presskit

A John Maringouin Film

“a close cousin to Werner Herzog” Variety

“a Supersize Me of sport” Screen International

“the pivotal figure in the excellent American documentary... has so much personality it’s a wonder he fits on the screen” NY Times

Award Winner Sundance Film Festival 2009 World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary

Contact

International Sales Press and Publicity

Samantha Horley Mickey Cottrell

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e: samantha@salt‐co.com e: [email protected]

For high resolution digital film stills please visit: http://www.salt‐co.com/press.php

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Self Pictures presents in association with Earthworks Films

Martin Strel is

Also Featuring Borut Strel Matthew Mohlke

Original Music by Rich Ragsdale

Edited by John Maringouin Molly Lynch

Director of Photography John Maringouin

Co‐Produced by Borut Strel

Co‐Executive Produced by Edward Saxon Fredrik Carlström

Executive Produced by Olivia Newton‐John Easterling Amazon John Easterling Mickey Cottrell

Producers Maria Florio Molly Lynch John Maringouin Kevin Ragsdale Roger M. Mayer Molly Hassell

Written by John Maringouin Molly Lynch

Co‐Directed by Molly Lynch

Directed by John Maringouin

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CHAPTERS

Tagline and Synopsis ……………………………………………………………………………………...... 5

Director’s Statement John Maringouin ……………………………………………………………………………………...... 6

Martin’s Journey ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

The Big River Man Team Martin Strel | The Man ………………………………………………………………………………………. 8 Borut Strel | Expedition leader …………………………………………………………………………… 8 Matthew Mohlke | Navigator ……………………………………………………………………………. 9

Swimming History ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10

Guinness World Records …………………………………………………………………………………………. 11

The Amazon River ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12

The Amazon Rainforest | The Last Frontier On Earth ……………………………………………. 13

About the Crew John Maringouin | Director ……………………………………………………………………………….. 14 Molly Lynch | Producer ……………………………………………………………………………………… 14 Molly Lynch | Producer’s Statement ………………………………………………………………….. 15 Maria Florio | Producer ……………………………………………………………………………………… 15 Maria Florio | Producer’s Statement ………………….……………………………………………… 15 Mickey Cottrell | Executive Producer ………………………………………………………………… 16 Kevin Ragsdale | Producer …………………………………………………………………………………. 16 Molly Hassell | Producer ……………………………………………………………………………………. 16 Roger M. Mayer | Co‐Producer ………………………………………………………………………….. 17

Company Profiles Earthworks Films ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 KNR Productions………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18 Salt …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18

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presskit tagline

Complex times require complex heroes. synopsis

In February 2007 Martin Strel began an insane attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the world’s most dangerous river, the Amazon. The Fish Man, as he was called by the local tribes, almost died in the process several times. Towards the end of his marathon ordeal his blood pressure was at heart attack level, his entire body full of subcutaneous larvae and besieged by dehydration, diarrhea and exhaustion.

Martin is an endurance swimmer who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube and the Yangtze prior to the Amazon – to highlight their pollution to the world. Martin is also a rather overweight horse‐burger loving Slovenian in his fifties, who drinks two bottles of red wine a day… even when swimming.

During this epic journey he suffered from blisters, sunburn, exotic stomach illnesses, all the while trying to avoid piranhas, anacondas, crocodiles, alligators, river sharks, and a small parasitic fish known as the candiru, which when attracted by the smell of urine, swims up the penis where it releases razor‐sharp barbed spines. It can only be removed by surgery…

Director John Maringouin set out to make an environmentally aware documentary about an eccentric, larger‐than‐life Slovenian swimmer. He ended up journeying deep into the oppressively remote Amazonia, following Martin and his team into their own Heart Of Darkness as they descend into a nightmare of illness and insanity.

More eccentric that Grizzly Man, more physically demanding than Supersize Me and more human than An Inconvenient Truth, Big River Man is a laugh out loud documentary and a serious message to the world.

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presskit director’s statement

There is a huge obstacle built into the concept of Big River Man. How do you make a film about a man who doesn't speak English and does nothing but swim.... even if it is the Amazon. The challenge was almost as daunting as Martin Strel's feat. Not only did I know nothing about extreme sports, environmentalism or swimming, but no producer was willing to finance a production that had so many unknowns ‐ not to mention that the guy was over 50 years old, fat and an alcoholic trying to swim 3,000 miles of "unswimmable" water. The filmmaking challenge was hard to resist (well, maybe not totally hard).

