NEW YORK — First Look Entertainment’s streaming service, Topic, announced today the documentary film The Jump, chronicling the attempted defection of a Lithuanian sailor from a Soviet vessel onto a US Coast Guard ship in 1970, will be available to stream starting March 1.
“It’s Thanksgiving Day, 1970. The US coast guard sets out to meet a Soviet vessel anchored just off the shore of Martha’s Vineyard. A one-day conference between the two nations has been set to discuss fishing rights in the Atlantic Ocean. While the talks are in full swing, Lithuanian sailor Simas Kudirka jumps across the icy water onto the American boat in a frantic bid for freedom. To his horror, and to the outcry of the world media, the Americans return him to the Soviets and he is tried for treason. The event sets off a series of protests throughout the US begging for his freedom and all hope seems lost, until new information about Simas’ citizenship surfaces,” reads a synopsis in a press release.
“Through eye-witness reports, rare archival footage and a dramatic first-person re-enactment by now 90-year-old Simas Kudirka, director Giedrė Žickytė takes us on a stranger-than-fiction journey that became an inspiration for people, pictures and politics, reaching all the way up to the White House,” the release says.
The Jump will be available as a transactional video on demand (TVOD) release on March 1 on iTunes/Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play and Vudu, for a TVOD purchase price of US$9.99 and rental price of US$4.99.
The film will have its exclusive SVOD release on Topic on June 30. A subscription to Topic costs US$5.99 per month or US$59.99 per year.
Topic launched in November 2019 and is available in Canada and the U.S. on topic.com, Apple TV and iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android and Android TV, Samsung, and Apple TV Channels, Roku Premium Channels, Amazon Prime Video Channels and Bell Fibe.
Image supplied by Topic.
