Kim A. Snyder’s critically acclaimed Sundance selection Us Kids has secured its first major international sale with ZDF (Germany). It is the first of a batch of deals that include Australia/ New Zealand (Madman), Norway (VGTV), Hong Kong (PCCW), with others currently under negotiation.
The film has won seven awards, including the Full Frame Award for Human Rights and was recently acquired for International rights by NYC-based global documentary film sales agent Cargo Film & Releasing.
“We’re thrilled how the international buying community is responding to this story of resilience and courage from today’s youth. The film is inspirational and hopeful and we need these stories right now,” comments David Piperni, President of Cargo Film & Releasing.
After the events of Feb. 14, 2018 at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School went from experiencing a mass tragedy to launching a global youth movement against gun violence that included more than 800 groups across the US and around the world, including in London, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo.
“From Kim A. Snyder, director of the Peabody Award-winning documentary Newtown, comes the inspirational coming-of-age story of a whole new generation of youth leaders who chose to overcome their trauma and try to make the world a safer place. The film includes many of the central figures in the movement including X González and David Hogg,” continues the Cargo release.
The film was produced both by Emmy award winner Maria Cuomo Cole, who previously worked with Snyder on Newtown and Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, and by award-winning Lori Cheatle whose past work includes Steve Loveridge’s Matangi/Maya/M.I.A and Nanfu Wang’s I Am Another You, among others.
Director/producer Kim A. Snyder’s US Kids premiered in US Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance competition. Prior to that, Snyder directed the Peabody award-winning documentary Newtown, which premiered in US Competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Her most recent short, Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane (Netflix), premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary Short.
Other recent doc titles for Cargo include recently premiered Tribeca Festival films The Conductor; Reflection: A Walk with Water and Father of The Cyborgs, as well as to the CPH:DOX & Hot Docs selection Cannon Arm and The Arcade Quest, and Santa Barbara Festival title The Conservation Game, featuring Carole Baskin.
