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4383
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dbpedia
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2
| 16
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_distributors_by_country
|
en
|
List of film distributors by country
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico
|
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2005-05-21T00:34:19+00:00
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en
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/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_distributors_by_country
|
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
This is a list of motion picture distributors, past and present, sorted alphabetically by country.
Albania
Constantin Film
United International Pictures
Argentina
Star Distribution
Warner Bros.
Sony Pictures[1]
Fox Distribution Company
United International Pictures
Argentina Sono Film
Artistas Unidos
Cinema International Corporation
Columbia Pictures of Argentina
Lumiton
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Paramount Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures de Argentina
Universal Films Argentina
Warner-Columbia Films
Australia
20th Century Studios/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Antidote Films
Film Australia
Hoyts Distribution/Sony Pictures Releasing
Leap Frog Films
Lionsgate Australia
Madman Entertainment
Palace Films and Cinemas
Paramount Pictures/Universal Pictures
Titan View
Transmission Films
Roadshow Films
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Brazil
Star Distribution
Warner Bros.
Sony
Fox Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures
United International Pictures
Canada
Alliance Films
Astral Films
Brightlight Pictures
Cinexus/Famous Players (C/FP)
Elevation Pictures
Entertainment One
Malofilm
Mongrel Media
Multiple Media Entertainment
National Film Board of Canada
Phase 4 Films (owned by Entertainment One)
Les Films Séville (owned by Entertainment One)
Teletoon
Warner Bros.
VVS Films
China
Alibaba Pictures
August First Film Studio
Beijing Enlight Pictures
Bona Film Group
China Film Co., Ltd.
China Film Group
DMG Entertainment
Fantasy Pictures
Huaxia Film Distribution
Huayi Brothers
Lian Ray Pictures
Le Vision Pictures
New Classics Pictures
Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Culture Media
Wanda Pictures
Denmark
Nordisk Film
Buena Vista International Denmark
Finland
Finnkino
SF Film Finland
France
AMLF
BAC Films
Gaumont
Metropolitan Filmexport
Pan-Européenne
Pathé
SND Films
StudioCanal
UGC
UGC Fox Distribution
United International Pictures
Germany and Austria
20th Century Studios
Constantin Film
Sony Pictures Releasing
Filmdelights[2]
Filmverlag der Autoren
Kinowelt
Tobis
Sascha-Film
Senator Film
Stadtkino
Paramount Pictures Germany/Universal Pictures Germany
Universum Film
The Walt Disney Company Austria GmbH
RKO Radio Pictures GmbH
Warner Bros.
Wild Bunch
Hong Kong
Cinema City International
Golden Harvest
JCE Movies Limited
Media Asia
Mei Ah Entertainment
Shaw Brothers Pictures
Universe Entertainment
India
A For Apple Productions
AA Films
Aascar Film Pvt. Ltd
AVM Productions
Black Ticket Company
Dharma Productions
Eros International
Excel Entertainment
Grass Root Film Company
Kalasangham Films
Maxlab Cinemas and Entertainments
Neelam Productions
PVR Pictures
Rajshri Productions
Red Chillies Entertainment
Red Giant Movies
Reliance Entertainment
Sahara Movie Studios
Shemaroo Entertainment
Star Studios
Tips Music Films
Ultra Media & Entertainment
UTV Motion Pictures
Viacom18 Studios
Yash Raj Films
YM Movies
YSR Films
Zee Studios
Action Reaction Jenish
Red Giant Movies
Italy
Artex Film
Artisti Associati
Cineriz
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Filmauro
Lux Film
Metacinema
Penta
Sony Pictures
Titanus
Warner Bros.
01 Distribution
Rai Cinema
Japan
Bandai Visual
Toho
Toei
Shochiku
Kadokawa Shoten
Korea, South
CJ Entertainment
Lotte Entertainment
Next Entertainment World
Showbox
Malaysia
Golden Screen Cinemas
Tanjong Golden Village
MBO Cinemas
Mexico
Filmex
Videocine
Netherlands
20th Century Studios
BBI Films
Benelux Film Distributors
Buena Vista International (Germany)
Fortissimo Films
Lionsgate International
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Paramount Pictures
Sony Pictures
Universal Pictures International
Warner Bros. (Holland)
Nigeria
Silverbird Film Distribution
Pakistan
A-Plus Films
ARY Films
Geo Films
Hum Films
Summit Entertainment Pakistan
Eveready Pictures
TVOne Films
Urdu 1 Pictures
Philippines
ABS-CBN Film Productions Inc. (d/b/a Star Cinema)
Crystal Sky Multimedia
OctoArts Films/Axinite Digicinema
Paramount Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment
Pioneer Films/Lionsgate Films
Rafella Films International
Regal Entertainment/Reality Entertainment
Solar Pictures
Viva International Pictures/MVP Entertainment
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Warner Bros./Universal Studios
Portugal
Castello Lopes
Lusomundo
NOS Audiovisuais
Russia
Soyuzmultfilm
Bazelevs Distribution
Universal Pictures Russia
Walt Disney Studios/Sony Pictures Releasing
20th Century Studios
Caro Premiere/Warner Bros.
Lenfilm
Central Partnership/Paramount Pictures
Mosfilm
Singapore
Cathay Organisation
Golden Village
Shaw Organisation
Sri Lanka
Lyca Production
Manons cine combine
Aiswariya Films
Sweden
Buena Vista International
Lionsgate Sweden
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Sandrew Metronome
Sonet Film
Sony Pictures
Svensk Filmindustri
Svenska Filminstitutet
20th Century Studios
United International Pictures
Warner Bros.
Thailand
GDH 559/GMM Tai Hub
M Pictures
Sahamongkol Film International
United International Pictures
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/20th Century Studios/Sony Pictures Releasing
Warner Bros.
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Vietnam
CJ CGV
West Asia/North Africa
General Organization for Cinema (Syria)
Gulf Film
Rotana
|
||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 14
|
https://www.filminfinland.com/en/movie-cases/bordertown-mural-murders
|
en
|
Bordertown: Mural Murders (2021)
|
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Film is a spinoff of the popular Nordic crime series which is now in its third season.
|
en
|
/Static/dist/assets/favicons/favicon-32x32.png?1515157992
|
https://www.filminfinland.com/en/movie-cases/bordertown-mural-murders
|
Country of Origin: Finland
Director: Jarkko Hentula
Writers: Miikko Oikkonen, Antti Pesonen
Stars: Ville Virtanen, Anu Sinisalo, Sampo Sarkola
Production companies: Yellow Film & TV
Distribution: Aurora Studios
Filming Location in Finland: Lappeenranta, town on the Russian border in Southeasternmost part of Finland
|
|||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
2
| 41
|
https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/blog/tag/amci/
|
en
|
TFC Blog
|
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TFC Distribution Days Primer
|
en
|
/img/tfc.ico
| null |
Theatrical: To Do…or NOT To Do. (or perhaps more, HOW and WHEN To Do)
We all struggle with this, filmmakers, distributors alike. I remember giving a presentation to distributors about digital distribution and theatrical came up. I talked about the weirdness of showing a film 5 or 6 times a day to an almost always-empty house save a couple showings. This makes no sense for most films. When I released Baise Moi in 2000, we broke the boxoffice records at the time, and the “raincoat crowd” did show up at the oddest morning hours, but that is the exception, not the rule. Not every film has an 8-minute rape scene that just must be seen by post-punk-feminists and pornography-lovers alike. It’s an odd set-up for smaller films and it’s not the only means to the end we are looking for.
Recently, The Film Collaborative released Eyes Wide Open in NYC, LA, Palm Beach and Palm Springs. We have a little over $10,000 (all in it will be about $12,000 tops). We have made our money back and the great reviews and extra marketing / visibility will drive ancillary sales but we also did not invest or risk too much as you can see. That is a great formula (one that small, disciplined and seasoned distributors such as First Run Features, Strand, Zeitgeist, employ) but it is not viable for all films. First of all we have an “A” list festival film (Cannes & TIFF & LAFF) and second it caters to two or three niches (gay and Jewish/Israeli) though one can argue that the niches also slightly cancel each other out to some extent, the film did well so obviously the campaign worked.
But there are many films for which that strategy would not work. Either theaters could not be booked, or reviews would not always be great, and / or the film would simply not galvanize a theatrical audience. Plus, once you start adding up 4-Wall fees, the bottom line leans more likely to be shades of red. The Quad Cinema sent an E-blast promoting its 4-Wall program. It was a good sales pitch and I am not going into it all here, but the take home is that you’re more likely to get a broader theatrical, and/or a distribution deal, and/or picked up by Netflix and other digital platforms if you open theatrically in New York. I would argue that is true to some extent but also VERY MUCH dependent on the FILM itself and there should still be a cost-analysis and overall strategy consideration before one pays the Quad for their services and hopes for the best. Here is a link to the info and we are happy to email the blast to any who request it www.quadcinema4wall.com . It should also be noted that generally speaking, The New York Times does not consider your film among “All the News That is Fit to Print” unless it’s opening wider than just New York.
So how to decide? Companies such as Oscilloscope are all about theatrical, but they pick their films carefully and my guess is Adam Yauch can afford to lose money too if it comes to that. Home Video companies such as New Video, and Phase4 are doing some theatrical, but on an as-needed basis and yes, to service the ancillary rights, but that’s a very experienced analysis on their part. When we posted on Twitter about the Cable Operators warning they will start requiring a ten (10) city theatrical, all at once, believe me, if everyone blindly follows suit, the bar will get raised even higher right until we all go broke. The point is to mitigate the glut and distinguish films in the marketplace not get us all to be lemmings and empty our bank accounts. There is math to be done and I know it’s hard without all the back-end numbers at your disposal, but they are coming. We will publish case studies of all our films and we encourage you to get down to the detailed back-end numbers analysis before spending more on the front end and often gratuitously.
We have experienced and heard about the impact a filmmaker can have in his or her city when working the film and then really impacting the gross and that is inspiring, but usually not long-lasting because it takes a lot to get people to pay to see your film in a theater when there are so many other films and so many more marketing dollars behind them. And what’s in it for you? The only reviews that matter are the big ones and we all know what they are… and remember what we said above about The New York Times.
The general perception of indie film releases is interesting. Most don’t take into account the money that is spent to get the “gross”. More of the time the distributor (or whomever booked the film) gets less than half of the box office revenues. Sometimes as little as 25% – 30% though of course sometimes more. And there are the expenses. The Kids Are Alright may not even be in the black right now, but you’d never know that reading certain coverage. I love Exit Through A Gift Shop and actually flagged that release as a stellar release and then I learned that the marketing spend was actually a lot more than I realized such that the spend may be up to a million dollars. I don’t actually know, and not sure anyone will tell me. I do know that the bottom line for many of The Weinstein releases was reported to be in the red because of spending. If you have a film that can sell a lot of units and especially in an evergreen manner, and if you can trigger a great TV sale and if you have foreign sales legs, then there’s a real upside. If you don’t, then be clear what you’re goals are. Sometimes it’s just a career move and that makes sense. Canadian filmmakers need a theatrical release to get their next projects funded (say that like this: ‘pro-jects’). Sometimes people just want the awards qualification and that’s another ballgame.
We have written some of our TFC Distribution Tid Bits about Hybrid Theatrical and Marketing options, but here is a bit more on the topic:
If creating buzz is what you want, you don’t need a traditional theatrical and you definitely don’t need to overpay for the privilege.
Some OPTIONS – try HYBRID THEATRICAL – do FILM FESTIVAL, CREATE EVENTS, HOLD A SCREENING WITH ORGANIZATIONS, show in MUSEUMS (in some cases), other ALTERNATIVE VENUES depending on the film, and also there are all sorts of ways to book a few days here and a few days there at theaters (we cover that below). Theaters are and will continue to do this more and more. AMCi announced their intentions and they are still in the marinating phase, but we know you’ll all be ready when they are.
We’re interested in these companies and services:
Cinedigm: They have a program in the works that is meant to be similar to ScreenVision and Fathom (which is no longer handling indie films generally speaking, as far as we know) but aimed at independent cinema, and working with all the big theatre chains (Regal, AMC, Cinemark). I asked them to write a few words for me about themselves and their plans: Cinedigm Entertainment, a theatrical distributor, has built several “channels” of content for movie theatres. This is niche content that plays at what is traditionally slower times for the theatres. Examples are; Kidtoons a monthly matinee program; Live 3D sports, like the World Cup and NCAA Final Four basketball; and 3D and 2D concert films with artists from Dave Mathews to Beyonce. For each “channel,” the most appropriate theatres are chosen and theatres sign on to play the content as a series, thereby creating the expectation in the marketplace for the next installment. In the company’s newest “channel,” it looks to apply the concept to indie-films which will provide filmmakers with the theatrical element for distribution.
Emerging Pictures: Owned by Ira Deutchman (now also a Film Prof. at Columbia University). I spoke with Joshua Green, whom I have known for a while and booked with, though no real revenues were made in the past, their latest network of theatres sounds potent. They connect up to 75 theatres and they do very well with Opera, Ballet and Shakespeare, but also indie films. They work with all the usual indie film distributors either taking on 2nd run of films in major markets or handing the first run in secondary markets. On screen now for example is Mother & Child, My Name is Love, and Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. 30% of the Gross is paid to the distributor or filmmaker. They charge usually a 1-time encoding fee to get the files needed for the theatres. The fee is $1,000. If that’s an issue that can sometimes in advance to make sure the bookings will happen to make the fee worthwhile. They create a Hi Rez file 720p VC1 file which is a professional HD version of MS Windows. They work with the Laemmle theatres in LA and Sympany Space in NY and lots of others across the country. What does well on the Art House circuit will do well with them I was told. Makes sense.
Variance Films: Dylan Marchetti (former exec at Imaginasian and Think Film) is a firm believer in Theatrical and it’s his business. He may promote its necessities a bit more than I will and its not his money to spend and he was honest about the range of success (meaning not all films work theatrically and sometimes money is lost, and we know of at least one example, but it happens). We spoke for the first time and I was comforted by his grassroots approach (they do that work themselves) and his commitment to alternative low cost venues: event screenings, niche-specific / lifestyle specific venues, as well as traditional theatres (all the usual chains and small theatres etc). He noted that generally speaking, they do not charge more than $50,000 and that they get paid via back-end fees only. He said a release in NY and LA for $20,000 can be done. Variance is not a believer in print advertising; they have to believe in the film to take it on; and Dylan said that there is no correlation between P&A spending and a film’s success. Amen. They don’t do PR but rather refer out to outside agencies, as does The Film Collaborative. NB: Dylan Marchetti of Variance makes a correction to this. “Fees vary wildly depending on the film and release”. So sometimes they can do backend tied fees only, but not always.
The Film Collaborative is theatrically releasing UNDERTOW (which won the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance). Stay tuned.
Orly Ravid July 28th, 2010
Posted In: Film Festivals, Marketing, Theatrical, Uncategorized
|
|||||
4383
|
dbpedia
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2
| 57
|
https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/hey-risk-taking-filmmakers-theres-a-new-distribution-company-looking-for-you/
|
en
|
Taking Filmmakers! There’s a New Distribution Company Looking for You
|
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2014-09-12T01:32:11+00:00
|
This past summer, right around the time the Los Angeles Film Festival screened the US premiere of Adam Rifkin's Giuseppe Makes a Movie, the quirkily
|
en
|
Film Independent
|
https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/hey-risk-taking-filmmakers-theres-a-new-distribution-company-looking-for-you/
|
This past summer, right around the time the Los Angeles Film Festival screened the US premiere of Adam Rifkin’s Giuseppe Makes a Movie, the quirkily beautiful doc about “trailer-park auteur” Giuseppe Andrews was picked up by Cinelicious Pics. That’s great news not only for Rifkin, but for independent filmmakers across the board—because Cinelicious (the newly launched distribution arm of the post-production/restoration company of the same name) is dedicated to releasing innovative and exciting work by risk-taking filmmakers. Proof is in the first batch of acquisitions. Along with Giuseppe, the company has picked up Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead, Elena Tikhonova and Dominik Spritzendorfer’s documentary Elektro Moskva, Josephine Decker’s Butter on the Latch and Thou Wast Mild and Lovely and Anurag Kashyap’s five and a half hour Indian crime epic Gangs of Wassypur. The distributor plans on releasing an eclectic mix of new American and foreign independent features and documentaries each year.
We talked to film restoration expert Paul Korver and ex-American Cinematheque head programmer Dennis Bartok, who are at the helm of Cinelicious, about what they’re looking for from independent filmmakers.
Tell us about your approach to selecting and distributing films.
Bartok: I love the theatrical experience. We firmly believe that we want all the movies we pick up to be put out theatrically first, followed by VOD and DVD and Blu-Ray and TV. I have a lot of contacts with filmmakers. Giuseppe Makes a Movie came about because I’ve been friends with Adam almost 20 years going back to our relationship at American Cinematheque, so I can email him directly and say hey we’re staring distribution company and I would love to see your doc. He got back to me right away. We watched it and loved it and we were off and running.
When I was watching Giuseppe for the first time, half way through the movie I stopped it and said, ‘I hope to God this was not scripted’—that it’s not a faux documentary, because it is so brilliantly funny and jaw-droppingly strange and also very heartfelt and touching in a strange island of misfit toys way’. [The doc’s subject Giuseppe has made 30 feature films starring his trailer park neighbors and homeless friends.] The subsequent history of the doc is that a lot of people have since died or dropped off the radar, [and it] shows that Giuseppe was kind of the glue holding them together and it was really important in their lives, even though nobody was seeing the films. He paid them all, but even more he gave value and validated their lives and their artistry. For me, [the] doc worked on a number of levels. It’s a strange subgenre of DIY docs, of people making movies… some of them are really funny but don’t go beyond “weird factor.”
