Director Don Argott‘s muckraking film about the battle over the Barnes Foundation, “The Art of the Steal,” which recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, now has a distributor [via]—Rainbow Media, which is the umbrella company for IFC, AMC and Sundance channels, among other entertainment entities. Selling the North American rights (reportedly for a “substantial six figure advance”) in these economically uncertain times was no small accomplishment [via].
Meanwhile, we eagerly await an update from the Barnes Foundation about how much money it has now raised for its controversial move to Philadelphia, as well as information about the design by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and the latest construction-cost estimate. All that information was scheduled to be released this fall.
But alas, no distributors, new advertisers or donors have provided backing for CultureGrrl lately (with one notable exception, CultureGrrl Donor 73—a two-time benefactor to whom I extend my warmest thanks).
So I’m changing my “business plan” from begging to blackmail: If three benefactors don’t discover the whereabouts of the yellow “Donate” button in my middle column by next Sunday, I’m taking next week off for bad behavior. That means, among other things, that you won’t get my own take on “The Art of the Steal,” for which I hold a ticket to the Sept. 29 screening at the NY Film Festival.
And don’t even think about getting a ticket for yourself: It’s sold out!