I recently received an email from GBH, Boston’s PBS local station, featuring a large image of the beloved cartoon character Arthur's smiling face, and asking for a donation to continue offering this and other high-quality educational content for children. I’m a longtime supporter of public media and love to receive such emails.
This time, it felt different.
Read MoreThe ongoing crisis in the distribution of independent documentaries has turned everyone’s attention to the topic. A variety of efforts are underway to shake things up and bring clarity and change to the field. At this year’s Camden Film Festival, the distribution town hall was filled to capacity, and included an interesting presentation by Keri Putnam, Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow, about the independent film sector, complete with data and big picture solutions.
Read MoreAs we find ourselves halfway through 2023, our industry continues to undergo significant transformations in funding models, acquisition trends, and the state of exhibition. Film festivals have been affected by these changes, and while some renowned festivals have closed their doors this year (Full Frame, Traverse), others, such as DC/DOX, just celebrated their inaugural editions and garnered rave reviews for its extraordinary lineup and focus on filmmakers.
Read MoreSummer is the season when many filmmakers rush to finish their films. Some have their eye on the fall festival circuit, others, of course, are thinking about Sundance. But many, especially first time and newer filmmakers arrive at their final cut with little to no certainty about what to do next.
Read MoreWhile film festivals are an exciting opportunity for your new film, they present serious challenges for independent documentary filmmakers entering the circuit this fall. We have seen the return of in-person screenings at Tribeca, Mountainfilm, and other Spring venues, but the reality is that many festivals will remain virtual or hybrid this Fall, a tricky situation to navigate for filmmakers who continue to have mixed opinions about the value of online festivals.
Read MoreRecently, I shared our Impact Distribution Digital Edition blog post, which featured thoughts and strategies for getting your documentary out in an overcrowded digital environment. Virtual festivals are being inundated with more submissions than ever before and curating smaller slates. There is a general sense of screen fatigue, and just this week, Amazon put an end to unsolicited licensing submissions via Prime Video Direct for non-fiction and short-form content, leaving independent filmmakers and distributors confused and worried.
Read MoreWe are nine months into the pandemic and the ever-changing landscape of documentary distribution keeps evolving. Every day, the lines that separate distribution and exhibition through film festivals, theatrical, non-theatrical, VOD (including the alphabet soup of streaming acronyms), and so forth continue to blur without anyone knowing exactly if or when things will change.
Read MoreThe current global health crisis has infused a new life to a decades-long debate about documentary distribution, a field that has evolved and changed dramatically in the past 10 years.
Photo by Zhifei Zhou.
Read MoreIn the summer of 2009, I accidentally heard of a locally produced documentary feature titled Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North that had premiered at Sundance in 2008. The filmmaker was Katrina Browne and this was her first film, a deeply personal undertaking to uncover the complicity of Northern states in the slave trade and the involvement of her own ancestors, the DeWolf family of Bristol.
Read MoreIn the current landscape of film distribution pretty much anything is possible. The industry has changed radically in the past ten years and unlocked a world of opportunity and discovery for many documentary films. But the amazing new opportunities outlined came at a cost and the wealth of possibilities also brought many uncertainties.
Read MoreThese are extraordinary times for everyone, including many media makers planning a new release or trying to navigate a recently released film as we face conflicting information and rapid developments from the novel coronavirus crisis.
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