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing independent filmmakers?
Korver: Finding the right partnerships and finding people who are really passionate about your film and willing to invest not just money and time but creative efforts in the release is the challenge. There’s a lot of talk of self-distribution for indie filmmakers. I think it’s really easy to get lost in VOD land, or thinking if you put your film up, you’re going to make money. I know what some of the numbers are. You need to have a team of passionate people around you, unless your film has some really unique characteristics that make it break out on its own. That seems to happen very rarely.
Bartok: There’s a big difference between success on the festival level than translating that into success theatrically. I think the bar is still relatively high to get theatrical bookers to take a chance on indie films, especially ones that may have picked up laurels that don’t have recognizable names attached or aren’t in a recognizable genre. It’s still tough to crack that art house market and it’s still dominated on the art house level by really savvy, well-established players like the Sony Classics and Magnolia and people like that. For us, our strategy is a combination of new independent and foreign features and documentaries that really push the envelope and selected restorations of lost films or foreign movies that haven’t been seen here for several decades. Coming from a background at Cinematheque, we showed new movies, we showed old movies… I didn’t really make a distinction. If it was great cinema, it was great cinema.
What are you looking for when you look for independent features? Is there a magic formula that attracts you?
Korver: For us, most of our films have an element of, like Giuseppe, being provocative. On the surface it’s this guy making these crazy movies with homeless people and crack addicts—that’s the provocative part—but there’s this whole other unexpected surprise part that’s this story of this family. And there’s really amazing heartfelt moments in the film that take it away from being just this kind of exploitative thing for shock value. That’s true of Metalhead too. Metalhead is a film from Iceland and the one-sheet and artwork make it seem like it’s this hard core metal movie, yet there’s these amazing themes of redemption and loss and reconciliation.
Bartok: I love music and really respond to films that have, what I call, a rock and roll sensibility. Four of the new movies we’re distributing have a killer musical vibe. Giuseppe uses his own DIY Daniel Johnston style music in the soundtrack. Elektro Moskva, which is a documentary by a pair of Russian filmmakers about the secret history of soviet space age electronic music, is just wall-to-wall electronic music from behind the iron curtain. Metalhead, as the title implies, has got an amazing soundtrack of late ‘80s/early ‘90s head-banging classics and it’s about a young woman whose brother is killed in a farming accident and in her grief she adopts his metalhead persona and starts playing his Flying V guitar and howling anthems of rage to a barn full of cows. Even Gangs of Wassypur, in some ways, is a kind of anti-Bollywood film in that it does not have huge choreographed dance sequences when the action stops and everybody starts lip-synching, and yet it has an amazing soundtrack. But the director, Anurag Kashyap, found a way to work it into the fabric of the drama so there will be a dramatic scene happening in the foreground and in the background, there will be a street singer at an Indian wedding, singing this amazing dance pop song. I like films that have a really great musical vibe, that is one of the elements that gets us excited.
Korver: For Josephine’s films, it’s her voice. It’s the freshness of what she’s bringing.
Bartok: When I was programming at Cinematheque, I had to watch a lot of films from all over the world in languages I didn’t speak and a lot of times they would send me screeners without subtitles, and I had to watch movies from Spain or Croatia or Japan. I learned that within five minutes I could tell if a movie was a great film, if the director knew how to use the camera in a really kinetic way, if the actors had authenticity on screen. I think film, at heart, really is still a visual medium. The first features we’re putting out are all intensely visual and very pleasurable experiences, I’ve seen a lot of films at Sundance and at various other festivals and you watch them once and go, ‘Wow, this was a really unique powerful film, but I never want to watch this again’. Simply because the film doesn’t lie beautifully on your eyes. It’s not a movie you want to revisit again and again and again. That’s the quality of a great film: you should want to go back to it. Whether it’s a filmmaker like Nicolas Roeg or David Lynch or Ken Russell, their movies always revealed something each time you watched them. That’s something I really encourage independent filmmakers today to think about, making movies that people would want to watch again and again. It’s also the hallmark of a great album. You don’t listen it just once and say ‘Yeah, Sgt. Peppers was great. I never need to listen to it again’. You want to listen to it 20 times or 30 times.
Korver: What filmmakers should be thinking about to set their films apart is to take risks, unless you’re playing straight to a genre and want to make an independent horror film. Taking risks that serve your story and how successful you are at achieving that determines your skill as a filmmaker. You need to take risks as an independent to create excitement about your language and your style of filmmaking. Josephine Decker’s films are very risky. Some people hate them. But a lot of people really respond. She could have made something a lot more easy to swallow and it probably would have gotten lost in the sea of other easy-to-swallow independent films.
Bartok: There’s something incredibly inspirational about Giuseppe Makes a Movie, I would screen it for first year film students. Giuseppe has made 30 feature films and dozens of shorts and most of his movies he’s made for $800-$1,000 total. He is an amazing example of someone who didn’t sit around for five years waiting to raise $500,000 or $800,000 or $1.5 million. He found the means and the inspiration and the hutzpah and he was making, at his peak, four or five features a year. They’re insane and very few people have seen them but he’s a great sample of somebody who’s really [just making work.]
A lot of the filmmakers who were considered to be the giants of yesteryear, John Ford or Hitchcock or filmmakers like that, their film school, their training ground was making a lot of films earlier in their careers. They were very prolific. By the time they became famous, they already had a significant filmography and they were able to make mistakes. Every one of the early Hitchcock films is great. They’re all fascinating and you can watch them and see how he was learning to become Hitchcock. The problem for filmmakers today is you get one shot. You raise your private equity from friends and family and you make an indie film and you hope it gets into Sundance and you hope it gets picked up by a major art house distributor and hope that it gets out there and gets seen, but you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. There’s a lot to be said for making a movie, putting your heart and soul into it, pushing it out there and then you’re already making another one and another one and another one. That’s how I think you become a great director.
What more should filmmakers know about Cinelicious?
Bartok: There’s a new distribution company out there that’s hungry for great movies and if there are indie filmmakers out there who feel they haven’t gotten a fair crack, ring us up. We’re always willing to look at material. We’re willing to look at a trailer, a feature link. We very much have an open door policy.
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https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/592/bordertown/
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Not Available
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Turner Classic Movies presents the greatest classic films of all time from one of the largest film libraries in the world. Find extensive video, photos, articles, forums, and archival content from some of the best movies ever made only at TCM.com.
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en
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/themes/custom/bogart/favicon.ico
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Watch TCM
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http://prod.tcm.com/unavailable/
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Welcome, DISH customer! Please note that we cannot save your viewing history due to an arrangement with DISH.
Watchlist and resume progress features have been disabled.
ACCEPT
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https://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/film-detail%3Ffid%3D501
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en
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Showtimes @ Brooklyn Film Festival
|
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Showtimes
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https://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/showtimes
|
Friday, May 31
Opening Night
Theater tickets are on will call.
Your PayPal receipt stating that you purchased a BFF ticket is all you need to get in.
07:00 pm | Friday May 31 | Windmill Studios
Atikamekw Suns
Dir: Chloé Leriche, Canada, 103 min, Narrative Feature
On June 26, 1977, a vehicle drives into a river outside the Atikamekw community of Manawan in northern Québec. Two Whites survive the accident, but five At ... more »
10:00 pm | Friday May 31 | Windmill Studios
SPECIAL EVENT: Opening Night Reception
Following the film, the Festival organizes an Opening Night Reception with drinks, appetizers and DJ sets.
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https://gruvi.tv/post/film-marketing-strategies/
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Master These Film Marketing Strategies for Success
|
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[
"Paolo"
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2023-10-13T14:23:16+01:00
|
Discover the keys to successful film marketing strategies. From digital channels to engaging content, unlock the secrets to promoting your film effectively.
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en
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/apple-touch-icon.png
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Gruvi
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https://gruvi.tv/post/film-marketing-strategies/
|
Blog > Unlocking the Path to Effective Film Marketing Strategies
Unlocking the Path to Effective Film Marketing Strategies
Lights, camera, action! But wait, are you ready to captivate your audience and make your film a blockbuster success? A successful film marketing strategy is the key to ensuring your masterpiece reaches its intended audience and creates a lasting impact. Dive into the world of film promotion and unlock the secrets to successful film marketing strategies. Let’s embark on this cinematic journey together!
Power of Target Audience as a Spine of Film Marketing Strategies
Understanding and targeting the right film audience is the foundation for a successful film marketing strategy. Tailoring marketing materials and strategies can help build a connection with potential viewers, encouraging them to watch your film. Market research, demographics, psychographics, and viewing habits can help you identify and reach your target audience, ensuring your film finds its way to the right eyes and hearts.
Notable examples of a successful film marketing campaign that harnessed the power of their target audience include “The Blair Witch Project,” “Deadpool,” and “Paranormal Activity.” Knowing precisely who their audience was, these films crafted marketing strategies that resonated deeply, propelling them to box office success.
Social Media Mastery
In today’s digital age, media outlets, especially social media platforms, are essential for film marketing, allowing for direct engagement with audiences, sharing teasers and trailers, and leveraging influencer partnerships to reach potential viewers. Independent filmmakers can benefit from releasing short promotional videos or behind-the-scenes footage on social networking sites, sparking anticipation and excitement in their target audience.
Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular, as it is cost-effective and has the potential to reach a massive audience. Collaborating with influencers with substantial followings offers a creative way to promote your film, tap into their audience, and expand your film’s reach. Independent filmmakers typically have limited budgets for marketing campaigns. Social media, influencer marketing, and attending film festivals are cost-efficient strategies that can help them reach their audiences.
Creative Film Trailers
Creating a compelling and intriguing film trailer is essential for stimulating interest and expectation for a movie while avoiding divulging too much of the plot. Take “Cloverfield,” for example, which released a cryptic trailer without revealing the film name or any spoilers, resulting in heightened audience engagement and interest.
Innovative film trailers, like the 360-degree trailer for the Netflix Original series “Stranger Things,” offer audiences a new and exciting experience, showcasing a unique film marketing plan. Constructing captivating trailers kindles potential viewers’ curiosity and lays the foundation for a memorable movie experience.
Traditional vs. Digital Marketing Approaches
Comparing traditional and digital marketing approaches can help you determine the best combination for your film’s promotion. Traditional marketing approaches, such as television and print ads, can reach a larger audience but are costlier and require more resources. On the other hand, digital marketing campaigns, such as social media and online advertising, are more cost-efficient and can be tailored to specific audiences.
The most practical combination of traditional and digital marketing approaches for promoting an independent film is contingent upon the film’s budget, target audience, and objectives. Leveraging the strengths of both approaches facilitates a comprehensive and effective independent film marketing strategy that amplifies your independent film’s reach and impact.
Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations
Forming strategic partnerships and collaborations with brands, organizations, and influencers can amplify your film’s marketing reach and create unique promotional opportunities. Some benefits of forming alliances include:
Access to resources and audience of the partner
Increased visibility and success for both parties
Shared marketing efforts and costs
Cross-promotion opportunities
Collaborative content creation
By forming these alliances, you can maximize your film’s marketing potential and create a strong network within the industry.
For example, the “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” production company partnered with Amazon to create an interactive marketing campaign showcasing how collaborations can lead to innovative promotional experiences. By building strategic partnerships, you can expand your film’s reach, generate buzz, and create a memorable marketing campaign that captures the imagination of potential viewers.
Behind-the-Scenes Content
Sharing behind-the-scenes content, such as interviews, production photos, and making-of videos, can generate buzz and maintain audience interest leading up to a film’s release. Offering a glimpse into the filmmaking process and forging deep connections with viewers fosters anticipation and excitement for your film.
Announcing the film’s release date can also generate a feeling of urgency and enthusiasm, an essential part of a film marketing plan. By disseminating behind-the-scenes content and engaging with your audience throughout the filmmaking process, you create a film promotion and marketing campaign that keeps your film at the forefront of viewers’ minds. Consider implementing strategies such as press releases in your film marketing plan to market your film effectively.
Film Festivals as Launchpads
Film festivals serve as valuable platforms for indie films to gain exposure, attract distributors, and build momentum for their film marketing campaigns within the film industry. Presenting your film at festivals generates word-of-mouth buzz and increases visibility, attracting potential viewers and industry professionals.
Registering your independent films for different festival categories may result in nominations, promoting the cinephile community positively. Film festivals provide a range of advantages, such as networking opportunities, career development, and validation, making them an essential part of any independent filmmaker’s marketing strategy.
Navigating Film Critics and Reviews
Film critics can have a significant impact on a film’s marketing, as:
Positive reviews can bolster a film’s public perception.
Negative reviews can have the opposite effect.
Even mixed or controversial reviews can generate discussion and interest in a film, which can benefit marketing.
Capitalizing on positive reviews and addressing constructive criticism is a great way to shape a good marketing campaign that resonates with your audience. To make sure it’s effective, consider these factors.
Mixed reviews can be utilized to generate interest and discourse about a film, serving as a form of marketing. Negative reviews can be used to pinpoint areas of improvement for upcoming films and create a sense of urgency for prospective viewers to watch the film before it is no longer available. By navigating the world of film critics and reviews, you can create a marketing strategy that turns both praise and criticism to your advantage.
Post-Release Marketing Efforts
Continuing marketing efforts after a film’s release is crucial to sustain audience interest and boost ticket sales. Post-release marketing efforts may include sharing positive reviews, hosting Q&As, and releasing additional content, all of which can keep your film in the public eye and maintain engagement.
By focusing on post-release marketing, you can maintain and build upon the momentum of your film, leading to increased ticket sales and a profound impact on your audience. Successful post-release marketing efforts not only ensure that your film remains relevant but also create opportunities for continued engagement with your audience.
Adapting to Technological Advancements
Embracing technological advancements in film marketing, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and new digital platforms, can create innovative and immersive promotional experiences. Leveraging these cutting-edge technologies gives your audience unique and engaging marketing campaigns that distinguish you from the competition.
Utilizing virtual or augmented reality, hosting interactive online events, and using social media platforms innovatively are potential strategies for adapting to technological advancements in film marketing. By staying ahead of the curve and embracing new technologies, you can create a film marketing campaign that captures the attention and imagination of your audience.
Measuring the Success of Your Film Marketing Strategy
Evaluating the success of your film marketing strategy is essential for understanding what works and what doesn’t. Metrics such as box office performance, audience engagement, and social media reach can be utilized to assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. Analyzing these metrics lets you refine your strategy and ensure your marketing efforts align with your target audience.
A film marketing strategy’s success is measured by box office revenue and critical acclaim, audience reviews, and the film’s longevity. By considering a variety of metrics, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your film’s performance and use this information to inform future marketing efforts.
Building a Strong Film Marketing Team
Assembling a solid film marketing team with diverse skills and expertise is crucial for developing and executing a comprehensive and effective marketing strategy for your movie. Uniting individuals with diverse knowledge and experience forms a marketing team well-prepared to address the challenges of promoting your film.
Planning and budgeting a marketing strategy in the early stages of a film is essential for its success. Investing in a robust film marketing team ensures your film reaches its intended audience, leaves a lasting impact, and fulfills its full box office potential.
Depending on your situation, contacting a professional film marketing agency can be a reasonable, time-saving, and budget-saving strategy. Such agencies have both expertise and resources to create and execute a comprehensive marketing plan, allowing you to focus on your creative process.
Such a film marketing company can provide various services, from creating compelling trailers and posters to orchestrating social media campaigns and strategic partnerships. It saves you time and ensures the effective use of the marketing budget, maximizing the return on investment.
Summary
A successful film marketing strategy is the key to ensuring your film reaches its intended audience and creates a lasting impact. By understanding your target audience, mastering social media, crafting captivating trailers, and embracing technological advancements, you can create a comprehensive and effective marketing campaign that resonates with viewers. With a strong film marketing team and a clear understanding of the metrics that measure success, you can propel your film to new heights and leave a lasting impression on the world of cinema.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an example of a film marketing strategy?
Film marketing strategies typically include creating trailers and posters, leveraging social media, using influencer marketing, and planning publicity stunts or immersive experiences.
What are the 4 Ps of film marketing?
The 4Ps of film marketing are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion – elements essential to marketing strategy since the 1950s. The 4Ps are an umbrella to subfactors such as People, Processes, and Physical aspects.
What 6 key elements make a successful film marketing campaign?
A successful film marketing campaign consists of critical elements, such as posters, trailers, featurettes, clips, and seasonal creative, to promote the film on a regional level.
How to market a movie?
Promote your movie with trailers, teasers, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, posters, press releases, a website, and social media to reach audiences effectively. Utilize crowdsourcing and film festivals for further exposure.
What is the importance of understanding and targeting the right audience in film marketing?
Understanding and targeting the right audience is essential for film marketing success, as it allows for tailored promotional materials and strategies that will resonate with potential viewers. This increases the chances of a triumphant return on investment and broader reach.
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https://www.avid.wiki/Category:Film_logos
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Category:Film logos
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[
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[
"Audiovisual Identity Database"
] |
2024-02-23T01:39:52+00:00
|
en
|
Audiovisual Identity Database
|
https://www.avid.wiki/Category:Film_logos
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https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/film/
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Think Film
|
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https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/film/
|
Film in Westchester.
We make it easy!
There’s a reason Westchester County is a popular destination for film and television productions.
We have a diverse array of locations, many within the NYC film zone, film-friendly communities, professional crews and suppliers, and state-of-the art sound stages and post-production facilities.
We also have a proactive and responsive film office that provides hands-on support to make your production a success. Just minutes north of New York City, Westchester County is easy to access, and easy to get around. What’s more, New York State’s film incentive program is among the most competitive in the nation.
For more information, see our FAQs, contact our film office, and follow us on Facebook.
We're easy to get to and easy to work with. Just give us a call. We'll help you find the right spot for your next production. Read our brochure for a general overview.
