Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse, the feature-length film by Portland documentary filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, has signed with Circus Road Films of Los Angeles for representation.

The film screened to a sold-out audience at the Portland International Film Festival in February, and was watched by thousands in several week run at three Portland theaters. Alien Boy screened at Montana’s Big Sky International Documentary Film Festival, the Cinema Pacific Film Festival in Eugene, and the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.

The film uses unique deposition footage and gripping interviews to take a deep and solemn look at the in-custody death of Jim Chasse in 2006. It received rave reviews from both media critics and audiences – but no direct interest from national film distributors.

Typically films like Alien Boy seek theatrical distribution to elevate future DVD and online sales. Often the path from festival screenings to availability online through a vendor like Netflix or Amazon can take over a year.

Over the past few months we’ve talked to many successful filmmakers and film distributors. Consensus is 1. The film is great. 2. The film will find an audience. 3. Once the film finds an initial audience it will have a long future in retail and institutional sales. 4. Portland is not Los Angeles or New York; people here don’t have sufficient connections with major film distributors. 5. Finding the right distributor requires experience. 6. The makers of Alien Boy don’t have those connections or experience.

Thanks to over 1400 supporters of the Mental Health Association of Portland, which dedicated it’s entire budget for several years to the making of Alien Boy, the project is debt-free, which quite unusual for films. With no investors to repay, Lindstrom and team are in a good position to seek the widest distribution agreement possible.

Circus Road Films, owned and managed by Glen Reynolds, represents independent narrative and documentary films to distributors.