VICE DISTRIBUTION ANNOUNCES FIRST SPRING SLATE
VICE Distribution, the recently formed distribution division of VICE Media
Group, reveals first programming slate for Spring
LONDON, 17 FEBRUARY 2021 - VICE Distribution, the global distribution division of VICE
Media Group, has revealed its first slate of programming for Spring following the launch of
the business last year. The slate features 250 hours of new premium non-scripted content
from across VICE Media Group including true crime, investigative documentary, current
affairs and politics, as well as pop culture and entertainment.
VICE Distribution launched in Summer 2020 with over 900 hours of documentary, lifestyle
and news programming. The new Spring slate comes from producers including VICE
Studios, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning co-producers of 'Flee', VICE World News,
the newly-launched content hub from VICE Media Group who produce hundreds of hours of
international television, digital and audio news programming for a global audience, and
high-end third party producers including Icon Films, 44 Blue Productions, Railsplitter
Pictures and Insight Productions.
Bea Hegedus, Global Head of Distribution, VICE Studios, said: 'Our Spring slate of
premium and distinctive factual programming has international appeal and speaks to the
issues and subjects which youth audiences truly care about. We look forward to bringing our
unique content directly from our award-winning producers, production partners and channels
to global audiences."
The brand new Spring slate features true crime series including 'Jack the Ripper: Hidden
Victims', a new three-part documentary from VICE Studios for Channel 5 in the UK, which
debunks the myths and mistruths around the Jack the Ripper murders. Produced by VICE
World News,''Criminal Planet', which reveals the latest trends in global crime and the
increasingly complex, high-tech and wide-reaching challenges faced by law enforcement
and will air on VICE TV this year and Point Blank' is an immersive cultural examination of
Asia's obsession with guns, examining gun culture as a way to gain a deeper understanding
of the countries we visit.
VICE Distribution's premium investigative documentary, politics and current affairs selection
includes VICE Studios produced 'QAnon: The Search for Q' which chases down the
mysterious figure behind the movement known as 'Q' who has amassed a devoted following
of online conspiracy theorists. The series also more than tripled VICE TV's primetime
audience and was the best performing content in nearly a year. From Efran Films and
narrated by Jeffery Wright (Westworld) comes 'While The Rest Of Us Die', unpacking
America's national security spending and plan to suspend democracy in order to serve the
interests of the elite class. Produced by VICE World News, 'Wet Markets Exposed' goes
inside the epidemic of wet markets for exotic wild pets and follows the efforts of the heroic
people who are trying to shut them down in order to protect the planet's biodiversity and
'Border to Border' investigates life at the junctions of crime, escalating armed conflict with a
lense of local culture.
Pop culture and entertainment titles include a brand new season of VICE Studios highly
successful wrestling documentary 'Dark Side of the Ring' as well as VICE TV's recently
announced expansion of the franchise with two new series, 'Dark Side of Football' and
'Dark Side of the '90s', which look at the untold stories of American football and the 90's.
From VICE World News comes the 6-part series 'The Deep End: Fanatics', which explores
the space between interest and obsession in youth culture today and 'Reset', which reveals
the origins of the global phenomenon of video games, from Millennial nostalgia for Super
Mario Brothers and Zelda, and Gen Z's obsession with Fortnite.
Other productions include the recently announced series from Icon Films, VICE World News
and VICE TV, 'Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade', which explores the real modern-day
Amazonia in all its complexity, as well as the third season of the VICE TV original 'Hamilton's
Pharmacopeia', which follows journalist, documentarian, and scientific researcher Hamilton
Morris on an incredible journey as he investigates the history, chemistry and societal impacts
of the world's most extraordinary drugs.
VICE Distribution recently announced partnerships with SBS Australia for 700 hours of VICE
Media Group content, and with Hulu in the US for over 100 hours of original VICE TV
programming. VICE Distribution holds further content partnerships with Bell Media in
Canada, AMC International in Iberia and Hulu in Japan.
