Mercury Ties Up International Sales in Israel and the Middle-East

29 Oct 2010
Adam Benzine
© C21 Media 2010

Mercury parks its Lot in Israel

UK indie MercuryMedia has picked up distribution rights for The Parking Lot Movie, an acclaimed documentary that was screened at the BFI London Film Festival, and has sold it into Israel.

Noga Communications’ documentary-themed Channel 8 acquired the comedy doc, which first aired in the US on PBS Independent Lens earlier this month, as well as James Moll’s Inheritance (1×75′), a documentary about a Nazi’s daughter.

The Parking Lot Movie (1×70′) is the debut feature from director Meghan Eckman and follows a group of eccentric parking lot attendants in Charlottesville, Virginia. Mercury CEO Tim Sparke told C21: “Following on from the success of The Invention of Dr NakaMats, we’re hoping The Parking Lot Movie will be prove to be the laugh-out-loud international documentary hit of 2011.”

The deal is one of a number of recent sales for the London-based firm. It has also sold single docs The Real Revolutionaries (1×79′) and Vlast (1×88′) to Israel’s Yes DBS, while Middle Eastern broadcaster Al Jazeera has picked up African Solutions (13×30′), a series looking at African technology and innovation that originally aired on South Africa’s SABC3.

Mercury has also picked up distribution rights for (Astro) Turf Wars (1×90′), a documentary from Australian director Taki Oldham about the US right-wing political movement the Tea Party.