GENERATION STARTUP: Official Press Release
LONG SHOT FACTORY, TUGG AND FILM SPROUT JOIN FORCES TO DISTRIBUTE AWARD-WINNING DIRECTING TEAM CYNTHIA WADE AND CHERYL MILLER HOUSER’S GENERATION STARTUP
Documentary to Premiere at Traverse City Film Festival in July, With Theatrical Campaign Beginning in September
June 27, 2016 (New York, NY) – Long Shot Factory, Tugg, and Film Sprout announced today that they will partner to release GENERATION STARTUP, a new documentary that follows six young entrepreneurs over the course of a year as they struggle to launch their ventures in Detroit. The film was just announced as part of the lineup at the upcoming Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan, where it will have its World Premiere on July 31, 2016. Its theatrical run will kick off at New York City’s IFC Center on September 23rd followed by theatrical runs in Los Angeles and Detroit and will play at Tugg screenings starting in October in select cities nationwide. Film Sprout will spearhead a special national non-theatrical campaign in November timed to National Entrepreneurship Month.
GENERATION STARTUP was directed by Academy Award® winner Cynthia Wade (FREEHELD) and award-winning filmmaker Cheryl Miller Houser (TRUST ME). The film was produced by Miller Houser and Brian P. Egan under the production banner Creative Breed. Susan Margolin and Lauren Zalaznick served as Executive Producers.
GENERATION STARTUP takes us to the front lines of entrepreneurship in America, capturing the struggles and triumphs of six recent college graduates who put everything on the line to build startups in Detroit. Shot over 17 months, it’s an honest, in-the-trenches look at what it takes to launch a startup. The film celebrates risk-taking, urban revitalization, and diversity while delivering a vital call-to-action—with entrepreneurship at a record low, the country’s economic future is at stake.
The entrepreneurs GENERATION STARTUP features are part of Venture For America (VFA), a program that sends recent college graduates to work at startups in fifteen cities around the country to train as entrepreneurs, and then helps them launch their own companies. Tugg screenings of the film will take place in each of VFA’s markets, including: Baltimore, Birmingham, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, San Antonio and St. Louis.
“We are incredibly excited to screen GENERATION STARTUP for audiences in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Traverse City and all across America in the coming months,” commented filmmakers Wade and Miller Houser. “We made this film to celebrate the grit and determination of young people bold enough to take risks and try to build something meaningful. We hope their stories will inspire others. We’re excited to share their stories in theaters, at festivals, and with community groups with the help of the accomplished teams at Long Shot Factory, Tugg and Film Sprout.”
“We’re thrilled to be teaming with Film Sprout and Tugg in bringing GENERATION STARTUP to as wide an audience as possible,” said Erin Owens of Long Shot Factory. “We’ve always greatly admired the work that Caitlin Boyle and the team at Film Sprout do with non-theatrical campaigns, and Tugg has been a phenomenal partner for us over the years. It feels like a natural fit to work with such talented and innovative partners on GENERATION STARTUP – an inspiring story about what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.”
Noted Caitlin Boyle, Executive Director, Film Sprout: "Independent films increasingly benefit from highly collaborative and enterprising distribution strategies that seek to reach new audiences in creative ways; we at Film Sprout are delighted to work alongside Long Shot Factory, Tugg and GENERATION STARTUP's incredible production team to create just such a release this fall.”
“GENERATION STARTUP is the rare film that can inspire the next wave of this country’s leaders and we’re excited to partner with Film Sprout and Long Shot Factory to share the film with audiences in theaters and educational institutions,” said Tugg’s Director of Independent Film, Felicia Pride.
For more information on GENERATION STARTUP, please visit: www.generationstartupthefilm.com
ABOUT CREATIVE BREED:
Cheryl Houser launched Creative Breed three years ago to produce emotionally engaging, uplifting stories across all platforms. GENERATION STARTUP, which the company embarked on soon after its inception, is its most ambitious project to date. Creative Breed has also created the hugely popular web series MAD GENIUS TIPS for Food & Wine Magazine, nominated for a James Beard Award this year, the highest honor in the food world. Other projects include a commercial for educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt celebrating curiosity and learning and original programming for Elizabeth Arden’s spa in Union Square where Creative Breed turned their video wall into a social media platform with user generated content and photography from major influencers in the fashion world.
ABOUT LONG SHOT FACTORY:
Long Shot Factory is a film consultancy specializing in documentary film theatrical releases, documentary Academy campaigns, festival and educational campaigns, and documentary film production. Long Shot releases films under its own banner, including Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser’s GENERATION STARTUP, Ryan McGarry’s CODE BLACK, Patrick Creadon’s IF YOU BUILD IT, Linda Goldstein Knowlton’s SOMEWHERE BETWEEN, Jennifer Fox’s MY REINCARNATION, and Jason DaSilva’s WHEN I WALK. Long Shot also handles full theatrical releases, portions of theatrical releases, non-theatrical, educational, and Academy campaigns for other distributors. Some of these titles include Robert Kenner’s COMMAND AND CONTROL (American Experience Films/PBS); Stanley Nelson’s THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (PBS Distribution); E-TEAM and Academy Award nominees VIRUNGA and WHAT HAPPENED MISS SIMONE? (Netflix); SLOW WEST (A24); Academy Award nominees THE INVISIBLE WAR, HELL AND BACK AGAIN, SHORT TERM 12, DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’: EVERYMAN’S JOURNEY (Cinedigm). Long Shot recently helped produce CARTEL LAND, the 2015 Sundance Award-Winning and Academy Award-nominated documentary by Matthew Heineman, released by The Orchard, and THE PUNK SINGER, a documentary about Le Tigre front woman Kathleen Hanna, released IFC Films. Long Shot is currently executive producing Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake’s new documentary WEED THE PEOPLE.
ABOUT TUGG:
Tugg, Inc. (“Tugg”) is a platform that enables individuals, content owners, and brands to turn their passion for movies into action by choosing the films that play in their local theaters and community venues. These individually curated events showcase Tugg’s growing library of over 1,800 studio and independent films. Users choose the film, date, time, and location for their screening, and then spread the word to their immediate and online community. For additional information visit http://www.tugg.com.
ABOUT FILM SPROUT:
Film Sprout is a boutique distribution firm that helps filmmakers broaden the audience and social impact of their documentaries through high-impact public screening campaigns. The architect of national community and campus screening tours for dozens of independent documentaries and their makers, including the award-winning documentaries KING CORN, THE END OF THE LINE, PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL, A SMALL ACT, THE INVISIBLE WAR, UNFINISHED SPACES, DAMNATION, VESSEL, THE HUNTING GROUND and TRAPPED, Film Sprout's campaigns bring powerful films beyond the traditional cinema and into grassroots institutions. Connecting social-issue films to the audiences best equipped to support and exhibit them in their local communities, Film Sprout's community screening tours aim to expand the audience for documentary; to connect high-quality documentary storytelling to those who are typically underserved by independent media (including low-income and rural communities and communities of color); to support independent filmmakers by tapping undiscovered sources of revenue; and to use the power of documentary film to foster citizen engagement, forward civic dialogue, encourage social equity and provide a forum for cultural and artistic discovery.