ABOUT NORTHERN ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

 

Northern Arts Entertainment, Inc. is a U.S. distribution/executive production company founded in 1990.

1990/91   Northern Arts' first feature film acquisition, Chameleon Street, directed by Wendell Harris, won the Grand Prize at Sundance, and its first TV release, Dominoes: Portrait of a Decade, directed by John Lawrence Ré, received excellent Nielsen ratings on HBO and PBS.

1992/93   Released Liquid Dreams (1991 Cannes Official Selection); and 1992 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film, Children of Nature.  Northern Arts also co-distributed Mistress, the critically acclaimed comedy produced by Robert De Niro, directed by Barry Primus, and starring Martin Landau, Eli Wallach and Robert De Niro.  Released Jit, an off-beat comedy from Zimbabwe, featured in the prestigious Lincoln Center New Directors Film Series; Stepping Razor, a haunting biography of reggae superstar Peter Tosh; Ryu Murakami's Tokyo Decadence, which set a box office record in San Francisco; and Pavel Lounguine's (Taxi Blues) stylish feature, Luna Park.

1994/95   Released Raining Stones, the Special Jury Prize winner at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, directed by celebrated British filmmaker Ken Loach (Bread and Roses); and Minbo or The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion directed by Juzo Itami (Tampopo).  Released Temptation of a Monk, a spectacular drama set in 7th century China, starring Joan Chen (Heaven and Earth); I Just Wasn't Meant for These Times, Don Was's fascinating portrait of Brian Wilson; and Hedd Wyn, an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film.

1996/97   Released Wallace & Gromit: The Best of Aardman Animation, a showcase from UK's Aardman Studios (Chicken Run) that features 1996 Oscar winner A Close Shave; and Search For One-Eye Jimmy, starring, Steve Buscemi and Samuel L. Jackson. Released Notes From Underground, a contemporary telling of Dostoyevsky's seminal novel, starring Henry Czerny, Sheryl Lee, and Jon Favreau; two features from Steven Soderbergh: Schizopolis and Gray's Anatomy, featuring Spalding Gray (Swimming to Cambodia); and three from BMG Independents: Drunks, starring Richard Lewis, Parker Posey, Faye Dunaway and Diane Weist; Robert Downey's Hugo Pool, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Sean Penn; and A Couch in New York starring Juliette Binoche and William Hurt.  Produced two time Oscar winning director Barbara Kopple's Cannes, a feature documentary on the 50^th Cannes Film Festival.

1998/99  Re-released the British cult classic, Withnail and I.  Released Midaq Alley, starring Salma Hayek, a film that received more awards than any other film ever produced in Mexico; BMG Independents' The Leading Man, directed by John Duigan (Wide Sargasso Sea) and starring Jon Bon Jovi and Anna Gfaliena; Preaching to the Perverted, a satire on the London S&M club scene; and the award winning documentary Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's. Released Levitation, a magical drama starring Anne Magnuson and Ernie Hudson; Joan Micklin Silver's A Fish in the Bathtub, an engaging comedy starring Jerry and Ben Stiller; and Soul in the Hole, a fascinating documentary about playground basketball tournaments in the inner cities.

2000/01   Released Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel (Best Director, Best Picture: Director's View National Film Festival); and George Esguerra's sexy comedy, Talk to Me.  Created High Road, an executive production division of Northern Arts in LA.  Released All My Loved Ones, a drama featuring Rupert Graves (A Room with a View) in Prague on the eve of Hitler's invasion; and formed a new division, International Arthouse Features (IAF), to create a film library for digital distribution of unscreened films from around the world.

2002/03   Acquired the rights to executive produce and distribute three features: A Tanglewood Tale, a recounting of the strange relationship between America's two greatest writers--Melville and Hawthorne--in the summer of 1850; The Manxman, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic silent film of the same name; and London Underground.  Acquired a spectacular Vietnam War film, Song of the Stork, which was filmed in Vietnam by the Vietnamese and will be released in the US in October, 2004. Created a Home Video/DVD/TV partnership with Wellspring Media.

