Starz Releases Official Trailer for New Original Series AMERICA TO ME Set to Debut August 26

Starz announced today that the new unscripted 10-part series "America To Me" will premiere on Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 9 PM ET/PT. This insightful documentary series created by Emmy Award(R)-winning and Oscar(R)-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail), and produced by Participant Media and Kartemquin Films. The official trailer provides a first look into an academic year at Chicagoland's elite Oak Park and River Forest High School.

"America To Me" follows students, TEACHERS and administrators in suburban Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School, one of the country's highest performing and diverse public schools, over the course of a year, as they grapple with decades-long racial and educational inequities - in addition to the challenges that today's teenagers face. Digging deep into the experiences of a racially diverse student population, "America to Me" sparks candid conversations about what has succeeded and what has failed in the quest to achieve racial equity and overcome obstacles in our education system. In this part observational character story and part high-school confessional, James captures critical moments within this vibrant high-school ecosystem.

"America to Me" made its world premiere with the first five episodes at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the new "Indie Episodic" category. Episodes were also previewed at Full Frame and AFI DOCS.

To inspire action on the educational equity issues highlighted in "America to Me," Participant Media and Starz are partnering to launch a social impact campaign. The campaign is designed to encourage candid conversations about racism through a downloadable Community Conversation Toolkit and elevate student voices through a national spoken-word poetry contest. Alongside the release of each new episode, the campaign will host a high-profile screening event in one city across the country. Over the course of the ten weeks, these ten events will SEED a timely national dialogue anchored by the series, and kick off activities across the country to inspire students, teachers, parents and community leaders to develop local initiatives that address inequities in their own communities.

Join the conversation at http://www.participant.com/AmericaToMe.

James directed and executive produced the 10-part documentary series via his longtime production home, Kartemquin Films. The series is executive produced by Participant Media's Jeff Skoll (Lincoln) and Diane Weyermann (An Inconvenient Truth), and by Gordon Quinn (The Trials of Muhammad Ali), Betsy Steinberg (Edith+Eddie) and Justine Nagan (Minding the Gap) for Kartemquin FIlms.

Bing Liu (Minding the Gap), Rebecca Parrish (Radical Grace) and Kevin Shaw (The Street Stops Here) served as segment directors. John Condne (Love. Blood. Kryptonite.) served as the series producer, along with Risé Sanders-Weir (Chicago Stories). Film editors were Leslie Simmer (Raising Bertie) and David E. Simpson (Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise).

Starz retains all domestic multiplatform pay TV and SVOD rights to the series. Lionsgate, which represents international rights to Participant's feature films and select documentaries, will retain all international and domestic distribution and home entertainment rights to the series.

Watch the official trailer here:

For more information, go to the official Starz Facebook Page and follow @STARZ on Twitter and Instagram. Join the conversation with #AmericaToMe and #STARZ. Website: https://www.starz.com

About Starz

Starz (www.starz.com), a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B), is a leading global media and entertainment company that provides premium subscription video programming on domestic U.S. pay television networks and produces and distributes content for worldwide audiences, including its investment in the Starz PLAY Arabia OTT service. Starz is home to the flagship STARZ(R) brand and Starz ENCORE channels, and provides high-quality, entertaining premium subscription video programming with 17 premium pay TV channels and associated on-demand and online services, including the Starz app. Sold through U.S. multichannel video distributors, including cable operators, satellite television providers, telecommunications companies, and other online and digital platforms, Starz offers subscribers more than 5,000 distinct premium television episodes and feature films every year and up to 1,500 every month, including Starz Original series, first-run movies and other popular movie and television programming.

About Participant Media

Founded by Jeff Skoll, Participant Media (www.participantmedia.com) combines the power of a good story well told, with real world impact and awareness around today's most vital issues. Through its worldwide network of traditional and digital distribution, aligned with partnerships with key non-profit and NGO organizations, Participant speaks directly to the RISE of today's "conscious consumer," representing the well over 2 billion consumers compelled to make meaningful content a priority focus. As an industry content leader, Participant annually produces up to six narrative feature films, five documentary films, three episodic television series, and more than 40 hours of digital short form programming, through its digital subsidiary SoulPancake. Participant's more than 80 films, including Wonder, Contagion, Lincoln, The Help, CITIZENFOUR, RBG, Food, Inc., and An Inconvenient Truth, have collectively earned 56 Academy Award(R) nominations and 12 wins, including Best Picture for Spotlight and Best Foreign Language Film for A Fantastic Woman. Participant's digital division, SoulPancake (www.soulpancake.com), is an award-winning provider of thought-provoking, joyful, and uplifting content including such widely popular series as Kid President and The Science of Happiness and reaches an audience of over 9 million fans. Follow Participant Media on Twitter (@Participant) and on Facebook and Instagram. Follow SoulPancake on Twitter (@soulpancake) and on Facebook and Instagram.

About Kartemquin Films

Sparking democracy through documentary since 1966, Kartemquin is a collaborative community that empowers documentary MAKERS who create stories that foster a more engaged and just society. The organization's films have received three Academy Award nominations and won several major prizes, including five Emmys, two Peabody Awards, multiple Independent Spirit, IDA, PGA and DGA awards, and duPont-Columbia and Robert F. KENNEDY journalism awards. Kartemquin is recognized as a leading advocate for independent public media and has helped hundreds of artists via its filmmaker development programs that help further grow the field, such as KTQ Labs, Diverse Voices in Docs, and the acclaimed KTQ Internship. Recent productions include the 2018 Academy Award nominees Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, directed by Steve James, and Edith + Eddie, directed by Laura Checkoway, and the Sundance Special Jury Prize winner Minding the Gap, directed by Bing Liu, which will be released by Hulu on August 17, 2018. Other recent productions include the Emmy-winning Life Itself (directed by Steve James), The Homestretch (directed by Kirsten Kelly and Anne de Mare), and The Trials of Muhammad Ali (directed by Bill Siegel); the duPont-Columbia award-winning six-part series Hard Earned; and Margaret Byrne's Raising Bertie, Kelly Richmond Pope's All the Queen's Horses, Karen Weinberg's Keep Talking, and Gordon Quinn's '63 Boycott. Kartemquin is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. www.kartemquin.com

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