SPRING SLATE HIGHLIGHTS
True Crime
Criminal Planet
8x60' Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV
Criminal Planet is a landmark eight-part series that reveals the latest trends in global crime
and the increasingly complex, high-tech and wide-reaching challenges faced by law
enforcement. The series explains underlying causes of global crime, hearing from victims,
and profiles those on the cutting edge of enforcement who are seeking to break the criminal
cycles that hurt our societies.
Jack the Ripper: Hidden Victims
3x60' Produced by VICE Studios for Channel 5 UK
A new three-part documentary debunking the myths and mistruths around the Jack the
Ripper murders. Three experts - a historian, a forensic psychologist and a former police
detective - will re-examine the five horrific murders through a modern lens, using the stories
of the murdered women to give new insight into the tragic events of 1888.
Point Blank
6x60' Produced by VICE World News
Despite strict regulation and red tape, the Asia-Pacific region has some of the highest figures
of gun ownership, manufacturing, smuggling, and gun-related deaths in the world. This
series is an immersive cultural examination of Asia's obsession with guns, looking at how
guns affect the people who traffic and use them in their everyday lives, examining gun
culture as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the countries we visit.
Pop Culture and Entertainment
Dark Side of the Ring S3
14x60' Produced by VICE Studios in partnership with Bell Media's Crave for VICE TV
The third season continues the rich storytelling that defined seasons one and two and will
bring viewers more of the real life drama they crave. Through first-person interviews, rare
archival footage and dramatic recreations, Dark Side of the Ring exposes the wild and often
criminal elements that dwell in the shadows of professional wrestling.
Dark Side of (American) Football
8x60' Produced by 44 Blue Productions for VICE TV
Expanding its record-breaking docuseries 'Dark Side of the Ring' into a franchise, 'Dark Side
of (American) Football' is a brand new VICE commission which shines a light on stories that
live in the shadows of America's favorite sport.
Dark Side of the '90s
10x60' Produced by Railsplitter Pictures and Insight Productions for VICE TV
Dark Side of the '90s will reveal the soul of the decade through its most captivating
pop-culture moments, trends and personalities, through interviews with people who studied
the time period. Each episode will dissect the nostalgia, uncovering the surprising dark truths
underlying the glitz, the glamour and the headlines.
Fanatics: The Deep End
6x30' Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV
Fandom is the new religion. As traditional institutions and belief systems lose power, new
cults of personality are born every day; YouTubers, Dictators, Wellness gurus. Alice Hines
explores the space between interest and obsession - fandom and fanaticism - and
nothing is as it seems.
Reset
10x30' Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV
Video games are no longer niche, they're the biggest media industry in the world. Reset
reveals the untold origins of the global phenomenon, exploring the biggest games in history,
appealing equally to Millennial nostalgia for Super Mario Brothers and Zelda, and Gen Z's
obsession with Fortnite.
Investigative Documentary, Politics and Current Affairs
Border to Border
10x30' Produced by VICE World News
New diseases, climate change, escalating armed conflict - all are creating unprecedented
challenges and transformations. We put boots on the ground to explore what it's like to live
along the lines drawn between countries at a time when they're both being hardened by
nationalism and also rendered obsolete by globalization and the digital revolution.
Fringe Nation
4x60' Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV
Former President Donald Trump vowed to designate the anti-fascist movement "Antifa" a
terrorist organization in the wake of some nationwide protests that became violent. Turns
out, there is no official federal designation for domestic terrorism organizations, but there are
plenty of groups that could easily fit that definition. We deep dive into the groups most cited
and seen in this political storm and identified the emerging extremist groups we all need to
watch out for.
QAnon: The Search for Q
3x60' Produced by VICE Studios for VICE TV
This series lays out what's next for the QAnon conspiracy group and chases down the
mysterious figure behind the movement known as 'Q'. Going behind the scenes with the
experts, insiders and QAnon faithful as we follow the breadcrumbs to investigate the true
identity of Q; from former CIA officer Robert David Steele who is revered in the QAnon
movement, to Fredrick Brennan, the creator of the website where Q's posts first gained
notoriety (8chan) who now seeks to expose Q as a fraud, to a former Chicago PD officer
turned QAnon influencer, to believers and members of the supposed 'Deep State' targeted
by Q.
