First Run Features

First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City.

History First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film.The Independent: "Fran Spielman" interviewed by Eric Breitbart and Morris Sapadin vol 4 no I The group included Barry Alexander Brown (The War At Home, Maxi Cohen (Joe & Maxi), John Hanson and Rob Nilsson (Northern Lights) and Deborah Shaffer and Stewart Bird (The Wobblies). In the 1980s, the company focused on more mainstream documentaries and started distributing films on video.

It is one of America's largest independent distributors of documentaries and art films, releasing 12 to 15 films a year in theaters nationwide and 40 to 60 titles on DVD and VOD annually. First Run distributes a large number of documentaries and foreign films, including many films about LGBT issues, Jewish experience, and political and human rights issues.

First Run is the American distributor for Michael Apted's Up series, Ross McElwee's Sherman's March, the Oscar-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America, Maidentrip, Girl Model, Eames: The Architect and the Painter, For the Bible Tells Me So, A Jihad for Love, God Loves Uganda , D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's Kings of Pastry, Joe Berlinger's Crude, Alex Gibney and Eugene Jarecki's The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Alice, Save Me, Anita: Speaking Truth to Power and Moving Midway, among many others. Many of the films First Run Features has distributed have been endorsed by Human Rights Watch.

Notable films Year Title 2016 A Matter of Time 2015 Welcome to Leith 2015 Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art 2015 The Looking Glass 2013 A Girl and a Gun 2012 Pink Ribbons, Inc. 2011 The Man Nobody Knew 2010 The Most Dangerous Man in America 2009 Crude 2009 Ballerina 2009 Altiplano 2009 A Wink and a Smile 2008 Moving Midway 2008 A Jihad for Love 2008 Constantine's Sword 2008 Praying with Lior 2007 For the Bible Tells Me So 2007 Save Me 2007 The Power of Forgiveness 2007 Please Vote for Me 2007 Breaking the Maya Code 2004 Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train 2003 Bonhoeffer 2002 The Butterfly 2001 Venus Boyz 2001 The Fluffer 1999 Gendernauts 1999 After Stonewall 1995 Whitewash 1993 Speak Up! It's So Dark 1992 Utz1992Alice 1991 The Architecture of Doom 1986 Sherman's March 1984 Before Stonewall 1983 Wild Style 1979 The War at Home 1975 A Boy and his Dog

References

Sources First Run Features website First Run Features box office