Austria-based sales agent Autlook Filmsales has boarded international sales on Steve James’ documentary A Compassionate Spy, which is set to premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival this week.
The film traces the life of a former Manhattan Project physicist who passed on secrets to the Soviet Union and lived the rest of his life under FBI surveillance and suspicion.
US outfit Participant financed the film and is jointly handling global and North American sales for the film with Cinetic.
It marks the latest from US documentary-maker James, who first gained prominence in 1994 with high-school basketball documentary Hoop Dreams, which won the audience award at Sundance and was nominated for the editing Oscar. A Compassionate Spy is his first feature since the Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough To Jail premiered at Toronto in 2016 and his first time in Venice.
The producers are Mark Mitten, Dave Lindorff, and Steve James. Executive producers are Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann for Participant, and Tim Horsburgh and Gordon Quinn for Kartemquin Films. It marks one of the final films that Participant’s Weyermann worked on before her death last year.
Next project
Having completed A Compassionate Spy, James is now working on a documentary series about 1970s basketball great Bill Walton for ESPN’s 30 For 30 strand.
“He was quite a remarkable player and had quite a remarkable life,” said James of the UCLA and Portland Trail Blazers star also known for his outspoken views, his career as a sportscaster (for which he overcame stuttering) and his love of counter-culture rock band The Grateful Dead.
James is “deep into” the project, which he hopes to complete by the end of the year but is unlikely to come out until the middle of 2023. It marks his third basketball project after Hoop Dreams and No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, also made for ESPN in 2010.
There are also plans for a TV drama series inspired by Hoop Dreams, which told the stories of two African-American high school students who dream of becoming professional basketball stars in the NBA. “If it happens, I am involved,” added James.
At Venice, Autlook is also representing Israeli director Guy Davidi’s documentary Innocence, which screens in competition in Horizons and is built around the diaries of young people who died during miliary service. Produced by Sigrid Dyekjær and Hilla Medalia, it is made through Danish Documentary, Medalia Productions, Real Lava, Making Movies and Sagafilm.
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