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TCB pushes into feature docs

How I Created A Cult focuses on Andrew Cohen

UK-based distributor TCB Media Rights has added a feature-length BBC documentary to its slate and commissioned a three-part series about a cult leader.

The Kew Media-backed firm has picked up London-based Top Hat Productions’ 90-minute documentary The $50m Art Swindle, commissioned by the BBC’s Mark Bell for long-running art strand Arena.

Made by filmmaker Vanessa Engle (The Funeral Murders), it is set to air on BBC2 this summer and centres on rogue New York art dealer Michel Cohen, who, in 2000, swindled the art establishment out of more than US$50m before going on the run, never to be seen again.

Eighteen years later, Engle manages to track down the fugitive and persuade him to tell his extraordinary story.

TCB has also commissioned How I Created a Cult (3×60′), which comes from UK indie Conscious Life and has been developed in conjunction with Oscar-nominated Spring Films.

It follows the journey of Andrew Cohen from enigmatic spiritual leader and seeker of enlightenment to the head of a global cult with absolute power over thousands of devoted followers.

The series reveals how, over the course of three decades, Cohen’s spiritual utopia descended into a nightmare of life-threatening punishments, mock amputations, brainwashing, extortion and extreme psychological abuse.

It is drawn from 60 hours of original interviews with students and victims, over 200 hours of archive footage and an unprecedented series of interviews with Cohen himself, TCB said.

Hannah Demidowicz will act as executive producer for TCB Media Rights, while Alex Howard and Meagen Gibson will executive produce for Conscious Life. Both The $50m Art Swindle and How I Created A Cult will be launched at Mipcom in October.

TCB began fully funding series last year, starting with the shows World’s Most Incredible Hotels (13×60′), World’s Most Extraordinary Families (6×60′) and Wild Tube (12×30′).

Jimmy Humphrey, head of acquisitions and coproductions at TCB Media Rights, said: “We certainly don’t want to forget our heartland of factual and fact entertainment; this is our lifeblood and it’s what the buyers know us for. However, with these two shows in particular, it allows us to make a less clunky, more obvious move into the premium space.

“These two projects reflect the polarisation of the market that we now see across many platforms, that is, between big-budget ‘noisy’ and lower-budget higher-volume. Both areas have to perform quickly, however, and TCB is set up to flex and exploit the unscripted market and these are two hugely stand-out, well-crafted stories.”

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