Hybrid Cinema Announces
Jon Reiss’ Global Graffiti Documentary
Bomb It 2
VOD Release Launch
On Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Follow-Up to Explosive Bomb It Explores Graffiti in
World’s Most Unlikely Places

LOS ANGELES, CA – June 28, 2013 – Hybrid Cinema is pleased to announce the VOD (Video On Demand) release of global graffiti documentary Bomb It 2, by award-winning Filmmaker-Author Jon Reiss on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 via Cinedigm. Going where no graffiti doc has gone before, in this follow-up to his explosive street art documentary Bomb It, Reiss travels to Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and beyond, exploring local graffiti scenes and speaking to local artists. Graffiti and street artists featured include Ash Keating, Bon, Great Bates, Husk Mit Navn, Klone, Know Hope, Phibs, Stormie Mills, Vexta, Victor Ash, Xeme, and many others. In keeping with the international approach to the film, Bomb It 2 is having premieres on three continents – North America, Asia, and Africa – with more screenings to come. On August 6th, Bomb It 2 will be available on demand via iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Xbox, Google/YouTube, and the Bomb It 2 website. Hulu, Netflix, and DVD releases will follow in September and October, 2013. For more information, please visit http://www.bombit2movie.com.

“I am continually inspired to explore the world’s vibrant graffiti and street art communities, which flourish in some of the most unlikely places – such as Singapore,” says Bomb It 2 Director Jon Reiss, “Wherever I go – from Perth to Copenhagen, to the West Bank and Tel Aviv – the need to express oneself in public is a constant, despite the potential risks.”

In Bomb It 2, the follow-up to the explosive 2007 global graffiti documentary Bomb It, Reiss takes audiences to previously unexplored areas of the Middle East, Europe, Asia, the United States, and Australia on a hunt for innovative street art and artists. Using an ultra compact camera and sound package, Reiss traveled by himself to artists representing a wide range of cultures, styles, and beliefs, with Reiss functioning as producer, director, cameraman, and sound person all at once on the film. In the process of making the film, he climbed into sewers, visited red ant infested buildings, and fractured his ankle in an Estonian hall of fame.

In the Middle East, Reiss talks with Muhnned Alazzh in the West Bank where Alazzh emphasizes the cultural and political significance of writing on the wall in Palestinian refugee camps. In Jakarta, Indonesia, Darbotz paints his signature squid monsters in black and white, to distinguish them from the explosion of color on the Jakarta streets. In Singapore, Reiss connects with street artists Zero and Killer Gerbil, who explain the paradox of doing graffiti in one of the most highly policed states in the world. Many countries visited for Bomb It 2 didn’t have much of a street art scene at all when the original Bomb It was shot back in 2004-2005.

“I am particularly fascinated in how each culture (and each person) takes this art form and makes it their own – how the local culture affects the development of graffiti in each place that I have visited,” says Reiss, “Tel Aviv and the refugee camps of Bethlehem couldn’t be more different. The former is on the verge of a street art explosion similar to Barcelona in the early ‘90s. In the West Bank, graffiti is much more about a political statement and ‘art’ is often viewed as reconciliation.”

Bomb It 2 Trailer
View at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-8P11WLbI&feature=share&list=UUG6dsgigbASjsgAuomJzhDA 

Bomb It 2 Screening Events –
Upcoming screenings include the Austin, Texas premiere of the film at the Alamo Drafthouse – The Ritz on Wednesday, August 7, 2013, at 7:00pm. In addition to a Q&A session with Nate Nordstrom (aka Sloke) and live painting by TITS Crew’s Slie One, the Austin event features a live remixing of the Bomb It 2 soundtrack during the film by DJ Chorizo Funk. A special Bomb It 2 audio mix has been created for live remixing at events, which will become a frequent feature at screenings to come.

“I am a firm believer in ‘event-izing’ what was previously called ‘theatrical,’” says Reiss, also a media strategist who consults on film distribution and marketing, “The studios repeatedly try to do this with gimmicks such as 3D and Imax, but until they realize that the theatrical release, in its current form, competes with digital in the realm of abundance with unlimited screening options, they are doomed to decreasing box office receipts wherever broadband is widely implemented. Filmmakers, especially independents, must create events around their films to motivate people to gather as a community.”