Resources
Find crews or vendors, list your property as a film location, plan your stay in Westchester County, and learn about the NYS film tax credit.
About Us
Need some help? Let the Westchester County Film Office serve as your concierge, from selecting the perfect location to planning and executing your commercial, television or film production.
News
Read our press coverage and our film office blog to learn what's happening in the world of film in Westchester.
Filmed in Westchester
More than 160 feature films have been filmed in Westchester since 1965, plus many television series, commercials and music videos.
Payment portal
For prearranged transactions only.
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https://drinkinthemovies.com/2022/04/14/siff-2022-el-carrito/
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SIFF 2022: El Carrito
|
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2022-04-14T00:00:00
|
Written by Raúl Mendoza “El Carrito” is an intimate portrayal of the American Dream and what it truly means to lose the source of your livelihood. The film is written, directed, edited, and produced by Zahida Pirani who has before tackled the difficulties of being
|
en
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Drink in the Movies
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https://drinkinthemovies.com/2022/04/14/siff-2022-el-carrito/
|
Directed by: Zahida Pirani
Distributed by: TBA
Written by Raúl Mendoza
80/100
I am from a border town on the southern tip of Texas. I have always been surrounded by street vendors, and I would go as far as to say some of the best food I have had is from a street vendor. A lot of my childhood was spent traveling and spending time in Mexico, especially places like Monterrey and Nuevo Leon. Every morning, you knew the local street vendor was coming by because you could smell the rich scent of tacos sudados, which are usually tacos with the choice of pork, chicharron, potatoes, or pulled pork that has been steamed (literally cooked by the taco’s “sweat”). We would eat that for lunch and while out in the city you could not miss the vendors selling corn in a cup or on a stick drenched in chile, lime juice, mayo, and cheese. This is how I grew up and seeing these hard-working individuals out there in the coldest and warmest of conditions made me respect the grind of street vending. So when Taylor approached me with this film there was no doubt in my mind that this would be my next review.
“El Carrito” is an intimate portrayal of the American Dream and what it truly means to lose the source of your livelihood. The film is written, directed, edited, and produced by Zahida Pirani who has before tackled the difficulties of being a street vendor in her short documentary, “Judith: Portrait of a Street Vendor.” Nelly (Eli Zavala) is an immigrant woman who is a street vendor selling tamales in order to provide for herself and her elderly father, Rico (Jose Febus). Nelly lives and works in Queens, New York where the world of street vending is really competitive as she has to deal with people like Lucia (Idalia Limón) who takes her spot one day. Nelly makes a courageous decision to ditch her small crate and upgrade to a nice cart with a table, pole, and much more space to hold her items. One day coming back from a hard but successful day of sales her cart is stolen and she has to set off on a journey to find her cart or lose the only method through which she can maintain a roof over her head.
I found “El Carrito” to be a remarkable short film led by a commanding performance by Eli Zavala. Zahida Parani’s direction is strong and paced well throughout such an anxiety-inducing story. You really see the challenges of the life of a street vendor. Marcus Patterson’s cinematography is dignified through the use of close-ups and shaky camera movements that allow for the atmosphere of this film to be built. A lot of people would have a problem with the use of it but I think that it is necessary to show Nelly’s urgent need to find her cart. We truly watch a journey as our protagonist changes from someone who is concentrated only on herself to understanding the difficulties of everyone in her street vending community. She is only one of many vendors who push their livelihood every day down a street and could easily wake up the next day to it missing. Nelly realizes that life is complex and her struggles are shared by others just like her so instead of competing with each other there should be room to help each other instead. It is a teaching passed through every generation in my community, why are we here if not to help each other? I am excited to see what else Pirani works on, and if it is anywhere as intimate as this film I can find myself having another pleasant experience with her next work.
You can watch the Trailer for “El Carrito” here. “El Carrito” was screened as part of the 2022 edition of the Seattle International Film Festival.
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/executive-decision/article1103819/
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Executive Decision
|
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[] |
[] |
[
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[
"Grant Robertson"
] |
2006-09-16T04:08:16+00:00
|
The Globe and Mail offers the most authoritative news in Canada, featuring national and international news
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en
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The Globe and Mail
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/executive-decision/article1103819/
|
For Jeff Sackman and the other executives at ThinkFilm, revenge will be a dish served cold. Antarctic cold. Coming soon, the Toronto-based movie distributor will release Farce of the Penguins into theatres, the brainchild of comedian and former sitcom dad, Bob Saget.
The film doesn't just poke fun at 2005's massively successful March of the Penguins, it skewers the feel-good nature flick, which grossed a stunning $122-million (U.S.) at the box office and went on to claim the best documentary feature prize at the Oscars.
While March of the Penguins poetically tracks the epic lengths the species goes to each year to mate, Farce of the Penguins chronicles "one bird's search for love while on a 70-mile trek with his hedonistic buddies."
Mr. Sackman smirks. That should show them. After all, it was March of the Penguins that beat out ThinkFilm's edgy Murderball at the Academy Awards this year, even though many critics pegged it as the best documentary of 2005.
But aside from the pleasure he may get from poking fun (Mr. Sackman insists he isn't anti-penguin, as Farce was in the works long before the Oscars), the coming release is the quintessential ThinkFilm movie. It is controversial, relatively inexpensive to get the distribution rights for and will practically market itself through buzz on the street.
That, in a sentence, has become the ThinkFilm recipe. The company doesn't merely court controversy, it milks scandal for all it's worth. Five years after launching ThinkFilm, Mr. Sackman and his colleagues have carved out a niche as the distributor that goes after the kinds of movies most companies won't touch.
Browse through a list of their titles and you get a sense of ThinkFilm's strategy as a movie distributor. There is the documentary, Fuck, an exploration of the world's most famous expletive. There is The Aristocrats, a film no other distributor would touch because it involves comedians telling the same crass joke over and over. ThinkFilm bought the rights for it and parlayed the movie into $7-million at the box office, a healthy sum for a small production, despite threats of being banned from some theatres.
Then there is Shortbus, the much anticipated film at this year's Toronto International Film Festival that drew gasps from audiences at Cannes for its vivid sex scenes. ThinkFilm picked up on that reaction, saw the potential for controversy and media attention, and jumped aboard as a distributor for the film.
Shortbus is a perfect example of ThinkFilm's strategy, Mr. Sackman says. The distribution business is all about marketing. The biggest companies will spend dollars, but the smaller ones find other means to generate buzz. When a theatre chain in the United States threatened to refuse The Aristocrats, Mr. Sackman admits he loved every minute of the free advertising the film got from the media coverage.
With Shortbus, Mr. Sackman may be the only person at the Toronto film festival this week to have hired an obscenity consultant. A lawyer familiar with the content of Shortbus approached ThinkFilm recently to counsel the company if it gets into trouble in U.S. states where decency laws may come into play.
"He saw the film and said 'there's no concern there, but you should still hire me.' The idea is to protect yourself," Mr. Sackman says. "If we played in Alabama and it violates their community standards, it could be an issue, so now we've got a specialist in First Amendment rights . . . none of us really believe [the threat is real] But it cracks me up that somebody said that."
When ThinkFilm started five years ago, courting controversy was a conscious decision. The company intentionally stays out of the industry association in the United States that requires all members to have their films rated. That way, ThinkFilm can pick up risky movies that other companies would avoid because they require a rating. The company then sends them into theatres without a rating, usually drawing headlines along the way.
"We seem to have become synonymous with edgy and controversial material," Mr. Sackman says. "We don't love those films simply for salacious purposes, we love them because they are clay that we know how to mould."
That approach hasn't kept the company from garnering respect, however. ThinkFilm's picks have won several accolades, including an Oscar for the documentary Born into Brothels and the nomination for Murderball.
"Once you're at the theatre, it's an equal playing field," Mr. Sackman says. With Shortbus set to be released soon, Mr. Sackman is hoping to draw the ire of someone. It will help the film immensely.
"Please," he says in his office, mocking a fictional conversation with Canadian film raters. "Call this porn. Somebody please do it."
ThinkFilm is a private company, so its balance sheet is a guarded secret. However, it is profitable, Mr. Sackman says. It has also been at the centre of rumours that it is up for sale, which Mr. Sackman confirms by saying: "ThinkFilm has been up for sale since it started."
Once again, he is stoking publicity for the firm, which has lasted five years in a business with much bigger competitors threatening to trample people like Mr. Sackman.
"People think you can just get into this business because it looks easy in some respects," he says. "Well, if that's what they think, then come right in."
Jeff Sackman, president and CEO, ThinkFilm
Age: 46
Family: Married, with twin six-year-olds.
Career background: Began in the industry in 1985 as an executive with Cineplex Odeon. Former president of Lions Gate. Started ThinkFilm in 2001.
Education: Master of business administration degree with a specialty in film from Syracuse University. Bachelor of commerce degree from McGill University.
Management style: "It's best described as horizontal where everybody has a role where we don't follow a strict hierarchy. I look at all the roles as side to side instead of top to bottom."
Strategy for finding the next hit film: "You can have a hard and fast plan, but we find opportunism and flexibility is the best. There are always films that emerge from festivals that create a buzz, which we will then pounce upon and try to outwit the competition and gain the rights."
Savviest move: Taking the controversial film The Aristocrats to better-than-expected box office success, even though the film centres around the repeated telling of a lewd joke by a variety of comedians and no major distributor would touch it.
Biggest disappointment: When the Oscar-nominated documentary Murderball, about wheelchair rugby players, did not meet box office expectations despite almost unanimous critical acclaim. " Murderball goes down as the biggest disappointment of my career."
Favourite movies: The Godfather and Raiders of the Lost Ark. "My personal favourite is a film called The Stunt Man, which is a classic that I try to foist on all the young people in the office."
TEXT: GRANT ROBERTSON PHOTO: AARON HARRIS/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
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https://news.chapman.edu/2015/09/23/bordertown-new-animated-fox-show-from-seth-macfarlane-gets-pre-screening-at-chapman-with-writeralumnus-gustavo-arellano/
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en
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"Bordertown," new animated Fox show from Seth MacFarlane, gets pre-screening at Chapman with consulting producer/alumnus Gustavo Arellano
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2015-09-23T00:00:00
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"Bordertown," a new animated series from the comedic mind of Seth MacFarlane, debuts on the Fox network in 2016. But you can get a special sneak peek at the show -- a look at immigration
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en
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https://news.chapman.edu/wp-content/plugins/chapman-favicon/favicon.ico
|
Chapman Newsroom
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https://news.chapman.edu/2015/09/23/bordertown-new-animated-fox-show-from-seth-macfarlane-gets-pre-screening-at-chapman-with-writeralumnus-gustavo-arellano/
|
“Bordertown,” a new animated series from the comedic mind of Seth MacFarlane, debuts on the Fox network in 2016. But you can get a special sneak peek at the show — a look at immigration through the eyes of two families who live in a small town on the U.S.-Mexico border — when consulting producer and Chapman alumnus Gustavo Arellano brings a screening to Chapman University on Thursday, September 24 at 6:45 p.m. in Kennedy Hall 237B, hosted by the Minority Student Law Association (MSLA) and Chapman’s chapter of MeChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan).
“Bordertown”takes a satirical look at the cultural shifts occurring in America, where the U.S. Census forecasts that by 2017, ethnic minorities will become the majority. Set against this increasingly diverse backdrop, the series explores family, politics and everything in between with a cross-cultural wink. The series centers on two clans: the Buckwalds and the Gonzalezes. Bud Buckwald (Hank Azaria) is a married father of three and a Border Patrol agent who is just a tad behind the times and feels slightly threatened by the cultural changes transforming his neighborhood. He lives next door to Ernesto Gonzalez (Nicholas Gonzalez), an ambitious immigrant and family man, who has been in the country less than 10 years, but is already doing better than Bud – which, it turns out, is a bit of an issue for the less-industrious native.
Arellano was originally asked by series co-creator Mark Hentemann (Family Guy) to be a writer on the show, but he turned it down because his writing time is devoted to OC Weekly, where he is the editor, and to his popular nationally distributed column, “Ask a Mexican!” (Arellano is also the author of several books, including Ask a Mexican!, Orange County: A Personal History, and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.)
“Not only was Mark the real deal—nice, funny, and trusting in the opinions of others—he was refreshingly honest,” Arellano blogged on Pocho.com. “He told me that, while he knew comedy from his years with David Letterman and Family Guy, he wasn’t going to pretend that a gabacho from Cleveland like himself knew much about the Mexican experience in the U.S.; he wanted the best and brightest Latino writers to give his show the right perspective, to tell stories that not only have never been told before on network TV but have them told by the right folks.”
Arellano suggested that the producers call Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the popular comic strip La Cucaracha, and ask him to join the writing team, but they were already on it. Alcaraz is one of five Latino writers on the show.
“I’m only a part-timer, as a consultant who’s mostly going to be offering notes,” Arellano blogged. “But I’ve already seen scripts—amazing, hilarious, and spot-on about what it means to be Mexican in America right now…Is the show going to offend people? Of course—that’s what comedy does. But with Lalo and I on board, we’re going to do our damndest to make sure that when Bordertown offends, it’s for a reason—just like we’ve done during our respective careers. Already, our suggestions are being appreciated and being worked into the show.”
So — if you can’t wait for 2016, come on out and enjoy this preview screening opportunity, with consulting producer Gustavo Arellano on hand to introduce the show and chat with the audience.
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dbpedia
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3
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https://www.facebook.com/ThinkFilmImpact/
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en
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Facebook
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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[
"https://facebook.com/security/hsts-pixel.gif?c=3.2"
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Sieh dir auf Facebook Beiträge, Fotos und vieles mehr an.
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de
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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https://www.facebook.com/login/
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https://www.montclair.edu/film-forum/speaker-series/films-and-filmmakers-series-archives/films-and-filmmakers-spring-2008/
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en
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Films and Filmmakers Spring 2008
|
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Montclair State University, Film ProgramVisiting Filmmakers Coordinator: Roberta Friedman 973-655-7282TUESDAYS from 7:00 – 10:00 pmLocation: University Hall, Rm 1040 (unless otherwise noted) open to all – admission free 12-Feb Mark UrmanMark Urman, Producer/Distributor, THINKfilmMark Urman is currently head of the U.S. Theatrical Division at THINKfilm, and former co-president of the Theatrical Releasing division of Lions […]
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en
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https://www.montclair.edu/film-forum/speaker-series/films-and-filmmakers-series-archives/films-and-filmmakers-spring-2008/
|
Montclair State University, Film Program
Visiting Filmmakers Coordinator: Roberta Friedman 973-655-7282
TUESDAYS from 7:00 – 10:00 pm
Location: University Hall, Rm 1040 (unless otherwise noted)
open to all – admission free
12-Feb Mark Urman
Mark Urman, Producer/Distributor, THINKfilm
Mark Urman is currently head of the U.S. Theatrical Division at THINKfilm, and former co-president of the Theatrical Releasing division of Lions Gate Films. He brings with him extensive expertise and a wealth of knowledge about film, filmmakers and film distribution.
19-Feb Armacord
Film: “Armacord” – part of the Italian Film festival
26-Feb Michael Uslan
Michael Uslan, Producer, “The Dark Knight”
Michael Uslan is the originator and creative force behind the Batman movies and producer of the latest Batman film, “The Dark Knight.” He is also an Emmy Award-winning television producer and founding partner of Comic Book Movies.
4-Mar Amos Poe
Amos Poe, Writer/Director/Producer, “The Blank Generation”
Amos Poe is a leading figure of the No Wave Cinema movement which paralleled the punk music explosion of the 70s and 80s. He is considered by many to be the father of the modern Indy American cinema and created films such as the now-classic, “The Blank Generation” and the neo-noir, “Frogs for Snakes.” www.amospoe.com.
11-Mar Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris, Editor/Director/Producer, “Wayne’s World”
Penelope Spheeris is the director of iconic films such as “The Decline of Western Civilization” as well as box office hits like “Wayne’s World.” She is also the founder of Rock ‘n Reel, the first Los Angeles production company to specialize in music videos. www.penelopespheeris.com.
(This lecture will be a live video conference from Los Angeles with Penelope Spheeris.)
18-Mar SPRING BREAK
No lecture
25-Mar Bruce Sinofsky
Bruce Sinofsky, Editor/Director/Producer, “Paradise Lost”
Bruce Sinofsky is the director of award winning and provocative documentaries including “Paradise Lost,” “Brother’s Keeper” and “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.”
1-Apr Pat O’Neill
Pat O’Neill, Director/Producer, “The Decay of Fiction”
Pat O’Neill is a respected member of the experimental film scene and director of films such as “The Decay of Fiction.” He is also the founder of Lookout Mountain Films, creating visual effects for Hollywood features including George Lucas’ “The Empire Strikes Back.”
8-Apr Marco Bonini
Marco Bonini, Producer/Screenwriter/Actor “Billo il grand dakhaar”
The Italian film, “Billo il grand dakhaar,” directed by Laura Muscardin, will be screened in Calcia Hall Room 135 at 7 p.m. The film, which will be introduced by Marco Bonini, the co-producer, screenplay co-author, and featured actor, is part of the University’s Italian Festival of the Arts and Humanities: An Italian Sense of Place: Land and Identity. In Italian with English subtitles.
15-Apr Rose Troche
Rose Troche, Writer/Director/Producer, “The L Word”
Rose Troche is an award-winning writer, director and producer of both film and television. Among her film credits is the critically-acclaimed “Go Fish,” and she is the writer/director of the Showtime series, “The L Word.”
22-Apr Karim Ainouz
Karim Ainouz, Writer/Director, “Love for Sale”
Karim Ainouz is a Brazilian-born writer and director for film and television. His first feature film, “Madame Sata” was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and his second feature, “Love for Sale,” won Best Film at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.
