles,” said SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen. “SnagFilms continues to grow through its partnerships with Roku, Boxee and a critically-acclaimed free app for the iPad, bringing free feature films to the widest possible audiences. By the end of the year, we will have expanded our distribution network across more than 60 platforms and devices.”
“‘Winnebago Man's' roots started online with YouTube where he became a cult hit and it is appropriate that the fans who made Jack Rebney famous will be able to watch their anti-hero online larger-than-life thanks to SnagFilms’ SummerFest. Harry Nilsson was also a man of his times who would have embraced the potential of viral to reach his core audience,” said Richard Lorber, CEO Kino Lorber, Inc. “We are thrilled to have two of our most popular docs included in SnagFilms’ SummerFest 2011.”
“What better time than this summer and what better way than through this special presentation on SnagFilms to enjoy ‘Last Summer at Coney Island,’” said Bob Alexander, president of IndiePix. “This special film captures the legendary park at its best and its worst -- the characters, whose time, love and colossal personalities, make Coney Island more than just another amusement park! IndiePix has been a collaborator with SnagFilms since 2008 in bringing top documentary films to the widest possible audiences through new media.”
“SnagFilms’ SummerFest is a dream come true. Though anybody can make a film available on the internet, it is altogether another matter to get people to watch it,” says Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, producer of “Charlotte.” “It is precisely here that SummerFest provides an unparalleled opportunity to connect my film with its audience. I am overjoyed to have SnagFilms by my side!”
“After the incredible success of ‘45365’ on SnagFilms’ SummerFest, we are excited to see ‘The First Movie’ also have its online premiere there,” said James Eowan, VP Educational Outreach & Special Projects, Seventh Art Releasing. “‘The First Movie’ has brought its heartening story about kids and the magic of cinema to packed houses at film festivals around the world, and we are excited for SummerFest to do the same for the internet audience.”
Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?
This wildly entertaining, star-studded documentary about The Beatles’ favorite American musician delves deeply into Nilsson’s artistic process. The film combines compelling interviews with Nilsson’s family, friends and colleagues with rare and never – before-seen archival footage, home movies, and excerpts from a recently discovered oral autobiography.
Appears on the SnagFilms network Friday, August 5, 2011 – Thursday, August 18, 2011
Winnebago Man
Jack Rebney, a.k.a. “The Winnebago Man” – an ‘80s RV salesman’s hilarious, profanity-strewn, on-the-job meltdown was captured on video and passed around on VHS tapes, before exploding into an Internet phenomenon seen by millions. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer journeys to find Rebney, discovering him unaware of his fame, and capturing his response to his unintended celebrity.
Appears on SnagFilms network Friday, August 12, 2011 – Thursday, August 25, 2011
Last Summer at Coney Island
Coney Island is known throughout the world as the birthplace of the hot dog, the roller coaster and – broadly speaking – popular culture. This playground is now facing a monumental redevelopment plan. This documentary juxtaposes images of the past and present with interviews and observed scenes featuring many of the key players in the transformation.
Appears on the SnagFilms network Friday, August 19, 2011 – Thursday, September 1, 2011
Charlotte
Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin established an extraordinary boatyard in 1980 on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway with the purpose of designing, building, and maintaining traditionally built wooden boats, and in the process, they transformed Vineyard Haven harbor into a mecca for wooden boat owners and enthusiasts. After a long career of designing and constructing boats for others, Nat embarks on building a 50 foot gaff rigged schooner for use by his family and friends – her name is Charlotte. Through close observation of the everyday activities of the boatyard, the film emerges as a meditation on tradition, craftsmanship, family, community, our relationship to nature and the love of the sea.
Appears on the SnagFilms network Friday, August 26, 2011 – Thursday, September 8, 2011
The First Movie
One of the first of its kind, “The First Movie” is a “magic realist” documentary that reveals life during war through the lens of children, when they were given cameras to film what they liked. Rather than focusing on the suffering of war in Kurdish, Iraq, it shows how much suffering co-habits with other things such as wonder and imaginative development. This critically acclaimed film received the prestigious Prix Italia for best Arts Documentary in Turin.
Appears on the SnagFilms network Friday, September 2, 2011 – Thursday, September 15, 2011
About SnagFilms
SnagFilms features free sponsor-supported viewing of more than 2,300 award-winning titles from some of the greatest names in film. Since its launch in July 2008, films in SnagFilms’ library have been viewed more than 20 million times across over more than 110,000 affiliated sites and webpages, including through partners such as AOL, Comcast, Hulu, the Starbucks Digital Network, Roku, Boxee, IMDb, the Miami Herald, hundreds of non-profits, special interest sites and blogs — and via a new free application for the iPad. SnagFilms’ titles have been featured on approximately 3 billion pageviews across the SnagFilms network.
SnagFilms also offers selected titles via paid VOD with Comcast and FiOS, as well as on iTunes, Amazon and other partners.
SnagFilms was recently named one of the fastest growing technology companies in Washington, DC-area. OVGuide has twice named SnagFilms a Top Site and MovieMaker Magazine named SnagFilms to its annual list of “50 Best Websites for Moviemakers.”
The company was founded by digital entrepreneur, documentary film producer, professional sports teams’ owner and philanthropist Ted Leonsis, and is additionally backed by AOL co-founder and Revolution LLC Chairman, Steve Case; philanthropist and digital executive Jean Case; operating executive and philanthropic venture capitalist Miles Gilburne; a group led by Ted and Jim Pedas, founders of Circle Films; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; New Enterprise Associates and Comcast Ventures.
The SnagFilms family also includes indieWIRE, for more than 15 years the web’s top source of news, reviews and information about independent film.