Academy Award®-Winner Alex Gibney’s FINDING FELA Nominated For Outstanding Documentary NAACP Image Award

New York, NY – Knitting Factory Entertainment is proud to announce that Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney's (Taxi to the Dark Side) critically-lauded documentary on visionary and revolutionary Afrobeat musician and political activist Fela Kuti received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Documentary (Theatrical).

 

Produced in association with Knitting Factory Entertainment, Okayplayer and OkayAfrica, FINDING FELA was an Official Selection of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The 46th Annual NAACP Image Awards air live Friday, February 6 on TVone.

“I’m delighted to receive this nomination,” said director Gibney. “Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s story is an extraordinary one that I was privileged to be able to tell. It’s an honor to be recognized by the NAACP and to be in the company of so many accomplished filmmakers.”

“We are delighted and honored that the NAACP has recognized FINDING FELA with this nomination,” said producer Stephen Hendel. “The story about how an African gets inspiration from the American civil rights movement and intellectual and cultural energy within the African-American community in the 1960's and returns to Africa a new man with new music and a new mission is simply amazing. ‘Africa to America, America to Africa-- we have a lot to learn from each other’ sums up the historic and current and future connections within the diaspora.”

FINDING FELA received a sucessful national release from Kino Lorber in 2014, playing in over 60 North American markets, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and New Orleans. The film garnered significant critical acclaim, including "A comprehensive, vibrant portrait of Fela Kuti," from Slant. It continues to have occasional Festival and paid theatrical playdates.

The film is also available digitally in association with digital distributor FilmBuff on Cable Movies On Demand and digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon Instant, Vudu, Xbox Video, PlayStation Store, Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, andwww.findingfela.com, as well as on-demand on cable services including Comcast's Xfinity TV, Cox and Time Warner Cable. The iTunes release contains a number of special menu features, including commentary, a stills gallery, enhanced audio tracks, deleted scenes and other items. The film’s DVD and Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber is January 13, 2015. There’s also a 2-CD soundtrack of music from and related to the film on Knitting factory Records: http://shop.knittingfactoryrecords.com/products/finding-fela-soundtrack .

FINDING FELA tells the story of Fela Anikulapo Kuti's life, his music, his social and political importance—and the genesis and launch of the hit eponymous Broadway musical. He created a new musical movement, Afrobeat, using that forum to express his revolutionary political opinions against the dictatorial Nigerian government of the 1970s and 1980s. Speaking truth to power under the slogan “Music is a Weapon,” Kuti’s influence helped challenge autocracy in Nigeria and promoted pan Africanist politics to the world, continuing to this day with “Felabration,” an annual Nigerian festival celebrating his legacy. The power and potency of Fela's message remains completely current today and is expressed in the political movements of oppressed people, embracing Fela's music and message in their struggle for freedom.

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About Knitting Factory Entertainment 
"Curators of Music, Food and Style since 1987,” KFE owns four Knitting Factory live music venues and three restaurants—two Federal Bars and Bow and Truss—in the Western US. Knitting Factory Records, along with its partners Partisan Records and Young One Records, manages recorded music catalogues and current and legacy artists (including Deer Tick, Gypsy Kings, Mountain Man, Middle Brother and Heartless Bastards); releases content in all formats as well as music-branded DVDs. Figure Eight Media, Knitting Factory Management and Van Johnson Company handle the careers of emerging and critically acclaimed recording and theatrical artists both in the U.S. and overseas—including !!!, Flock of Dimes, Ducky, The Juan McClean, Jose Gonzalez, Junip, Middle Brother, Hundred Visions, Diamond Rugs, Wye Oak, Dungeonesse, Rhythm Monks, JAK, The Knitts, Adam Bones, Prima Donna, Nervous Wreckords, Jack Littman, and DJ Rasadon. The KFE-produced Broadway hit Fela! has toured the world and the documentary FINDING FELA! premiered at the Sundance film Festival in January 2014. It has recently debuted the brand-integrated “rock-u-mentary” Rock City Los Angeles. Its licensing division is producing branded apparel and accessories.

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