29-Apr
TBD
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https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/fisher-king-readies-feature-spin-off-of-bordertown
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Fisher King readies feature spin-off of series Bordertown
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2020-09-25T09:17:00+02:00
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The latest film & TV news of the Nordic audiovisual industry.
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en
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/apple-touch-icon.png
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Nordisk Film & TV Fond
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https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/fisher-king-readies-feature-spin-off-of-bordertown
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Netflix will handle global distribution on the film outside Finland, where new local distributor Aurora Studios will handle the cinema release and Yle, the TV premiere.
Building on the global branding of the hit crime series Bordertown, Fisher King CEO Matti Halonen has gathered the same creative team consisting of writers Mikko Oikkonen and Antti Pesonen, as well as director Juuso Syrjä.
Ville Virtanen reprises his role as investigator Kari Sorjonen, Anu Sinisalo as Lena Jaakkola and Sampo Sarkola as Sorjonen’s arche enemy Lasse Maasalo.
The story unfolds as a mural of Lasse Maasalo is found, painted in blood, at a train station. Beneath the mural is written: ”Making the World a Better Place”. The same message is found on a social media voting contest. When three of the most-voted people disappear, acclaimed investigator Kari Sorjonen is asked to come back to work. He is the only one who can solve the society-shaking hate crime, but only if he manages to get his own mind together.
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https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/independent-film-distributors-list
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A List of Independent Film Distributors
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Not sure where to start with independent film distributors? Weâve got you covered. Take a look at our comprehensive list of indie distribution companies.
|
en
|
https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/independent-film-distributors-list
|
If youâre a filmmaker or indie producer, nowâs the time to acquaint yourself with independent film distributors. That is, if you want eyes on your film. Without an indie film distributor, no one will see your film but you and your family. Get familiar with this list of independent film distribution companies to find the right partner!
Abramorama
Have a documentary in need of indie film distribution? Especially if your film has a social impact message, it might be the perfect fit for Abramorama, an indie distribution company that specializes in that very type of media.Â
It considers itself âinnovator in focused, niche film distribution, direct-to-consumer engagement, and live, event and digital cinema.â
And if youâre seeking distribution outside of the United States, Abramorama offers global options for its clientele.Â
BayView Entertainment
Finding indie film distribution across multiple platforms is vital to a modern indie film. BayView Entertainment has been leading low budget film distributors in this field for fifteen years across all film genres.
Per its website, it has partnerships with:
Amazon
Comcast
Dish
Google Play
iTunes
Pluto
Redbox
Roku
Sling
Tubi
Vimeo
Vizio
Vudu
YouTubeÂ
Moreover, it markets itself as âa full service media company committed to acquire, develop, produce, market, and distribute audio-visual content.â As a filmmaker considering indie film distributors, one with this type of comprehensive support should be on your list.
Breaking Glass Pictures
When assessing independent film distribution companies, itâs never a bad idea to see what they offer in the way of international distribution. Case in point, Breaking Glass Pictures. It markets itself as âa globally connected indie film distribution companyâ with its primary focus in North America.
However, Breaking Glass Pictures also has an international sales branch with distribution partners in regions such as:
Asia
Australia
France
Germany
United Kingdom
So if youâre a filmmaker researching independent film distributors with global reach, add Breaking Glass Pictures to your list.Â
Canyon Cinema Foundation
Are you an experimental or avant-garde filmmaker or indie producer working out of the West Coast? Then you may want to add Canyon Cinema to your list of film distributors.Â
The beginnings of this indie distribution company go all the way back to 1967 when it was an artist-run distribution co-op. It formally became the non-profit Canyon Cinema Foundation (CCF) in 2014 and offers distribution options for West Coast artists.
Given that many independent film distribution companies tend to cater to more traditional films, Canyon Cinema Foundation can be a tremendous partner for anyone working in the experimental or avant-garde space.
Cinedigm
When putting together your list of independent film distributors, are you considering exactly how they will circulate your film? Does their indie film distribution include theatrical, broadcast television, streaming, digital, cable, or satellite VOD?Â
Not to mention, some film lovers still purchase physical media. Do your potential low budget film distributors offer DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K options?
Cinedigm does. Moreover, it provides distribution through a number of broad and genre-specific streaming channels, including:Â
Bloody Disgusting
Docurama
Dove Channel
Lone Star Channel
Retro Crush
Screambox
The Cinema Guild
Producers Philip and Mary-Ann Hobel have been behind a number of documentary and scripted narrative works, including the Oscar-winning Tender Mercies. Theyâre also the founders of The Cinema Guild, one of several independent film distributors based in New York City.
Given their professional background, the Hobels focus primarily on distribution for independent, foreign, and documentary films. If your project falls into any of those categories, add The Cinema Guild to your list of independent film distributors.
Cohen Media Group
The Hobels arenât the only filmmakers turned independent film distributors.Â
For nearly 15 years, Charles S. Cohen, the executive producer behind the Oscar-nominated Frozen River, has been heading up the Cohen Media Group. The CMG keeps its distribution focus on North America for both contemporary and classic cinema.
Why does Cohen Media Group concentrate its distribution efforts solely in North America when many of the indie distribution companies weâve covered so far make it a point to distribute globally?Â
They say itâs so that the CMG team can âdevote their best efforts towards each filmâs fullest potential.â Something for filmmakers to keep in mind when researching low budget film distributors.
Entertainment One
Filmmakers who regardless want to work with an indie distribution company that has a larger scope may want to consider Entertainment One.Â
Known as eOne, this distributor works on a global scale, with partners across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. In fact, eOne can offer prospective clients over five-hundred broadcast partners across more than 150 territories around the world. As its site states, eOne has the âreach of a studio and the flexibility of an indie.â
The Film Collaborative
Not quite sure what independent film distributors do or what film distribution entails? The Film Collaborative can help.
The Film Collaborative is a non-profit indie distribution company that aims to help filmmakers through the distribution process. Its three central taglines â âfilmmakers first,â ânon-profit, on purpose,â and âwe donât own your rights⦠you do!â speak to The Film Collaborativeâs focus on championing the indie filmmaker.
Need a reliable entertainment payroll solution? Explore here.
FilmRise
Add FilmRise to the list of indie distribution companies that were founded by film producers. For the last decade, producers Danny Fisher, Jack Fisher, and Alan Klingenstein have been bringing both films and television shows to audiences across the world.
With an impressive library of more than â50,000 licensed and originally produced scripted and unscripted feature films and television episodes across all genres,â FilmRise has partnered with many of the biggest global names in distribution:
Amazon
BET+
BritBox
CNN
Crackle
Discovery
HBO
Hoopla
Hulu
Investigation Discovery
iTunes
Kanopy
Netflix
Ovation
Peacock
PBS
Pluto
Rakuten TV
Redbox
Roku
Samsung TV Plus
Showtime
Sling
Starz
Stirr
Tubi
Vizio
Vudu
Waipu.tv
Xbox
Xumo
Freestyle Digital Media
Freestyle Digital Media is a boutique distribution groupâ¦
When they hear the word âboutique,â some filmmakers and indie producers may think small. But when it comes to low budget film distributors, it can also mean a company that carefully curates its content. That pays more time and attention to the filmmakers.
That is the experience filmmakers get with Freestyle Digital Media. An indie distribution company that emphasizes the veteran experience of its team, FDM provides additional à la carte options, including:Â
Creative advertising
Direct email marketing
Piracy protection
Publicity
Social media services
With this individualized approach, filmmakers receive a tailored-made distribution experience should they partner with Freestyle Digital Media.
Good Deed Entertainment
Good Deed Entertainment is an Ohio-based indie distribution company that works in multiple entertainment spaces both in terms of genre and medium.
That being said, if youâre a horror or sci-fi filmmaker, Good Deed may be of particular interest on account of its Cranked Up Films division. Through it, the company distributes âhigh concept horror, grounded sci-fi, and speculative fiction.âÂ
It also develops and produces genre content, so filmmakers may want to consider connecting with GDE before their next horror or sci-fi project goes into production.
Gravitas Ventures
When researching independent film distributors, youâll likely come across industry terms such as âall-rights distributor.â This means that should you partner with one of these indie film distributors, theyâll do all the legwork to distribute your film via theaters, television, streaming, you name it.
Enter Gravitas Ventures, which is one of the independent film companies on our list that is an all-rights distributor. For more than fifteen years, Gravitas Ventures has been helping filmmakers and indie producers get their movies seen across the globe through multiple mediums, including various forms of video-on-demand.
Greenwich Entertainment
Viewing audiences watch documentaries in growing numbers. Great news for documentarians! If you have a doc youâre looking to put out through indie film distribution, you may want to partner with a company that specializes in this type of film.
Founded in 2017, Greenwich Entertainment focuses on documentary features. But for all you scripted narrative filmmakers out there, donât leave Greenwich Entertainment off your list of film distributors! It offers distribution options for you as well.
Gunpowder and Sky
Gunpowder and Sky is an indie distribution company that champions filmmakers early in their careers, a huge plus for anyone who might be trying to distribute their first or second film.
Established in 2016, Gunpowder and Sky has distributed more than forty features and series, typically with a focus on âpop culture, social issues and larger-than-life personalitiesâ from both emerging and established creatives.Â
IFC Films
IFC Films has been one of the leading independent film distributors for more than twenty years. That fact speaks to how nimble it has been in the face of ever-changing entertainment platforms and mediums.
IFC Films champions the independent filmmaker, but it also has a division called IFC Midnight that focuses specifically on genre films such as sci-fi and horror. Not to say that a genre filmmaker shouldnât explore independent film distribution companies that cater to all types of movies. But partnering with an indie distribution company like IFC Midnight that knows how to find horror or sci-fi audiences could make it worth checking out.
Indiecan Entertainment
A distribution deal doesnât matter much if the indie film distribution company doesnât know how to reach audiences.Â
Thatâs why Avi Federgreen, the producer who started Indiecan Entertainment more than 10 years ago, makes it a point to identify and connect with audiences specific to the films he and his company are distributing. He also partners with filmmakers with whom he hopes to collaborate for multiple film distribution deals.Â
Indie Rights
Indie Rights is an indie film distribution company that believes in filmmakers reaping the financial rewards of their creative efforts.
Thatâs why founders Linda Nelson and Michael Madison state on their site that their filmmaker clientele âdeserve to earn 80% of the revenue generatedâ by their films. And to guarantee the success of those films, Indie Rights carefully curates the projects they choose to distribute to ensure ample exposure of them through their global partnerships.
Juno Films
Thereâs that word again⦠âboutique.â But donât let that dissuade you from exploring low budget film distributors who use it like Juno Films.Â
Boutique can be a great thing for filmmakers who donât want to be one of the hundreds that get lost among the distribution shuffle. Juno Films founder Elizabeth Sheldon and her team work with both scripted narrative and documentary filmmakers with all-rights releases across North America, as well as international sales.
Magnolia PicturesÂ
Magnolia Pictures is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution division of 2929 Entertainment, which was founded by billionaire entrepreneurs Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban.Â
With a focus on independent and international fare, Magnolia Pictures has built an impressive library of more than 500 titles since its inception in 2002.
Mbur Films
As you research independent film distribution companies, be sure to look into how they might handle internet distribution. After all, while theaters and broadcast television are still powerful forces, people around the globe now get their entertainment via the internet.
Mbur Films highlights itself as an âinternet-based media distribution company,â which can work in the favor of filmmakers looking for an indie film distribution company that understands the importance of exposure through it.
Music Box Films
If you know the Chicago film scene, you are likely familiar with the Music Box Theatre that resides in the Windy City. But did you know that its operator, the Southport Music Box Corporation, also operates Music Box Films?
In 2013, Music Box Films launched its distribution arm Doppelgänger Releasing, which focuses on theatrical and at-home viewing for genre films. Yep, another indie film distribution company that specializes in genre films. So for all you genre filmmakers out there, Music Box Films just might be the right fit for you and your movie.
Neon
The Alamo Drafthouse is a popular theater chain that first opened its doors in Austin twenty-five years ago and has since branched out to multiple locations across the United States. One of its co-owners, Tim League, then decided to get into the indie film distribution game with the founding of Neon in 2017.
Along with co-founder Tom Quinn, League has enjoyed great success by building a remarkable catalog of films through Neon, including Pig, Spencer, and Titane, that viewers can rent from the comfort of their own homes.
Passion River Films
Like its name implies, Passion River Films is devoted to distributing films that will inspire passion in viewers. For nearly twenty-five years, this company has been bringing audiences the very best in documentary and scripted narrative films.
Remember when we mentioned that filmmakers should know exactly what independent film distributors can offer to them? Well, Passion River Films provides theatrical, broadcast, streaming, video on demand, DVD, and, most interestingly, educational distribution options through its filmmaker partnerships.
Passion River Films educational distribution options include:educational DVD licenses, educational streaming rights, public performance licenses, and even filmmaker speaking engagements. Perfect for filmmakers with academically-minded projects.
Roadside Attractions
Roadside Attractions is one of the more well-known independent film distribution companies given its permanence in the distribution world for more than twenty years.Â
Founded in 2000 by Howard Cohen and Eric dâArbeloff, Roadside Attractions has a keen eye for Oscar fare, including the films Albert Nobbs, The Cove, Judy, Manchester by the Sea, Super Size Me, and Winterâs Bone.
Seventh Art Releasing
For almost thirty years, Seventh Art Releasing has stood among independent film distributors as a champion of unique documentary films.
Like several of the low budget film distributors mentioned so far, Seventh Art Releasing offers a host of distribution options, including festival distribution. Seventh Art helps position projects in prominent festivals. This can be a huge boon for indie filmmakers looking to have their films seen and purchased for other venues.
Strand Releasing
Since 1989, Strand Releasing has been a prominent force behind the distribution of American independent, documentaries, and international films for U.S. theaters, video on demand, and DVD/Blu-ray purchase.
The longevity of Strand Releasing speaks to its leadership among low budget film distributors.Â
Winnipeg Film Group
Rounding out our list of independent film distributors is the Winnipeg Film Group. As you might have guessed from its name, itâs also another of our Canada-based independent film distribution companies.
An artist-run organization âcommitted to promoting the art of cinema,â the Winnipeg Film Group sprung out of the frustration of local filmmakers. They sought new distribution opportunities, as well as production and exhibition options.Â
Since its inception in 1974, the WFG has leaned into collaboration among its group of filmmakers and artists for overall greater project visibility.
Wrapping up
Independent film distributors have never been more important for filmmakers and indie producers. While the opportunities to produce films have never been greater, as well as the options for their distribution, indie filmmakers must still rely on independent film distribution companies as the go-between for them and their audiences.
To their credit, low budget film distributors are often the biggest supporters and cheerleaders of emerging and indie filmmakers, which makes a partnership with one of the above independent film distributors yet another springboard to creative and career success.
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https://variety.com/lists/best-a24-movies-ranked/
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A24’s Best 35 Movies Ranked, From ‘Moonlight’ to ‘Uncut Gems’
|
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[
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] | null |
[
"Clayton Davis"
] |
2024-04-14T21:15:00+00:00
|
Variety ranks A24's 35 best movies including "Moonlight," "Uncut Gems," "Lady Bird," "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "Midsommar."
|
en
|
Variety
|
https://variety.com/lists/best-a24-movies-ranked/
|
In the late summer of 2012, the indie film production and distribution company A24 was born. Drama, comedy, horror, documentary, animation – nothing has been off-limits for the New York outfit. Whether it’s a monochromatic reflection of a family (“C’mon C’mon”), an offbeat character study of a former porn star (“Red Rocket”), or a man unable to resist a female robot (“Ex Machina”), some of the most memorable pieces of filmmaking of the past decade have come out of its doors.
It was Aug. 17, 2012, when Variety first wrote about the launch of the company with the plan to release eight to 10 titles annually. A24 was started by David Fenkel, former Oscilloscope Laboratories president and executive at ThinkFilm; Daniel Katz, who led the film finance group at Guggenheim Partners and John Hodges, who served as head of production and development at Big Big Beach Films.
The company would release its very first movie on a limited scale in February 2013 – a film called “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III,” the sophomore directorial feature from Roman Coppola, starring Charlie Sheen. Critics panned it, but nonetheless, A24 persisted with four releases over the next six months – “Ginger & Rosa” with Elle Fanning, “Spring Breakers” with James Franco, “The Bling Ring” with Emma Watson and “The Spectacular Now” with Miles Teller.
By 2016, the studio quickly found its way through the Hollywood machine, navigating confidently from the east coast, becoming a production studio and fully financing its first feature film – the coming-of-age LGBTQ drama “Moonlight” from co-writer and director Barry Jenkins. In partnership with Plan B Entertainment, the film garnered universal acclaim and received eight Oscar nominations. In addition to winning supporting actor (Mahershala Ali) and adapted screenplay, in one of the most notorious and memorable Oscar ceremonies (until 2022’s infamous slap), it was named the year’s best picture in an envelope mix-up with one of the nominees, after “La La Land” was first named the winner (for approximately 30 seconds).
The sky was the limit. With critical darlings like “Lady Bird” (2017) by Greta Gerwig and “Eighth Grade” (2018), the studio has been part of partnership deals with Apple TV+ and Showtime Networks for its digital releases. It continues to execute some of the most innovative and thought-provoking films, like “Hereditary” (2018) by Ari Aster and “Uncut Gems” by the Safdie brothers.
After more than a decade in the game, the studio created one of its strongest cinematic slates yet in 2022, including The Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” its highest-grossing film thus far. It went on to win seven Oscars including best picture, director, and three acting prizes for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Read Variety’s rankings of the 35 best A24 movies, which covers all films released up to Dec 31, 2023.
