Rogues Harbor Studios' inaugural release, the award-winning documentary Shoot Down, will open theatrically in select cities January 25, the studio announced today.

The film, by first-time director and Rogues Harbor co-founder Cristina Khuly, a Miami native, is the first feature-length film to take on the true and gripping story of the 1996 shoot down of two unarmed U.S. civilian planes by Cuban fighter jets.

Winner of 2007 Sonoma Film Festival honors for Best Documentary, "Shoot Down" follows on the critically acclaimed "War/Dance", of which Rogues Harbor Studios was an associate producer.

Rogues Harbor Studios is pleased to be working with Marc Halperin and Magic Lamp Releasing on the distribution of the film. Halperin previously released such well known docs as: Hoop Dreams, Paris Is Burning, and Truth Or Dare.

In the mid-to-late 90s, thousands of Cuban refugees attempted to cross the Florida Straits by whatever means available - small boats, homemade rafts and inner tubes. Only one in four rafters made it to U.S. shores, with tens of thousands perishing at sea. A volunteer group based in Miami called "Brothers to the Rescue" was formed to patrol the Straits in small civilian aircraft, offering aid to rafters.

On February 24th, 1996, in the midst of heightening political unrest in Cuba and in the wake of a revised U.S. policy toward Cuban refugees, the Cuban government authorized two military fighter jets to attack and destroy two of the volunteer planes.

Khuly, a first-generation Cuban-American whose uncle was among the four victims, mined 10 years of research, government documents, transcripts and never-before seen news footage of Fidel Castro to supplement hundreds of hours of original interviews in recounting the events leading up to and following the shoot down.

Among the film's most extraordinary moments are the use of actual voice recordings from the MiG pilots and their controllers in Havana, and the cockpit recordings from the doomed Cessna planes, edited to re-enact the shoot down itself.

The result is an unprecedented and compelling re-telling of a tragedy that is as relevant and provocative today as it was more than a decade ago.

More information about "Shoot Down", theaters, show times and other release cities as available can be found at www.theshootdown.com.

About Rogues Harbor Studios: Rogues Harbor Studios believes in the unparalleled power of film to not only entertain, but educate and empower audiences. Rogues Harbor Studios creates content that is challenging and purposeful, uniting engaged consumers with entertaining ideas. Find out more at www.therhs.com.

About Magic Lamp Releasing: Magic Lamp creates release plans and strategies to successfully market films. Marc Halperin's years of distribution experience as a senior executive with some of the top companies (Miramax, Fine Line) in the film industry has given him an unmatched understanding of what it takes to market movies as commercial, crossover or niche products. He has distributed the first films of directors such as Jim Sheridan, Steven Soderberg, Khyentse Norbu, Nigel Cole, David O. Russell, Scott Hicks, Giuseppe Tornatore, Alex Cox and Quentin Tarantino. Find out more at: www.magiclampreleasing.com