GW’s Documentary Center’s ‘Parables of War’ Acquired by Gravitas Ventures

The George Washington University’s Documentary Center on Tuesday announced that Gravitas Ventures acquired its “Parables of War” documentary film. The Los Angeles-based distribution company now acquired commercial and educational rights in North America, United Kingdom and Ireland.  

 

Directed by Nina Gilden Seavey, director of the Documentary Center, and produced by Barbara Porter, “Parables of War” explores the impact of war and its rehabilitative aftermath. Parables of War is based on excerpts from the creation process of Liz Lerman’s theatrical dance performance, “Healing Wars.”  “Healing Wars” cast members who appear in “Parables of War” are:  Director and Choreographer Liz Lerman, actor Bill Pullman, former Lance Corporal Joshua Bleill (USMC), and dancers Keith A. Thompson, Tamara Hurwitz-Pullman, and Marjani Forté-Saunders.   

 

“We’re excited to collaborate with the Documentary Center to bring this powerful story to audiences across the country and abroad,” said Michael Lange, acquisitions manager for Gravitas Ventures. “We look forward to the conversation it will inspire.” 

 

“Parables of War” has played in film festivals, was theatrically released in June 2015 at the IFC Center in New York, and has won numerous awards including “Best Documentary Short” at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards and the “Best Documentary Short Film” at the Atlas Awards. 

 

“Everyone has some kind of personal relationship to war,” said Nina Gilden Seavey, director of the Documentary Center. “We are thrilled that Gravitas Ventures is paving the way for viewers across North America and Europe to engage in our emotional, thought-provoking, conversation-driving film.”

 

Commenting on the intersection of her art delivered on film, Ms. Lerman, Healing Wars producer, noted, “We live in a moment when artists are moving across borders to tell the stories of our time. Having a filmmaker in our midst as we built the performance Healing Wars was so encouraging: another artist taking note of the subject and the process. “Parables of War” shines its lens on a very particular part of our work, making it possible for audiences to see art in action."

 

“Parables of War” was a project of the National Civil War Project and was produced with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Gravitas Ventures plans to launch the film in May 2016. 

 

For 25 years, the Documentary Center at the George Washington University has been committed to teaching documentary film production and to creating non-fiction films for domestic and international audiences. Inaugurated in 1990, the Documentary Center has been ranked one of the top 10 schools for documentary filmmaking and is one of the few educational centers in the nation that focuses exclusively on non-fiction film. The Documentary Center is a chartered center housed within the School of Media and Public Affairs at GW.

 

Gravitas Ventures specializes in the aggregation of entertainment content by connecting independent filmmakers, producers and distribution companies with leading cable, satellite, telco and online distribution partners. In the last five years, Gravitas has released more than 2,000 films on Video on Demand (VOD). Through its relationships with studios and VOD operators, Gravitas can distribute a film into over 100 million North American and 1 billion worldwide homes.