Honorable mentions: “Enemy” (2014) from Denis Villeneuve; “Morris from America” (2016) from Chad Hartigan; “Swiss Army Man” from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert; “The Florida Project” (2017) from Sean Baker; “Boys State” (2020) from Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine; “First Cow” (2020) by Kelly Reichardt; “Zola” (2021) from Janicza Bravo: “Pearl” (2022) by Ti West
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https://variety.com/2020/film/global/netflix-finlands-aurora-bordertown-the-mural-murders-1234783403/
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en
|
Netflix, Finland's Aurora Jump Into 'Bordertown
|
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2020-09-25T07:20:06+00:00
|
Netflix has acquired the Finnish movie "Bordertown – The Mural Murders," a spinoff of the popular Nordic crime series.
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en
|
Variety
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https://variety.com/2020/film/global/netflix-finlands-aurora-bordertown-the-mural-murders-1234783403/
|
Netflix has acquired the Finnish movie “Bordertown – The Mural Murders,” a spinoff of the popular Nordic crime series which is now in its third season.
Produced by Matti Halonen and Johannes Lassila at Fisher King, “Bordertown – The Mural Murders” will start shooting next month and will be released theatrically in Finland by the newly-launched distribution banner Aurora Studios. Netflix has global rights to the movie outside of Finland.
The movie brings back “Bordertown”‘s key cast, Ville Virtanen, Anu Sinisalo and Sampo Sarkola. The screenplay is written by Miikko Oikkonen and Antti Pesonen, and Juuso Syrjä will direct.
The plot of the movie follows brilliant police investigator Kari Sorjonen chasing his arch enemy Lasse Maasalo. The movie is set against the backdrop of a social media voting contest in which people have voted on without whom the country would be better off. When three of the most-voted people disappear, Sorjonen is asked to come back to work to investigate the hate crimes.
“We are extremely excited to launch to movie theaters the award-winning and critically acclaimed Bordertown, which has been one of the top Nordic noir IPs,” said Antti Toiviainen, the CEO of Aurora Studios.
Matti Halonen, the Executive Producer of the film at Fisher King, said ”Bordertown is a big audience movie, and Aurora Studios is going for a nationwide theatrical release in autumn 2021.”
“It is also truly excellent that we have signed a worldwide distribution agreement with Netflix which means that probably for the first time ever, a Finnish-language film will be shown all over the world, from US to Australia,” added Halonen.
The filming of “Bordertown – The Mural Murders” will take place in and around Helsinki, the capital of Finland, under strict sanitary guidelines.
“Bordertown – The Mural Murders” is financed by Yle, Netflix, Aurora Studios, Business Finland and the Finnish Film Foundation.
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https://www.documentary.org/feature/ill-take-manhattan-new-york-city-doc-central-distributors-you-gotta-problem
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en
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I'll Take Manhattan: New York City is Doc Central for Distributors--You Gotta Problem with That?
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2024-07-24T08:34:28-07:00
|
Is New York City really the center of independent documentary filmmaking, or does it just seem that way?Short answer: it is. Sorry, to those of you (myself included) who are Angelenos.
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en
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/themes/custom/ida_bootstrap_sass/images/favicon.ico
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International Documentary Association
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https://www.documentary.org/feature/ill-take-manhattan-new-york-city-doc-central-distributors-you-gotta-problem
|
Is New York City really the center of independent documentary filmmaking, or does it just seem that way?
Short answer: it is. Sorry, to those of you (myself included) who are Angelenos.
If you're interested in co-producing, financing and distributing independent documentary films, most independent film distribution companies, big and small, studio-financed or actually independent, are based in New York City. And unlike the studios, where heads of distribution can change over a weekend, many of these companies, like New Yorker Films, Sony Pictures Classics and First Run Features, have had remarkably stable management for years. "Any independent film company that has lasted has been minimally bicoastal, if not completely headquartered in New York," says Mark Urman, vice president of THINKFilm.
So what is it about New York?" New York is where the most prestigious theaters in the country are," says Dan Talbot, founder of New Yorker Films, a company that has called New York its home since 1965. "These meaningful theaters generally are the platforms for films that are opening, and exhibitors around the country watch what happens here and make decisions based on that." Talbot also owns Lincoln Plaza Theaters, one of those cinemas that exhibitors and critics watch. "Many films were very successful as a result of their launch at the Lincoln Plaza ," says Talbot. "One of those was My Architect, which New Yorker Films distributed."
It's no secret that successful theatrical independent films depend on critics and good reviews. Since New York is arguably the media center of the country, that's where many of the important critics are based. New York also has a long history of being much more supportive of art house films than Los Angeles, with prestigious venues such as Film Forum, Angelika Film Center, MoMA and the New York Film Festival. And, after all, New York (well, nearby New Jersey, actually) is where the film industry began in this country.
"New York is the cultural capital of the country, if not the continent, if not the world," says Urman. "It's just more fertile for ideas, creativity and creating a sense of community. Since film is a collaborative medium, those people who want to make film independently can form a bond and, in that Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland way, get together and put on a show." Vanessa Arteaga, senior programming and production executive at Wellspring, believes that the concentration of theater in New York has played a major role. "In New York , we have inherently a theater culture," she says. "My sense is that the independent film culture has thrived more in New York than LA as a result of immediate access to the theater world."
There's also another major difference: Los Angeles is dominated by one industry--or two, if you count the music industry--while New York most definitely is not. "In Los Angeles , there's so many people who want to connect," explains Urman. "There's a lot of pruning that takes place the further east you goby the time you get to New York, all of that filmmaking kudzu is hacked away, and you only have the strong and productive branches left."
But if you are now packing your bags to move to the big city in order to do documentaries, hold on. "Our filmmakers are spread out all over the country and the world," says Marc Mauceri, vice president of First Run Features. "New York might have the biggest number of filmmakers that we represent, but Los Angeles is actually pretty close--also the Bay Area, Boston and other cities." Urman has had filmmakers based in Paris, Brazil, Budapest and Los Angeles. Besides filmmakers, there are many distributors in other cities. "With all the new means of communications, you can be anywhere," says Talbot. "You can distribute films from Alaska."
Thanks to films like Fahrenheit 9/11, Super Size Me and March of the Penguins, theatrical documentaries are hotter than ever--and big money is now being made. How is the business changing, and is focus shifting away from New York as the decision-making center? "To watch a studio get involved in a film like Fahrenheit 9/11, and actually have the juice to get it to gross over $100 million was amazing," says Mauceri. "That has forever changed the landscape of documentary film distribution." The success of documentaries and nonfiction film during the summer of 2005, usually the studio blockbuster season, has not gone unnoticed. "Now there are fiction films that fold after a week or so," says Talbot. "That's a big difference. Documentaries have become very popular with audiences."
It's a change that's happening all over the world. "We've found that we've been able to do significant business, big money, on international sales for both Murderball and Aristocrats," says Urman. "France now has a very viable theatrical market with big box-office hits, and there's more and more in the UK . I think people are surprised at how the audience overseas for documentaries is expanding." The rise of the DVD has also helped. "There's a much bigger market for DVD sales, and there are also many more options for documentaries to be sold to television," says Mauceri.
The fact that there is money to be made in documentaries has significantly impacted the independent distributors. First and foremost, there's much more competition. "It seems like every time you turn around, there's a new distribution company announcing a slate of films," says Mauceri. "Smaller, specialty films like documentaries get a good buzz at Sundance and then you read in the trades that they sold for millions of dollars; that wasn't happening too much ten years ago." The rise of studio specialty divisions, and independent film companies that grow into studios, has been controversial in the community. "There are now different tiers of independent filmmaking, and it's like, which one is more authentic?" says Arteaga. The interaction between distributor and filmmaker has also changed. "Filmmakers now have sales agents," says Talbot. "They prowl around all the festivals, they use auction techniques, and they try to stick their fingers into the distributor's pocket. However, this allows filmmakers to make more money, which they need to make more films."
But big money does not necessarily translate into big success. "Every week, there's some film, acquired for a lot of money and with a ton of hype, that fails, while smaller films just do sensationally," says Mauceri. "I love that. There's still room for skillful intuition, good guessing and applied wisdom." Urman firmly believes that the interest in independent film and documentaries is just making films better. "When filmmakers know that their films can exist in the culture over the course of six months or a year, and that there can be many lives for the movie, including broadcast and DVD, they're going to speak with more subtlety," says Urman. "They bite off more from the onset, they get more ambitious, in part because they have more money at their disposal."
But will all of this change the historical emphasis on New York City ? Not a chance. Everyone agrees that most serious art house distributors will remain based in New York, because certain things are not changing--the deep entrenchment of independent filmmaking in New York, the location of the critics, the theaters and a huge audience that supports and adores independent documentaries.
Another thing that will not change is a passionate interest by independent film distributors in documentaries that reflect on the human experience. THINKFilm is releasing Protocols of Zion, made by award-winning filmmaker Marc Levin, about anti-Semitism. "But instead of being a cool, detached, researched, informational, old-style documentary, it's Mr. Marc Levin on camera, schlepping around New York, asking people if they've heard of this anti-Semitic book and why they hate Jews," says Urman. "The film is alarming, and important, and completely personal."
New this fall from First Run Features is One Bright Shining Moment, from writer/director/producer Stephen Vittoria, about George McGovern's bold and grassroots 1972 presidential campaign. New Yorker Films is releasing After Innocence, directed by Jessica Sanders, which follows wrongfully convicted men freed by DNA evidence after decades in prison, as they struggle to transition back into society. "I don't know of any other film that deals with this subject yet," says Talbot. "These men deal with the variety of feelings of having been incarcerated for years." Talbot is also contributing to a book for the 20th anniversary of Shoah, the landmark documentary released in 1985 about the Holocaust. "Over 10 million people saw that film on PBS," says Talbot. "It's one of the achievements of my career."
The next Wellspring release is Unknown White Male in February 2006, directed by Rupert Murray. This documentary is the true story of Doug Bruce, who woke up on Coney Island with no memory of any day of his entire life.
Andrea Van Hook is a freelance writer who has worked in the film and television industry for over 15 years, at independent production companies and cable networks.
More Players in the Neighborhood
In addition to the aforementioned theatrical distributors, a host of others, large and small, abound in The Big Apple.
Sony Pictures Classics (www.sonyclassics.com), cited above, was founded in 1992 as an autonomous entity of LA-based Sony Pictures Entertainment. Its presidents, Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom, have worked together since the early 1980s, previously at Orion Classics and United Artists Classics. Among the documentaries in the Sony catalogue include Errol Morris' The Fog of War and Fast, Cheap and Out of Control; Stacy Peralta's Dogtown and Z-Boys and Riding Giants; Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration; Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's The Celluloid Closet; and Terry Zwigoff's Crumb. Coming out in 2006 are two award-winning films from the '05 Sundance Film Festival: Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight (January) and Jeff Feuerzeig's The Devil and Daniel Johnston (March).
Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is a subsidiary of 2929 Entertainment, a conglomerate founded by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner that includes Landmark Theatres, Rysher Entertainment, 2929 Productions and HDNet Films. Magnolia was launched in 2001 by Eamonn Bowles and Bill Banowsky and has distributed such docs as Capturing the Friedmans (Eugene Jarecki, dir./prod.; Marc Smerling, prod.), Control Room (Jehane Noujaim, dir.; Rosadel Varela, Hani Salama, prods.), Bukowski: Born into This (John Dullaghan, dir./prod.), Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (Robert Stone, dir./prod.), and most recently, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Alex Gibney, dir./prod., Jason Kliot, Susan Motamed, prods.).
Zeitgeist Films (www.zeitgeistfilms.com), founded in 1988 by Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, is a relatively small company, but a feisty one. Its biggest box office success to date has been The Corporation (Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, dirs.; Joel Bakan, wtr.), while other noteworthy docs in its collection include Kirby Dick's Chain Camera and, with Amy Ziering Kofman, Derrida; Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I; Ulrike Koch's The Saltmen of Tibet; Nettie Wild's A Place Called Chiapas and Jim Shedden's Brakhage. Coming this fall are Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine's Ballets Russes and Astra Taylor's iek!
Palm Pictures (www.palmpictures.com) distinguishes itself as a hybrid of film and music divisions and is also the parent company of RES Media Group, which publishes RES magazine and produces RESfest. Chris Blackwell, the legendary music impresario whose Island Records label nurtured the careers of such artists as Bob Marley and the Wailers, Tom Waits and The Cranberries, founded Palm Pictures in 1998. Among its more celebrated docs include Doug Pray's Scratch, Ondi Timoner's DIG!, Mark Moormann's Tom Dowd & the Language of Music and Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's Gunner Palace. Coming up in December: Be Here to Love Me: A Film about Townes Van Zandt, from Margaret Brown.
--Thomas White
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https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/bordertown-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc01mza0ody
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Bordertown
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BORDERTOWN is a drama, from 2006, in which a Chicago journalist investigates a spate of violence against women in Juarez.
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/_next/static/images/favicon-7dbebdc25cd083286e777238d2431e44.ico
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https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/bordertown-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc01mza0ody
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sexual violence and sexual threat
There are two rapes and a further sexual assault. In one scene, a woman is dragged from a bus by the driver, and is raped by another man, who hits and chokes her, bites her breast, and buries her alive.
injury detail
In one sequence, a journalist examines crime scene images which depict women who have been murdered - some are graphic, and one woman's head and face have been smashed to a pulp.
flashing/flickering lights
This work contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy."]
Scenes of violence include shooting, choking and eye gouging. Violence is sometimes accompanied by bloody images. During a sequence which takes place in a strip club, topless dancers perform onstage while, in a more private area, women have sex with customers. There is infrequent strong language ('f**k'), as well as milder terms including 'shit', 'piss', 'bastard' and 'balls'. A woman claims Indian people are unable to distinguish between real and imagined events.
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https://webpage.pace.edu/pviswanath/articles/aeg4e43/film_finance/distribution_disagreements.html
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Alex Gibney, the director of this year’s Oscar-winning documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side,” has filed for arbitration, asserting that its box office prospects were undermined by the financial troubles of the film’s distributor, ThinkFilm.
The demand for binding arbitration is the latest hurdle for ThinkFilm, and its owner, David Bergstein, who also owns Capitol Films. But it also comes at a critical time for an independent-film world buffeted by an overabundance of movies and financial challenges.
In a June 19 filing with the Independent Film & Television Alliance, an industry organization, Mr. Gibney’s company, X-Ray Productions, asserts that ThinkFilm defrauded him by not having the financing to distribute and promote “Taxi” properly and seeks to reclaim the film’s distribution rights. The complaint says ThinkFilm’s failure to pay vendors caused the film’s Web site to shut down, and that the company did not advertise the post-Oscar run in major magazines. Since its release in January, the movie has made less than $250,000 in theaters.
“I’m upset because the whole commercial strategy of the film was predicated on the idea of winning awards,” Mr. Gibney said. “The fact that they were fiscally unable to capitalize on the Oscar infuriated me for two reasons: They had been in financial difficulty for some time and hadn’t disclosed it to us; and we won the Oscar, and they still hadn’t disclosed it to us.”
While acknowledging ThinkFilm’s financial hardships, Mark Urman, its president, said the company had done right by “Taxi,” which told the story of an Afghan taxi driver who died while in custody at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
“From the time we acquired it, and throughout its release, no corner was cut and no expense was spared,” he added.
The feud — between Mr. Urman, a well-regarded distributor of independent films including “Spellbound” and “Half Nelson,” and Mr. Gibney, the documentarian behind “Enron: The Smartest Boys in the Room” and the coming film about Hunter S. Thompson, “Gonzo” — is the latest difficulty in the independent film world. Over the last few months Warner Brothers announced it was closing two high-profile companies created to distribute art-house films — Warner Independent and Picturehouse —while Paramount Pictures’ art-house label, Paramount Vantage, acknowledged it was laying off staff and retrenching.
Mark Gill, the president of the Film Department, another independent distribution and financing company, and the former president of Warner Independent, said the current downturn for independent film could be attributed to three things: “a glut of movies in the market, the turning off of the money spigot (due to the drying up of hedge-fund money), and a change in the way people spend their leisure time.”
“It used to be, ‘Mediocrity will be punished,’ ” Mr. Gill said by telephone from Los Angeles, where last weekend he delivered a cri de coeur about the state of independent film during the Los Angeles Film Festival. “Now it’s ‘If you’re not very good or great, you will be punished.’ ”
Bob Berney, the president of Picturehouse, which will officially cease operating in October, said, “I think the audience is still there, but that several of the business models and the way some of the truly independent companies were set up and funded are outdated.” He added, “Good films will always find a market.”
But that is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure. As private equity funds flowed into the movie world and businessmen wealthy from other endeavors decided to try their hand at film financing, movies — particularly those not made by the Hollywood studios and their boutique divisions — have proliferated. About 600 films were released in 2007; five years earlier that figure was under 450, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. And the vast majority of screens in the United States are devoted to the offerings from the big studios.
The result has been that small films, fighting for a finite number of screens, struggle for enough time to build an audience. If they don’t become a hit immediately, there’s another worthy film ready to grab the theater.
The key to longevity, say the presidents of two free-standing independents, Kino International and Zeitgeist Films, is to exercise restraint in both the amount of money allotted for purchasing completed films and in how advertising dollars are spent.
“We try to hedge our bets so we can stay in the game,” said Emily Russo, who with Nancy Gertsman runs Zeitgeist, which on Thursday night will celebrate its 20th anniversary with the opening of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, “Zeitgeist: The Films of Our Time.” “A lot of the companies that came and went, came and went in a bigger, splashier way than we have ever done.”
Don Krim of Kino said his company’s survival for more than three decades had been due in large part to its library of over 500 films, which provides a steady revenue through DVD and ancillary sales. “We don’t hit many home runs, but we have a lot of singles and doubles and occasionally a triple,” he said. “We can do fine with a movie that doesn’t do a million at the box office. But the studio classics divisions need to do $1 million to $2 million to be profitable.”
