Irish filmmaker Sophie Fiennes’ The Perverts Guide To Ideology and Australian writer-director Michael Bond’s debut film Passengers have been acquired by Tait Brady’s boutique distribution company Label.
Fiennes’ documentary follows Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek on a tour through the labyrinths of popular culture including the films The Sound of Music, Taxi Driver, Titanic and The Dark Knight, plus TV ad campaigns and music.
The follow-up to Fiennes’ The Perverts Guide To Cinema, the film premiered at the Sydney Festival, is screening at this week’s Revelation Film Festival in Perth and is booked into the Melbourne International Film Festival.
The Hollywood Reporter hailed the doc as a “riveting and often hilarious demonstration of the Slovenian philosopher’s uncanny ability to turn movies inside out and accepted notions on their head.”
Brady is showing the film to exhibitors with a view to launching the film in a limited number of cinemas during the September-November corridor.
Passengers is a Los Angeles-set drama which looks at the tensions in the marriage of an ex-pat couple played by Angie Milliken and Cameron Daddo as they get stuck in freeway traffic at night.
An early cut of Passengers played at the Mill Valley Film Festival in the US in 2009, when Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan described it as “compulsive viewing” and Gena Rowlands called it “eloquently directed.”
Brady said the film was finished two years ago and he was surprised to find it had never had a commercial release in Australia, only exposure at a several festivals including Dungog.
He’s looking to sell both titles to a DVD distributor which can also facilitate deals with Video-of-Demand platforms.