Utopia and Showtime acquire Sundance Documentary Meet Me In The Bathroom

Utopia and SHOWTIME have acquired the North American rights to Pulse Films’ Meet Me In The Bathroom, directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Utopia will release MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM in theaters later this year. The film will air on Showtime at the end of year.

Based on the hit 2017 oral history of the same name by Lizzy Goodman, MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM tells the story of the last great romantic age of rock ‘n’ roll and how bands like The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol delivered a jolt of manic energy to a reeling, post-9/11 New York, imbuing a generation with a renewed sense of the power of music to change everything.

Combining archival footage, audio interviews, and never-before-seen photos and video, the film has been praised as a “A vivid time capsule of New York rock culture at the turn of the millennium” (Variety), and “a tremendous document of one of the most integral musical periods of our time” (Collider). “Plus: the music, pretty uniformly, rips” (Pitchfork).

“Lizzy’s book told the story of a time and a place that was incredibly resonant for us personally, so the prospect of adapting it for the screen was one that we jumped at,” said filmmakers Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern. “Our hope was to make a film that acts as a time capsule. We weren’t looking to tell the complete history of each band, as the world has changed so much since the years covered by the documentary. We wanted to create a vivid distillation of a music scene, a time and a place, and in doing so explore something universal about youth and creativity.”

“The bands in MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM brought back an edge and personality to alt rock music and crossed into the global mainstream in the early 2000s, when everything in music seemed repetitive and fabricated,” said Utopia’s co-founder, Robert Schwartzman. “Utopia’s team has a personal and emotional connection to this era of New York culture and the many artists who helped shape this time and place. We are so truly honored to be a part of this film’s journey and cannot wait to celebrate the filmmakers long awaited documentary after its well-received Sundance debut.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Utopia on MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM, a rousing look at a seminal moment in both the history of rock music and the city of New York,” said Kent Sevener, EVP, Content Acquisition, Showtime Networks Inc. “With its dynamic archival footage and electrifying soundtrack, MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM will be a unique addition to the Showtime documentary slate.”

MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM is an XTR and Vice Studios presentation of a Pulse Films production and produced by Vivienne Perry, Pulse Films’ Sam Bridger, Marisa Clifford, and Thomas Benski, Vice Studios’ Danny Gabai, Suroosh Alvi and Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace. Executive producers include Hayley Pappas, Matt Ippolito, Vice Studios’ Andrew Freston and Natalie Farrey, XTR’s Bryn Mooser, Pulse Films’ Tim O’Shea, Isabel Davis, Brian Levy, Jaime Neely, and Lizzy Goodman.

This deal was negotiated by Danielle DiGiacomo for Utopia with UTA Independent Film Group on behalf of the filmmakers. Goodman is represented by UTA and 3 Arts Management.