Docu-lovers can consider themselves lucky as Steve Hoover’s Blood Brother, the life-affirming, altering account which is regarded as one of the top offerings so far this year, (siting at the number 3 spot in our Best Docs (so far) of 2013) will be receiving some TLC from a five team partnership comprised of Tugg, ITVS, Independent Lens, Mongrel Media (Canadian distributor) and a film company that we think is the best new outfitter of the year in the folks at Cinedigm (lead by acquisitions head Vincent Scordino). Deadline reports that the award-winning doc is pegged for an October theatrical release, with the television premiere on Independent Lens/PBS circled for January 2014.
Gist: Double award winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is an intimate portrait of Rocky Braat, a young man who longed to find a family. He didn’t know it, but this desire would lead him to an AIDS hostel in India, a place of unspeakable hardship, where he would find almost more love and need than he could bear.
Worth Noting: Before embarking on his feature film debut, Hoover is already well-versed in filmmaking as a commercials and music video helmer – here’s a sample.
Do We Care?: Our doc-specialist Jordan M. Smith (who also interviewed Hoover at Hot Docs) reviewed the doc saying that like “its big hearted protagonist, Blood Brother offsets the horrors of HIV/AIDS with a genuine statement that small scale human compassion can be world altering. Wearing their hearts on their sleeves, Steve Hoover and his best friend have pieced together a stunning docu debut that will surely win the hearts of all but those most callously cynical while moving charitable mountains for a deserving cause.”
