First Run Features

First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City.^[1]

First Run Features

Industry	Film distribution
Founded	1979
Headquarters	New York, NY, USA
Products	Films, VOD, DVDs, Blu-rays
Website	http://www.firstrunfeatures.com

History

First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film.^[2] In the 1980s, the company focused on more mainstream documentaries and started distributing films on video.^[3]

It is one of America's largest independent distributors of documentaries and art films, releasing 12 to 15 films a year in theaters nationwide and 40 to 60 titles on DVD and VOD annually. First Run distributes a large number of documentaries and foreign films, including many films about LGBT issues, Jewish experience, and political and human rights issues.

First Run is the American distributor for Michael Apted's Up series, Ross McElwee's Sherman's March, the Oscar-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America, Maidentrip, Girl Model, Eames: The Architect and the Painter, For the Bible Tells Me So, A Jihad for Love, God Loves Uganda , D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's Kings of Pastry, Joe Berlinger's Crude, Alex Gibney and Eugene Jarecki's The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Alice, Save Me, Anita: Speaking Truth to Power and Moving Midway, among many others. Many of the films First Run Features has distributed have been endorsed by Human Rights Watch.

Notable films

Year	Title
2016	A Matter of Time[4]
2015	Welcome to Leith[5]
2015	Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art[6]
2015	The Looking Glass[7]
2013	A Girl and a Gun
2012	Pink Ribbons, Inc.[8]
2011	The Man Nobody Knew[9]
2010	The Most Dangerous Man in America
2009	Crude
2009	Ballerina
2009	Altiplano
2009	A Wink and a Smile
2008	Moving Midway
2008	A Jihad for Love
2008	Constantine's Sword
2008	Praying with Lior
2007	For the Bible Tells Me So
2007	Save Me
2007	The Power of Forgiveness
2007	Please Vote for Me
2007	Breaking the Maya Code
2004	Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
2003	Bonhoeffer
2002	The Butterfly
2001	Venus Boyz
2001	The Fluffer
1999	Gendernauts
1999	After Stonewall
1995	Whitewash
1993	Speak Up! It's So Dark
1992	Utz
1991	The Architecture of Doom
1984	Before Stonewall
1979	The War at Home[10]
1975	A Boy and his Dog

References

1. Kelly Anderson, Distributor profile: First Run Features, Real Screen, July 29, 2010
2. The Independent: "Fran Spielman" interviewed by Eric Breitbart and Morris Sapadin vol 4 no I
3. "Finding a Place for Small Movies in the Big Picture". The New York Times. July 14, 1998. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
4. Devlin, Mike (July 28, 2016). "Kathryn Calder raises ALS awareness with personal doc A Matter of Time". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
5. Van Cott, Kaeli (July 22, 2015). "First Run Features Acquires Sundance Doc 'Welcome to Leith'". Indiewire. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
6. Rosen, Steven (September 30, 2015). "Land Art". Cincinnati City Beat. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
7. Levine, Sydney (October 6, 2015). "John Hancock's 'The Looking Glass' is Coming to Theaters Via First Run Features". Indiewire. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
8. Vlessing, Etan (January 27, 2012). "NFB's Drisdell discusses challenges of "Pink Ribbons" release". Reelscreen. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
9. Carl Colby (director) (September 2011). The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (Motion picture). New York City: Act 4 Entertainment.
10. Canby, Peter (October 12, 2018). "The Classic Vietnam-Era Documentary "The War at Home" and Its Lessons of Nonviolence". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved January 27, 2019.

Sources

• First Run Features website
• First Run Features box office