{"id":752838,"date":"2026-07-09T16:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752838\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T16:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:01:09","slug":"ari-aster-lars-knudsen-join-doc-crows-are-white-us-release-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752838\/","title":{"rendered":"Ari Aster & Lars Knudsen Join Doc ‘Crows Are White’, US Release Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Ari Aster<\/a> and Lars Knudsen have joined Crows Are White<\/a>, the feature debut from filmmaker Ahsen Nadeem, as executive producers under their Square Peg banner. It will be the company\u2019s first documentary.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing a 2022 festival run, the film will open stateside on August 26 at New York\u2019s IFC Center, followed by September 4 at Laemmle in Los Angeles, before expanding to additional cities nationwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film follows filmmaker Ahsen Nadeem\u2019s attempt to document one of Japan\u2019s most secretive Buddhist monasteries. When his plans unravel, he befriends Ryushin, a monk who prefers heavy metal and ice cream to meditation. Their friendship leads Nadeem to confront a secret he\u2019s kept for years. <\/p>\n

\n\tRyushin, the Buddhist monk at the center of Crows Are White was keeping his identity private until completing his monastic training. With his permission, the film is now being released widely as of this year. <\/p>\n

\n\tSince launching an Instagram account in February, Ryushin has become an unlikely social media star, with his account @desire.monk amassing more than 30 million views. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe response to Ryushin changed our approach to releasing the film,\u201d said director Ahsen Nadeem. \u201cIt gave us the confidence to bypass the traditional distribution model and bring Crows Are White directly to audiences in theaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRyushin, the self-described \u2018Desire Monk\u2019 at the film\u2019s center, is one of the most memorable and charming documentary subjects we\u2019ve seen in years,\u201d added Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen. \u201cWarm, playful and generous. It\u2019s a lovely film and we\u2019re excited to help it reach audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film launched at SXSW and went on to play a host of festivals including Hot Docs and London.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is produced by Memory, the independent company behind Sophy Romvari\u2019s Blue Heron and Theo Anthony\u2019s Sundance Special Jury Prize winner All Light, Everywhere. The film was also produced and financed by Argent Pictures, whose slate includes films such as Joe Bell, American Made and Oscar winner Hacksaw Ridge. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen have joined Crows Are White, the feature debut from filmmaker Ahsen Nadeem,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[17250,322813,88,206],"class_list":["post-752838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ari-aster","tag-crows-are-white","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}