Home Video News and Developments

2010-01-12T16:40:00.002-05:00

2009 ended with a bang for us as we released the 4-disc set of THE BATTLE OF CHILE to critical acclaim. "Best DVD of the year!" for MSN.com, "Memorable DVD box set" for The New Yorker are among the numerous accolades the title received. We are, of course, extremely proud, but most of all thrilled to be able to bring this film to a new audience through digital format. So don't wait another minute, get your copy now!

2010 promises to be just as exciting as we are preparing our calendar of releases. We will start with ROCKY ROAD TO DUBLIN together on one disc with THE MAKING OF ROCKY ROAD TO DUBLIN, which reunites director Peter Lennon and cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who recount the making of their then controversial but now classic documentary on Ireland in the Sixties. This definitive edition will be released on March 2nd.

And please check back soon for more announcements and information on our new releases!

Eleonore Martin
Director of Digital media

2009-12-03T16:01:00.004-05:00

The time is now!

Today, our last (but not least!) release of 2009 is coming out… The Battle of Chile by Patricio Guzman. As I mentioned earlier in this column, we had to postpone the release to make sure we were bringing you a coherent product and looking back on this decision, it was the right one to make, if I may say so myself.

We are extremely proud to end the year with this set of 4 discs and booklet. It includes the three parts of The Battle of Chile, the film Chile, Obstinate Memory and a 22 minute filmed interview with Patricio Guzman.

In other thrilling news, we are adding the astonishing film The Way Things Go by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss to our collection, complimenting our other DVD of their works, The Right Way / The Point of Least Resistance (a personal favorite, I may add). This is particularly timely as there is currently an exhibition of their artwork at the three locations of the Matthew Marks gallery in NYC until January 16th.

As we are preparing our calendar for 2010 and starting to work on more exciting releases, I would like to wish you a happy holiday season and many great film experiences in the new year!

Eleonore Martin
Director of Digital Media

2009-10-23T16:20:00.002-04:00

Working on our 2 last releases of 2009!

Our Fall slate would not be complete without the titles we are preparing at the moment. The Ister, the philosophical journey through Heidegger’s lectures, and The Battle of Chile, the monumental chronicle of the events leading to Pinochet’s coup d’etat.

We thought these titles were so important indeed that we decided to post-pone their releases to make sure the quality of the DVDs will be on a par with the prestige of the films. It was a hard decision to make as we were eager to bring them to the audience they deserve, but on the same token we needed to make sure we were proud of our products and we could stand 100% behind them.

The Battle of Chile has a brand new soundtrack with director Patricio Guzman narrating the commentary. It will be released on 4 discs, the 3 parts of the film and a fourth disc with the documentary Chile Obstinate Memory and a 20 minute filmed interview with Guzman, and the set will also include a booklet of texts and articles.

So make sure to look out for these titles when they hit the streets, The Ister on November 17th, and The Battle of Chile on December 8th.

Eléonore Martin
Director of Digital Media

2009-05-28T16:49:00.004-04:00

New releases and more coming soon!

You may have already noticed on this homepage that we have released two prestigious titles in May. The beautiful and poetic documentary FOREVER by Heddy Honigmann, and Chris Marker's magnum opus A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT, "one of the home-video releases of the year, if not the decade." (Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com)

Click here to listen to an exclusive interview with Larry Bensky, journalist featured in A Grin without a Cat, talking about the film and Chris Marker on Pacifica Radio KPFK.

And there is more to come, this Fall season promises to be abundant with compelling work from some of our most distinguished filmmakers, including FROM THE EAST by Chantal Akerman, hailed a "masterpiece" by Stuart Klawans of The Nation.

In a completely different range, we are also working on a fun and accessible series on modern art by critic Ben Lewis, ART SAFARI. "If your understanding of contemporary art begins with 'no' and ends with 'idea', Art Safari is a good place to start." -Emily Dunn, The Age.

Make sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and to register for our newsletter to be kept in the loop of all our releases, we will send updates on dates and details of the editions such as extras and specials!

New Year - News & New DVDs

2009-01-11T13:35:00.008-05:00

Greetings! Obviously I did not get around to writing as many of these posts as I had hoped when we launched this new home video web site in September, 2008. But rest assured, it is on my list of important New Year's resolutions. So I am sure to do better this year.

And to start off 2009 I am really happy to be able to announce the release this month of one of our most amazing films (really) - OUR DAILY BREAD by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. The film received enormous praise upon its theatrical release (including being on Manhola Dargis' Top 10 list for the year), and now the accolades continue for our DVD, here is just one of several new reviews this week:

http://www.moviehabit.com/reviews/our_ag09.shtml

Coming up next are Heddy Honigmann's FOREVER and in May, Chris Marker's "magnum opus" A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT.

We look forward to this exciting year and hope you will be with us along the way. Our aim is to solidify Icarus Films' position as a primary source for only the best in creative international documentary cinema. Please remember to sign up for our email list and we will keep you in the loop on these and other developments along the way. All the best for now.

Jonathan Miller
President

Welcome to Icarus Films' new web site for our Home Video DVD releases.

2008-09-03T18:59:00.003-04:00

For 30 years Icarus Films has distributed innovative and provocative documentary films, made by independent producers around the world. A leading distributor of documentaries in North America with a collection of close to 800 titles, our films have long been fixtures in film festivals, museums, art cinemas, and in college and university film programs, classes, and libraries. Now we are proud to be able to make selected titles available on DVD for home use.

Over the coming year we will release additional titles one or two per month (and in the coming months I may drop a few hints here about some long-awaited titles amongst them!) For now please look over the titles already included here, write to us at HomeVideo(at)IcarusFilms(dot)com if you have any questions or suggestions, and be sure and sign up for our email list and we will let you know about each exciting new release as it is ready.

Thank-you!

Jonathan Miller
President