When I flew to Slovenia in 2006 to meet Martin it was like travelling through time and meeting a medieval lord, or Fidel Castro in his prime. I'd first seen him in "news of the weird" on Yahoo when he swam the Mississippi but in his own country he was a legitimate and powerful national icon. On the one hand, he was the most influential figure beside the president. On the other, he was a broke music teacher and gambler. He parked his car on the sidewalk in front of the presidential palace, yet when I met him he was trying to sell a vacuum cleaner that he received as a stipend for a speaking engagement. There were wild contradictions.

Personally, I first saw him as a puffed up braggart ‐ the raw form of celebrity with a sort of typical strong man attitude. But as I spent more time with him, I started to see a clearly broken and deeply insecure child who seemed driven to super feats as sort of a drastic over‐ compensation.

The most stunning thing I discovered, and ultimately the key to Martin's character, was the symbiotic and dependent relationship he had with his shy, un‐athletic, 24‐year old computer programmer son Borut – also his publicist. Borut had given up college and put his own dreams on hold to make his father's possible. He was in total control of Martin's image and is his literal mouthpiece to the world. When I discovered that Borut was actually not just a shill for Martin Strel, Inc. but rather a fearful and frustrated son longing for the day that suicidal swimming would end I realized that I could make a film, not just a "Discovery Channel" show about a swim through exotic places.

But of course nothing could have prepared me for the metaphysical experience of filming a man swimming the greatest and most dangerous river in the world. It was so transformative visually that it superseded the notion I had that the film had to be anything but "just swimming". The film as a documentary necessarily crosses a boundary from the traditional documentary (pre Amazon) to one that travels into Strel's psychic space.

I never bought in to Martin Strel's official "I swim for clean waters" hucksterism. I knew it was just a hook to nail some sponsors. But it was the Amazon itself that turned me into an accidental naturist. I'd expected to see another great polluted river in crises, and deforestation on the banks without much to film. But what I got was a man swimming through the last great frontier and it changed my mind about making a film with an "environmental message".

The result is Big River Man, a film that is less about an extreme endurance feat, than a man trying to save his soul. It's less about a father and son relationship than about an extreme

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presskit relationship in one of the more surreal and desperate situations imaginable. Martin Strel's Amazon swim was his last attempt at greatness, the beginning of his son's life, and an unambiguous metaphor for achieving impossible dreams.

The whole picture I owe to my "wife" Molly Lynch, whose idea this was to begin with and who went down the Amazon with me hundreds of times editing and producing this over the past two years. And to my “crazy producer” Maria Florio who made a lucid bet on black to send us to the Amazon in the first place. Their vision, inspiration, and stubborn refusal to let me down is the reason the film exists. martin’s journey

On April 7th, 2007 Martin Strel completed his epic Amazon River swim. From Atalaya (Peru) to the Atlantic Ocean at Belém (Brazil), Martin’s struggle lasted 66 days, as he swam for more than 10 hours a day covering a total of 5268 km (3274 miles). He became a worldwide

hero.

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presskit the big river man team

Martin Strel | The fish man

“If you’ve ever watched sumo wrestling, there’s always that one “little guy” who charges the other fatties like a bolt of energy and ends up beating all the giants with his quickness. Well that’s Martin”. Matthew Mohlke

Martin Strel was born in Mokronig, Slovenia in 1954. He taught himself to swim at the age of six. Soon after this, Martin was forced to escape a beating from his abusive father by diving into a freezing river in the dead of winter. His father followed on the riverbank but despite this Martin did not stop until his father gave up and went home. This Martin cites as the defining moment that set him on the path to becoming an ultra marathon swimmer in 1978.

When the Iron Curtain came down Martin was eager to travel. However despite having spent his life under communist rule he was shocked to discover how dirty the free world was. His home country of Slovenia is unpolluted and the waters crystal clear. This disappointing discovery was another revelation that set him on the path to raising awareness for a cleaner world.