While never a major player in independent dramatic films, ThinkFilm has quietly made its niche a cache of smart documentaries. A reduced ThinkFilm would make it even tougher for independent documentary filmmakers to find a distributor, and a reduction seems likely.
There is a steadily increasing list of filmmakers, publicists and others who have begun to make public their complaints against ThinkFilm and its owner since 2006, Mr. Bergstein of Capitol.
Shooting on “Nailed,” the new David O. Russell film, has been shut down several times by the Screen Actors Guild and other unions because Capitol was not meeting its payroll obligations. (Mr. Bergstein and representatives for Capitol in Los Angeles did not return phone calls.) The producer Albie Hecht, for example, said he was still waiting for a six-figure advance that he said had been promised after ThinkFilm acquired “War Dance,” an Oscar-nominated documentary by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix in September 2006. Like Mr. Gibney, Mr. Hecht has filed for arbitration with ThinkFilm.
“It pains me to do this,” the publicist Nancy Willen said, referring to her lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in April against ThinkFilm and Capitol Films. “I’ve had a long, productive working relationship with Mark Urman since early in my career. However I now have my own business and simply can’t afford this.”
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https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-pbs-distribution-announce-plans-to-expand-theatrical-distribution-efforts-for-independent-film/
|
en
|
PBS & PBS Distribution Announce Plans to Expand Theatrical Distribution Efforts for Independent Film
|
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[
"pbs publicity"
] |
2020-08-17T00:00:00
|
PBS and PBS Distribution (PBSd), the leading media distributor for the public television community, announced they will together broaden their ongoing support of independent film and filmmakers by greatly expanding their theatrical distribution efforts for independent film, as well as expanding non-theatrical sales.
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en
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About PBS - Main
|
https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-pbs-distribution-announce-plans-to-expand-theatrical-distribution-efforts-for-independent-film/
|
Tap Distribution and Acquisitions Execs Erin Owens and Emily Rothschild
Arlington, VA – January 19, 2017 – Today, PBS and PBS Distribution (PBSd), the leading media distributor for the public television community, announced they will together broaden their ongoing support of independent film and filmmakers by greatly expanding their theatrical distribution efforts for independent film, as well as expanding non-theatrical sales. To help lead this effort, seasoned distribution and acquisitions executives Erin Owens and Emily Rothschild, previously of Long Shot Factory, will join PBS Distribution as Head of Theatrical Distribution and Director of Theatrical Acquisitions and Marketing, respectively.
At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, building on successful recent theatrical campaigns, including Stanley Nelson’s THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION, PBS and PBSd will be looking to acquire theatrical and non-theatrical rights along with Home Entertainment and VOD rights, in joint partnerships with public media’s WNET, WGBH, ITVS, and POV, with a goal of acquiring and releasing up to six feature-length documentaries a year to engage new audiences and broaden the discussion on important stories and issues.
Beth Hoppe, PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, said, “PBS is the home of the best in independent film, and we are pleased to be working with PBS Distribution to expand our efforts to bring this important work to new audiences in theaters and on television and digital platforms.”
Andrea Downing, PBS Distribution Co-President, commented, “We are thrilled to add Erin and Emily to our team. Their extensive experience designing, managing and implementing theatrical campaigns, including festival and non-theatrical strategies, will further enhance what PBS Distribution and our partners can offer to filmmakers and help bring films to a much wider audience.”
Owens and Rothschild, through their company Long Shot Factory, worked with PBSd and PBS to direct the theatrical release of Stanley Nelson’s THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION prior to its February 2016 broadcast. The film, which screened in more than 65 cities nationwide, became the highest-rated INDEPENDENT LENS program ever and the most-tweeted about program in PBS’ history. Owens and Rothschild also handled the release of the recently Academy Award-shortlisted and critically acclaimed documentary COMMAND AND CONTROL, by Academy Award nominee Robert Kenner, on behalf of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Owens and Rothschild are currently handling the release of Barak Goodman’s OKLAHOMA CITY, set to premiere at Sundance in the “Documentary Premieres” section, in theaters on February 3, and airing as part of the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE series on PBS on February 7.
Owens and Rothschild, who began working together at THINKFilm, have collaborated for a decade at various companies, including Long Shot Factory, Arthouse Films and Cinedigm/New Video. While at Arthouse Films, they released Lucy Walker’s Academy Award-nominated film WASTE LAND. At Cinedigm/New Video, Rothschild acquired a variety of acclaimed documentaries, including Kirby Dick’s THE INVISIBLE WAR and Danfung Dennis’s HELL AND BACK AGAIN, both of which garnered Academy Award nominations. Owens released the latter through her company Long Shot Factory, on behalf of New Video. Owens was also part of the production teams behind the Academy Award-nominated documentary CARTEL LAND and acclaimed doc THE PUNK SINGER.
"We've long admired the work that PBS and PBSd have done to support independent filmmakers and bring new audiences to this work," said Owens and Rothschild. "We look forward to joining the team and to leveraging our background in film distribution to help expand the audience and conversation for independent films from PBS and its public media partners."
About PBS
PBS, with nearly 350 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches nearly 100 million people through television and nearly 33 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’ broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS’ premier children’s TV programming and its website, pbskids.org, are parents’ and teachers’ most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the Internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Pressroom on Twitter.
About PBS Distribution
PBS Distribution is the leading media distributor for the public television community, both domestically and internationally, extending the reach of programs beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system and production partners. PBS Distribution offers its customers a diverse range of programming, including Ken Burns’s films, documentaries from award-winning series such as NOVA, FRONTLINE, AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE and AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, and dramas from MASTERPIECE, as well as films from independent producers and popular children’s programs. As a multi-channel distributor, PBS Distribution offers consumers high-quality content in multiple formats including DVD, Blu-ray, digital download and digital streaming. PBS Distribution is also a leading source for factual content for international broadcast, cable and satellite services.
Contact:
Jennifer Rankin Byrne, PBS
703-739-5487 office, 202-257-6495 mobile
jrbyrne@pbs.org
For images and additional up-to-date information on this and other PBS programs, visit PBS PressRoom at pbs.org/pressroom.
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https://be.linkedin.com/company/tfip
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en
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Think-Film Impact Production
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Think-Film Impact Production | 1,386 followers on LinkedIn. At the cutting-edge intersection of film and social change | Think-Film Impact Production (TFIP) is a creative impact consultancy that explores innovative ways to merge the worlds of film and policy. We harness the power of 2D film, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to enrich and amplify compelling socio-political narratives.
TFIP partners with established and emerging filmmakers to produce and promote feature films, documentaries and VR/AR experiences that address social and political issues.
|
en
|
https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca
|
https://be.linkedin.com/company/tfip
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THE POWER OF IMPACT FILM. Join us at our inspiring panel to explore how films can create lasting impact and legacy, feat. award-winning film "Samia", based on the true story of a young Somali runner who pursues her dream of becoming an Olympic athlete despite the odds against her. This is the first in our series of events at Venice Film Festival, stay tuned for more exciting updates! The Human Safety Net, Impact Europe, Misan Sagay, Yasemin Şamdereli, isabelle giordano, Amy Shepherd, Anadil Hossain, Emma Ursich, INDYCA, NEW MOON Films, Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia
It has been an amazing week at Sarajevo Film Festival with so many impact moments from inspiring panels to the presentation of our Impact Jury Award! 1. This year's #CineLink Impact Jury Award, in the Docu Rough Cut Boutique and CineLink Works in Progress category, was awarded to #DIVIA. We chose this film for its artistic beauty and unique impact angle of environmental destruction in the context of war crimes in Ukraine. Stay tuned for updates on the impact campaign! 2. Our Founder Danielle Turkov Wilson spoke on a panel of inspiring leading women in the industry with Misan Sagay, Tamara Tatishvili, Una Gunjak and Mia Avdagic asking how we can foster a more inclusive and supportive community in Film and TV. 3. We were invited to the British Ambassador's event celebrating 30 years of the #SarajevoFilmFestival. XTR, Matthew Cherchio, Tribeca, Faridah Gbadamosi, UP UA STUDIO, Polina Herman
OZI: VOICE OF THE FOREST shows the power of one voice to make a difference - I'm using my voice to join the call to #RestoreNatureNOW! We must act to protect the world around us for future generations. Be inspired by Ozi! What are you raising your voice for? In UK cinemas now, get tickets here: https://bit.ly/ThinkOziTix #ozimovie #showyourstripes Signature Entertainment UK ClientEarth Mighty Earth WWF-UK Global Canopy The Carbon Literacy Project Wildlife and Countryside Link Friends of the Earth Rainforest Foundation UK Rainforest Action Network The Wildlife Trusts National Trust Extinction Rebellion Chris Packham Jack Harries
We are pleased to finally announce the Jury for our VENICE IMPACT AWARD 2024! The Venice Biennale Impact Award honours a film in the festival’s official selection that through its art and storytelling has the greatest potential to have a transformative impact on society. This year we are honoured to be joined by an incredible group of impact storytellers: - Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 YEARS A SLAVE) - Adjoa Andoh (BRIDGERTON) - Mstyslav Chernov (20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL) - Misan Sagay (BELLE) - Alia Shawkat (BLINK TWICE, SEARCH PARTY) Thank you to Impact Europe for co-sponsoring the Impact Award. Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia Read Screen International's article here: https://lnkd.in/e5CaX4SV
We are very excited to announce the promotion in our team of Ugne Pilkionyte to the role of Project Manager! Ugne has been leading at the forefront of our impact success over the past year, here are some of her highlights: ARTE series OUR FORESTS impact campaign, mobilising stakeholders in a joint letter and EU Parliament impact screening event calling for better protection of Indigenous and local communities in the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes : high-powered industry conversations on women’s representation in film (with L’oeil d’or winner BRINK OF DREAMS), mental health (with MTV Entertainment), and the future of democracy with documentary directors. Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia : Preparation for the Venice IMPACT AWARD 2nd edition with an international talent jury (soon to be announced!). Duemila, WEMW, ESODOC, Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes workshops and masterclasses on impact production. We’re looking forward to the season ahead as Ugne steps up into her new role overseeing action delivery on our impact slate and ensuring we continue to meet our objective of achieving measurable, lasting change with creatively compelling artistic projects!
IMPACT FOR THE WIN! We're so proud to partner with films that are winning awards and making waves! Tribeca Best Documentary Feature : HACKING HATE - unveils the dark web of far-right hate online Tribeca Special Jury Mention for International Narrative Feature : SAMIA - fiction based on the story of courageous Somali Olympic runner Samia Yusuf Omar Doc Edge Special Jury Mention for Best International Feature : INVISIBLE NATION - following Taiwan’s first female President Tsai Ing-wen as she champions her country’s democracy and freedom Doc Edge Impact Award : DEVI - one woman’s fight to survive and see justice for sexual violence in Nepal Incredible premieres and more on impact to follow! My Vingren Norsk filminstitutt Swedish Film Institute NEW MOON Films INDYCA Yasemin Şamdereli International Rescue Committee United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Nike Better World Fund The Human Safety Net Paris 2024 - Comité d'organisation des Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de 2024 Ted Hope Vanessa Hope Ivan Orlic Seine Pictures #Taiwan Subina Shrestha Rosie Garthwaite Reem Alsalem Pramila Patten #CRSV
An intimate story of one woman's fight for justice and reparations, Devi Khadka inspires and leads other women survivors of wartime rape to challenge the leaders of Nepal and expose the shameful truth about how sex abuse was used as a weapon of war. New documentary DEVI follows her story as she leads a grassroots movement pressuring the Nepal government to follow through on transitional justice commitments and shines a vital spotlight on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) survivors in Nepal and worldwide. In 2022, Think-Film platformed Devi on an international stage at the major Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Conference (PSVI) in London where she gave a keynote address to a room of policymakers and civil society. We also secured her testimony as the first-ever entry from Nepal in the UN Digital Book "Voices of Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Service-Providers", bringing Nepal back into the conversation. This #InternationalDayForTheEliminationOfSexualViolenceInConflict, we stand in solidarity with Devi Khadka in her mission to pursue justice for all wartime rape survivors in Nepal. DEVI resonated strongly with audiences in Canada, becoming a Top 20 Audience Favourite at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. The film is now coming to New Zealand's Doc Edge film festival! Don't miss this incredible film and get your tickets here: https://lnkd.in/e7txQpHa Watch the trailer here: https://lnkd.in/e6rxy5Ud UN Digital Book here: https://lnkd.in/evtX9_ih Rosie Garthwaite Subina Shrestha #DeviDoc
|
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| 4
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https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/four-letter-word-film-acquired-by-thinkfilm-doc-set-for-theatrical-release-showtime-deal-also-inke-76966/
|
en
|
Four-Letter Word Film Acquired by THINKFilm; Doc Set for Theatrical Release, Showtime Deal Also Inke
|
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[
"Eugene Hernandez"
] |
2006-03-24T10:53:16+00:00
|
Four-Letter Word Film Acquired by THINKFilm; Doc Set for Theatrical Release, Showtime Deal Also Inke
|
en
|
IndieWire
|
https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/four-letter-word-film-acquired-by-thinkfilm-doc-set-for-theatrical-release-showtime-deal-also-inke-76966/
|
THINKFilm has acquired worldwide rights to Steve Anderson‘s “FUCK,” the doc about the four-letter expletive that debuted last year at the AFI FEST and screened last week at SXSW. The film features interviews with Pat Boone, Drew Carey, Billy Connolly, Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofolo, Ice-T, Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Michael Medved, Alanis Morrisette, Kevin Smith and the late Hunter S. Thompson, all talking about the word. ThinkFilm will release the movie later this year, and TV partner Showtime will air the movie in 2007.
The origins of the four-letter word, the prevalence of its usage in movies, on TV and in music, and the tightening of restrictions regarding free expression in this country are among the topics explored in Steve Anderson’s new film. In the film, Anderson considers the history of the word and its role in popular culture and throughout history.
Answering questions from the audience at his first screening at AFI FEST, just days after completing the movie, Anderson talked about his decision to make a documentary about a word. Explaining that he had often joked about the idea of making such a film, at some point Anderson said he simply decided, “Why the fuck not!”
“What really intrigued me at first was the word itself,” explained Anderson, director of the narrative feature film “The Big Empty” two years ago. Chatting with indieWIRE the next day, he added that in exploring the origin of the word, he realized that it offered a way to look at free speech. In the film, Anderson not only delves into the rumors surrounding its original meaning — some believe it is an acronym, “fornicate under command of the king” — but he also explores the work of comedians Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, the recent decision of Howard Stern to move to satellite radio, the controversial tenure of FCC chief Michael Powell, incidents such as U2’s Bono saying the word ‘Fuck’ on national television and Janet Jackson’s breast being exposed during the Super Bowl halftime show, and the recent incident in which U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney told a U.S. Senator, “Go fuck yourself,” during a heated congressional session.
The word is used more than 600 times in the movie, but ThinkFilm has a proven track record in embracing racy material having distributed “The Aristocrats” last year. ThinkFilm’s head of theatrical distribution, Mark Urman explained, “We are not only excited to be releasing it, we are thrilled to be among the few companies who CAN! Everything about the way we advertise, publicize and even discuss this film requires us to be thoughtful, original, and fresh, and for an independent distributor, there is no greater gift.”
The film was produced by Rainstorm Entertainment and Anderson’s Mudflap Films. Executive producers include Steven G. Kaplan, Gregg L. Daniel, Bruce Leiserowitz, Jory Weitz and Richard Ardi, with editing by Jayne Rodericks, cinematography by Andre Fontanelle, original music by Carvin Knowles and animation by Bill Plympton.
The deal was negotiated by Think’s VP of acquisitions Daniel Katz with Shaun Redick of ICM and Steve Kaplan of Rainstorm representing the filmmakers. The broadcast deal was negotiated by Randy Manis, Think’s SVP of acquisitions and business affairs, and Showtime’s VP of acquisitions, Larry Greenberg.
“I expect that the very fact that there is a film about the F-word will create some controversy,” explained Anderson in comments on the film’s website. “I’m 100% sure the movie will be offensive to some precisely because of the language,” but he added, “I don’t personally believe that the content of the film, when you sit down to watch it from beginning to end, is all that controversial; in fact, it’s thoughtful.”
|
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1
| 68
|
http://interamerica.de/current-issue/martinez-zalce/
|
en
|
White Pines, the CBC and Toronto as a border town
|
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|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Wilfried Raussert"
] |
2010-11-03T20:21:54+01:00
|
en
|
http://interamerica.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-fiarlogo-1-32x32.png
|
http://interamerica.de/current-issue/martinez-zalce/
|
Graciela Martínez-Zalce,[1]
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
The border as a television topic
This article analyses how the topic of North American borders has garnered such great interest that television production companies started developing shows that deal with issues which for decades had only been raised in film. Borders are depicted as strategic regions for bilateral relations, be it Mexico-USA or Canada-USA.
One very interesting case is the material produced by the Canadian company White Pines Pictures –headed by renowned documentarian Peter Raymont–, in two different genres: documentary and fiction series. The Border, belonging to the latter kind, is their attempt to present an intelligent, non-conventional alternative for Canadian prime-time viewers, where the aim is to portray border issues from a “Canadian” point of view, i.e., from a seemingly non-judgmental, antiracist perspective.
Unfortunately, it seems that the ideology of the producers is not solid enough to avoid border genre conventions, which emerge in the development of plot topics (terrorism, drug and weapon trafficking, illegal immigration), in the depiction of space via specific landmarks such as border checkpoints or airports, and in stereotyped characters. This leads the narrative into moral solutions that turn out to be both problematic and ambiguous.
