Cinedigm Acquires North American Home Entertainment Rights to It Happened Here, Documentary Chronicling Epidemic of Rape on College Campuses

LOS ANGELES--()--Cinedigm (NASDAQ: CIDM) has acquired North American home entertainment rights to It Happened Here (www.ithappenedhere.org), the compelling new documentary from director Lisa F. Jackson and producer Marjorie Schwartz Nielsen that explores sexual assault on campuses through the personal testimonials of five survivors who transform their experiences into a springboard for change. In the same distribution model that Cinedigm used for its Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War, which documented the rape epidemic in the US military, Cinedigm will roll out the film across all platforms including physical, VOD and its OTT channel, Docurama.

In raw and intimate interviews, the students describe surviving sexual assault only to be met with apathy, disbelief, blame and retaliation from the authorities when they tried to report the crime. When they tried to get justice, they were ignored, belittled and shamed, while their attackers remained on campus with impunity. But instead of hiding away in shame, they chose to speak out, and found a way to force institutional change.

Award-winning documentary director Lisa F. Jackson’s resume for the last 10 years has reflected a singular focus: violence against women. From such subjects as war time rape (The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo); the connection between rape and violence in Colombia’s civil war (Tres Mujeres), and a portrait of prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dedicated to rape and sexual violence cases (Sex Crimes Unit), Jackson’s films have taken an unflinching look at this most disturbing crime.

The film will have its broadcast debut on PIVOT January 21, 2015. And, in February, as part of the It's On Us campaign launched by the White House to educate college students about sexual assault, the documentary will be screened at college campuses across the country.

“When producer Marjorie Nielsen approached me to direct a film that exposed the epidemic of sexual assault on American college campuses, I knew immediately that I was all in,” commented Jackson.

“I’ve been working in film production and screenwriting for over 30 years,” says producer Marjorie Nielsen. “But nothing comes close to the humility, pride and gratitude I felt working with these five remarkable young women who let us into their lives and shared their harrowing stories.”

“This is a profoundly important subject,” says Susan Margolin, President of Cinedigm’s Docurama brand. “The film exposes an outrageous and prevalent attitude among many college administrators that assigns guilt to the victim, not the perpetrator. It is our hope that this film will provoke discussion and lead to policy changes so that more young women don’t have to endure the agony of the students in this film.”

About Cinedigm

Cinedigm is a leading independent content distributor in the United States, with direct relationships with over 60,000 physical retail storefronts and digital platforms, including Wal-Mart, Target, iTunes, Netflix, and Amazon, as well as the national Video on Demand platform on cable television. The company’s library of over 52,000 films and TV episodes encompasses award-winning documentaries from Docurama Films®, next-gen Indies from Flatiron Film Company®, acclaimed independent films and festival picks through partnerships with the Sundance Institute and Tribeca Films and a wide range of content from brand name suppliers, including National Geographic, Discovery, Scholastic, NFL, Shout Factory, Hallmark, Jim Henson and more.

Additionally, given Cinedigm’s infrastructure, technology, content and distribution expertise, the company has rapidly become a leader in the quickly evolving over-the-top digital network business. Cinedigm’s first channel, DOCURAMA, launched in May 2014, and is currently available on ioS, Roku, Xbox, Samsung and other platforms. Earlier this year, Cinedigm also announced plans for CONtv, a Comic Con branded channel, in partnership with WIZARD WORLD, for launch in Q1 2015. The Company also announced its third OTT channel via a partnership with The Dove Foundation. DOVE MOVIE CHANNEL will be a digital streaming subscription service targeted to families and kids seeking high quality faith and family friendly content approved by Dove.

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Contacts

Cinedigm Press Contact:
Maggie Begley/MBC
310-390-0101
Maggie@mbcprinc.com

Release Summary

Cinedigm Acquires North American Home Entertainment Rights to It Happened Here, Documentary Chronicling Epidemic of Rape on College Campuses

Contacts

Cinedigm Press Contact:
Maggie Begley/MBC
310-390-0101
Maggie@mbcprinc.com