Martin is also a successful flamenco guitar player and was for many years a professional gambler. He has lived a life.

Borut Strel | Expedition leader As Martin’s expedition leader and long suffering son, Borut is the unsung hero and has arguably the biggest cross to bear of the team. As well as the emotional strain of watching his father’s life threatening endurance swims Borut handles all the organization, marketing, press, fundraising and logistics. As the English speaker he has to personally give all interviews as well, often pretending to be Martin on phone interviews. Borut is the engine that keeps the Martin Strel machine running.

“If you ask Martin what the most dangerous thing in the Amazon was, he would say “People”. Martin only believes and trusts completely in animals, rivers and Indians. These are the only living beings that truly understand Martin”. Borut Strel

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Matthew Mohlke | Navigator

Adventurer, professional poker player, author and sometime supermarket employee Matthew might seem a strange choice of navigator to guide Martin down the most dangerous river in the world.

As Matthew explains in his book The Man Who Swam The Amazon: 3,274 Miles on the World’s Deadliest River,

“Martin had first contacted me in 2001 because he’d read my book, Floating Down the Country, in which I detailed my journey down the Mississippi River on a three‐dollar‐per‐day budget, looking for girls and a good buzz. Martin needed a few kayakers who knew the river, could give up three months of their lives, were physically capable of spending fourteen hours a day in a kayak, and would do the work for free. I guess there were only a few of us who qualified”.

Matthew quickly established himself as an irreplaceable member of the team and a trusted confidant to Martin – a role that few people in the world can lay claim to. By 2007 his role within the team had further progressed, as Matthew explains:

“I wasn’t informed until two weeks before we left that I’d be out of the kayak on the Amazon expedition. Instead, I’d been given the task of navigating and journal writing. Why me? For

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presskit one, I’m lucky; at least Martin thinks I’m lucky. Second, and most important, I can find current. When I don’t find current, Martin tears into me. It’s not a pleasant experience to have Martin Strel yelling at me while boring a hole into the bridge of my nose with his eyes, so I’ve become pretty good at finding him current”. swimming history

Martin’s motto: “I swim for peace, friendship and clean water”

Martin’s career in endurance swimming began in his homeland in 1992 when he swam the river Krka (105 km/65 miles) in 28 hours, and the boundary river Kolpa/Kupa (62 km/38 miles), in 16 hours in 1993. Since then Martin has smashed many world records, and currently holds the successive Guinness World Records for swimming the Danube, the Mississippi and the Yangtze (the most polluted river in the world).

2000: Europe (10 countries) ‐ Danube River, 3004 km (1867 miles)

58 days ‐ a new world long‐distance record. Martin achieves his official place in the Guinness Book of Records. He was the first to swim the whole Danube from source to estuary.

2001: Europe – Danube River, 504.5 km (313.5 miles) Non‐Stop

84 hrs, 10 min – a new world record in non‐stop swimming achieved on the Danube in July 2001. Martin first beat the record held by Argentinean Ricardo Hoffman (481.5km/299 miles in 84hrs 37min), then proceeded to swim on, eventually finishing after completing 504.5 km (313.5 miles) in 84 hrs 10 min.

2002: USA (10 states) ‐ Mississippi River, 3797 km (2359 miles)

68 days ‐ Martin swam the entire length of the Mississippi. The project was entitled Eye to Eye. Martin was the first to swim the river from source to estuary and he surpassed his Danube record and entered in the Guinness Book of Records again. He also dedicated his great sporting achievement, covered by all of the world’s major media, to peace, friendship and clean waters. He particularly reached out to the American public by stating that he lays his historic swim on the altar of remembrance of the victims of September 11. 2004: China ‐ Yangtze River, 4003 km (2487 miles)

51 days of struggling in the muddy Chinese river surpassed his record from the Mississippi

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2002. This project was the most demanding to date as the Yangtze is the most polluted river in the world. At certain points Martin was forced to swim past human bodies floating in the river.

The Slovenian public is divided in their opinion of his achievements. While most hail them has heroic and a terrific contribution to the promotion of Slovenia, others see him as a national joke and a clown. He has also been accused of being a charlatan, given that he swims with the current and because his stature is hardly athletic.

