Awful news from indieWIRE:
After six years in business, Cowboy Pictures has closed its doors. The New York based indie distribution company, which was founded by John Vanco and Noah Cowan, recently let go of its employees and last week filed for bankruptcy. Greg Williams and his Lot 47 team joined Cowboy at its Laight St. offices this summer and he remains with Lot 47 following a split with Vanco and Cowboy.
“We’ve had a great run and I’m extremely proud of the wonderful films we’ve brought to audiences across North America,” said Vanco. “Cowboy could have never grown into a full fledged company without the efforts of many talented people, and I wish to take this opportunity to salute my former partner Noah Cowan and the talented and passionate employees who worked with us, especially Julie Fontaine, Emily Gannett and Sarah Finklea.”
In a brief conversation with indieWIRE on Tuesday, Greg Williams indicated that Lot 47 remains “active and in business” at the Laight St. office, but he directed inquiries regarding Cowboy activities to Vanco. In Tuesday’s announcement, Vanco indicated that he will detail additional plans in the coming weeks.
Cowboy Pictures had planned to release Elliot Greenebaum’s “Assisted Living,” which won awards at the Slamdance, Gen Art and Woodstock festivals. In a conversation with indieWIRE on Tuesday, the film’s producer Alex Laskey indicated that he and Greenebaum are pursuing other distribution options for the movie. The film will screen this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at the Hamptons International Film Festival on Long Island, New York.
The company (originally known as Cowboy Booking International) has released more than 40 titles, including “Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns),” the recent “Movern Callar” and “The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.” Cowboy’s library of nearly 400 movies includes most of the key work of Akira Kurosawa, D.A. Pennebaker, and Ingmar Bergman. Cowan left the company last year and later was involved with the formation of the Global Film Initiative.
…I suppose this also nixes the planned national tour of a certain Yasujiro Ozu retrospective that Cowboy was also mounting.