The service's first offering will be Passing Strange, Spike Lee's film of the musical of the same name. The musical was created by singer/songwriter Stew, with music co-written by his creative partner, Heidi Rodewald. Strange has Sundance woven through it's DNA, as the musical was developed in part at the Sundance Theater Lab and the Sundance Directors Lab, and Lee's film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Sundance Selects will feature one premiere title a month on demand, with plans to increase the offering to two premiere titles each month. Docs in the line-up include Kief Davidson’s Kassim the Dream (November 4), Tom Thurman’s Nick Nolte: No Exit (December 16) and Chris Wiatt’s A Complete History of My Sexual Failures” (January 2010).
Rainbow Media President and CEO Joshua Sapan said in a statement, “After purchasing the Sundance Channel last year, Rainbow has been exploring relevant and appropriate growth opportunities for the brand. We are lucky to have the wisdom and taste of Robert Redford to guide us in the development of the service, and believe we share a vision of this as an exciting opportunity to bring unprecedented exposure and opportunity for this genre of films and filmmakers.”