RadicalMedia is a production company founded by Jon Kamen and Frank Scherma. The company has produced projects in a variety of media, including feature films, television, branded content, commercials, live events, music videos and interactive media. In 2010, Fremantle purchased a 60 percent stake of the company. In 2015, RadicalMedia bought back shares of the company's shares, retaining its majority ownership.
Entertainment
RadicalMedia has developed, produced, and distributed content for television, film, digital, and on-site platforms. Projects have included the documentary The Fog of War; Concert for George; ' on Metallica; the pilot episode of Mad Men; and the A&E documentary Under African Skies on Paul Simon's Graceland journey, directed by Joe Berlinger. The company also worked on Ron Howard's documentary Made in America, a festival headlining Jay-Z and Pearl Jam in Philadelphia. The company also produced the Netflix docu-series ' and Hamilton's America, a documentary about Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical, Hamilton. The company also shot three performances of the show with the original principal cast at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City during a week in the summer of 2016. That footage was edited together into a full-length film recording of the musical, which was then offered for bidding to major film studios. Eventually, the distribution rights were purchased by the Walt Disney Studios on February 3, 2020, for a total of $75 million. The film was made available to stream exclusively on Disney+ on July 3, 2020. In July 2012, RadicalMedia launched THNKR, a YouTube Channel highlighting innovative people, stories, and ideas. Since its launch, THNKR has attracted 900,000 subscribers and over 150 million video views.
RadicalMedia has produced music videos and programming for a variety of artists. In April 2010, RadicalMedia produced "The Johnny Cash Project", a crowd-sourced music video of Johnny Cash's "" directed by Chris Milk, which enabled audiences to interact with and become immersed in the video's creation. "The Johnny Cash Project" received multiple awards, including a Silver Cyber Lion, a Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video, the Innovation Award at the UK Music Video awards, Best in Art at the SXSWInteractive Awards, a Gold Andy, a Gold Clio, and four Webbys.
Controversy
In April 2011, the company took legal action to prevent a collective of radical media organizations from using the trademarked phrase "radical media" to promote their upcoming "Radical Media Conference" in London, which was consequently renamed to the "Rebellious Media Conference". On May 3, 2011, a group held a demonstration outside RadicalMedia's London offices. Protester Ewa Jasiewicz said the company had "locked off the term 'radical media' away from anybody else using it, including activists who really do make radical media".
