Submarine & Concord Originals Director Ilya Chaiken’s Musical Film “Pretty Ugly: The Story Of The Lunachicks” – DOC NYC

EXCLUSIVE: Submarine has acquired worldwide distribution rights for Ilya Chaiken’s music documentary Pretty Ugly: The Story of the Lunachicksbefore the world premiere at DOC NYC.

Concord Originals, the narrative content creation arm of LA-based music management company Concord, came on board with financing and production.

The film centers on the influential New York underground punk band Les Lunachicks, who had their heyday in the 1990s with songs like “Les Lunachicks.” Fallopian tube rhapsody And Bitterness Barbieand has performed live with No Doubt, Green Day, The Offspring, The Go-Go’s, NOFX, Rancid, The Ramones, Rev Horton Heat, The Buzzcocks and Joan Jett, among others.

Director and producer Chaiken catches up with the band decades after their messy breakup, as the members attempt to reunite for one final show.

“I have been an avid Lunachicks fan since attending their very first show in 1988 when we were all teenagers. At the manufacture Quite ugly“I wanted to not only relive the Lunachicks experience, but also capture their story of enduring friendship, survival and triumph—a universal story that I believe will resonate with viewers of all generations,” said Chaiken.

The filmmaker’s previous credits include Sundance and TIFF Margarita Happy Hour and Liberty Kidwhich was distributed theatrically by Kino Lorber and is now streaming on Max.

Pretty Ugly: The Story of the Lunachicks The executive producers are Betsy West and Julie Cohen, who directed and produced the Oscar-nominated film RBG and Amazon’s Peabody Award-winning film My name is Pauli Murray; and Sophia Dilley, Charles Hopkins and Bob Valentine of Concord Originals; with Wesley Adams and Quíle Gomez of Concord Originals as co-producers. Concord Originals is financing the film.

“We fell in love with this fantastic story about the pioneering Lunachicks who weren’t afraid to speak their minds! Ilya captured the humor, energy and courage of the 80s and 90s punk scene as we follow the queens of punk rock on their journey full of exciting performances and triumphant moments as the band overcomes personal and professional obstacles. “It’s a fun ride that will turn you into a punk rock fan if you’re not already,” Dilley said.

Submarine represents global rights with CAA Media Finance.

“Pretty Ugly: The Story of the Lunachicks is simply a music documentary that rocks hard in every way and we can’t wait for the world to see it,” said Dan Braun, co-founder of Submarine with Josh Braun.

The Concord Originals transaction was brokered by David Markman of DLA Piper LLP.

Submarine has already been involved in the sales of six Oscar-winning documentaries: American factory, Citizenfour, 6 feet from fame, Man on the wire, the bay And Looking for a sugar man.

The 2023 Sundance Competition documentary was recently produced Aum: The Cult at the End of the World and the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary series Andy Warhol’s diaries.

DOC NYC runs November 8-26.