Today HA/HA and 2R Productions announced the video-on-demand (VOD) launch date for their New York Times Critics Pick documentary SAM NOW – directed by Reed Harkness – as June 6 on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and VUDU.
What do two film-obsessed brothers do to solve a family mystery? Using every video format imaginable, they make a movie as they travel thousands of miles looking for their missing mom. Stitching together 25 years of home videos and filling the gaps in the archive with play, SAM NOW is a mosaic of love, longing, and loss, as well as an attempt to overcome intergenerational trauma.
“I am excited that SAM NOW will be available on VOD,” states the film’s director Reed Harkness. “As a teen, I watched every independent film I could get my hands on from the local video store. I loved coming-of-age movies. I loved Truffaut and Apted. But nothing existed quite like what I really wanted to see, so over the next 25 years, I made this movie. It’s totally, exactly the film I’ve wanted to see. I hope that anyone who watches SAM NOW can find a piece of themselves within it.”
Following its World Premiere at Hot Docs 2022, the film has screened at over 30 film festivals, winning 12 total awards, seven for Best Documentary. These festivals include the Zurich Film Festival 2022, SCAD Savannah Film Festival 2022, Bend Film Festival 2022, Santa Cruz Film Festival 2022, Indie Memphis Film Festival 2022, Spokane International Film Festival 2023 and the Victoria Film Festival 2023.
SAM NOW is a HA/HA Production produced by Reed Harkness and Jason Reid, and co-produced with ITVS and 2R Productions. The film is executive produced by Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer for ITVS and Andy McDonough, Colin Harper Plank, David J. Cornfield and D.D. Wigley. The film features an original score from Roger Neill and is edited by Darren Lund and Jason Reid. Heather Hawksford and Adam Spiro Brown are co-producers with cinematography by Reed Harkness. The soundtrack features music by The Sonics, The Wailers, Dead Moon, Porcelain Raft, Smog, Kath Bloom, Styrofoam and Teengenerate.