Bomb It 2 will also be presented at the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation the weekend of June 29-30, 2013, at noon on both days, and it will have its official International Premiere at the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa on Thursday, July 18, 2013. Reiss is partnering with Tugg.com for US screenings. For the Bomb It 2 screening event calendar, please see http://bombit2movie.com/screenings. To host a screening, please see http://bombit2movie.com/host-a-screening.

Bomb It 2 Kickstarter –
Hybrid Cinema will also run a $15,000 Kickstarter campaign for Bomb It 2, starting Monday, July 8, 2013. Campaign will be live at www.bombit2kickstarter.com when it launches. Campaign incentives include:
• A special Kickstarter digital download of Bomb It 2 with exclusive content
• Artwork from Bomb It 2 and Bomb It artists (including Stormie Mills, Blek le Rat, Xeme, Darbotz, Beejoir +)
• A signed limited edition silkscreen of the Shepard Fairey Bomb It poster
• Chat with Blek le Rat
• Bomb It 2 film screenings
• Hybrid Cinema consulting services to filmmakers

Bomb It 2 Credits –
• A Hybrid Cinema Production
• A Jon Reiss Film
• Produced & Directed by Jon Reiss
• Executive Producer for Babelgum: Laurence Billiet
• Co-Producers: Emy Takada and Rory Owen Delaney
• Associate Producer: Alexandra Tapley
• Editors: Kristofer Velasquez, Kevin Thangchaipinyokul, Benjamin Paris, Marc Wiltshire, Monet Malek, Adilla Amelia, Hu Jieqing
• Main Title Animation: Joaquin Baldwin
• Music: Shane Ries, Meredith Chin, Mike Genato, Marcus Woods, Apple Juice Kid, Spud Too Tight
• Run Time: 71m45s
• Country of Origin: USA
• Original Languages: English, Thai, Cantonese, Malay (with English Subtitles)
• Featuring: Alex Face, Ash Keating, Ayed, Beejoir, Bon, Darbotz, Foma, Great Bates, Husk Mit Navn, Killer Gerbil, Klone, Know Hope, Mars, MIC, Muhnned Alazzh, Phibs, Sloke, Stormie Mills, Thor, TwoOne, Vexta, Victor Ash, Xeme, and Zero.

Bomb It (2007) –
Released in 2007, the original Bomb It documentary investigates the most subversive and controversial art form currently shaping international youth culture: graffiti. Roughly 200 artists from 5 continents were interviewed by Reiss for the film including old school legends and current favorites such as Taki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, Mear One, and Blek Le Rat. At the core of the film is a statement about the war being waged for public space. Starting with graffiti’s roots in New York and Philadelphia, Bomb It goes on to explore the graff cultures in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Barcelona, Berlin, Cape Town, São Paulo, and Tokyo, before finally wrapping up in Los Angeles. The film features original footage with artists around the world who have taken the form and applied it to their particular cultural and social conditions, from Latin America, where graffiti has been adapted into the mural tradition, to Japan where anime inspired rakugaki juxtaposes with formal calligraphy and conformist societal norms, to Europe where a dadaist/surrealist tradition produces deliberately confrontational prankstering. To learn more, please visit www.bombit-themovie.com.

“The original Bomb It had a strong thematic orientation and an intellectual narrative – in the first film, we looked at the big global graffiti scenes and established the historical foundation of the art form,” says Reiss, “Since that foundation had already been established in the first film, we were able to approach Bomb It 2 in a much freer way, using an episodic structure.”

Graffiti –
While some believe the roots of graffiti can be traced back to pre-linguistic cave markings and the innate human need for self-expression, graffiti remains a highly controversial issue. Using a myriad of original interviews, as well as guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action, Bomb It and Bomb It 2 both tell the story of contemporary graffiti, from its roots in ancient rock paintings through Picasso, to the rise of hip hop culture in 1970s New York City, culminating in its current, pervasive presence in a variety of forms – on the streets and in pop culture throughout the world.

The controversy surrounding graffiti is an integral part of the story: from anti-tagging groups, to the impact of New York City’s infamous “Quality of Life” laws, which directly targeted illicit writing, to the proliferation of these laws throughout the world. Graffiti – as well as stenciling, stickering, postering, and any unsanctioned graphic “interference” in public space – raises important questions that delve deep into our contemporary social structure such as: Who has the right to express themselves? What is a canvas? Where should art take place? If public space is a forum for discussion, which voices will be heard?

