The day after STF concludes its Fall Season, we’ll return on Wednesday, Dec 2 with the Sundance sensation BIG RIVER MAN, an Amazonian epic that plays like a cross between Borat and Fitzcarraldo. It will be the first of three December specials serving as appetizers to the STF Winter Season. The other events include a screening of the cinema verite classic A MARRIED COUPLE, as a tribute to filmmaker Allan King who died earlier this year; and a sneak preview of I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE, the latest work by Michel Negroponte, fresh from its debut at Sheffield Docfest. Act now to buy a STF Winter Season pass to attend all three December specials, plus the regular 10 STF shows every Tuesday from January 12 to March 16. That’s a total of 13 films – plus 2 free Docurama DVDs – for the early bird discount price of $95. That price will rise to $110 in January. You can get the early bird price by clicking through to the tickets page for any December special. Don’t let the winter blues get you down. Join us at STF for inspiring films and great conversations.
Gary Hustwit, the director of HELVETICA, kindly visited my NYU class on Thursday to dispense his wisdom about self-distribution. This topic has a rising interest in the film world. But few people have as much real world experience as Hustwit. Next week, PBS’ Independent Lens will show his latest work OBJECTIFIED in an hour-long version (shorter than the theatrical release).
Here are some highlights from his class talk:
* Nine months before the theatrical release of HELVETICA, Hustwit began blogging about the film as a way to gain interest. A small mention on the graphic designer website typophile.com drove the first visitors to helveticafilm.com and eventually Hustwit had collected thousands of email addresses from visitors. He began selling Helvetica posters and t-shirts, grossing $75,000 on merchandise before the film was even released. “The audience wants to see the film as much as you do,” said Hustwit. By selling merchandise, “you make it easy for them to help you.”
Last Tuesday night, STF hosted a sneak-preview of Mehran Tamadon’s BASSIDJI, fresh from its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Although Tamadon was unable to join us from France, Hamid Rahmanian (director of THE GLASS HOUSE and coincidentally a doppelganger for Tamadon) had spent the previous few days skyping with the French director and was able to answer all the STF audience’s questions. A very timely film, BASSIDJI explores the ideology behind the Iranian militias who cracked down on reformists this past summer.
“This may sound odd, but before 2003 I could go for a year without talking about the Weather Underground,” said Mark Rudd, author of the recently published memoir UNDERGROUND, speaking at Monday night’s STF. What changed in 2003 was the release of Sam Green and Bill Siegel’s film THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND exploring the history of the 1970’s radical group whose tactics of violent confrontation left a controversial legacy. “When the film came out,” Rudd said, “I really started thinking about history. Would the Weather Underground exist in people’s memory, if this film hadn’t come out?” Siegel joined Rudd for the Q&A. The night was co-presented by Docurama as part of its 10th anniversary celebration. (Photo of Oliver Stone, Johanna Lawrenson – the widow of Abbie Hoffman, and Mark Rudd – a fortuitous sidewalk post-screening meeting on the way to 99 Below, courtesy of EJ Kaniewski / Bear)
Here in Copenhagen at the CPH:Dox Forum, I’ve been reflecting on the multiplying new initiatives in film distribution. Amidst anxiety about broadcasters’ shrinking budgets, CPH is fostering ideas for filmmakers to gain greater distribution control. Tomorrow I will moderate a conversation with the filmmaker Jon Reiss who’s sharing advice from his experiences self-distributing the graffiti doc BOMB IT. He wrote two comprehensive articles for Filmmaker Magazine on My Adventure in Theatrical Distribution and My Adventure in Home Video that became the seeds for his new book Thinking Outside the Box Office.
I don’t mean to imply we’re looking at a future without distributors. But we can expect more creative partnerships in “hybrid distribution.” Last week, a proselytizer of this future, Brian Newman – the former director of the Tribeca Film Institute – spoke to my NYU class. He made a simple statement that snapped into focus a growing sense I’ve had since the Toronto International Film Festival two months ago. Newman said that going forward, filmmakers won’t go to festivals to find a distributor, but to find an audience.
Sure, we’ll continue to see a smattering of festival sales such as ART OF THE STEAL to IFC Films/Sundance Selects at TIFF. But other filmmakers will pursue a different plan by getting distribution in place before their fest debut. By this strategy, the fest premiere – and its unique ability to generate reviews, awards and attention – can promote subsequent bookings soon after, rather than wait several months (as happens with the acquisition model). Bigger distributors are accustomed to leveraging festival exposure for releases such as CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY and GOOD HAIR that appeared in theaters shortly after TIFF. Perhaps in the coming year, we’ll see hybrid efforts do the same with smaller companies such as Argot Pictures, International Film Circuit, and Abramorama Films.
The day after STF concludes its Fall Season, we’ll return on Wednesday, Dec 2 with the Sundance sensation BIG RIVER MAN, an Amazonian epic that plays like a cross between Borat and Fitzcarraldo. It will be the first of three December specials serving as appetizers to the STF Winter Season. The other events include a screening of the cinema verite classic A MARRIED COUPLE, as a tribute to filmmaker Allan King who died earlier this year; and a sneak preview of I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE, the latest work by Michel Negroponte, fresh from its debut at Sheffield Docfest. Act now to buy a STF Winter Season pass to attend all three December specials, plus the regular 10 STF shows every Tuesday from January 12 to March 16. That’s a total of 13 films – plus 2 free Docurama DVDs – for the early bird discount price of $95. That price will rise to $110 in January. You can get the early bird price by clicking through to the tickets page for any December special. Don’t let the winter blues get you down. Join us at STF for inspiring films and great conversations.
Gary Hustwit, the director of 
Last Tuesday night, STF hosted a sneak-preview of Mehran Tamadon’s 
“This may sound odd, but before 2003 I could go for a year without talking about the Weather Underground,” said Mark Rudd, author of the recently published memoir 
Here in Copenhagen at the CPH:Dox Forum, I’ve been reflecting on the multiplying new initiatives in film distribution. Amidst anxiety about broadcasters’ shrinking budgets, CPH is fostering ideas for filmmakers to gain greater distribution control. Tomorrow I will moderate a conversation with the filmmaker Jon Reiss who’s sharing advice from his experiences self-distributing the graffiti doc BOMB IT. He wrote two comprehensive articles for Filmmaker Magazine on