EXCLUSIVE: Distributor 8 Above will release the acclaimed documentary Sam Now – called a “once-in-a-lifetime movie” by POV magazine – in theaters beginning early next month, according to an announcement today.
A trailer also dropped for the film directed by Reed Harkness, which explores a family mystery that preoccupied the filmmaker and his half-brother Sam for a generation – what happened to Sam’s mom?
“Sam Harkness and his Seattle family are shocked and heartbroken when his mother suddenly disappears,” a synopsis of the film reads. “Tracking cryptic clues of her whereabouts years later, Sam and his half brother head out on a West Coast road trip to try and find her. But solving the mystery of her disappearance is only the beginning of their story.”
The synopsis continues, “Through Sam’s 25-year quest for answers, the film explores intergenerational trauma and the turning points of family dysfunction and healing.”
8 Above
The film is set for week-long engagements beginning April 6 at the Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles and on April 7 at the Village East Cinemas in New York (the filmmaking team will be in attendance for opening weekends in Los Angeles and New York). A nationwide expansion will follow in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Portland and other select markets. The film will launch its national TV broadcast as part of the PBS series Independent Lens on May 8.
“I am excited that Sam Now will be opening in theaters,” Harkness said in a statement. “As a teen, I watched every independent film I could get my hands on from the local video store. I loved coming-of-age movies. I loved Truffaut and Apted. But nothing existed quite like what I really wanted to see, so over the next 25 years, I made this movie. It’s totally, exactly the film I’ve wanted to see. I hope that anyone who watches Sam Now can find a piece of themselves within it.”
Sam Now is an A HA/HA Production produced by Reed Harkness and Jason Reid, and co-produced with ITVS and 2R Productions. The film is executive produced by Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer for ITVS and Andy McDonough, Colin Harper Plank, David J. Cornfield and D.D. Wigley. The film features an original score from Roger Neill and is edited by Darren Lund and Jason Reid. Heather Hawksford and Adam Spiro Brown are co-producers, with cinematography by Reed Harkness. The soundtrack features music by The Sonics, The Wailers, Dead Moon, Porcelain Raft, Smog, Kath Bloom, Styrofoam and Teengenerate.
The documentary held its world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto last year, and went on to screen at over 30 film festivals, including the Zurich Film Festival, SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Santa Cruz Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, and the Victoria Film Festival earlier this year. It has won a dozen awards, among them seven for Best Documentary.
In the exclusive trailer, the narrator notes, “In everyone’s youth, there’s at least one pivotal something. It haunts us, but it can make us stronger.” Watch it above.