Cinedigm has acquired North American rights to Fantasia International Film Festival road movie Giving Birth To A Butterfly, which marks the feature directorial debut of Theodore Schaefer who produced Berlinale selection The Adults.
Annie Parisse plays a woman whose identity gets stolen and bonds with her son’s pregnant girlfriend (Gus Birney) as they search for the perpetrators on a dreamlike road trip. Paul Sparks, Owen Campbell, Jessica Pimentel, and Judith Roberts round out the key cast.
Cinedigm plans a limited US theatrical release in May ahead of a digital release on its indie discovery platform Fandor on May 16.
Schaefer shot on 16mm film and co-wrote the screenplay with Patrick Lawler. Schaefer also produced alongside Daryl Freimark, with Dweck Productions’ Hannah Dweck (The Adults) and Vanishing Angle’s Benjamin Wiessner (Thunder Road) acting as executive producers. Giving Birth To A Butterfly premiered at Fantasia 2021 during the pandemic.
Schaefer, who also served as executive producer on Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance 2021 entry We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, said of Cinedigm: “It’s clear they have an incisive, discerning eye into the American independent landscape and I can’t think of a better home for our film.”
“Tapping into a nervous dream logic that still resembles the mad world we exist in, Giving Birth To A Butterfly is one of the most cine-literate American debuts I’ve seen in a while,” said Aaron Hillis, director of programming for Cinedigm. “Ted Schaefer is clearly a movie nut who understands both the mechanics and pleasures of genre storytelling.”
Cinedigm’s director of acquisitions Brandon Hill negotiated the deal with Wiessner of Vanishing Angle on behalf of the filmmakers.
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