Dutch FilmWorks Gears up for Global Expansion

SCHELLUINEN, April 1:
Dutch FilmWorks, a multimedia distribution company based in the Benelux, has
formed a new global division, House of Knowledge International, which will
launch at MIPTV.

At MIPTV, House of
Knowledge International will be offering buyers a slate of factual properties
in the body, mind and spirit, health and wellness, documentary and history
categories. The roster is led by the program Staya Erusa: Find the
Book of Knowledge, featuring mentalist Uri Geller, who will be present
in Cannes to promote and support the launch of the program. The title is the second installment in an ongoing series and
the follow-up to the success of Staya Erusa: The Beginning. Other properties featured at the market will be The
Secret Goes Europe, which takes a close look at the best-selling book The
Secret from a European point of view, along with the 14-part audio series The
Secret Workshops. Continuing in the vein of body, mind and spirit
programming, The Brain Fitness
Program special, which originally
aired on PBS, will be showcased as well.

Additional offerings from
House of Knowledge International include Jumpstyle, which offers a step-by-step training program for
learning Jumpstyle, a new dance that has become popular in Holland and Belgium;
Poker Like The Pros, featuring
inside information on the popular card game; and the documentary Sexual
Intelligence, which sees actress Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) explore both
the physical and sexual complexity of raw sexual desires.

Dutch FilmWorks was founded in 1998 as a video distributor that mainly
focused on new and catalogue movies. In
2002, company launched its local distribution arm, House of Knowledge, to
provide non-fiction content to clients based in the Benelux region, focusing on
documentaries
and special-interest (how-to, sports) DVDs.

House of Knowledge
International will publish content across all platforms, including
television, VOD, film, DVD, magazines, partworks (magazine and DVD packages),
non-fiction books and more. Additionally, the company has a diverse group of
distribution channels that includes traditional retail, non-traditional retail
(supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores), direct response (mail and television
infomercials) and online via its e-commerce store, www.hokshop.com.

“The central themes of
mind, body and spirit are increasingly becoming a focus for all of our
content—from film and television series to books and audio-books,
magazines and DVDs—are also being embraced by people around the world,”
said Willem
Pruijssers, the CEO of Dutch FilmWorks. “Our
other factual programming has had tremendous success in the Benelux region, and
expanding our program distribution into the rest of the world, is the next
logical step in the evolution and expansion of Dutch FilmWorks/House of
Knowledge and its activities. Our media products have been very successful in the
Benelux and we hope to share our marketing, packaging and distribution
expertise with other like-minded companies.”

—By Irene Lew