Kino Lorber Acquires North American Rights to 'Capital In The Twenty-First Century,' Doc Based on Tom Piketty Bestseller

Film directed by Justin Pemberton holds North American premiere Sunday at DOC NYC

Distributor Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to the documentary adaptation of Thomas Piketty's international bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century. 

The film directed by Justin Pemberton will make its North American debut on Sunday at DOC NYC. Kino Lorber plans a theatrical release in April 2020. Piketty's book, an economic analysis of income and wealth inequality, became a surprise publishing sensation in 2013-2014, selling 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Pemberton's adaptation "took our breath away at first sight,” Kino Lorber CEO and President Richard Lorber said in a statement. “Like a rollercoaster ride for the mind, it’s an engrossing amalgam of movie clips and commentary that elucidates Piketty’s brilliant analysis of socio-economic injustice. Who would have thought that the world's leading economists could deliver a visionary message as cinematically engaging entertainment?"
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This captivating documentary is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power.

--Kino Lorber

I was present as the documentary project was announced in May 2016, at an event at the Cannes Film Festival. The book (parts of which I've read; I can't claim to have conquered the whole thing) is dense with data and graphs, but in Cannes Piketty told me he thought it could be successfully translated into cinema.

"My book is very visual in a way," he observed. "There are lots of pictures you could use to illustrate what I'm talking about. I think it could work very well."

The finished film confirms that view, in the opinion of Kino Lorber.

"Traveling through time by way of dozens of classic and contemporary movie clips," the company said in a statement, "the film assembles accessible pop-culture references coupled with interviews of some of the world’s most influential experts [including] Thomas Piketty, Joseph Stiglitz, Ian Bremmer, Rana Foroohar, and Francis Fukuyama, delivering an insightful and empowering journey through the past and into our future."

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Related:
>Thomas Piketty on the documentary adaptation of his book: 'I don’t want to become a scriptwriter or moviemaker. I’m not good at that.'

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Economist/author Thomas Piketty signs a poster for the film adaptation of his bestseller "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" at the Cannes Film Festival. May 13, 2016. Photo by Matt Carey

The film's U.S. theatrical release in April 2020 will come at an important juncture politically.

"We’ll be launching it in theaters just as the U.S. presidential campaign really heats up," Lorber commented. "We think it will do nothing less than help shape the outcome.”

[In 2016 Piketty told me he supported Bernie Sanders for president and felt the Democratic National Committee had sabotaged the senator's campaign, to benefit the far less radical Hillary Clinton]. 

A wide audience will eventually be able to access the documentary through streaming platforms.

"Kino Lorber is partnering with Kanopy, the free-to-the-user video streaming platform for critically-acclaimed films and documentaries, to make the film available following its theatrical release to universities and public libraries in July of 2020," according to a statement. "At that time it will also be released on Kino Lorber’s new digital platform KinoNow.com as well as other TVOD services and as a deluxe Blu-ray."

A graphic from "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," directed by Justin Pemberton.

Piketty's follow up to Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Capital et Idéologie, was published earlier this year in France. The English translation, Capital and Ideology, will be published by Harvard University Press in April 2020, the same month as the documentary's theatrical release.