2004/05    Scheduled for fall 2004: the Avati Brothers' Incantato (2003 Davide di Donatello Award: Best Director and an Official Selection at Cannes); Philippe Caland's (Boxing Helena) Hollywood Buddha; and the riotous comedy, Filantropica, set in a nearly surreal, post-iron curtain Bucharest. Acquired Don't Move (2003 di Doanatello Awards: Best Actor and Best Actress), starring Penelope Cruz and Sergio Castellitto.

 

KEY PERSONNEL

Northern Arts' management team is a confederation of kindred individuals who have distinguished themselves in the entertainment industry.  All Northern Arts personnel highly value their professional independence, yet share a common vision for the company's future leadership role in the industry

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

JOHN LAWRENCE RÉ    CEO, Partner, Acquisitions

John Lawrence Ré received a BA with a major in philosophy from Fordham University. He taught filmmaking and created curricula for the Urban League before enrolling at Columbia University, where he received an MA in English and attended the Film School. Upon obtaining a law degree from Northeastern University in 1986, he worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was instrumental in obtaining one of the largest settlements in Superfund history. Turning back to film in 1990, Mr. Ré co-founded Northern Arts Entertainment, where hs has presided over the release of more than sixty-five feature films and is the chief architect of the company's profile.

 

LARRY JACKSON    President, Partner, Distribution

Larry Jackson received a BA in English and a M.A.T. in Visual Communications from Cornell University. He began his career as an arthouse exhibitor, and co-founded and served on the board of The Association of Specialized Film Exhibitors (ASFE), the nation's first trade organization for art film theaters. A former Executive Vice President of Miramax Films, he has also served as Senior Vice President of Production and Acquisitions at Orion Pictures and the Samuel Goldwyn Company.

 

WENDY LIDELL    Vice President, Marketing and Sales - NY

Upon graduation from Cornell University, where she studied Asian studies and Cinema, Wendy Lidell began a diverse career in entertainment. She has served as the Assistant Director of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF); as President of the Board of Directors of Women Make Movies; and on grantmaking panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and the WNET Documentary Fund. Ms. Lidell created and headed the Theatrical Releasing division for Wellspring Media, where her releases included Russian Ark, Under the Sand, Notorious CHO, Yi Yi, and Oscar nominee, On the Ropes. She also founded and headed International Film Circuit, a curator of specialty arthouse cinema.

 

AVA LAZAR    Vice President, Theatrical Acquisitions - LA/NY

Born in Dusseldorf, Germany, Ava Lazar finished her education in film at UCLA. After several years as a successful actress in film and TV, she served as a producer of Savage Land, which sold over 650,000 video units in 1994. She teamed with writer/director Joe Minion (After Hours) in 1997 to bring his script Trafficking to the screen. In 1998, Ava Lazar brought her business savvy and strong artistic convictions to Northern Arts to serve as Vice President of Acquisitions. Fluent in three languages, she divides her time between Los Angeles, Europe and NY.

 

PRODUCTION

 

ANTHONY MASUCCI    Partner, Vice President, Executive Production - LA

Veteran film producer Anthony Masucci has served at CBS in 1980 as a program Director. Several years later he joined NBC where he was soon appointed Senior Vice president of Mini-Series & Motion Pictures for Television and SVP of Theatrical Film Production, NBC Entertainment and NBC Productions. Several of his productions won wide critical acclaim, and in 1990, two of his productions won Emmy Awards.

 

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RICHARD A. MORSE    Counsel

Educated at Berkeley, Richard Morse received his law degree from Hastings College of Law where, together with his faculty advisor, the U.S. Presidential Counsel for Entertainment/Communications Law, he drafted weekly entertainment advisory opinions for the White House. He has continued rendering Entertainment Law consultations to entities ranging from "60 Minutes" to "The Hollywood Reporter," as well as lecturing at venues such as USC.