Sundance Channel Premiering Tom Petty Documentary, Acquires 20 Films
Bogdanovich’s Runnin’ Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to Debut Oct. 29
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/13/2007 8:06:00 AM
Sundance Channel will air the world television premiere of Peter Bogdanovich’s four-hour documentary, Runnin’ Down a Dream:Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The film examines the band over three decades and uses interviews, archival footage and concert footage to tell their story. It features interviews with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, along with musicians and collaborators with the band, including Dave Grohl, George Harrison, Rick Rubin and Johnny Depp.
Runnin’ Down a Dream will air Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.
Sundance also announced the acquisition of 20 films that debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, covering features, documentaries and shorts. Christian Vesper, senior vice president of acquisitions, program planning and scheduling for the cable network, negotiated the deals.
Of the 20 films, 12 are documentaries, including Jason Kohn’s Grand Jury Prize-winning Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), which explores corruption and violence in Brazil.
“Sundance Film Festival is a gateway into the world of independent film, and it’s an invaluable resource as we seek out new provocative films to bring to our audience,” Sundance Channel executive VP Laura Michalchyshyn said in a statement. “The 2007 Sundance Film Festival was wonderfully rich and diverse, and that variety is evidenced in our acquisition slate. In terms of both subject matter and creative approach, these films attest to the vitality and scope of independent film today.”
The other films acquired by the channel are:
• Autism Every Day (documentary, director: Lauren Thierry, 2006);
• Cocalero (documentary, director: Alejandro Landes, 2006);
• Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (documentary, director: Jennifer Fox, 2007);
• For the Bible Tells Me So (documentary, director: Daniel Karslake, 2006);
• Four Sheets to the Wind (feature, director: Sterlin Harjo, 2006);
• Fraulein (feature, director: Andrea Staka, 2006);
• I Want to Be a Pilot(short, director: Diego Quemada-Diez, 2006);
• The Legacy (feature, directors: Géla Babluani, Temur Babluani, 2005, MK2);
• Manufactured Landscapes (documentary, director: Jennifer Baichwal, 2006, Zeitgeist);
• The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun (documentary, director: Pernille Rose Grønkjær, 2006);
• Motodrom (short, director: Joerg Wagner, 2006);
• Noise (feature, director: Matthew Saville, 2006);
• On the Road with Judas (feature, Director: J.J. Lask, 2006);
• Red Road (feature, director: Andrea Arnold, 2006, Tartan Films USA);
• Songbird(short, director: John Thompson, 2006);
• Strange Culture (documentary, director: Lynn Herschman Leeson, 2006);
• The Unforeseen (documentary, director: Laura Dunn, 2007);
• War/Dance (documentary, directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine, 2006, ThinkFilm); and
• Zoo (documentary, director: Robinson Devor, 2006, ThinkFilm).
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