Wet Markets Exposed
4x60' Produced by VICE World News for VICE TV
A groundbreaking limited series that goes inside the epidemic of wet markets and pet
markets to shine a light on those working to shut them down and protect the planet's
vulnerable citizens and fragile biodiversity. The series features adventurer Forrest Galante
from Animal Planet's "Extinct or Alive".
While The Rest Of Us Die
Produced by Efran Films for VICE TV
Narrated by Westworld's Jeffrey Wright and based on the bestselling book Raven Rock, this
series explores the chasm between the powerful and the rest of us by exposing a hidden
world inside the United States consisting of an incredible physical and legal network of
secret places and procedures that began being constructed during the Cold War and
continue to function to this day.
Other
Hamilton's Pharmacopeia S3
6x60' A VICE TV Production for VICE TV
Hamilton's Pharmacopeia continues its mission to unravel the mysteries and science of the
globe's most powerful psychedelics and meet the extraordinary minds behind them. Over the
course of six hour-long episodes, audiences will follow Hamilton on his wildest journeys yet
including visiting meth labs to explore various forms of Methamphetamines and traveling to
South America for the world's oldest psychedelic Bufotenine.
Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade
6x60' Produced by ICON Films, VICE TV and VICE World News for VICE TV
A new documentary series that explores the unique diversity of Amazonia and the people
who live there. Hosted by Brazilian author and journalist Pedro Andrade, the series will take
viewers on an epic journey through the Amazon Basin, to show them the real modern-day
Amazonia in all its complexity.
ENDS
ABOUT VICE STUDIOS
VICE Studios is a global production and distribution division within VICE Media Group delivering
premium original programming across documentary, scripted and film. With development and
production teams in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, VICE Studios
cuts through culture, delivering stories that are popular, human and spotlight the unexpected for
audiences around the world.
VICE Studios also houses VICE's new licensing and distribution group, with a catalogue of over 1000
hours of programming created across the VICE Media Group, across a range of genres from
documentary to lifestyle to Vice News.
VICE Studios upcoming original productions include Flee, World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury
Prize winner at Sundance 2021, six-part documentary series Pride for FX and Moments Like This
Never Last which premiered at DOCNYC. Launched in 2017, VICE Studios productions include Chris
Smith's Emmy-nominated Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond and Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never
Happened (Netflix); feature film The Report starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening (Amazon);
Diego Osorno's 1994 (Netflix), Dark Side of the Ring (VICE TV), AKA Jane Roe (FX), and Satanic
Verses (BBC).
ABOUT VICE WORLD NEWS
Building off the success of VICE News in the U.S, VICE World News is a newly-launched content hub
from VICE Media Group, producing hundreds of hours of international television, digital and audio
news programming for a global audience. The premium documentaries, docu-series and original
podcasts will focus on the core issues that so define VICE's content: extremism, climate, drugs,
privacy, politics, inequality and race.
ABOUT VICE MEDIA GROUP
VICE Media Group is the world's largest independent youth media company. Launched in 1994,
VICE has offices in 35 cities across the globe with a focus on five key businesses: VICE.com, an
award-winning international network of digital content; VICE STUDIOS, a feature film and television
production studio; VICE TV, an Emmy-winning international television network; a Peabody
award-winning NEWS division with the most Emmy-awarded nightly news broadcast; and VIRTUE, a
global, full-service creative agency with 25 offices around the world. VICE Media Group's portfolio
includes Refinery29, the leading global media and entertainment company focused on women;
PULSE Films, a London-based next-generation production studio with outposts in Los Angeles, New
York, Paris and Berlin; i-D, a global digital and bimonthly magazine defining fashion and
contemporary culture; and Garage, a digital platform and biannual publication converging the worlds
of art and design.
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