RDFR renews first look deal with Firecracker and launches raft of top programming at MIPCOM 2009

30 September 2009

RDF Rights (RDFR) is delighted to announce it has renewed its first look deal with Firecracker Films and will be launching a raft of new titles at MIPCOM this autumn as a result.

“Firecracker Films consistently delivers powerful, visually-stunning and original films and their reputation in the international market-place goes from strength to strength. We are thrilled to be representing them” says Emily Elisha, Head of Factual Acquisitions for RDFR.

“Our relationship with RDF Rights continues to flourish and we have seen some fantastic figures thanks to RDFR's dedicated sales team. With the recent launch of Firecracker's US operation based out of RDF's West Coast offices, we look forward to continuing this great synergy and focusing more on the international marketplace' : Mark Soldinger, CEO/Founder Firecracker Films

New programmes for MIPCOM include Daredevils, The Autistic Me, Surviving Bear Island, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and Mermaid Girl: A New Chapter.

Daredevils is a thrilling 4 x 60’ series, currently airing on Channel 4, which follows four of the world’s most extreme individuals as they push themselves to the limit of endurance, pain and danger in their dogged pursuit of death-defying acts. Each episode follows one daredevil: to cross one of the world’s highest canyons on an inch-wide rope with no safety harness; to run a marathon in sub zero temperatures 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle; and to fly down the face of the Matterhorn in a winged Teflon suit. The fourth film in sees the return of free-climber Alain Robert as he attempts to scale the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. The original film The Human Spider sold among others to BBC America, CBC Newsworld, RTL French speaking Belgium and VTM Belgium.

The Autistic Me is a one hour documentary for BBC Three and follows three people with autism at pivotal moments on the rocky road to being accepted as an adult. The film aired earlier this year and generated rave reviews and hit ratings and is now scheduled for a BBC One airing as well.

In Surviving Bear Island cameraman Richard Terry spends the summer in the company of the biggest grizzly bears in the world. He travels deep in to the Alaskan wilderness with Swiss biologist and bear obsessive David Bittner. They learn to live off the land whilst experiencing dramatic close encounters with these wild predators and travelling in the footsteps of Timothy Treadwell. The film is being made for Animal Planet US and UK.


My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is a 1 x 60’ film for Channel 4 and reveals the sensational spectacle of gypsy weddings ‘21st century style’. This programme enters the world of gypsy-traveller weddings where ancient traditions meet modern fashions in a lurid and day-glo culture clash.

Mermaid Girl: A New Chapter 1 x 60’ returns to the incredible story of Shiloh Peppin, a little girl who has survived her medical condition, known as ‘mermaid syndrome’, against the odds. The critically acclaimed first film The Little Mermaid attracted 1.3 million viewers on Five in the UK and has sold to over 15 territories worldwide. This new film for The Learning Channel follows Shiloh as she approaches her landmark 10th birthday which doctors believed she had no chance of reaching.