EXCLUSIVE: Boutique distributor Juno Films has picked up North American and UK rights to This World is Not My Own, a documentary portrait of the folk artist Nellie Mae Rowe from filmmakers Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell, which premiered earlier this year at SXSW. The award-winner will be released in theaters in the summer of 2024.
Beginning with her birthday on July 4, 1900, Rowe’s life spanned the 20th century. For most of it, she made art in obscurity, propelled by a force she viewed as a God-given gift. As the daughter of a sharecropper and former slave, Rowe made art from whatever she could find. As an adult, she transformed her home into her “Playhouse,” an imaginative oasis filled with vibrant drawings, handmade sculptures and dolls, and collected objects. Six years before her death, a wealthy gallerist, Judith Alexander, “discovered” and introduced her work to the art world.
Over four acts, This World is Not My Own traces the lifespan of an artist who struggled to dedicate her life to art while exploring the personal and political events that shaped her singular body of work. The story is told through the combination of traditional documentary techniques, animations and scripted scenes. Voicing Rowe in animated sequences is Orange Is the New Black Emmy winner Uzo Aduba.
In a statement to Deadline, Ringbom observed that “Nellie Mae Rowe never received the recognition she deserved because of who she was and the time she lived in.” He added that in making the film, the goal was “to create something in the spirit of the imaginative world she built for herself, and to finally cast a light an artist that history largely ignored. Juno is the perfect partner to help us achieve our goal and bring Nellie’s story to new audiences.”
Juno Films CEO Elizabeth Sheldon called This World Is Not My Own “an exquisite portrait of an artist who witnessed and was shaped by seminal events of the 20th century.” She added that “Nellie Mae’s emergence as an artist and her experiences cannot be separated. The film celebrates the work of an artist who used the materials at hand to express herself. In addition, the film’s use of animation and scripted scenes elevates the film from another portrait of an artist to an artistic work in its own right.”
The distribution deal for This World was negotiated between Ringbom for Opendox and Sheldon.