Documenting the Mexico-US border: a true-crime perspective on cultural TV
Border wars, a series by NatGeo TV,[2] was launched on January 10, 2010 drawing the highest ratings for a series debut. The very title is enough to get the gist of how this weekly one-hour documentary depicts North American frontiers, mostly the US-Mexico one; moreover, the images on its web page further imply who the enemy is and how this war should be fought: clear blue skies, hills covered with irregular settlements, a fluttering Mexican flag.
The show documents US Customs and Border Protection agents, mainly in the South, waging war against drug trafficking, illegal immigration and, on occasion, terrorism. So, as a spectator, it would seem that these are the most threatening situations for the US. The enemy needs to be destroyed, so patrol cars are equipped with top-of-the-line cameras and monitoring systems controlled by highly qualified teams. They monitor all entries by water and air, but mostly by land, which is the busiest route and, as such, extensively filmed. From the comfort of their living rooms, spectators watch officers patrolling the zone or walking through the Altar desert with devices that detect body heat, looking for illegal aliens, sustaining armed encounters, dismantling vans in search of drugs, detaining suspects at airports, inspecting mail and opening envelopes seeking for pills.
Titles are blunt and forceful and they deal with the main topic of each episode, which is constructed with short action scenes where the agents are the heroes and the villains are dealt with in the same tone –that of criminalization– whether they are smuggling drugs or they are poor peasants looking for a better job. So, there are episodes where the main issue is the hunt (Blackhawk Cruise, Night-shift Preview, Desert Sweep); others where migrants are the focus (The Human Stash, Midnight Runners, Lost in the Desert, Human Assets); others where the most important activity is investigation (Fake Documents, Big Money Bust); a few ones dealing with terrorism (Explosive Search); many more related to narcotics (Drugs Bust); and all of them from the point of view of the very much needed defense (The Big Fence, Road Sweep).
One might wonder: is this cultural TV? Is this scientific research on the subject? At least for Mexican viewers, it is haunting to see how our fellow countrymen and women are being hunted like animals, charged with all kinds of felonies, while the filming crew witnesses brutality in the name of security making us onlookers too.
Julian Gorodischer states, from a Latin American point of view:
[…] la TV antropológica acompaña el rediseño planetario deviniendo menos en testigo de los sucesos naturales del amplio mundo que en un militante a favor de una causa nacional: órgano de política exterior que, independiente de una administración puntual –en la demócrata época de Obama–, cierra filas con otros grupos noticiosos, como la CNN y la Fox News, para encarar una construcción centrípeta y paranoica del relato. (Web)
It is also disturbing to read the cheering comments on the series content, where viewers favour not only the defense that the CBP makes of the US Southern border, but also, of course, the building of the fence (or “el muro de la vergüenza”, as it has been called in Mexico).
The other North American border, changes in the 49th parallel
The border between Canada and the United States can perhaps still be called the longest undefended one in the world, but things have certainly changed. As of January 2008, Canadian citizens need to carry a passport when crossing into the US, for instance. As Konrad and Nichols state, since 9/11, this region has changed more than it did during the entire 20th century, but because of the very intense and important economic interaction between both nations, border security has to “make it possible for our two countries not only to coexist, but also to prosper constantly.” (7)
For decades, the US-Mexico border has given rise to a body of films large enough to be considered a genre[3] . But not many have portrayed what happens along the US-Canada border. Aside from Norma Bailey’s Bordertown Cafe, or Bruce MacDonald’s Highway 61, a road movie with an important border content, it is mostly US films –like Canadian Bacon or South Park, Bigger, Longer and Uncut– that could be included in the genre.[4] All of them share some characteristics, like irony and black humour.
Somehow, television turned out to be the medium that reflected, for the first time, the evident contextual transformation. But this has not taken place, as would seem obvious, on newscasts, documentaries, or products like the National Geographic show.
In January 2008, making the most of the writers’ strike, while US channels were only programming reruns, the CBC at last decided to premiere the police drama series called The Border. Back then it was only broadcast in Canada, but with the first and second seasons already on DVD, and the third one about to appear in that format, it has now been sold abroad.
Because of its large budget, its fast thriller rhythm, and its international aims, The Border has been considered Canadian public television’s big league debut, “but with a conscience” as executive producer Peter Raymont has stated. And I would like to focus on the issue of what this conscience means in terms of the narrative.
Creative sources: White Pines Productions and Canadian public television. A different approach to border matters?
The production source: White Pines documentaries
Two sources can be detected in the show’s design which, in my opinion, are fundamental for the nuances of conscience or morality imbued in the narrative of The Border.
The first one is the documentary work of Raymont and Lindalee Tracey.
This team started exploring the subject with their noteworthy Invisible Nation (1997), where they closely follow immigration officers, trying to answer questions about migration and illegality: a very complex topic involving not only legal matters, but also challenging life experiences. The portrayal of such complexity relies on showing earnest attitudes and actions taken from both sides, migrants and officers. Why do I consider this one hour video produced by White Pines for Canadian TV so remarkable? The reason is it exposes the case for illegal aliens in Toronto while approaching the subject from a very critical perspective.
We listen to a telephone conversation while looking at a blue screen: Ring tone. Ring tone. Immigration. Then, a voice reports illegal aliens. A shot from the shore of frozen Lake Ontario opens and the iconic CN Tower comes into view, locating the characters in Toronto. A female narrator ends this prologue talking about the invisible nation. Afterwards, all the input from the narrator will be poetic and will give voice to a collective “us”, which as constructed by the narrative, should be interpreted as “the Canadians”. She will also be our guide throughout our discovery of the system that prevents unwanted individuals from staying in Canada. The construction of this “us” is meant to engage the spectator looking for a response to the situations lived by the real-life characters.
We will immediately be presented with the film’s plot line; from inside a patrol car, a conversation between two migration officers is documented; they have to arrest a Russian family with three girls and a boy. The narrator states: “They don’t make policy, they simply enforce it”. As we will learn, the protagonists are part of a group of 36 migration investigators from the Toronto area: a white officer who is new to migration, but used to be part of the RCMP, and his partner, a migrant from Guyana and former teacher who has been an officer for ten years. In order to enforce their warrant, the police help them by using violent means: they break windows and doors in order to irrupt inside people’s homes. The mother and children will finally be deported, because as the officer states: “criminals hide better than mothers and children”. The spectator now witnesses the underlying ambiguity in the officers’ duty: they have to treat illegal aliens as criminals, but as the narrator has informed us, they are just following orders.
While panning through rows of file cabinets, we gain knowledge of how the law turns people into statistics, guided by the voice-off: “Here’s the bureaucracy, enforcement headquarters, where illegal lives are stuck into files, where the trials of conscience begin”. Once more, the visual metaphor underscores the dehumanization of the bureaucratic processes while the spoken text stresses the fact that “justice” is not a synonym of fairness.
We will learn that approximately 300 telephonic tips were received each week. Although the white officer thinks tips are useful, the one from Guyana feels “it’s like people ask us to get rid of garbage” and he is quite sure that “man is a perpetual immigrant… if it weren’t for that immigrant, the world wouldn’t be what it is today”.
With a dolly over the railroad, the voice-off narrates the history of migration in Canada, superimposing antique sepia or black and white photographs of migrants constructing that same railway, but also working the fields and attending schools. The nostalgia built by the photographs is interrupted by the situation lived by migrants in the nineties, when the narrator brings us back to contemporary realities: “Now they’re weeded out […] a more cautious welcome, but still they come, the unwanted ones”. A chain of still images of men and women posing in the same garden in the city, men and women from very diverse origins, classes, trades or professions, is an overt statement made by the documentary in favour of multiplicity as a vital component of Toronto.
“Living, hiding, looking like us, perhaps they are us, our own immigrant ancestors […] continuing their journey home, perhaps they are not us at all”, the nostalgic, critical, poetic voice-off states.
There are other collages of contemporary moving images like shots of people of different ethnic origins or ages walking down the streets, while the narrator says “borders can’t withstand the force of hope”. Sometimes, the effect is achieved through old photos complemented by a text that reminds us of the origin of multiplicity: “we came here as dreamers and imagined a nation”. These collages symbolize the Canadian mosaic, illustrated with real human beings that the spectator can identify with.
The documentary also describes the re-bordering processes in the shadow of the security needs of the US. The voice-off explains that “America’s war on crime sends criminals across the border; Canada is at the mercy of geography”, such that it becomes a good place to hide because of the open border. To illustrate this argument, the documentary also shows another team of officers who chase real criminals such as drug dealers, child molesters or men who have committed fraud or armed robbery. (“We are a very compassionate country and that is something we should be proud of […]. They should scrutinize everyone who comes into the country so no one falls through the cracks”). These offenders have crossed the border illegally, abusing Canadian hospitality. We witness not only the chase, but also searches for papers inside these people’s homes.
“The law”, states the voice-off, “must be served with detachment”, because, as the video allows us to see, there is a huge difference between arresting criminals and rounding up families that migrate for economic reasons and who are willing to work and live according to Canadian laws.
Factory raids are presented by the narrator as another necessary evil given the rise in the employment of illegal immigrants. “They are spreading fast in our economy, working long, cheap hours, like we did when we first came here”, the voice-off states in discomfort, as we watch migration officers question themselves about the fairness of the situation. It seems detachment is not always that easy. In these scenes, migrants are the obvious victims being taken advantage of by their employers because they cannot demand their lawful rights or complain. “We pocket their dreams, indulge our own greed, what protects them from us?” asks the narrator once more.
So, at this point, the documentary has reached its goal: letting us know that illegal migrants are not criminals and that officers with a conscience have a very difficult task to perform.
The story of José and Lucy embodies these cases as we listen to their account in Spanish. Once more, the lack of English subtitles is purposeful in order to make a statement. We meet José, his back to the camera, mopping an aisle. José cannot show his face because he has no papers, the visual metaphor says. They belong to those who arrive at Canada either because they are poor or “they are afraid, they wait quietly for miracles”. This Uruguayan couple has three children and is expecting their fourth. They had to flee their home country because José was a policeman and someone was looking to kill him. Lucy was a medical intern. In Canada, both of them hold cleaning jobs. Their underemployment is classified by the narrator as part of the “crimes of hope in open faces”. When José is arrested and taken to the detention centre, Lucy’s opinion is that maybe there is some undeserved discrimination towards immigrants since they have worked for every little thing they have. Visually, the film emphasizes the lack of hope for these impoverished immigrants with clear metaphors: the aisle José was mopping darkens and he disappears from our sight.
The story goes on in its hopelessness. Bails are expensive, but they make it; still, José can be deported. Then, the scene becomes hurtfully ironic. A POV shot from a swing, in a beautiful green park, while a girl’s voice sings “O Canada”. José is talking about the future of his Canadian-raised but not born, and thus illegal, children. In the next shot, the whole family walks away from the still camera, while the narrator reflects “to live invisibly, imagine the weight of silence” as they vanish from our sight once more. The next we know is that Lucy, who is not eligible for health care, has delivered: “Here’s hope, a child who is Canadian”.
But the end is uncertain and I would dare say, not optimistic, since the cold has returned and we are again, coming full circle, on the other shore of the frozen lake. The narrator concludes that the invisible nation is gray, like winter: “dividing our hearts, do we push them out or leave them, in the shadows?” Can immigrants gain visibility at some point without it being dangerous for their status? The documentary does not provide an answer.
The Undefended Border (2002) is closer to the spirit of the fiction series that will follow, and less critical than its predecessor, because of its less personal, more “objective” tone. Written by Tracey and directed by Raymont, their production is a more conventional series of three, one-hour episodes. The focus is on Canadian Immigration officers and RCMP special task force members and their work after 9/11 in response to US criticism regarding the porousness of the Canadian side of the border.
The structure of every episode is the same: they focus on one specific part of the immigration officers’ work and the action scenes are supplemented with an insight into the characters’ lives ranging from their opinions about cross-cultural training and multiplicity, to their day-to-day official activities and polite professional attitudes. During these scenes subtitles sometimes provide explanations about procedures as well as statistical information about illegal migrants, refugee claims, raids and other related topics. These subtitles are a way of avoiding the nuance of authority that a voiceover would provide. The prologue of each episode, however, does have a male narrator talking about the current intensity of migration and asking: “Who do we want?” “Who do we want to keep out?”
Contrary to the overall content of the episodes, the way in which the presentation is edited gives an impression of violence and thrill, which of course immediately makes us think of police dramas.
It seems important to stress that in every episode, at least one of the immigration officers in the force mentions belonging to a family that migrated legally to Canada. This is undeniably meant to propound the idea of a task force where there is no possible racism, of a country that welcomes migration so warmly that migrants are proud to be migration officers. And there is another set of characters: those who are either welcomed or detained at the border. Subtitles are also used in these cases, letting the viewer know the fate of each one of them.
The series begins with Toughening the Border, where the protagonists are those who check the documentation upon the arrival of foreigners and who think that, in the sake of safety and security in their country, the “wrong” people need to be kept from coming in. Therefore, toughening up Canada’s undefended border is necessary. As we hear them express themselves, it seems that alert becomes synonymous with suspicious and lacking trust. The story tells that training is important, but so are gut feelings. And it is impossible for the spectator not to notice some kind of bias amongst officers: they mistrust people who come from certain geographical areas; they associate class with innocence or “guilt”.[5] These officers make the point that after 9/11 they have to keep their eyes open to distinguish between good guys and bad guys. The dividing line in their lives is not only the physical border they defend, but the distinction between those who live by the law and those who do not. Their aim is to keep Canada safe, the terrorists out, and the border open.
The second episode, Immigration Task Force, documents the activities of a group of migration and RCMP officers created in 1994 to find and catch criminals who are in Canada illegally. This group responds to anonymous phone reports made by Canadian citizens based, we are left to conclude, on suspicion deriving from race and nationality (“A lot of people making assumptions”, states one of the officers). Now that this former “gate” has been transposed, as many as 100,000 illegal migrants have settled in the Toronto area and they have to be caught.
The last one, End of the Line deals with the final part of the process: deportation. The officers here work in factory raids detaining illegal workers who, paradoxically, as one of them states, are doing jobs that no one else would want to do. They also look for war criminals suspected to have links with terrorists because, as they say, one is the means and the other is the end. But as the episode goes on, we learn that many of these men and women are among the 25 thousand so-called failed refugees: people who claimed for refugee status but had it denied and decided to stay in Canada. Given that people who claim that being sent back home would put their lives in danger cannot be deported, some of them stay. One of the court officers interviewed maintains that the Immigration Act should be changed because it grants too many rights to all residents, some of whom have committed crimes. So, we witness people being wrongfully or rightfully detained. Some accept their situation with resignation, but explain why they would rather stay: most want to have a better life. This last episode shows how the “fortunate” removal from Canada is sought and ends with an eloquent epilogue by a female officer, a migrant from Scotland herself: what they want is not to stop people from coming, but having more control on who is coming.[6]
The ideological source: CBC, its mandate and quality programming
The second source in the series design is linked with the CBC’s mandate that defines the corporation as “a content company”. Its vision is defined as: “Connecting Canadians through compelling Canadian content”; its mission: “To create audacious, distinctive programming”, that is meant “to inform, enlighten and entertain”; and among its values: “Serving the Canadian public”.
The CBC’s participation in the very expensive production and broadcast of The Border is important because it gives credibility to the social contribution of the series. In its website, for example, we can find serious articles related to topics like migration or problems with the US.[7] And even though the main objective of the series is thrill and entertainment, the aim exists to create awareness around the issues of immigration policy and national security, from a “Canadian”, as we had already stated, non-judgmental, antiracist point of view.
Toronto, the border town
All the characteristics above are discernible in the plot, characterization, leit-motifs and organization of the episodes of The Border. And protagonist James McGowan says: “The couple’s strong beliefs about human rights issues significantly shaped every aspect of The Border”.[8]
When stories about terrorism, drug dealing, money laundering, human slavery or human organ sales are being told, irony and black humour (traits that have been quite relevant in Canada-US border movies) have to be left behind, it seems. The tone of the series is quite solemn. If the producers had kept human rights in mind at all times, easy answers or black and white solutions to the characters’ dilemmas would not be readily found. However, this sometimes happens and, as the series develops over time, we find stereotyping, judgmental attitudes towards US politics and a trait we had already seen in Toughening the Border: equating alertness with suspicion.
The plot revolves around border problems which an elite group of agents from the Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) Bureau at Toronto have to resolve. Their leader, Major Mike Kessler, “the moral center of the show”,[9] is the protagonist, and almost the only character with a private life in the plot. He has a lawyer ex-wife, who works with NGOs that help people with immigration problems. They share custody of a rebellious ingénue, a well-meaning daughter with a leftist liberal perspective and political inclinations that get her into trouble, always compromising her father’s work.
Kessler also has two antagonists. One is Andrew Mannering, from CSIS, a true villain because he is a Canadian that works to protect US interests. He will reappear in the second season, only now working for a mysterious and infamous private consultant for the Canadian government with obscure connections to US enterprises. The other is Bianca LaGarda (Sofia Milos), US Homeland Security Agent, who will disappear at the end of the first season because of health issues that will redeem her and make her believe in the Canadian health system.
There is a recognizable pattern in the organization of the series. One program deals with domestic issues, the following with trans-border problems. The American (sic)[10] star appears only in the latter ones and judgment becomes part of the content. The geopolitical line is not the only thing that confronts the characters, there is an ideological frontier, too, which is just as important for the development of the narrative.
The presence of the American (sic) agent interferes with the work of the Canadian officers because of the inflexible and incessant requirements of US borderland security regarding how to treat suspects and investigate incidents. In the case of LaGarda, she ridicules the way Canadians focus on problems as she thinks it is naïve, or even stupid. Meanwhile, the Canadian protagonists turn political, social and environmental dilemmas into moral ones, because solving some problems can unleash consequences which are, sometimes, even worse than the original situation, and a fundamental feature of the plot is focusing on doing what is right.
