{"id":262942,"date":"2025-09-29T04:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/262942\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T04:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:36:10","slug":"gde-acquires-worldwide-rights-to-liza-mandelups-doc-caterpillar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/262942\/","title":{"rendered":"GDE Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Doc ‘Caterpillar’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> Good Deed Entertainment<\/a> has acquired the worldwide rights to Liza Mandelup<\/a>\u2018s documentary feature Caterpillar, setting it for a fall theatrical release.<\/p>\n

\n\tA followup to her documentary Jawline, which won the 2019 Special Jury Prize for Emerging Filmmaker at Sundance and whose domestic rights were later acquired by Hulu<\/a>, Caterpillar had its world premiere at South by Southwest, followed by screenings at DOC NYC<\/a> and the Philadelphia Film Festival. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film follows subject David Taylor, a biracial, middle-aged queer man who, endlessly struggling to feel seen, becomes infatuated with a mysterious company\u2019s promise to transform people\u2019s lives by permanently changing their eye color. After traveling to India to get the controversial, non-FDA-approved procedure, he begins to question if this artificial beauty will give him the fulfillment he truly seeks. Thus, the project traces the societal implications of the deification of physical beauty, and how the international plastic surgery industry promotes these oppressive standards.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am thrilled to be working with Good Deed Entertainment to get this film out to the world,\u201d Mandelup said in a statement. \u201cAudiences at our film festival screenings have responded to David Taylor\u2019s moving story. I am beyond excited to collaborate with a team that so clearly values original storytelling. I can\u2019t wait for the world to see this film!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tErik Donley, Head of Acquisitions & Distribution at GDE and its genre-focused label Cranked Up Films, added: \u201cGDE is honored to partner with Liza Mandelup to bring\u00a0Caterpillar\u00a0to audiences worldwide, a film that affirms her gift for capturing cultural stories before they enter the mainstream.\u00a0Caterpillar\u00a0is a film you\u2019ll want to watch again and again \u2014 I\u2019m certain of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter its premiere at SXSW, Caterpillar received positive reviews, with IndieWire writing<\/a>, \u201c[Mandelup\u2019s] sophomore feature, Caterpillar, begins as an alluring portrait of a single subject and morphs into a surreal medical thriller about a mysterious company offering experimental cosmetic procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, The Austin Chronicle said of the film<\/a>: \u201cA smart, sympathetic character study with an expected style,\u00a0Caterpillar\u00a0examines the increasingly complicated nexus of self-esteem, marketing, body modification and technology. The movie operates on a global scale but keeps things deeply human.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCaterpillar\u00a0is produced by Jay Van Hoy, Matthew Cherchio and Mandelup, with Michael Cho, Mimi Rode, Tim Lee, Maria Zuckerman, Christine Connor, Ryan Heller, Michael Bloom, Bryn Mooser and Kathryn Everett executive producing. Benjamin Whatley is the cinematographer, Alex O\u2019Flinn is the editor and music is spearheaded by Palmbomen II.<\/p>\n

\n\tGDE, distributor of the Academy Award-nominated animated feature\u00a0Loving Vincent (2017), is an Ohio-based independent studio dedicated to producing, financing and distributing entertainment for film, TV and other platforms. Its releases this year include\u00a0Looking Through Water\u00a0and\u00a0An Open Door: Temple Grandin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Good Deed Entertainment has acquired the worldwide rights to Liza Mandelup\u2018s documentary feature Caterpillar, setting it for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":262943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,137486,137487,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-262942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-good-deed-entertainment","10":"tag-liza-mandelup","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115285733319611232","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}