New York, NY (August 8, 2012) — IFC Midnight announced today that the company is acquiring all North American and UK rights to director Chris James Thompson’s documentary THE JEFFREY DAHMER FILES. Thompson also produced the film with Jack Turner and co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Swant and Joe Riepenhoff. Chris Smith and Barry Poltermann executive produced the project, which world premiered in competition at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival and also played the 2012 Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto. IFC Midnight is planning an early 2013 release for the documentary.
In 1991 Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee and sentenced to 957 years in prison for killing 17 people and dismembering their bodies. THE JEFFREY DAHMER FILES is a documentary that explores the city of Milwaukee by meeting those surrounding Dahmer during and after his hidden spree. Recollections from Milwaukee Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen, Police Detective Patrick Kennedy, and neighbor Pamela Bass are interwoven with archival footage and everyday scenes from Dahmer’s life, working collectively to disassemble the facade of an ordinary man leading an ordinary existence.
Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “Chris James Thompson has made one of the creepiest documentaries of the year that lingers in the mind long after the film has ended. He’s approached the well-known subject of Jeffrey Dahmer in a new and inventive way that managed to completely unnerve us. It also promises you will never eat a sandwich quite the same way. We look forward to working with Chris as well as the entire team that made this film.”
Thompson commented: "Having grown up on watching IFC films – for them to pick up my first feature feels like a dream come true. I couldn’t be more proud of this film and everyone from Milwaukee to Bombay that helped mold it from a 4-year meandering experiment into the fresh cinematic oddity it is today – the world needs to see it!"
The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment on behalf of the filmmakers.
IFC Midnight is a sister label of IFC Films and Sundance Selects, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.
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About IFC MIDNIGHT
Established in 2010 and based in New York City, IFC Midnight is a leading U.S. distributor of genre entertainment including horror, science-fiction, thrillers, erotic art house, action and more. Its unique distribution model makes independent genre films available to a national audience by releasing them in theaters as well as on cable’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, reaching nearly 50 million homes. Some of the company’s successes have included Tom Six’s controversial horror film The Human Centipede (First Sequence), Johnnie To’s Hong Kong revenge thriller Vengeance, and James Gunn’s Super starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and Kevin Bacon. Upcoming IFC Midnight releases includeBrandon Cronenberg’s ANTIVIRAL. IFC Midnight is a sister label to Sundance Selects and IFC Films, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.
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