SAN JOSE, CA —Wolfe Releasing, the largest exclusive distributor of LGBT film and video, is proud to announce the theatrical release date for 3 NEEDLES. Thom Fitzgerald’s explosive portrait of the global AIDS crisis will open on Friday, December 1, 2006, in conjunction with World AIDS Day. The film, which depicts three intimate and diverse stories of people dealing with the AIDS crisis in China, Canada and Africa, stars Lucy Liu, Chloë Sevigny, Stockard Channing, Olympia Dukakis, Sandra Oh, and Shawn Ashmore.
On December 1, 2006, 3 NEEDLES will open in a limited release pattern in approximately 20 markets, in conjunction with World AIDS Day. Wolfe Releasing, in collaboration with Covington USA, will work closely with non-profit organizations and community groups in a series of benefit screenings to help spread the powerful message of the film. World AIDS Day was started by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988 to focus global attention on the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic, and the day is currently managed by the World AIDS Campaign.
Thom Fitzgerald, who previously directed THE HANGING GARDEN, BEEFCAKE, and THE EVENT, created 3 NEEDLES to present a portrait of people all over the world who struggle to sustain their spirits in the face of the deadly AIDS crisis. This luminous film visits rural China, a plantation in South Africa, and Montreal’s porn industry, to tell three separate yet universal stories from the pandemic.
In China, Ping (Lucy Liu) is a pregnant young woman running a black market blood collection scam that creates a mini-epidemic in a rural village. In Montreal, Denys (Shawn Ashmore) is a porn actor hiding his positive HIV status in order to continue working and supporting his mother (Stockard Channing), who herself goes to extreme lengths to provide for the family’s future. And, in Africa, Sister Clara (Chloë Sevigny) is a young novice nun driven to convert the rapidly dying Africans to Catholicism before it’s too late who makes a desperate bargain with a corrupt plantation owner to help prevent the spread of HIV in the region. Sandra Oh and Olympia Dukakis portray nuns in the same order who accompany her on the journey.
The film has already begun gathering widespread acclaim from around the world. Bruce Kirkland of the Toronto Sun said, “The spectre of AIDS has never been treated on film with the bravado, the scope and the ambition of Thom Fitzgerald's drama 3 NEEDLES.” And, Time Out UK hailed the film’s “stunning photography and powerful performances.” And, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described the film as “Courageous…it has a raw beauty and energy.”
As previously announced, the US release version of 3 NEEDLES reinstates Thom Fitzgerald’s intended structure, content and tone, including approximately 20 minutes of crucial footage, such as a controversial sex scene featuring Stockard Channing in a Montreal strip club.
3 NEEDLES recently had a gala premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where actress Lucy Liu honored pioneering AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho, and the film is currently screening at major film festivals across the United States. And, on July 11, 2006, Lucy Liu will be honored at the annual Video Software Dealer’s Association conference with the group’s Humanitarian Award for her work in this film, as well as with UNICEF as a Celebrity Ambassador working on Pakistani earthquake relief and HIV/AIDS issues in China.