Jon Reiss –
“Filmmaker Jon Reiss finds himself drawn to subcultures with guts,” the Village Voice wrote during an interview for Bomb It’s world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Named one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch” by Daily Variety, the critically-acclaimed filmmaker has covered the West Coast punk explosion, documented the notorious San Francisco performance group Survival Research Laboratories, rave culture in his debut feature-length documentary, Better Living Through Circuitry, and, most recently, graffiti culture. He also has a non-doc under his belt: the award-winning dark psychological drama, Cleopatra’s Second Husband. Also famous for his music videos, in 1995 the Toronto Film Festival curated a retrospective of Reiss’ music videos, which included the notoriously disturbing and award-winning 1992 video, “Happiness in Slavery,” by Nine Inch Nails. He is currently producing a global transmedia project about breast cancer, centered around a cinema verite documentary on the same subject, titled Agatha’s Choice.

His work has screened at festivals, theaters and cultural centers throughout the world as well as on channels such as IFC, Showtime, and the Sundance Channel. Reiss is also a media strategist who helps filmmakers and companies navigate the new distribution and marketing landscape. His experience releasing Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. He also co-wrote Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul. He has worked with and consulted for Paramount Pictures, Screen Australia, Film Independent, Creative Scotland, The South Australian Film Corporation, the Venice Biennale, and numerous film schools and festivals to devise ways to educate and help independent filmmakers in the new economic landscape. He has conducted his Think Outside the Box Office (TOTBO) Master Classes over four continents, and is the year-round distribution and marketing lab leader at the IFP Filmmaker Labs. He received his MFA from the UCLA Film School and teaches in the Film Directing Program at the California Institute for the Arts. Reiss also contributes to Filmmaker Magazine, Huffington Post, Indiewire, Screen Daily, Moviemaker Magazine, and other publications. While Reiss has no current plans for a Bomb It 3, he admits to being curious about the sort of graffiti he might find in Antarctica. “Wherever people go, they write on walls,” says Reiss. www.jonreiss.com

Cinedigm –
As the leading distributor of independent content in the world, Cinedigm collaborates with producers and the exhibition community with unequalled transparency to market, source, curate and distribute quality content across all digital platforms to targeted and profitable audiences. The company’s library of over 5,000 titles and 20,000 digital releases includes award-winning documentaries from Docurama Films®, next-gen indies from Flatiron Film Company® and acclaimed independent films and festival picks through partnerships with the Sundance Institute and Tribeca Film. Cinedigm is proud to distribute many Oscar®-nominated films including The Invisible War, Hell and Back Again, GasLand, Waste Land, and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. Current and upcoming releases include Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12, Penny Lane’s Our Nixon, Shaul Schwarz’s Narco Cultura, Jared Moshe’s Dead Man’s Burden, Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy, Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright’s Call Me Kuchu, and Jimmy Loweree’s Absence. http://www.cinedigm.com

Hybrid Cinema –
Hybrid Cinema was created by director and author Jon Reiss to help filmmakers navigate the ever-changing world of film distribution and marketing. Hybrid Cinema consults with filmmakers to guide them through the maze of digital distribution and marketing by utilizing modern strategies of audience engagement, special theatrical events, as well as innovative merchandising and release patterns. The firm also supervises film releases. Hybrid clients/releases include Paramount Studios, Creative Visions Foundation, The Yes Men are Revolting, Connected/Tiffany Shlain, Bomb It, Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, Habibi, The Heist, and The Cosmonaut. www.hybridcinema.com

Links –
• Bomb It 2 Site – www.bombit2movie.com
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bombitglobalgraffiti
• Bomb It Blog – http://blog.bombit-themovie.com/
• Trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-8P11WLbI&feature=share&list=UUG6dsgigbASjsgAuomJzhDA
• YouTube Channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/BombItTheMovie
• Kickstarter – www.bombit2kickstarter.com (starting 7/8/13)
• Twitter – @bombitthemovie
• Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/bombitthemovie2/
• Tumblr – http://bombitmovie.tumblr.com/

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For more information, screeners, images, or to request interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 orlynn@greengalactic.com.