Errol Morris’ ‘Separated’ Scores Multi-Pronged, Oscar-Qualifying Release

Errol Morris’ hailed Venice and Telluride premiere “Separated” has finally landed a release date. It’s a multi-pronged release from MSNBC, Submarine Deluxe, and Greenwich. Co-produced by NBC News Studios, Participant, Fourth Floor and Moxie Pictures, the film about the Trump administration’s inhumane immigration policy will have a one-week theatrical run at the IFC Center starting October 4 and will launch on MSNBC December 7.

MSNBC Films has acquired the hard-hitting exposé by Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (“The Fog of War”), probing family separation at the U.S./Mexico border. Based on NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book, “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy,” Morris interviews government officials and creates a dramatic narrative tracing one migrant family’s harrowing journey to the U.S./Mexico border. The U.S. government developed and implemented policies that kept over 1,300 children without confirmed reunifications years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

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One of the central participants in the story is Commander Jonathan White, the former Deputy Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for the Unaccompanied Alien Children’s (UAC) Program, with whom Morris conducted almost five hours of Interrotron interviews.

Submarine Deluxe has come onboard to handle theatrical release with Greenwich Entertainment joining to handle home entertainment.

“Separated” is one of the last films backed by shuttered Participant, which orchestrated this distribution solution with Submarine and Cinetic ahead of the upcoming presidential election in the U.S.

At Telluride, Morris told me he wanted people to see his movie as soon as possible. “To say that I’m a little bit discouraged would be an understatement,” he said. “Well, it’s not over. We’re working on it. We have not given up.”

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