Platform Spotlight
Culture is Capital: Sobey Road, Sway Media, and the Business of Entertainment
A look at Sway's growing work at the intersection of storytelling, intellectual property, capital, and culture.
Tonight begins with a story about where all of this came from.
There is a street in Saratoga, California called Sobey Road. Quiet neighborhood. The kind of place where summers stretch long and kids grow up at the movies.
Two of those kids were Brian Nugent and Andy Trapani.
They grew up together on that street, and somewhere along the way developed a shared conviction: that the greatest stories, the ones that live at the intersection of music, sports, culture, and human achievement, are not simply worth telling. They can become enduring cultural assets and, with the right partners and the right capital, meaningful businesses.
Years later, when they sat down to name their entertainment company, they went back to the beginning.
Sobey Road Entertainment.
What started as a shared passion has become an increasingly important part of what Sway is building across media and entertainment.
Today, Sobey Road is one of the most active financiers and producers of music and sports documentaries in the business, working alongside some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood.
Its growing slate spans music, sports, entertainment, and some of the most recognizable names and stories in culture. What follows is only a sampling.
Long Live Def Leppard goes inside one of the most enduring rock bands in the world. Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes explores the life and legacy of one of modern music’s most influential artists. Ghost Elephants, from the legendary Werner Herzog, earned a 2026 Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery tells the story of the groundbreaking festival that changed the landscape of American music. And Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It brings long-overdue attention to one of the great musical talents of his generation.
And those projects represent just one part of a much broader pipeline of films and documentaries being developed across music, sports, and entertainment.
Then there is the project at the center of tonight.
Sobey Road is also working with Robert Zemeckis on the forthcoming documentary about Crosby, Stills & Nash, bringing together one of the most accomplished filmmakers of the past half-century with one of the most consequential stories in American music.
Later tonight, you will get an extraordinary early look at that work with a private screening of the film.
Different artists. Different eras. Different stories.
But the thesis is consistent.
Find culturally resonant stories with extraordinary access. Partner with world-class filmmakers, artists, estates, and rights holders. Bring the right capital behind them. And build projects with the potential to reach global audiences and endure far beyond their initial release.
These are not simply content plays. They are cultural investments.
Tonight, we are going to see that thesis from both sides.
First, the business being built around these stories. Then Robert Zemeckis will join us to talk about the craft of storytelling and nearly fifty years spent pushing the boundaries of what audiences believe is possible. And finally, we will see those worlds come together on screen.
Night 1
15 min

