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Rights

U.K.-based distributor Dcd Rights has acquired Grammy-nominated feature documentary “Music, Money, Madness… Jimi Hendrix Live In Maui.” The 90-minute documentary chronicles guitar legend Jimi Hendrix’s visit to Maui in July 1970 and details how he became ensnared in “Rainbow Bridge,” an ill-fated independent film produced by his manager, Michael Jeffery.

Jeffery secured a 300,000 advance against the promise of a soundtrack album by Hendrix — the first time a movie was funded solely by an album. Jeffery hired Chuck Wein, a former associate of Andy Warhol, to direct. However, without a script or professional actors, the shoot was proving one of excess. With Hendrix and the Experience already booked to play Honolulu, Wein, desperate to feature the band, planned to film them playing on the slope of the dormant Haleakala volcano. The show was a success but the film, less so.

The documentary is produced under the Experience Hendrix label,...

Ever-busy director David DeCoteau passed on the first pics and storylines for Stem Cell and Alien Presence, the fifth and sixth features in his 10-picture deal with Regent Entertainment. “Paul Colichman and Stephen P. Jarchow produced these films,” DeCoteau tells us, “which are expected to be released theatrically by Regent Releasing in spring 2009, followed by airings on here! TV soon after.”

Stem Cell (pictured above), scripted by DeCoteau’s frequent collaborators Jana K. Arnold and Matthew Jason Walsh, stars Darcy Fowers, Brian Gross, Jason-Shane Scott and genre veteran Dee Wallace. The director offers the following synopsis: “While recovering from an emotional trauma, Rita heads to the mountains to recuperate in peace and solitude. But a doctor named Pierce has hidden himself away in the boonies to work on stem cell research, and his experiments have run wildly amok—only Rita cannot tell if the horrific things she sees scuttling in...

By Neil Pedley

Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen put their signature on an oater, but they're not the only ones to head west this week . an all-star cast led by Charlize Theron charge into Seattle, Wayne Wang follows the travels of a Chinese scientist visiting his daughter in Spokane, Neil Labute tries vilifying the L.A.P.D. and Ricky Gervais heads across the pond to bring his schtick to an American comedy.

"All of Us"

In this documentary, filmmaker Emily Abt follows Dr. Mehret Mandefro, a young, Ethiopian-born, Harvard-educated physician working in the South Bronx, and her efforts to both treat and bring awareness to the plight of African-American women affected by the HIV virus. Through her research with two of her patients and their own candid stories and circumstances, Dr. Mandefro highlights some of the key factors that have led to a steep increase in the number of...