CITY OF GHOSTS Trailer
Director Matthew Heineman brings audience close to danger again with his latest documentary, City of Ghosts.
His subjects, the activist group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), has been reporting on life in the ISIS-controlled city of Raqqa since its takeover in 2014, putting themselves at extreme risk to offer the outside world a glimpse of life under the group. Regular journalism has been shut down inside the city, and as you can see from this trailer, RBSS has been forced to use covert tactics to get news out. This has drawn the ire of ISIS, and members, friends, and family of RBSS have been threatened or killed.
Like in Heineman’s previous film, the Oscar-nominated Cartel Land, these are ordinary citizens stepping in to fill a void, and the range of angles available to Heineman here are vast. There’s the optimism of people volunteering for dangerous work, the fascinating characters who choose these lives, and the sheer drama of being under constant threat. Stories like City of Ghosts not only highlight people who deserve recognition, they allow Heineman to draw an audience with genuinely compelling scenarios.
The documentary drew rave reviews after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, enough to draw a $2 million distribution deal with Amazon. That’s big money for a doc, but there’s good reason to think City of Ghosts will thrive theatrically and online.
City of Ghosts is directed by Matthew Heineman. It will be released in the U.S. on July 7th, 2017 and in the U.K. on July 21st, 2017. Further release dates are not currently known.
Are you interested in seeing ready for another tense doc from Heineman? Let us know in the comments!
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