Rights to writer/director Ali Samadi Ahadi’s “The Green Wave” have been picked up by Red Flag Releasing, the company said Wednesday. The film, which screened at the Washington DC International Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival will have a theatrical release timed to the third anniversary of the Iranian elections in June, 2012.
Full release follows:
Red Flag Releasing announced today that it has acquired “The Green Wave,” written and directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and produced by Jan Krueger and Oliver Stoltz. The film world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and screened at the Washington DC International Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Red Flag will theatrically release the film around the third anniversary of the Iranian elections in June of 2012.
“The Green Wave” is a powerful film documenting the populist protests in Iran following the suspicious victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over progressive candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the Iranian presidential elections on June 12, 2009. Cell phone videos posted on the internet, Twitter messages and Facebook reports, as well as animation and interviews with prominent human rights advocates and exiled Iranians bear witness to the brutal attacks by government militia in their efforts to squelch the protests that followed. Ali Samadi Ahadi’s documentary is a highly contemporary chronicle of the Green Revolution, and a memorial for all of those who believed in freedom and lost their lives for it.
The film’s release will include theatrical, OnDemand, DVD, and digital download channels. Visit Film’s Ryan Kampe and Red Flag Releasing’s Paul Federbush negotiated the deal.
Iranian-born director and author Ali Samadi Ahadi previously directed the documentary “Los Children” in co-production with Oliver Stoltz, which won the UNICEF Award and Al Jazeera Award, among others. In 2009, Ahadi also directed his first feature film, “Salami Aleikum.”
“We are happy to be working with Ali Samadi Ahadi and proud to present “The Green Wave.” This provocative film chronicles the Iranian uprising that was the catalyst for the Arab Spring currently sweeping the region. It shouldn’t be forgotten,” said RFR’s Paul Federbush.
“‘The Green Wave’ is the most personal film I have ever made. It deals with a theme that I have followed closely over the past two years (even in my dreams) and influences my everyday life. So I am very thankful to see that the film will have a theatrical and DVD-release in the US through Red Flag Releasing. It is my hope the film helps create a dialogue about the most important movement for decades in the near and Middle East,” said Ahadi.
About Red Flag Releasing
Red Flag Releasing (RFR) is an independent distribution company owned by Paul Federbush and Laura Kim. The former Warner Independent Pictures executives shepherded films such as March of the Penguins, Good Night, and Good Luck and Paradise Now. Federbush also worked as a production executive on Slumdog Millionaire. As a marketing/awards consultant, Kim worked most recently on Restrepo and Winter’s Bone. RFR’s first release, 8:The Mormon Proposition won the 2010 GLAAD Media Award for Best Documentary. RFR will release David Weissman’s Sundance favorite We Were Here on September 9, 2011.
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