The Orchard has acquired U.S. rights to Marshall Curry’s award-winning documentary “Point and Shoot,” which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won the grand jury prize for best documentary.
The film follows the bizarre life of Matthew VanDyke, a sheltered 27-year-old from Baltimore who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. He sets off on a self-described “crash course in manhood” throughout the Middle East and joins the revolution in Libya — with video camera in hand.
“From our first conversations, I could tell that the team at The Orchard really understood and was passionate about ‘Point and Shoot,'” said Curry, a two-time Academy Award-nominated documentary director (“Street Fight,” “If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”). “In their recent releases and acquisitions they have shown a special commitment to non-fiction films and I’m thrilled to be working with them on getting this movie out into the world.”
In his review of the film at Tribeca, critic John Anderson called the documentary, “a virtual swashbuckler, a Boy’s Own story about adventure, travel, motorcycles and heroic fantasies.”
READ MORE: Review of “Point and Shoot” from Tribeca Film Festival
Curry directed the film and produced it along with Elizabeth Martin and VanDyke. A co-production of Marshall Curry Productions and American
Documentary/POV and Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the film was produced in
association with the BBC and VanDyke.
“‘Point and Shoot’ is an outstanding film — an exciting, surprising movie that asks piercing questions about war,
filmmaking, and self-discovery. Marshall Curry continues his trend of crafting films that are both entertaining and thoughtful, and we are
proud to be involved in distributing his latest,” said Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s senior vp film and TV.
The film will be released by The Orchard theatrically in U.S. markets this fall and on digital platforms early next year. The deal was negotiated by Danielle DiGiacomo for The Orchard and Andrew Herwitz, president of The Film Sales Company, on behalf of the filmmaker.
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