Finally! The wrestling movie that’s going to show wrestlers how to #DefyDefeat is coming to theaters, and with a little help from the wrestling community, to a theater near you!
We’ve partnered with Tugg.com a web-platform that enables individuals, groups, and organizations to set up personalized screenings of Stand Up in theaters and community venues across the country. The best thing about a Tugg screening is that it gives Stand Up and those hosting the screening, freedom to make the events truly unique from your average theatrical experience, and to make an immediate real-world impact! Use this opportunity to spark change in your wrestling program and area in the following ways:
Rally and inspire your team by offering this fun, constructive, and rewarding event. Make it an after practice special before the weekend or a big tournament! The film was made to lift spirits and show wrestlers how much deeper they can dig!
Use a screening event to fundraise for your team! You can earn audience contributions, revenue (up to 40% for those aiming for a goal) from the event, or sales through merchandising (if the establishment allows).
Anyone can attend your event! Bring wrestlers, coaches, parents, and even other teams. Use this as an opportunity to unite your local wrestling community and build support for your teams! Audiences who have a blast with you will surely come out to see you wrestle!
Bring more attention to the sport in your school. Invite the students to show them what the sport is truly about and how it can propel them to a next level.
Bring the director via Skype or in person to relate his motivational story behind Stand Up, and to hold a Q&A afterwards.
Allow those purchasing tickets to also purchase the Special Edition DVD with multiple extras that will educate your wrestlers, giving them an edge on the mat.
This is a great opportunity to raise wrestling awareness, motivation, and pride! To spark change in your area and wrestling program, events can be used as fundraisers and can include audience discussions. As long as the venues allow it, you can even sell Stand Up merchandise to further support your cause.
Reel Nation Media will also be hosting screenings across the country. The theatrical premiere will be held on March 3rd, 2017, at the Midtown Cinema in Harrisburg, PA, where the film was created. The film will be touring Pennsylvania and surrounding states in March, and then other states like California, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Iowa in April.
If you can’t make it to any of the upcoming screenings, dont worry! The film is available online on demand through VHX, a web platform that allows you to stream thousands of movies from almost any device. Click here to go watch Stand Up on VHX now!
Standard DVDs will also be rolling out on Amazon and on our website in late February.
Read on for answers to some FAQ we’ve received, answered by producer and director Abdullah Abu-Mahfouz
Why Should I see Stand Up in Theaters Instead of DVD or Online?
Stand Up was made for the big screen! There’s truly a difference from watching it on your living room TV and then the big screen. We pride ourselves in the fact that Stand Up is literally as close as you can get to wrestling in a match. The camera puts you right there, but you really need to see it in a theater for it to truly shake you.
Stand Up was also meant for wrestling communities to see together. Watching it with all your teammates and sharing the laughs and cinematic anxiety is the emotional connection we want to create with audiences. We also want wrestlers to reflect upon the film together, and we hope that engagement leads to inspiration, truth, and understanding.
Please contact us if you want us to set up a screening near you!
Why is Stand Up coming to Theaters?
Good question! Yes we could just release on DVD and video on demand, but we really wanted to accomplish the following objectives with Stand Up.
Inspire wrestling teams across the US.
Give wrestling teams/programs a chance to use the film as a fundraiser or promotional event.
We wanted to let the world know what kind of films Reel Nation Media is capable of and how it can directly impact communities.
We feel that without a theatrical run, Stand Up cannot effectively contribute to these goals.
Why is Stand Up Coming so Late to Theaters? Isn’t it Already Out Online?
Ahhhhh… Well Stand Up is our first feature film, and our first self-distributed film. It was honestly a huge learning process that went through many mistakes. Originally we were set to release in theaters at the start of the Pennsylvania wrestling season, November 2016, but we ran into the following problems:
We had to crowdfund for theatrical materials that we were too naive to know we needed to work with Tugg.
Our crowdfunding funds came late due to some banking issues. That is when we released the film on VHX because we wanted you guys to see the movie ASAP.
After receiving our funds, we underestimated the amount of time the development and shipment of the distribution materials would take.
It was a learning experience indeed, and I do look back and hate myself for the blatantly wrong decisions made on my end. In a sense I feel like I failed as a producer to distribute something needed by the wrestling community, but I think growing and becoming better from that failure is what Stand Up is all about.
I am so proud to have Stand Up as my first feature film worthy of being in theaters, and I hope that I can impart the positive qualities I’ve learned from wrestling and producing Stand Up to wrestlers everywhere. If one person benefits, then it is all worth it.
The most successful people are the ones who fail the best. Stand Up!
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