We are incredibly proud to announce that the Meerkat Media Collective has joined forces with New Day Films, the most successful and longest running filmmaker owned distribution cooperative in the media industry.  Running for more than 40 years, New Day Films is highly selective and well curated collection of documentary films and filmmakers dedicated to social change.

Public-Use DVDs:

The best way to experience STAGES is with an audience!  We’re trying to organize as many public screenings of the film as possible and we hope you’ll consider hosting a community screening.  We are self distributing the film and each purchase you make directly contributes to our outreach and distribution efforts.  If you are a planning on using the film for a public, school or institutional showing please purchase the film through our educational distribution coop, New Day Films, rather than buying a home video copy.  Thanks for your support and honesty!

Home-Use DVD’s:

Contact Us for an individual home-use copy.  Please let us know who you are and how you learned about the film.  They are $25 each including shipping and handling.

We are thrilled to share that STAGES is continuing it’s festival run with full force!   We’ve got screenings across the country as well as internationally.  A few of the highlights include:

CineFestival San Antonio (the longest running latino Film Festival in the world)

February 6th, 2010

Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago

February 25th

Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival

March 20th, 2010

San Diego Latino Film Festival

March 11-21, 2010

Toronto ReelWorld Film Festival

April 7th to 11th, 2010

Rincon Film Festival, Puerto Rico

April 28th, 2010

Our festival run is underway!  Since it’s premiere, STAGES has been accepted to 5 different film festivals around the country.  Here is the information about our upcoming screenings

Friday, October 2nd,  7:30 pm – NEW YORK CITY

WHERE:  Performance Project @ University Settlement House (184 Eldridge Street, at Rivington)

WHAT:  This is a special benefit screening hosted by the community center where the film takes place.

TICKETS: Tickets are $15 at the door and go to support arts programs at University Settlement

Sunday, October 11th, 6pm – NEW YORK CITY

WHERE: Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Avenue,Manhattan, NY)

WHAT: Screening as an official selection of the New York United Film Festival!

TICKETS: $10 at the door or you can buy tickets in advance from the festival HERE.

Wednesday, October 14th, 5pm – LOS ANGELES

WHERE: Mann Chinese 6  Cinemas (6801 Hollywood Blvd)

WHAT: Screening as an official selection of the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival

TICKETS: $12 at the door

Saturday, Nov 7th, 3:30pm – ORLANDO, FL

WHERE: The Plaza Cinema Cafe (155 S Orange Ave Orlando, FL 32801)

WHAT: Screening as an official selection of the Orlando Film Festival

TICKETS:  Free!

Friday, Nov 13th, 9:30pm – QUEENS, NY

WHERE: The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (35-12 35th Avenue, Queens, 11106

WHAT: Screening as an official selection of the Queens International Film Festival

TICKETS: $10 at the Door

We are extremely proud to announce that STAGES won the top two documentary awards at the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival!

This would not have been possible without every single one of you who came out to support the film.  Thank you for supporting our collaborative work and helping to bring attention to the importance of these kind of community arts programs.  We’re looking forward to screening this film at festivals, community centers, colleges and theaters throughout the country over the next year.

Please contact us if you have any ideas of good homes for the film!

Please join us for one of our two screenings:

July 29th, 3:30pm

July 31st, 5:00pm

They will both be at the SVA Theater (333  West 23rd St.)

Click here for more information on the festivals website.

Excerpted from DocuClub’s website:

DocuClub screenings: Stages

Still from Stages.

We are happy to announce that DocuClub will be holding a session at this year’s SILVERDOCS festival, in Washington DC/Silver Springs, Maryland. The session will be held on Tuesday, June 17, at 4:30 p.m, at the Round House Theater.

The featured film is Stages by the Meerkat Media Arts Collective. The film follows a group of older Puerto Rican women and youth of color who unite in New York City’s lower east side to create an original play based on their life stories. See a trailer of the film here.

The Meerkat Media Arts Collective is a New York-based interdisciplinary group of artists dedicated to making media with a non-hierarchical and inclusive creative process. Less than three years old, the collective has produced over twenty short films, and has been featured in film festivals across the country and broadcast internationally. Their recent short about small-scale beekeepers and their vanishing hives, Every Third Bite, is part of the 2008 Media That Matters Film Festival. Stages, their first collaboratively-created feature length documentary, is co-written, directed and produced by a team of 12 people.

Our moderator will be Erica Ginsberg, who is the managing director of Docs In Progress, Inc., a film organization based in Silver Spring, Maryland. The organization serves as a resource for independent documentary filmmakers to help them create their films. Among Docs In Progress programs are work-in-progress screenings (held bi-monthly in Washington DC and annually in Baltimore, Maryland) and one-on-one sessions with individual filmmakers.

Stay tuned for more details about this exciting DocuClub event!

The IFP (Independent Feature Project) market is a convergence of indie filmmakers and distributors, producers and so on which aims to connect emerging independent film with wider distribution and institutional support Our movie is far more likely to see wider distribution after going through this year’s IFP Market–something to be proud of!