For Immediate Release

BARBERSHOP PUNK / Ford Foundation

SxSW now exclusive screening

Los Angeles, CA – Festival audiences at SXSW will get an inside preview of

Georgia Sugimura Archer and Kristin Armfield’s directorial debut BARBERSHOP PUNK on Monday, March 15 at 9:30 P.M. at the Austin Convention Center. A second preview is scheduled for Thursday, March 18th at 2:45 P.M.

The soon-to-be-completed feature length documentary “keeps the independent/punk spirit alive” by following barbershop quartet fan Robb Topolski as he takes on the nation’s largest cable company, only to find himself at the center of a federal investigation. Through famous and controversial YouTube distribution stories, encounters with odd bedfellows and interviews with punk rock icons, the concept of “net neutrality” has never been so personal or so urgent –inspiring a larger story of censorship, individual voice and access.

Director/Writer/Producer Georgia Sugimura Archer, who will introduce the film at SXSW along with Co-Director/Producer Kristin Armfield, notes that the screenings are happening at a very exciting time for the production. “It’s taken over 2 1/2 years to get this far, and just as our savings and credit cards were emptying out we heard from SXSW and the Ford Foundation.  This means that we’ll be able to share our film with the sophisticated SXSW audience and then, thanks to a post production grant, go back and get it ready for its official premiere sometime this summer. It’s so difficult, especially for independent filmmakers, to have to stop a vision short when funds run out. Now, thanks to the support of The Ford Foundation and SXSW, this won’t happen to us.”

Co-Director Armfield points out, “One of the themes of BARBERSHOP PUNK is the powerful drive that creative people have to share their work – even as it emerges. We couldn’t think of a better place to do just that than in Austin.”