Kino Lorber Deploys ‘Homeland: Iraq Year Zero’; Gravitas Picks Up ‘Friends Effing Friends’

Kino Lorber has acquired all rights to Homeland: Iraq Year Zero, a five-hour, two-part documentary from Iraqi-French filmmaker Abbas Fahdel. In February 2002, about a year before the U.S. invasion, Fahdel traveled home from France to capture everyday life as his country prepared for war. He spent time with family and friends, including his 12-year-old nephew, Haider, as they went about their daily lives, which had come to include planning for shortages of food, water and power. No strangers to war, the Iraqis thought they understood what was coming, and could even manage to be grimly humorous about what they felt would likely be a major and lengthy inconvenience. And then, the war began. When Fahdel resumed filming in 2003, two weeks after the invasion, daily activities had come to a near standstill, the city was overrun with foreign soldiers, and many areas of Baghdad had been closed off to ordinary citizens. Kino Lorber will release the pic on October 6 at Anthology Film Archives in New York and play it in select theatrical and non-theatrical runs in the ensuing months. A VOD and home video release is planned for next year. Here is a trailer:

Gravitas Ventures has gotten in bed with Friends Effing Friends Effing Friends, a postmodern romantic comedy from writer-director-producer Quincy Rose about sex among friends, missed opportunities, unrequited love and how the grass always appears to be greener on the other side. Jacob (Tyler Dawson), a freelance copy editor from Los Angeles, struggles to find love as he clings to the carefree, selfish ways of his youth. With the help from his best friends, Steve and Laura (Graham Skipper and Jillian Leigh), a couple who are going through their own troubles, Jacob begrudgingly is set up with Sarah (Christina Gooding), a writer in need of an editor, under the guise of work.  Jacob and Sarah hit it off immediately, however, when Jacob is invited over for a dinner, he meets Sarah’s wild and beautiful roommate, Camille (Vanessa Dubasso), who’s about to move out of town. What could go wrong? Gravitas will release the film October 11 on VOD. Here is the trailer: