"Award-winning chef Albert Adria is the subject of Laura Collado and Jim Loomis’ fascinating haute cuisine documentary."
We are thrilled to announce that two of our films will be showing at the Palm Springs International Film Festival: The Train of Salt and Sugar and Constructing Albert. Good luck to both films. May you both win!
PBS acquires the broadcast rights from Juno Films and Wider Film Projects in association with WNET New York Public Media
New York, NY –December 6, 2017. Juno Films, Inc. has acquired all North American rights to the Wider Brothers film, God Knows Where I Am. The critically acclaimed documentary directed by Jedd and Todd Wider will air in 2018 on PBS. WNET New York Public Media is acquiring national broadcast rights from Juno Films and Wider Film Projects, and the film will be seen on PBS stations nationwide next year with a wide digital release confirmed by Juno Films as well.
The film features narration by actress Lori Singer hailed as "astonishing,” and cinematography by Gerardo Puglia called a "triumph of visual narrative.” The film premiered theatrically in the Spring of 2017 and played in multiple markets around the world, as well as numerous film festivals, winning awards in many of them.
The film is the story of Linda Bishop, a mentally ill homeless woman, who was found in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse together with a diary that documented a journey of starvation and the loss of sanity. A prisoner of her own mind, she survived on apples and rain water, for nearly four months waiting for God to save her during one of the coldest winters on record. The film has been embraced by the mental health community and screened at national meetings of the nation’s leading mental health organizations as well as at a special seminar for members of Congress.
The film is the directorial debut of Emmy and Peabody winning and Academy Award nominated Jedd Wider and Todd Wider, and has received wide critical praise. The Wider Brothers’ prior producing credits include Academy Award winner Taxi to the Dark Side, multiple Primetime Emmy winner Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, and Semper Fi: Always Faithful.
Elizabeth Sheldon, the founder and CEO of Juno Films, says “God Knows Where I Am is a cinematic masterpiece that exemplifies how documentary films can affect social change. The film tells Linda’s story of mental illness with compassion, humor and sensitivity.” Todd and Jedd Wider add, “We are very pleased to be working with Elizabeth and Juno Films. She is a tenacious champion of independent filmmaking.”
Juno Films has acquired North American rights to Constructing Albert, Laura Collado and Jim Loomis’s feature foodie documentary centered on Albert Adrià. He’s the brother of Ferran Adrià, of Spain’s famed el Bulli restaurant, and the doc follows his attempt to escape that shadow by trying to open one of the best restaurants in the world on his own. The docu bows at the San Sebastian Film Festival today, and heads to the Napa Valley Film Festival before a planned 2018 theatrical release. The deal was made by Juno Films’ Elizabeth Sheldon and Laura Collado of Trueday Films, who produced the pic in association with Televisió de Catalunya and Alexandra Film in Estonia.
Juno Films has acquired North American rights to the documentary “Michelin Stars — Tales From the Kitchen,” which is premiering at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
The fiilm chronicles the inner workings of the culinary world through the eyes of the chefs, the critics and their customers. It features Alain Ducasse, Daniel Humm, René Redzepi, Andoni Aduriz, Yoshihiro Narisawa, Victor Arquinzoniz, Guy Savoy and Matt Goulding.
Rasmus Dineson is the director and Jesper Becker is the producer. The deal was negotiated between Elizabeth Sheldon of Juno Films and Kim Christiansen of DR Sales.
“‘Michelin Stars’ is the rare behind-the- scenes look at how the creative process is judged by anonymous critics who can make or break a restaurant’s commercial success,” Sheldon said.
How far would you go to save your son's life? Award-winning directors Todd Wider and Jedd Wider follow four families whose sons suffer from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal disease and the number one genetic killer of boys in the world, as they fight the FDA to gain access to a potentially lifesaving drug. The film won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Stony Brook Film Festival.
Seven homeless people share their views on life, art and beauty, as well as their fears and dreams, at a New York City soup kitchen.
Juno has acquired the North American rights to the Swiss and German award-winning documentary Cahier Africain by Heidi Specogna. Filmed over seven years, the filmmaker captures the testimonies of 300 Central African women, girls and men revealing what Congolese mercenaries did to them in the wake of the last armed conflict in 2008. The film was awarded the German National Film Award (Lola) for Best Documentary and the Swiss National Film Award for Best Documentary.
Set in northern Mozambique in the 1980s, a train under military guard must transport its passengers and goods 500 miles through guerrilla-held territory during the Mozambican civil war. As rivalries form between the soldiers and friendships between the passengers, violence looms both on board and from the rapacious rebels. With the threat of battle pending, romance blossoms against the stunning backdrop of the African countryside.
Train of Salt and Sugar will be supported by the Railroad Development Corporation with a focus on building awareness for its national theatrical release NYC in early 2018. The film, which won the Italian Critic’s Prize at Locarno in 2016 is based on historical events during the Mozambique civil war during which a single rail line connected the south and the north. Helmer Licinio Azevedo studied under Godard and Ken Loach at the National Film Institute that they founded in Mozambique. Train of Salt and Sugar premiered in 2016 in front of an audience of more than 5,000 in the Piazza Grande in Locarno, where it won the Independent Italian Critics Award for best film.
The body of a homeless woman is found in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse. Beside her lies a diary that documents a journey of starvation and the loss of sanity, but told with poignancy, beauty, humor, and spirituality. For nearly four months, Linda Bishop, a prisoner of her own mind, survived on apples and rain water, waiting for God to save her, during one of the coldest winters on record. As her story unfolds from different perspectives, including her own, we learn about our systemic failure to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Directed by Todd & Jedd Wider. Runtime: 97 minutes
What the critics are saying:
"God Knows Where I Am—beautiful, haunting and supremely moving—is one of the most powerful documentary films I have seen on America's flawed approach to mental health and homelessness. Essential viewing for anyone seeking to understand the systemic failings of our mental healthcare system, it is at once a work of art and a clarion call to end our neglect of people with mental illnesses. The film powerfully conveys how an empty commitment to individual liberty has been substituted for a genuine system of mental health treatment and leaves us with one unavoidable conclusion: "we can and must do better.""
-Paul S. Appelbaum, MD
Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, & Law, Columbia University, Former President of the American Psychiatric Association
"God Knows Where I Am is an extraordinary film that portrays brilliantly the inner reality of an intelligent and creative human being suffering from a serious and life threatening mental illness. The viewer will come away with not only appreciation of this amazing person but also the dysfunction in our system of mental health that allows for preventable tragedy after tragedy. We must do better."
- Steven S. Sharfstein, M.D., President Emeritus, Sheppard Pratt Health System,Former President of the American Psychiatric Association
“A film of great beauty and tenderness that gradually reveals a confounding mental illness, this film is a human story at its heart. Ultimately, it illuminates a hidden problem of vast proportion with an epic yet intimate cinematic vision.”
– Jury, Hot Docs