Gathr Films Acquires All North American Rights to Documentary Generation Found

Los Angeles, CA, May 5, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​Gathr Films has acquired all North American rights to GENERATION FOUND a second feature collaboration from Jeff Reilly and Greg Williams. From the creators of the groundbreaking film, THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE, comes a transformative community story about the people of Houston who are fighting to save young people from the leading cause of death of their generation. With unprecedented access to a never-before-seen hidden community, GENERATION FOUND captures both the story of families who have lost their children to addiction, as well as families and young people who have a second chance at life. It is not only a deeply personal story, but one with real world utility for communities struggling with youth addiction worldwide.

In the U.S. alone, addiction to alcohol and other drugs is the most pressing health issue of our time directly impacting 45 million Americans, and claiming more than 135,000 lives every year. This film highlights a massive missing piece to the puzzle – the lack of youth recovery supports in nearly every community around the country, but Houston.

"The partnership with Gathr for GENERATION FOUND is a perfect opportunity for us to get this important film quickly and efficiently in front of huge potential audience," said co-filmmaker Greg Williams. "We understand telling the stories of hope and potential solutions to the addiction crisis is not the traditional way to tell the addiction story. But if THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE taught us anything, there is a massive grassroots audience emerging - of similar size to the LGBT film audience - hungry for content that continues to move the addiction conversation forward."

Greg, Williams

Due to anticipated demand, GENERATION FOUND will be pre-selling in May for a Fall 2016 Theatrical On Demand® (TOD) release.

The film is created by award-winning filmmakers Jeff Reilly (facefirstfilms.com) and Greg Williams. They are second-time Gathr filmmakers, and their first TOD-released film THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE about the emerging social justice movement of more than 23 million Americans living in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs beginning to tell their stories publicly, held more than 200 TOD screenings, and made almost $300K in Box Office Gross.

“Addiction to alcohol and other drugs is one of the most urgent issues of our time – especially for young people. GENERATION FOUND is a deeply personal story that also provides real solutions for communities struggling with youth addiction worldwide,” said co-director Jeff Reilly. “We’re excited to again partner with Gathr Films to ensure the film is seen by audiences in as many communities as possible – coming together in a theater to share this experience.”

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Jeff Reilly and Greg Williams on GENERATION FOUND after working together on THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE in 2013. We jumped at the opportunity to distribute GENERATION FOUND not just in theaters but across all platforms,” said Gathr Films President Jake Craven. “Their films capture a side to the addiction and recovery story that mainstream media often overlooks and through our work together we have seen first hand the power of the recovery movement in North America. It was very apparent to us that with the urgency of the addiction crisis and the realization that more than 90% of all substance use disorders start in adolescence presents the immediate need for a film like GENERATION FOUND. Through Theatrical On Demand® screenings audiences across the country will come together in their local theater to watch this powerful film and have a conversation so it can serve as a tool to advance awareness and a call-to-action to build increased addiction recovery supports for young people in other communities."

GENERATION FOUND is Gathr’s first all rights acquisition, and it continues to solidify Gathr as a differentiated distributor.

GENERATION FOUND is a powerful story of young people, families, and their community believing not just in the individual process of recovery – but the community’s power to fertilize the soil of change. In the midst of a city-wide addiction epidemic that led to a community burying their children at an alarming rate, something surprising happened in Houston. In one of the most conservative cities in America, hippy counselors, rock musicians, law school dropouts, retired football players, oil industry executives, and church groups learned to put aside their differences and build the world’s largest adolescent addiction recovery community. Independently filmed over the course of two years, now Houston is setting a standard that can help America address the worst drug epidemic in history. It is a deep dive at how a system of sober high schools and alternative peer groups exist in concert providing a real and tested alternative to the “War On Drugs.”

“The partnership with Gathr for GENERATION FOUND is a perfect opportunity for us to get this important film quickly and efficiently in front of huge potential audience,” said co-filmmaker Greg Williams. “We understand telling the stories of hope and potential solutions to the addiction crisis is not the traditional way to tell the addiction story. But if THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE taught us anything, there is a massive grassroots audience emerging – of similar size to the LGBT film audience – hungry for content that continues to move the addiction conversation forward. This audience is not interested in the same old tragic imagery often captured surrounding this topic.” 

GATHR FILMS is a technology-based specialty theatrical distributor focusing on documentaries and issues-oriented films. Gathr pioneered Theatrical On Demand® in 2011. TOD screenings harness organic demand—screenings occur when a minimum number of people reserve tickets in advance. The company works with more than 3,000 theaters across all the major theater chains including Regal, AMC, Carmike, Cinemark, Marcus, and Wehrenberg. Gathr uses political-style grassroots coalition-building to target decentralized communities to galvanize their supporters and communities around social impact and political action. Gathr also works with some of the largest and most prestigious brands and organizations to build national coalitions with our films, including UNICEF, UN Foundation, Just Label It, Facing Addiction, and National Association of Social Workers. Films distributed through TOD include Girl Rising (4th highest grossing documentary of 2013), Awake: The Life of Yogananda ($1.4 million in revenue), Beyond the Mask (700+ screenings), The Square (2014 Oscar® nominee), The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2015 Oscar® nominee), The Anonymous People (200+ screenings) and When Marnie Was There (2016 Oscar® nominee). Current films include Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things, Can You Dig This, Consumed, Finding Jenn’s Voice, Life in A Walk, Milk, Imba Means Sing, and The Prophet. Gathr Films is located in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. http://www.gathr.us/

# # #

Source: Gathr Films