Miramax adds "Clips" to documentary slate
By Jonathan Bing
NEW YORK(Variety)-- Miramax Films has buttressed its documentary slate, acquiring worldwide theatrical and homevideo rights to "Paper Clips," a film about a rural Tennessee middle school class seeking to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The picture tells how in 1998, a principal at the Whitwell Middle School sought to expose her students to the cultural diversity beyond their largely fundamentalist Christian community, initiating a project to collect a paperclip for each life lost in the Holocaust. The project received such exposure around the world that a German citizen donated an authentic Nazi railcar as a memorial for the schoolyard, filled with 11 million paperclips. Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab directed.
"This is the ultimate cross-cultural wakeup call," said Miramax L.A. president Mark Gill.
Miramax releases only one or two documentaries a year, he noted. "Paper Clips," he said, is "going to hit a nerve at a time when people are looking for something soulful and satisfying in their lives."
07/18/02 04:01 ET
By Jonathan Bing
NEW YORK(Variety)-- Miramax Films has buttressed its documentary slate, acquiring worldwide theatrical and homevideo rights to "Paper Clips," a film about a rural Tennessee middle school class seeking to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The picture tells how in 1998, a principal at the Whitwell Middle School sought to expose her students to the cultural diversity beyond their largely fundamentalist Christian community, initiating a project to collect a paperclip for each life lost in the Holocaust. The project received such exposure around the world that a German citizen donated an authentic Nazi railcar as a memorial for the schoolyard, filled with 11 million paperclips. Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab directed.
"This is the ultimate cross-cultural wakeup call," said Miramax L.A. president Mark Gill.
Miramax releases only one or two documentaries a year, he noted. "Paper Clips," he said, is "going to hit a nerve at a time when people are looking for something soulful and satisfying in their lives."
07/18/02 04:01 ET