The partners have acquired North American rights to Kirby Dick’s winner of the Sundance US Documentary Audience Award earlier in the year.

Ro*Co Films is handling educational distribution and international sales, while Film Sprout is handling non-theatrical distribution and The Film Collaborative is handling worldwide festival distribution. Independent Lens is the broadcast partner and helped finance the film.

The deal marks the first joint buy under the recently announced partnership to distribute independent films theatrically, on video, VoD and digital platforms in North America. 

The Invisible War explores the rape epidemic in the US military and posits that a female solider in Iraq or Afghanistan is more likely to get raped by a fellow soldier than she is to be killed by enemy fire.

“We are honoured that our first New Video/Cinedigm acquisition is The Invisible War,” Cinedigm chairman and CEO Chris McGurk said. “The film is incredibly powerful and deserves – in fact demands – to be seen by as many people as possible. We very much look forward to working with Kirby, Amy and their team to share this important film with audiences across the nation.”

“Kirby is a fearless and intrepid filmmaker and The Invisible War is sure to ignite a national firestorm,” New Video co-president Susan Margolin. “We are thrilled to launch our partnership with Cinedigm by bringing this astonishing story to audiences across the country.”

Orly Ravid of The Film Collaborative and distribution advisor Jonathan Dana represented the filmmakers.