Friday, August 5th – After coaching US Women’s Cycling team to a Silver Medal win in the 2012 London Olympics, director Sky Christopherson is bringing their story to Video-on-Demand (VOD) platforms around the world in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics opening ceremonies world with his feature documentary debut, PERSONAL GOLD: AN UNDERDOG STORY. After Dotsie Bausch and her team won the Silver in London, they are ready to root on their former teammate Sarah Hammer competing in Rio for the Track team. Ellen Pittleman of Hybrid Entertainment and Quiver Digital facilitated the digital launch to platforms including Netflix, Itunes, Amazon, Cable VOD and more.
Christopherson and his fellow Olympic athletes including Dotsie Bausch (Olympic Silver Medalist, London 2012) and Adam Laurent (Olympian, Atlanta 1996) shared outtakes from the film and secrets on how performance enhancing data – not drugs or doping – can deliver outstanding athletic performance, obtained by use of Fitbit-like wearable devices, using “big data” and new real-time monitoring to deliver peak performance in intense competitive environments, like those athletes are experiencing in Rio this month. Four years ago at the 2012 London Olympics, Dotsie Bausch and her teammates Jennie Reed, Sarah Hammer, and Lauren Tamayo shocked the world by winning the first women’s track cycling medal in 20 years on the heels of the Lance Armstrong drug scandal.
Christopherson says, “While this historic achievement marked the end of their Olympic journey, a new four-year journey began for our film team (and fellow Olympians) Tamara Jenkins, Adam Laurent and myself, to share these women’s story with the world through a documentary film called ‘Personal Gold’ Now, the 2016 Rio Olympics marks the arrival of this highly anticipated film ‘Personal Gold’ gives viewers a behind the scenes look into these women’s Olympic journey as they inspire people worldwide to go for their own ‘Personal Gold’”
Ellen Pittleman, President of Hybrid Entertainment, is serving as a sales agent on the documentary, which has had dozens of screenings around the country since it’s completion. Pittleman says, “I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the Personal Gold filmmaking team in bringing such a prestige, inspirational underdog story to the world’s attention through such a fantastic distribution partner as Quiver. In a short amount of time, together we were able to successfully get the film placed on all the major VOD platforms as well as highlighted as a featured promotion with our friends at InDemand and Netflix.”
Following a launch party for friends and family in Santa Monica’s WeWork space on Wednesday night, Silver Medalist Dotsie Bausch agrees, saying “The journey of a film making is much like that of an athlete as it requires an unshakable belief, lazed sharp focus, creativity, passion and consistent follow through. I feel incredibly honored that we finally get to share our film, Personal Gold, with the world.”
About Sky Christopherson
Called a ‘Wunderkind’ by The New York Times, and recently voted 5th nationwide in ‘Top 40 under 40 in Healthcare Innovation’, Sky is a world record holder and was a member of the U.S. Cycling Team’s ‘Project 96’ prior to the 1996 Olympics. Frustrated by the rampant doping culture in cycling, Sky retired after the 2000 Olympics and dedicated his career in search for a better solution. In 2011, Sky broke a world record using an individualized digital health approach inspired by Dr. Eric Topol, the previous holder of the record receiving a lifetime ban for drugs. This experiment was the genesis of OAthlete that helped athletes win medals at the 2012 London Olympics, receiving international media and featured in the award-winning documentary film ‘Personal Gold (2015)’.
About Quiver
Quiver helps filmmakers to distribute to worldwide audiences via video on demand retailers like iTunes, Google Play, and Netflix. Quiver manages all of the technical requirements, allowing you to focus on marketing your film and building a relationship with your audience. Quiver allows filmmakers to choose distribution retailers, choose their territories, set a launch date, and then submit their order. With Quiver, filmmakers are in complete control of their distribution strategy and filmmakers are charged one low flat fee allowing them to keep 100% of their revenue. Quiver’s parent company, Premiere Digital, is one of the largest digital servicing companies in the world. So when you distribute your film through Quiver, you’re working with an industry leader.
About Premiere Digital
Premiere Digital is one of the largest digital media, solutions and content servicing companies in the world, with 100 employees located between our Los Angeles Headquarters and facility in Bangalore, India. Premiere works with every major studio and 100’s of independent distributors (located worldwide), providing solutions and servicing their content to 100’s of digital retailers and broadcasters across the globe. Not only that, Premiere is a Preferred encoding house and aggregator for iTunes and Google Play, a Netflix Preferred Vendor for media servicing and a preferred aggregator for Microsoft.
Digital Assets:
Personal Gold website: www.personal-gold.com
Personal Gold Facebook: www.facebook.com/personalgold
Personal Gold iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/personal-gold-underdog-story/id1134929306
Personal Gold Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=jGazm_EEhpI
Quiver website: www.quiverdigital.com
Quiver Facebook: www.facebook.com/QuiverDigital
Published on Film Courage and Microfilmmaker Magazine.
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