“Mrs Carey’s Concert”, “When I Rise” and “Toni & Rosi” headline Mercury’s new Music & Arts slate

20 September 2011
Andrew McDonald
© C21 Media 2011

Mercury Picks Up Arts Docs Ahead of Mipcom 2011

UK-based MercuryMedia International has picked up distribution rights to three new arts and music documentaries to launch at Mipcom.

Mrs Carey’s Concert is a feature-length doc by Oscar-nominated director Bob Connelly, about an Australian high school music director who leads her pupils to perform at the Sydney Opera House.

Produced by Australia-based Music Films, the film notched up A$1.2m at the Australian box office, making it the second most popular doc in the country’s history. It has been nominated for best doc at this year’s ‘Australian Oscars’ - The Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts (AACTA) awards.

The doc is due to open theatrically in the UK in November and Mercury has international distribution rights to all markets outside of Australia.

Also on its slate is When I Rise, about Barbara Smith Conrad, an African-American opera singer who became the centre of a race row in the 1950s when she was cast in a production at the University of Texas.

The University of Texas at Austin film was directed by Mat Hames and produced by Oscar winner James Moll. It has already aired on PBS in the US. Mercury has distribution rights to all other markets and the film is available as a feature-length doc or as an hour-long TV production.

The third film, Toni & Rosi, is about two Jewish sisters who used their musical talents to escape Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939. The hour-long doc was made by Will Wyatt CBE, who was chief executive of broadcasting at the BBC in the 1990s. Mercury has global distribution rights to the doc.

The news comes just days after Mercury announced it had picked up distribution rights to comedy doc Becoming Santa, which won the Audience Award at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.

Read more: C21 Media