The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of the New Day Films Collection. In celebration of this and New Day's 40^th anniversary, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will showcase a selection of the founders' films on Friday, April 13, 2012 at 4:50 pm, and host a panel conversation with all four founding members about New Day's exceptional history on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 9:30 am. 

Specializing in social-issue documentaries, New Day Films is a unique distribution company that has been run as a participatory, democratic filmmakers' cooperative for four decades; today, the company distributes 250 titles for 120 member filmmakers. 

The four founding New Day members, Liane Brandon, Jim Klein, Julia Reichert, and Amalie R. Rothschild, were inspired to form the organization by the conviction that reaching their audiences was as much a political act as the act of making films. 

The Women's Movement was in its early years and the filmmakers believed that film was an important way to spread the word. 

They also felt it was important for women to tell their own stories, rather than have their message distorted by the mass media and their identities represented by Hollywood.  They knew there was a huge demand for their films, though most mainstream distributors did not. 

The founders also wanted to create an organization dedicated to cooperation, independence, innovation and social change - a radical model of distribution.

The New Day Films Collection coming to the Rubenstein Library includes the founding films and organizational records of New Day founders. Documenting a pioneering film distribution company and collective, the first to distribute feminist films, the collection is also an important record of the Feminist Movement.

New Day films have been effective vehicles for social change, helping to expand consciousness about human rights, sexual roles in society, environmental concerns, aging, and other issues. 

The collection includes Academy Award winners and nominees, Emmy award winners, and hundreds of winning entries from film festivals around the world.  They have been frequently seen on HBO and POV.  

These films continue to shape opinions and provide an important voice for those who seek social justice, and the New Day cooperative continues its dedication to its founding ideals of cooperation, independence, innovation, and social change.

The Rubenstein is committed to preserving the New Day Films Collection for future generations to make this record of the evolution of progressive independent American filmmaking available for teaching and research.

For more information on New Day Films, see: http://www.newday.com/