TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Jun 14, 2004) - Peace Arch Entertainment Group Inc. (AMEX:PAE) (TSX:PAE), a leading diversified Canadian entertainment company, today announced that it has completed principal photography of the documentary "Prisoners of Age," which follows New York photographer Ron Levine's groundbreaking project with geriatric prisoners. Journeying to penitentiaries in Canada and America, the film provides an immersion into the world of senior citizen inmates, revealing a number of important social issues surrounding the aging prison population, and bringing personal dimensions to a growing human tragedy. The one-hour program has been pre-licensed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Bravo! Canada (a CHUM Television station). The Company retains all other worldwide exploitation rights to the film. "Prisoners of Age" is expected to be delivered in September 2004 and scheduled for broadcast during the 2004/05 television season.
"Prisoners of Age" asks a fundamental question that has no easy answer: What becomes of an inmate who is too old or too ill to stay in the general prison population? Award-winning filmmaker Stan Feingold establishes empathy for the inmates' plight, but segues to a more disturbing question: What about the justice demanded by victims, their families and society at large? The film illustrates the often irreconcilable conflict between retribution and rehabilitation through a comparison of the Canadian and American realities.
"We are enjoying a renaissance in documentary production with the recent financial and critical success of documentaries," stated Blair Reekie, President of the Company's factual subsidiary. "Audiences are hungry for intelligent programs that deal with important and provocative issues, and "Prisoners of Age" is just such a film. A follow-up to "Heroines," our award-winning 2001 film, "Prisoners" explores a troubling social issue in a sensitive, innovative and visually stunning manner."
Peace Arch Entertainment Group Inc. (www.peacearch.com), one of Canada's foremost entertainment companies, creates, develops, produces and distributes proprietary feature film and television programming for worldwide markets. Peace Arch Entertainment Group Inc. has offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles and London, England.
Bravo!, a division of CHUM Television, is a proud supporter of the Canadian independent production community. Bravo! funds approximately 100 hours of independently produced documentaries and performing arts specials a year, and has been a major contributor to such productions as Murder 19C: The Detective Murdoch Mysteries, Air Guitar in Oulu, Strip Search, Freedom and Drawing Out The Demons: A Film About the Artist Attila Richard Lukacs (www.bravo.ca). CHUM Television is a division of CHUM Limited (TSX SYMBOL: CHM CHM.B, www.chumlimited.com), one of Canada's leading media companies and content providers which owns and operates radio stations, local television stations, specialty channels and Internet properties.
This press release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements, usually containing the words "believe", "estimate", "project", "expect", or similar expressions. These statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, continued acceptance of the Company's products and services in the marketplace, competitive factors, dependence upon third-party vendors, availability of capital and other risks detailed in the Company's periodic report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Peace Arch Entertainment Group Inc. Nicole Spracklin (416) 487-0377 (ext. 237) nspracklin@peacearch.com www.peacearch.com or Jaffoni & Collins Incorporated Robert Rinderman or Karin Oloffson (212) 835-8500 PAE@jcir.com
