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100 Films & A Funeral
A
feature documentary
by Michael McNamara
100 Films & A Funeral will be broadcast on the Sundance Channel in the US
on April 7 (1pm) and April 8 (2:30am)
(ET)!
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“I’m going to tell you a story that will make your balls shrink to the size of raisins”
-Spike (Rhys Ifans), Notting Hill
Directed by Michael McNamara (Radio Revolution, Flatly Stacked, Wrinkle), 100 Films & A Funeral captures a seminal period in modern independent filmmaking as it chronicles the rise and fall of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE), the company that made and distributed over 100 feature films that collected 14 Academy Awards. Some of these hits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Dead Man Walking, The Usual Suspects, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Elizabeth, Trainspotting and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Inspired by PFE CEO Michael Kuhn’s memoir of the same name, McNamara had the advantage of an insider’s first hand knowledge of the history and intimate workings of this upstart European film studio that changed Hollywood. Judy Holm, producer of 100 Films & A Funeral is also the former VP of Distribution for PFE Canada, and was aboard the tumultuous and often heady roller coaster ride that marked the company’s history from 1991 – 1999.
More than a business story, 100 Films & A Funeral is a love letter to the art and magic of the cinema.
In the spring and summer of 2006, Michael and Judy took their cameras to London, Belgium, Amsterdam, Paris, Cannes, New York and Los Angeles to document the history and legacy of PFE. Among those recalling the studio’s wild ride are Kuhn and several of his PFE colleagues, actress/director/producer Jodie Foster (Nell), Sir Alan Parker (Angela’s Ashes), Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert), Gilles Jacob (Director of Cannes Film Festival), screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and A Funeral), and Geoff Gilmour (Director of Sundance Film Festival).
This documentary thriller that looks at the rise and fall of PFE begins fittingly with Michael Kuhn, the 40 year old Englishman and PolyGram lawyer with an adventurous spirit and no movie industry experience. His vision to build a movie studio from the ground up in London would challenge Hollywood’s absolute rule over the international film industry.
A subsidiary of the Dutch technology giant Philips and its recording label PolyGram Music, PFE was launched by Kuhn in 1991. By 1996, with PFE titles making waves at Cannes, Sundance and the Oscars, the company appeared to be well on its way to achieving that goal.
Smashing the myth that only Hollywood knows how to make films that make the whole world laugh and cry, Michael Kuhn, as CEO of PFE proved that critical acclaim and box office success need not be mutually exclusive.
Yet at the instant Kuhn’s team was set to hit the box office jackpot with Notting Hill, the entire enterprise was wiped out by a business deal between a Dutch corporate executive and an ambitious Canadian billionaire. Kuhn’s timing and luck ran out.
But, before it did, Kuhn and PFE created a new generation of trans-Atlantic tastemakers, the latest in a series of British invasions that swept America and shaped the international
cultural fabric. From Hugh Grant, who made being English cool again, to Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and A Funeral, Love Actually) who perfected the post modern romantic
comedy, to the multi-billion-dollar production machine that is Working Title Films – these are all part of the legacy of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.
100 Films & A Funeral is from the same team that made the Gemini winning documentary on the history of Windsor’s CKLW – Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8. Judy Holm of Markham St Films Inc. is producer and Michael McNamara directs and writes. The signature Monty Python-style animation for the film was designed by editor Roderick Deogrades and Toronto’s Trace Pictures. 100 Films & A Funeral was filmed in High Definition and is a production of Markham Street Films with broadcast licenses from The Documentary Channel in Canada, Sundance Channel in the US and AVRO in the Netherlands, as well as funds from the Canadian Television Fund, Rogers Cable Network Fund, the OMDC, CAVCO and the OFTTC.
Markham Street Films Inc. is a production company based in Toronto, Canada specializing in documentary and feature films. Formed in 2002 by partners Judy Holm and Michael McNamara, Markham Street Films has originated such distinct documentaries as the Gemini Award nominated Wrinkle, and produced Hearing Voices: The Lives and Times of Rich Little (CBC), 2004 Gemini winner Radio Revolution (History Television), Genuine Article: The First Trial (The Documentary Channel), Meet The Sumdees (Vision TV), Flatly Stacked and Shrines and Home Made Holy Places (Vision TV). Markham Street Films is also producing the feature films Victoria Day, Sleepyhead and The Return of the Fabulous 7.
For further information, please go to http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500257980
Running Time: 84 minutes
For images:
www.vkpr.ca/press.html
login: images
password: vkpr
www.markhamstreetfilms.com
For further information, to book interviews, and to request a preview screener, please contact:
Virginia Kelly, V Kelly & Associates, info@vkpr.ca, 416-466-9799
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