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Swimming to Canada?

February 26th, 2007 · 2 Comments

So, I figured it was finally time I own Swimming to Cambodia, long one of my favorite films, on DVD. Except it appears that it’s only in print on DVD in Canada (fortunately also region 1, so it works fine on an unhacked U.S. player), meaning you can find copies easily enough on Amazon or eBay, but all secondhand. So… what gives? Why on earth isn’t this in print in this market?

Tags: Art & Culture


       

 

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Laure // Feb 26, 2007 at 12:36 pm

    The short answer is, rights issues. I believe Seville has the rights in Canada, they may find it’s a title for which they still have the rights and they still find profitable to manufacture. In the US, the film was made through Ira Deutchman’s 80s company Cinecom, who would have sold the DVD rights to someone, I’m guessing Image? Now Image would be a great company to retain the rights as they are the parent of Criterion, but if the rights reverted to the producers, they might have wanted too much money for the renewal and Image might not have gone for it. Or there might have been issues because of the estate of Spalding Grey. In any case, it’s sad. But luckily (though not technically legal AFAIK) those Canadians can hook you up. Canadians come in handy at times.

  • 2 Eric D. Dixon // Feb 26, 2007 at 10:16 pm

    It’s worth investing in a region-free DVD player — the entire world market of cinema becomes accessible.

    I first checked out Swimming to Cambodia back when it first came out because I heard Laurie Anderson recorded the score. I had no idea what was in store…

    Incidentally, Monster in a Box and Gray’s Anatomy are both region 1 — and less than $10 each at deepdiscount.com!