Martin responds with characteristic bluntness saying that he averages 85km a day swimming down river, which is the same as swimming 50km a day in still water. He averages 30,000 swim strokes per day and challenges anyone to keep that up for a more than a couple of days, let alone two months.

The Nile had been proposed as his next river to conquer, but Martin said:

"I am not going to do the Nile. It's long but not challenging enough, it is just a small creek. The Amazon is much more mighty”. guinness world records

Since August 2000 Martin Strel has held the world record for the longest distance swum. Since then he has subsequently smashed his own three times.

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presskit the amazon river

“I told myself I would try to swim the Amazon or die, because the Amazon can break a man in a second. I am a big man but the Amazon is much bigger”. Martin Strel

The life force of the Amazon rainforest is the mighty Amazon river. It starts as a trickle high in the snow‐capped Andes Mountains and flows more than 4,000 miles across the South American continent until it enters the Atlantic Ocean at Belem, Brazil, where it is 200 to 300 miles across, depending on the season.

The Amazon river of South America is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers flowing into the ocean combined. It has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one fifth of the world's total river flow.

Even 1,000 miles inland the river is still 7 miles wide. It flows through the center of the rainforest and is fed by 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are more than 1,000 miles long. The Amazon is by far the largest watershed and largest river system in the world occupying over 6 million square kilometers. Over two‐thirds of all the fresh water found on Earth is in the Amazon Basin's rivers, streams, and tributaries.

At no point is the Amazon crossed by bridges. This is not only due to its huge dimensions— but more because, for most of its length, the river flows through vast tracts of unexplored tropical rainforest, where no white person has set foot (or swum) before.

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Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called “The River Sea”. To put it into perspective, its length is equal to the widest section of the Atlantic Ocean which stretches from the United States all the way to North Africa. the amazon rainforest | the last frontier on earth

If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world. The Amazon rainforest, the world's greatest remaining natural resource, is the most powerful and bio‐ actively diverse natural phenomenon on the planet. It has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the essential service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. It is estimated that more than 20 percent of Earth's oxygen is produced in this area.

The Amazon covers more than 1.2 billion acres, representing two‐fifths of the enormous South American continent, and is found in nine South American countries: Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname. With 2.5 million square miles of rainforest, the Amazon rainforest represents 54 percent of the total rainforests left on Earth.

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presskit about the crew

John Maringouin | Director

Director John Maringouin has made a career out of documenting the bizarre and the extreme, while showing the human side of his often outré characters. From commercial successes such as “Jackass” to independent film, his vision remains the same, to show life in its most surreal and poignant moments. His tactile approach to documentary filmmaking transcends the genre's traditional informational/talking head format to create something much more organic and powerful, as powerful as any narrative can achieve.

John Maringouin's first film was the uncomfortably intimate documentary Running Stumbled (nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2008). Tracking down his father Johnny Roe Jnr, whom prior to the shoot he hadn't seen for three decades, Running Stumbled explores the deeply dysfunctional relationship between the prescription‐painkiller addicted Johnny, and equally drug addled stepmother Virgie Marie Pennoui.

A one‐time Cubist painter and an ex‐pimp who claims that “running stumbled is my middle name”, Johnny relishes verbally abusing his equally foul‐mouthed partner, who is herself ridden with cancer. Maringouin simply pitched up unannounced at the couple's junk‐strewn Louisiana home, thereby plunging the audience into their nightmarish everyday existence.

Running Stumbled, premiered to great acclaim in 2006 and has been referred to by Variety as "phantasmagoric", "dazzling" and "a remarkable filmmaking debut." In 2006 John was named one of the Top 25 Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. John is working on his first feature narrative.

Molly Lynch | Producer

Producer and co‐director Molly Lynch began her career working in visual effects for films (Starship Troopers, The Haunting, Armageddon). Her background in art, editing and animation led her to documentary film. In 2003 she founded Self Pictures with John Maringouin to produce the hilarious and disturbing festival hit Running Stumbled, which she also co‐edited. Her film, Gucci Crackheads Battle Nihilism, played in Rotterdam and Buenos Aires in 2006.

