Seymour Wishman, who was president of distributor First Run Features for nearly four decades and produced the documentary feature Sex & Justice, has died. He was 79.
First Run confirmed that he died January 29 in Bridgewater, Ct.
Wishman started out as a criminal and civil rights attorney in New York and New Jersey and became an assistant in the latter’ Essex County. He went on to serve as a deputy assistant to President Jimmy Carter in the Office of Public Liaison during the 1970s.
In 1984, he became president of First Run Features, an NYC-based indie distributor that has focused on documentaries. The company is the U.S. home of Michael Apted’s Up franchise, starting with 28 Up in 1984 and later including all films in the series. It also release Before Stonewall (1984) and After Stonewall (1999). First Run re-released the former in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the uprising that was a watershed...
First Run confirmed that he died January 29 in Bridgewater, Ct.
Wishman started out as a criminal and civil rights attorney in New York and New Jersey and became an assistant in the latter’ Essex County. He went on to serve as a deputy assistant to President Jimmy Carter in the Office of Public Liaison during the 1970s.
In 1984, he became president of First Run Features, an NYC-based indie distributor that has focused on documentaries. The company is the U.S. home of Michael Apted’s Up franchise, starting with 28 Up in 1984 and later including all films in the series. It also release Before Stonewall (1984) and After Stonewall (1999). First Run re-released the former in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the uprising that was a watershed...
- 2/15/2022
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Seymour Wishman, a longtime producer, writer, legal expert and president of First Run Features, died on Jan. 29 at a family home in Bridgewater, Conn., his daughter Samantha confirmed to Variety. He was 79.
Over the past 38 years, Wishman had served as president of First Run Features. During his time at the N.Y.-based independent film distribution company, Wishman brought Michael Apted’s “28 Up” (and later the entire “Up” series) to the United States and helped Ross McElwee finish and release “Sherman’s March” — as well as McElwee’s other films, including “Bright Leaves” and “Six O’Clock News.” Wishman also released Spike Lee’s “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads” (the director’s first feature film and his graduate school thesis), Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman,” Jan Svankmajer’s “Alice” and many other independent pictures.
On the production side, Seymour co-directed and produced “Sex & Justice,” a documentary on...
Over the past 38 years, Wishman had served as president of First Run Features. During his time at the N.Y.-based independent film distribution company, Wishman brought Michael Apted’s “28 Up” (and later the entire “Up” series) to the United States and helped Ross McElwee finish and release “Sherman’s March” — as well as McElwee’s other films, including “Bright Leaves” and “Six O’Clock News.” Wishman also released Spike Lee’s “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads” (the director’s first feature film and his graduate school thesis), Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman,” Jan Svankmajer’s “Alice” and many other independent pictures.
On the production side, Seymour co-directed and produced “Sex & Justice,” a documentary on...
- 2/14/2022
- by Wyatte Grantham-Philips
- Variety Film + TV
Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout will open the 10th Annual South Asian International Film Festival which will be held from December 3-8, 2013.
Gyan Correa’s The Good Road, India’s official submission to the Oscars in the foreign-language category, will screen as the closing film.
Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar’s Good Morning Karachi will be screened as the Centerpiece film. The film addresses the tension between religious extremism and modernity through the eyes of a young woman, Rafina, coming of age in Karachi city.
Hammad Khan’s Anima State, Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi, Richie Mehta’s Siddharth, Kamal K.M.’s I.D and Anup Singh’s Qissa will compete in Feature Film Competition.
Rahul Desai’s Khoon Ltd, Shiva Shankka’s Outpost, Rodd Rathjen’s Tau Seru, Anand Tiwari’s Neighbours and Shubhashish Bhutiani’s Kush are the short films in competition.
The Spectrum section of the festival will...
Gyan Correa’s The Good Road, India’s official submission to the Oscars in the foreign-language category, will screen as the closing film.
Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar’s Good Morning Karachi will be screened as the Centerpiece film. The film addresses the tension between religious extremism and modernity through the eyes of a young woman, Rafina, coming of age in Karachi city.
Hammad Khan’s Anima State, Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi, Richie Mehta’s Siddharth, Kamal K.M.’s I.D and Anup Singh’s Qissa will compete in Feature Film Competition.
Rahul Desai’s Khoon Ltd, Shiva Shankka’s Outpost, Rodd Rathjen’s Tau Seru, Anand Tiwari’s Neighbours and Shubhashish Bhutiani’s Kush are the short films in competition.
The Spectrum section of the festival will...
- 12/3/2013
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
North American rights to Duane Baughman Sundance '10 documentary "Bhutto" have been picked up by First Run Features. Glenn Aveni of Icon Tmi negotiated the deal with Seymour Wishman, president of First Run Features. A November theatrical release is planned for North America, with home video, internet platforms, and television to follow. Educational sales begin immediately. "Bhutto" follows the epic story of Benazir Bhutto, the first woman in history to lead ...
- 6/29/2010
- Indiewire
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Joe Berlinger has chronicled children's murders in the gut wrenching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, a heavy metal band's meltdown in Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and the lives of accomplished people in the Sundance Channel's series, Iconoclasts. In his latest documentary, he travels deep into the Ecuadorean Amazon jungle for a modern-day look at the heart of darkness. Crude, which has won a series of environmental and human rights awards, follows the 17-year struggle of a group of indigenous people in Ecuador suing Chevron for the devastation oil production has wrought on them and their villages. He tells the story through a formidable Ecuadorean lawyer named Pablo Fajardo who grew up impoverished in the oil rich village, worked the petroleum fields and then went on to get an education. His first case as a lawyer was against Chevron. Sometime this fall, the Ecuadorean...
Joe Berlinger has chronicled children's murders in the gut wrenching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, a heavy metal band's meltdown in Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and the lives of accomplished people in the Sundance Channel's series, Iconoclasts. In his latest documentary, he travels deep into the Ecuadorean Amazon jungle for a modern-day look at the heart of darkness. Crude, which has won a series of environmental and human rights awards, follows the 17-year struggle of a group of indigenous people in Ecuador suing Chevron for the devastation oil production has wrought on them and their villages. He tells the story through a formidable Ecuadorean lawyer named Pablo Fajardo who grew up impoverished in the oil rich village, worked the petroleum fields and then went on to get an education. His first case as a lawyer was against Chevron. Sometime this fall, the Ecuadorean...
- 9/8/2009
- by maint
- Film Independent
MADRID -- Indie distributor First Run Features has picked up all U.S. and Canadian rights to the quirky Spanish comedy Torremolinos 73, Spanish sales agent Sogepaq, rights distributor for the Sogecable film and television empire, announced on Friday. This deal adds to recent acquisitions of the film by Tartan (U.K.), Buskin Film (Italy), Epicenter (France), PCV (Greece), Barbar Film (Turkey), AG Market (Former Yugoslavia), Wiesner Distribution (Puerto Rico) and Young Asia Org. (China). Torremolinos 73, co-produced by hot Spanish independent producer Telespan 2000 and broadcaster Tele5's film arm Estudios Picasso together with Danish Dogma producer Nimbus, is directed by newcomer Pablo Berger and stars Javier Camara (Talk to Her and Bad Education). Torremolinos 73 tells the story of a failing encyclopedia salesman in 1973's puritanical Spain who is offered, along with his wife, a lucrative opportunity to make his own amateur erotic movies. This unleashes his passion for serious filmmaking and launches her as an international sex symbol. Seymour Wishman, president of First Run Features, and Simon de Santiago, Sogepaq's deputy director of distribution, negotiated the deal.
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