CNN Films and Content Media Corporation have acquired rights to documentary Elián, co-directed by Tim Golden and Ross McDonnell, and executive produced by Alex Gibney.
CNN Films has acquired television broadcast and CNN-branded authenticated television exhibition rights in U.S and Canada, from Fine Point Films. London-based Content Media Corporation has acquired international sales rights to the film.
Elián is the story of Elián Gonzalez, a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits, and how the fight for his future changed the course of U.S.-Cuba relations. Featuring personal testimony, interviews, and a news archive, this documentary recounts Elián’s remarkable rescue on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, after his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba perished at sea, and the custody battle between the boy’s Cuban father and his Miami-based relatives.
Offering a portrait of Elián today, the film is a story about the challenges of reconciliation among members of a once-close family, reflecting the divisions of the Cuban people and the complicated relations between Cuba and the United States.
Trevor Birney (Bobby Sands: 66 Days) produced the film through his Fine Point Films banner. Amy Entelis, CNN Worldwide EVP talent and content development, is an executive producer on the docu, and CNN Films VP Courtney Sexton is supervising producer.
The film currently is in post-production and slated for theatrical release later this year, financed by CNN Films, Northern Ireland Screen, Irish Film Board, and BBC Storyville. Content’s president of film, Jamie Carmichael and executive vice president for sales and distribution, Jonathan Ford, will introduce Elián to distributors at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin next week.