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Molly Lynch | Producer’s Statement

When John and I first flew to Slovenia to meet with Martin and Borut Strel, we didn't know what to expect. As an icebreaker, they brought us to Hot Horse (a popular Slovenian fast food joint), and were offered two choices. Horseburger... or "cheese from meat". It was then that I began to have an inkling of the strange experience we were in for... In addition to taking the audience to two magical places in the world, Slovenia and the Amazon Basin, Big River Man also takes us on a unique, existential journey with a man who did something most of us could never dream of.

Maria Florio | Producer

Producer and President of Earthworks Films, Maria Florio has been an unstoppable force in the documentary world ever since her film, Broken Rainbow won an Academy Award in 1986. A lifelong activist, she co‐produced Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story, an expose on voting fraud, was creative consultant on Project Return for Chance Films, as well as Naked in Ashes and By Many Names for Paradise Filmworks. Her award‐winning documentary, Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion which had a wide theatrical release domestically, is currently in international release. The film exposes the truth of what’s happening to Tibetans on the ‘Rooftop of the World’ at the hands of the Chinese Communists.

Maria Florio | Producer’s Statement

A year and a half ago my friend Mickey called and said: “Maria, you have got to look at the trailer for a doc called Big River Man!”

I was awestruck! The seven minute trailer about Martin Strel, the Slovenian world record holder for endurance swimming, was now about to take on the Amazon river, and two young filmmakers were going to document his journey.

Never before had a trailer elicited from me a more powerful reaction. It was brilliant in every regard. My first thought was that this director is going to be included in the hierarchy of the greats once this film comes out.

Without so much as a pause, I called the filmmakers, John and Molly, introduced myself, and asked what I could do. Of course, their answer was what every director needs a producer to do, put up the money to get the crew down the river to shoot the swim!

John was sick as a dog with bronchitis, and Molly, his wife and co‐director, was out of town. I made a huge pot of chicken soup, had it delivered to his house, and the next day, wired the money. This was done without having met either Molly or John, and here’s the crazy part….even crazier than sending money with just a hand shake over the phone…to this day, after bringing in all my people in different capacities to work on this film, after getting my dear friend Olivia Newton‐John Easterling to come in as one of the executive producers, after putting in more money time after time to keep this expedition going, I still haven’t met Molly and John!

Big River Man has been a joy ride of great endurance, and I feel honored to be a part of it. This was not only a journey about filming a record‐ breaking swim to bring global awareness

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presskit to the Rainforest; it has become a journey of Herculean proportion for everyone involved, spiritually and emotionally. It was a journey of trust, honor, integrity and, through the process of trying to heal the rainforest, we each found our crystal chord.

Mickey Cottrell | Executive Producer

Executive Producer Mickey Cottrell this year celebrates a quarter century as a film publicist. He brings his own spirited vision to Big River Man, adding his distinctive flair and Hollywood insider status to the project. Mickey has been instrumental in launching the US careers of such filmmakers as Bryan Singer (X‐Men, Superman Returns), Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger, The Quiet American) and Julien Temple (MTV Video of the Year and MTV Video Vanguard Awards).

Kevin Ragsdale | Producer

Originally from Nashville, TN, Kevin Ragsdale moved to Venice, CA in 1997 where he began writing music and filming shorts before receiving his MBA from Chapman University in Orange County, CA. In 2003, Kevin left a career in money management to co‐found Pretty Dangerous Films, a full‐service film production company. At Pretty Dangerous Films, Ragsdale brought to life ten motion pictures including Paramount/Showtime’s horror release, The Curse of El Charro; Stuart Gordon’s adaptation of David Mamet’s Edmond starring William H. Macy and Julia Stiles; and Asia Argento’s adaptation of J.T. Leroy’s The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things with a cast that included Asia Argento, Peter Fonda and Winona Ryder. In 2006, Kevin founded KNR Productions with his brother, Rich, and continued shooting both music videos and feature films. Mr. Ragsdale’s latest feature production, Phantom Love, directed by Nina Menkes, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007.

Molly Hassell | Producer

Molly Hassell has produced over 11 critically acclaimed films to date. Hassell began her career in China where she produced Mandarin language films including Spring Subway starring Xu Jinglei and Geng Le and the documentary with MIT entitled From Hutong to Highrise.

Hassell moved back to the USA and worked in commercial production prior to continuing film production. Her credits include the acclaimed The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things directed by Asia Argento starring Asia, Peter Fonda, Michael Pitt and Winona Ryder (chosen by Cannes Directors Fortnight and the Toronto FF); the critically lauded David Mamet piece Edmond directed by Stuart Gordon starring William H. Macy, Julia Stiles and Denise Richards (shown by Telluride FF and Venice FF); Lying directed by M. Blash starring Chloë Sevigny, Jena Malone and Leelee Sobieski (in Cannes Directors Fortnight).

Hassell also worked for two years with Catfish Productions, the company which produced the Academy Award winning Walk the Line.

More recently Hassell executive produced The Truth About Men, a New Zealand based comedy directed by Paul Middleditch starring Joel Edgerton, Rhona Mitra and Thomas

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Kretschmann, which finished shooting in November of 2008. Hassell is currently in pre‐ production on the film entitled Sam’s Story directed Dutch Oscar nominee Miriam Kruishoop.

Hassell’s upcoming slate includes the Johnny To remake Exiled which is being produced by Samuel and Victor Hadida at Davis Films; Becoming Madame Mao based on the book of the same name, a film she also penned; and Slumlord to be directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Big River Man is Hassell’s first foray into the documentary feature world. Her other documentary producer credits include the National Geographic project Slave Next Door.

Roger M. Mayer | Co‐Producer

Roger is a writer‐producer, film theorist and historian. His credits as a producer include Boppin' at The Glue Factory, Audie & the Wolf and the upcoming Jack & Gillian. He is the Programming Director and Festival Director of Silver Lake Film Festival and the Downtown Film Festival‐Los Angeles and was the Print Traffic Coordinator for the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. Roger was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles (with a four‐year stint in Colorado Springs, CO) but moved away after high school to live in San Francisco, Chicago and Brooklyn. He was a teacher, a mortgage‐lending account executive, insurance claims adjuster and videographer.

Roger has had a lifelong dream of being a filmmaker and, in the late 1990s, began to realize that goal. After 9/11, he moved from New York to Los Angeles for good and dedicated himself to his career as a filmmaker and a film exhibitor. There he began Brooklyn Reptyle Films with Karol Ballard, Christo Dimassis, B. Scott O'Malley and high school friend, Jeffrey J. Orgill. He occasionally appears as an actor in film and television and is currently working on his debut as a feature film director entitled Mother Trucker, a semi‐autobiographical account of his time in Colorado Springs ("Cocaine, teen pregnancy and Mack trucks!").

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presskit company profiles

Earthworks Films

EARTHWORKS FILMS, INC., founded in 1980, is dedicated to creating feature documentaries designed to inform and inspire social change. By employing dynamic and engaging visual imagery and content, we illuminate and provide possible solutions to some of the world's most appalling conditions. These topics encompass issues close to home such as corporate hegemony and corruption. Others involve stories with a universal significance ‐ global exploration ‐ both in human and environmental terms. EARTHWORKS FILMS strives to hold a mirror up to the world so it may heal itself.

KNR Productions

KNR Productions was established in 2006 when brothers Kevin and Rich Ragsdale decided to combine their professional experience in film, music and finance to form their own full service production company. Based in Venice Beach, KNR Productions develops and produces narrative feature films, experimental shorts, music videos, and documentaries. Since KNR’s inception, The Ragsdale brothers have collaborated with new and established talent, and have screened their work worldwide, including such venues as the Sundance Film Festival, New York City’s MoMA, the Lincoln Center, and Disney’s REDCAT in Los Angeles.

Salt. (International Sales)

Salt sells and helps finance films by new and established filmmakers from Sundance Film Festival 2008 hit Donkey Punch (sold to Magnolia) to Fernando Meirelles' City of Men (acquired by Miramax). Other projects include Vice Films' White Lightnin', the story of cult figure Jesco White, the dancing outlaw; and documentary Big River Man, Martin Strel's insane attempt to be the first man to swim the Amazon, both of which will premiere in Sundance 2009.

Salt helps get films made. From financing and packaging to launching and selling, Salt is the filmmaker’s essential ingredient.

Salt is part of the international media group International Film Collective (IFC).

For further information visit www.salt‐co.com

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