OWN Documentary Club

My documentary MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS has been acquired by Oprah Winfrey for her new cable channel, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. OWN will premiere on January 1, 2011 in 75+ million homes.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS joins a line-up of cinematic documentaries comprising the network’s upcoming documentary film club, similar to Oprah’s book club, set to begin spring 2011.

OWN has partnered with ro*co productions, a renowned documentary distribution company - with a library that includes “Jesus Camp,” "Born into Brothels," “Hoop Dreams,” and “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” - to identify and recommend films for the network. OWN will air one documentary each month in primetime and build a multiplatform "experience" around the film to turn it into what the network calls an "event."

MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS follows three high school theater troupes and their creative journeys to the “Freddy Awards” - a live, televised event modeled after Broadway’s Tony Awards - that recognizes excellence in high school musical theater. The film demonstrates that arts education encourages the same teamwork, camaraderie and confidence as sports – in spite of the inequity between the two in high schools across America. The film is directed by Matthew D. Kallis.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS made its theatrical debut in New York City and Los Angeles this past summer as part of the International Documentary Association's DocuWeeks. The film is currently playing the film festival circuit, having premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Northern California last month.

Other acquisitions for the OWN "doc club” are “Family Affair,” “Life 2.0,” "One Lucky Elephant," “65_RedRoses,” and “Sons of Perdition.”

MVP plays next at the Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on November 17th @ 7PM at the Tivoli Theater, and will travel to New Zealand in February 2012 for the Documentary Edge Festival.