Movie Partner Did Her Wrong, Woman Says
MILWAUKEE (CN) - The co-director of the Sundance Film Festival Grand
Jury Prize-winning documentary "American Movie" claims her partner
cheated her of credit for it - and hid millions of dollars of earnings
from her.
Sarah Price and Bluemark Productions sued Chris Smith in Milwaukee County Court.
Price
says she and Smith directed "American Movie," which won the Grand Jury
Prize for Best Documentary at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, but he
never gave her full credit for it, nor for succeeding projects.
Price
says she and Smith started Bluemark as a joint venture in 1996 and it
went on to become a profitable umbrella company for a number of
documentaries, feature films and commercials - including "American
Movie."
Price says the deal was that
they would be equal partners, though Smith was de facto president and
CFO who controlled the finances and relegated Price to "silent partner"
status.
Both are still members, but
Price says she has not received her 10 percent share of the profits
required by their operating agreement.
Price
says they disagreed about credit issues since "American Movie" wrapped,
forcing it to be credited as a "film by Chris Smith and Sarah Price"
with the only director credit going to Smith.
After
winning top prize at Sundance, Sony bought the film for $1 million and
it was "a national and critical success," according to the complaint.
In
2004, "American Movie" was named as one of the "1,000 Greatest Movies
Ever Made" and the International Documentary Association named it as one
of the top 20 documentaries of all time.
Price
says Smith took advantage of the lucrative opportunities that came his
way as a result of his director credit and did them all through Bluemark
without paying her a dime. She says he directed a "high profile
advertising campaign for the European telecommunications giant
Vodaphone," produced the movie "The Yes Men" and the TV show "Zero TV,"
and co-wrote and directed "The Pool," which won a Special Jury prize at
the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Meanwhile, Price says, she was running Bluemark's day-to-day operations.
At
one point, she says, Smith apologized, "telling her that his failure to
give her a director credit on American Movie was wrong, and that he
would therefore agree to help her direct commercials as well."
But
Price says that when she "showed up to work on the campaign however,
she was relegated to a 'girlfriend' role and never received the promised
co-director credit, much less any future work that would follow from
such a co-director credit."
Price says
she didn't realize she was being duped until last year: "It was not
until about the fall of 2010 that Ms. Price learned of Mr. Smith's
wrongful and self-serving actions in regard to the finances of Bluemark
and his usurpation of Bluemark's commercial advertising for his own
commercial gain," the complaint states. "During a discussion with Mr.
Smith's former commercial representative, Ms. Price was informed that
Mr. Smith had hidden Bluemark's true earnings from her. For example, Ms.
Price was informed that for the Vodaphone advertising campaign alone,
Bluemark had made well over $1 million none of which was distributed to
Ms. Price."
She claims that since 2000,
Smith has distributed Bluemark's earnings only to himself, though she
is a member of Bluemark.
Price seeks an
accounting and punitive damages for fraud, conversion, breach of
contract, unjust enrichment and misrepresentation, and proper credits
for "American Movie."
She is represented by Jacob Miota and Grant Killoran.