Let us examine, for example, the first episode, called “Pockets of vulnerability”. The edition of the initial scene has a quick tempo, with short shots of landing strips, airplanes arriving, traffic signs, vans parking, officers showing their badges, document checking points, close-ups of passengers, face recognition software. While the suspects are being followed and detained, short shots from different angles are edited and then the scene continues with an on-shoulder camera, both techniques highlighting the thriller/action atmosphere.
The interest of the producers in human rights has been mentioned before; this is an issue without easy answers and it does not lend itself to black-and-white solutions to the characters’ dilemmas. In the episode we are discussing, a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent falls victim to racial profiling. While traveling on an airplane, he sits beside a real terrorist and, because a surveillance camera catches him receiving a note from the criminal, he is taken aside for interrogation. The man is a respectable high school teacher and a family man. But once he has been flagged, he is perceived as a menace to Homeland Security and CSIS. As a consequence, the ICS cannot refrain from investigating the man. At this point the man has been removed from Canada and deported to Syria (the country he had fled from for political reasons), violating his human and citizen rights. Even though it is not a certainty, some hints let the spectator believe the man is not guilty.
Was he signalled out just because he was talking to the wrong person (a suspected terrorist) at the wrong time, or did the misunderstanding take hold because of his looks, origin and religious beliefs?
The plot leads the spectator to ask questions concerning immigration policies post 9/11. Are Canadian immigration officers being forced, because of US paranoia, to do race profiling and act under racial prejudice?
Although the general impression says so, every detail the ICS team finds out about the professor, simple everyday things like teaching chemistry, attending a mosque, taking care of a brilliant student, buying a car, makes him seem more like a suspect. His actions, his relationships, as long as he moves within his religious or cultural community, do not clear him. In the end, right prevails and with pressure from the media and good work from the team, the man is brought back home.
But paradoxically, for a series with an interest in human rights, in respecting differences and condemning Homeland Security policy, Muslims appear as suspects in many episodes.
Guns, explosions, car chases and much running all are part of the action. GPS tracking, cybernetic investigation, hacking, phone calls involving orders from the top, autopsies, these are all part of the procedures followed by the team. It is police drama at its best with a touch of heterosexual tension between some of the characters. The locations are airports, border entrances, hotels, ports, as well as the wilderness that is still a prevailing setting along the US-Canada borderline.
So in its depiction of space, in the topics chosen for the plot and in the construction of characters, the series falls within the characteristics of the border genre: the locations are the expected emblematic places where there are migration and customs officials, flags from both countries, signals of delimitation. There is also stereotyping: Canadian characters act and think one way, Americans (sic) in another, often not good, one.
And that is why I find it interesting to analyze the finale of season 3, which aired on January 14, 2010, just six months after the Canadian government announced that Mexican citizens would need a visa in order to visit Canada, making Mexicans suitable characters for the series’ plot.
It is titled “No Refuge”. Hugo Fuentes, aka “El Carnívoro”, “The Carnivore”, (“That can be no good”, states the computer geek), capo of Los Zetas cartel, arrives at Toronto from Mexico City. Apparently, he is there to close a drug distribution deal in Canadian territory with members of the Mara Salvatrucha.
Ramón Esteban is a Mexican journalist who has sought refuge because his life has been threatened as a result of articles he has written about drug cartels. Killing Esteban is the real reason why Fuentes is in Canada. Esteban is also Major Kessler’s ex-wife’s boyfriend, a coincidence that weakens a plot that was already undermined by stereotyped Mexicans.
Within this framework, obsessions that have been characteristic of the narrative definition of the US-Mexican border are now transferred to Canada. Drugs had never been important as a topic in the show, but when they appear, they are related to Mexico and Mexicans. This is reinforced through the images popping on the screen: the presence of Mexican illegal workers, depictions of maps of Mexico and criminal folklore, like images of “la santa muerte”.
This series purports itself as a production with an antiracist spirit and a focus on human rights. However, two clear examples that challenge this notion can be found in this episode that unravels through long sequences inside interrogation rooms. The first time agents interrogate a Mexican, the character is Carmelita Sánchez, a drug mule. The fact that the diminutive form of the name Carmen appears in an official document such as a passport is quite far-fetched. Carmelita is used an affectionate nickname. The character is built upon the features that US media have given to the stereotype of the Latina gang members.
In another scene, two young men, linked to the Maras and whose family is staying illegally in the country, are also interrogated. At this point, I think it is important to insist that the show had been designed to emphasize the importance of human rights in the immigration process, the difference between Canadian and US investigation tactics, the moral conscience of Major Kessler. On other occasions, Major Kessler bends the rules in the name of the greater good and to achieve justice. So the audience might feel rightfully confused when they witness ICS agents using tactics like intimidation and extortion to obtain information; when Canadian officials threaten teenagers with deporting their whole family, jail in Mexico, and letting the Maras know they have betrayed them. To top things off, when Fuentes is arrested, the fury of his gunmen showers the streets of Toronto with a storm of bullets.
The problem with using contextual references in a fictional narrative is that they make the spectator read them as “documental”. In a series that has claimed to instil a moral substrate in the creation of its characters, the producers should be more careful, for example, with their casting. For a viewer who can distinguish accents in spoken Spanish, it is clear that maybe only one of the characters is convincingly Mexican: some of them are American Latinos, some others are not fluent in the language or do not even seem to be able to speak it, and the only “good” Mexican, the journalist (the only tall, white one), sounds anything but Mexican when, to add a touch of credibility, he speaks Spanish. The conclusion might be that for people in charge of casting, all Latinos look and sound the same.
Poor results and poor reception
Thus, the border zone is depicted not only as conflict ridden, but also as blurry. The constant presence of US forces in Canadian soil, in the name of international cooperation, which, according to the show, is unequal, poses the question of US impositions on security matters as one of the series most important thematic lines.
That is why some reviewers were very critical about the series; and maybe that is why domestic audiences never favoured the show, which was aired in prime time.
Robert Fulford wrote: “There we have the difference between Americans and Canadians, as defined by CBC television. […] The Border […] is the kind of show that makes you proud to be a Canadian –especially if […] you’re also really, really boring. The script expresses […] the ‘sanctimonious, opportunistic anti-Americanism’ that crops up so often among Canadians”.
Justin Podur stated: “The propaganda of ‘bad guys’ and ‘evildoers’ is itself a tool of war, and the CBC’s new show is such a tool. […] Casting immigration agents as action heroes fighting fictional threats covers up what they really do. […] They are bureaucrats who deport people. […] For all it seeming moral complexity, “The Border” thinks it knows who the bad guys are and thinks it knows that they aren’t us”.
So, to reviewers, the first fault of the show is that (as does the entire border genre) it tends to stereotype. And it does it, first, in a way that has been related to the now canonical works that define Canadian identity:[11] Canadians are different than US citizens; but it goes one step further, meaning that different might be read as better. Indeed, sometimes the feeling after the episode is that Americans are bad when compared to Canadians.
Clearly, the fact that the show has roots in documentaries and that it also feeds on its context is something that should be kept in mind and must not be set aside. In 2005, for example, the Canadian Council for Refugees published a review of the Anti-Terrorist Act, displaying their concern about “discrimination in both law and practice, in the area of anti-terrorism measures”, because, as they state, in Canada:
[…] there has been a widening gap between the rights of citizens and non-citizens, as the security agenda is pursued. The preference for applying immigration rather than criminal law measures to suspected terrorists in itself points to a double standard, since immigration measures by definition cannot be used against citizens. Furthermore, Canada’s immigration security provisions impose serious penalties, including deportation potentially to torture, on non-citizens for actions or associations that are completely legal for citizens. (2)
Why do the politics behind the series seem blurry? Because, even as it criticizes US Homeland Security measures and the Canadian Government’s alignment with some of them, it still portrays certain ethnic groups as suspicious, as the immigration officers in the documentaries explained to the audience. Reem Bahdi explains that in Canada the debates “in the context of the War against Terrorism focus on whether Canadian society can morally, legally, or politically condone racial profiling” and illustrates the context:
Within weeks of 9/11, then Premier of Ontario, Mike Harris, announced the formation of a special police unit designed to track down and deport illegal immigrants. While Premier Harris did not explicitly indicate that Arabs or Muslims would be targeted, he did report that the unit’s focus would be to prevent terrorism through deportation, thus leaving little doubt in anyone’s mind as to the ethnic or religious identity of those who would receive special scrutiny. Around the same time, 48 per cent of Canadians reported that they approved of racial profiling. (295-296)
These contextual issues appear as an important part of the show, but it still begs the question: Isn’t all this against the spirit of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which expresses that everyone (not just citizens) has the right of freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression (including the press and media), of peaceful assembly and association?
Some episodes and some more general plot threads that run through the show seem contradictory because, while focusing on the obvious possibility of making “honest” mistakes in the pursuit of safety while also defending a fair Canadianness versus US totalitarianism, the writers construct characters based on, I would dare to say, some sort of racial profiling that singles out the appearance of Muslims, Eastern Europeans, and towards the end Mexicans, as either suspicious or guilty.
The leading characters are neither convincingly heroic nor highly moral. In order to achieve their lawful goals, they abuse suspects, many of them who are not citizens, and sometimes they use methods that are clearly against their human rights.
Maybe the influence of the corporation’s mandate was too heavy a burden for the script writers of a police drama which should have heroes instead of moral guides. If the Canadian content seems too biased, and the characters are not only interested in serving the Canadian public, but also in making political statements, the agenda of enlightening and informing is more obvious than the entertaining one (which probably to critics should be the most important).
Maybe the development of what McAllister (2008) calls the new genre of the geopolitical complicity drama, to which I believe The Border belongs to,[12] creates confusion in the spectators and does not fulfill their action expectations. In any case, it does not seem to have successfully worked, since on March 22, 2010 the cancellation of The Border was announced before the bad Mexicans were caught.
Endnotes
[1] The author wants to thank the anonymous reviewers for their sensible suggestions in terms of content and form and to translator Carolina Alvarado for her expertise in rewriting this essay.back to text
[2] In Mexico, it aired on February 3, 2010, with the Spanish name Frontera: zona de peligro.back to text
[3] Regarding the border film genre, the most important works are those by Norma Iglesias and David Maciel.back to text
[4] For a filmography on North American border films, see Graciela Martínez-Zalce, “Borders North of the Americas: Transcultural Spaces of Changing Identities”, International Journal of Canadian Studies/ Revue internationals d’études canadiennes, 27 (2003): 229-253.back to text
[5] In one scene, a female migration officer, after interrogating a woman with a Russian passport states she will have no problem because she comes from money, she knew how to present her papers and she was prepared.back to text
[6] The agenda in the documentary might be that of the necessary evil; in some cases, toughening might seem contrary to a humanitarian view of migration, but it is necessary due to people using fake documents, lying, committing criminal offences, or abusing refugee claims.back to text
[7] McAllister studies similar issues related to the mini-series called Human Cargo (2004).back to text
[8] “The Border eagerly anticipated series premieres as American shows are in reruns”, Note from The Western Star, 05/01/08.back to text
[9] Idem.back to text
[10] In the second and third seasons it will be actress Grace Park.back to text
[11] Works like the ones published in the seventies by important authors such as Margaret Atwood and Northrop Frye.back to text
[12] This is more widely explored in my forthcoming book Instrucciones para vivir en el limbo.back to text
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Canadian Council for Refugees. Closing the Front Door on Refugees. Report on the Fist Year of the Safe Third Country Agreement, December 2005. Web. 27 July 2010.
Canadian Council for Refugees. Non-Citizens in Canada: Equally Human, Equally Entitled to Rights. Web. 27 July 2010.
Crawford, James. “Media, Stereotypes and the Perpetuation of Racism in Canada”. Educational Communications and Technology, University of Saskatchewan. Web. 27 July 2010.
Demara, Bruce, “Episode of The Border turns actors into activists. Two guest stars in show spread awareness of child soldiers’ plight”. thestar.com. Web. February 18, 2008.
Fulford, Robert, “Different show, same message; The Border retreads the CBC’s favourite theme:We’re better than Americans”. The National Post. Web. 12 January 2008.
Gorman, Bill, “Border Wars draws 2.9 million; natgeo’s highest ratings for a series”. TVbythenumber.com. Web. 12 Jan. 2010.
Gorodischer, Julian, “El mundo visto por Natgeo. Frontera: zona de peligro”. hipercritico.com. Web. 12 January 2010.
Invisible Nation, Policing the Underground, dir. & script Lindalee Tracey, prod. Peter Raymont, 1997. DVD.
Konrad, Victor, Heather N. Nicol. Beyond Walls: Re-inventing the Canada-United States Borderlands. U.K.: Ashgate, Border Regions Series, 2008.
McAllister, Kirsten. “Bridging the Geopolitical Divide at Home in Canada”, Programming Reality: Perspectives on English Canadian Television. Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2008: 325-342.
Minister of Justice. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Web. 27 July 2010.
Podur, Justin, “Defend the Border: Why CBC’s new show can only help “the bad guys””. killingtrain.com. Web. 5 May 2008.
Portal of North America. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
Pratt, Anna, Sara K. Thompson, “Chivalry, ‘Race’ and Discretion at the Canadian Border.” British Journal of Criminology 48 (2008): 620-640.
Sadowski-Smith, Claudia. Border Fictions. Globalization, Empire and Writing at the Boundaries of the United States. USA: University of Virgina Press, 2008.
Stuart, Leigh, “Raymont on The Border”, Playback Magazine. Web. 27 July 2007.
Undefended Border, the. Dir. & prod. Peter Raymont, prod. & script Lindalee Tracey, prod. White Pine Pictures, 2002. DVD.
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https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/08/08/la-jolla-film-producer-drawn-to-telling-stories-that-hopefully-change-your-mind/
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en
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La Jolla film producer drawn to telling stories that (hopefully) change your mind
|
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2024-08-08T00:00:00
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lisa deaderick one-on-one john cappetta union-tribune film
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en
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San Diego Union-Tribune
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https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/08/08/la-jolla-film-producer-drawn-to-telling-stories-that-hopefully-change-your-mind/
|
This is the part of John Cappetta’s life he likes to call “chapter three” — the part where he’s pursuing storytelling focused on diverse and lesser represented voices. His Planet 9 Films production company in Solana Beach produces movies and stage plays borne of his desire to immerse himself in a creative process that also makes a social impact.
“I think the switch to film was to explore a couple of things. I love film, I love stories and literature. I think film is a pretty uniquely powerful medium to provide an opportunity for somebody to get out of their own world and into somebody else’s world and into their perspective of the world,” he says. “That experience can be very impactful. One, it’s an opportunity to have an impact, another way to build empathy and understanding, and build bridges. A second thing is the opportunity to be involved in the creative process and making a work of art that I wanted to explore.”
Currently, Cappetta is executive producer of “Límite,” a short film by writer and director George Nicholas, inspired by the news account of a 16-year-old boy from Tijuana trying to enter the U.S. in 2013 with two bottles of unidentified liquid, prompting U.S. Border Patrol agents suspicions about the contents of the bottle and directing the boy to prove that it was only apple juice by drinking it; the boy, Cruz Velazquez Acevedo, later died. Both Cappetta and Nicholas have said that they could see some of the 16-year-old versions of themselves in Acevedo and the film’s protagonist, Manuel; that relatable element is what they hope comes across in the film, which is being screened at 6 p.m. tonight during a special engagement of the Coronado Island Film Festival at the Village Theatre (followed by a VIP reception at Brigantine; tickets are $15 and $40 at coronadofilmfest.com).
Cappetta, 63, is founder and president of Planet 9 Films and lives in La Jolla with his wife, Nancy Jo, and they have four adult children. Before filmmaking, he earned degrees in economics and finance, leading to a career in investment banking and business at Citibank, Credit Suisse First Boston, and the American International Group. He’s also currently founder and CEO of Andesite Capital Management, a private investment company. He took some time to talk about the kinds of stories he’s excited to tell, and what makes “Límite” part of that group.
Q: Tell us about “Límite” and how you became involved in this project.
A: This is a fictional, narrative film inspired by an actual, historical event that took place at our border here, our Tijuana/San Diego border. The filmmaker, George Nicholas, was just personally very struck by this story, and it stayed with him. He tried to imagine what were the circumstances that led that boy to that place. A lot of it, I think, was very personal. I think he kind of felt for him, and the moment really resonated. When I was 16, I took a lot of risks, I did a lot of dumb things that I wasn’t thinking through very well and got myself into plenty of trouble. In this case, there’s something here with this boy who’s gotten into this position and died at the hands of the border agents, so that was the inspiration for the story. It follows a boy from Tijuana who turns 16 over the course of the film, his mother works in San Diego, so she has status to come and work for three months at a time, which is not an uncommon scenario. He lives with his grandfather in a loving, supportive home where his grandfather and his mother is making sacrifices for his benefit. He’s young and immature and he wants things: he wants a girlfriend, he wants new shoes, he wants to be admired, he wants to make the soccer team, he wants all these things. In this film, he’s led down a path that, ultimately, culminates in that moment at the border.
It’s very much a coming-of-age story and I think it’s very relatable. That is the feeling I had when I first read the script and saw a cut of the film. It sort of resonated as, ‘Yeah, I can really relate with this young man. I can relate and understand.’ My mind goes to my mistakes at that age, but they didn’t have the consequences, the stakes, that were faced here. This is a case where the filmmaker had pulled his own resources together, got people to contribute, rallied friends and got some of his own resources to shoot this, and it’s very independent-looking and very beautifully shot. He reached out to me at the stage where he’d already shot it and wanted to know what to do with it now. In this case, as is not uncommon with an executive producer, I’m kind of the business half of this particular film. What’s the length we’re going to look at, what are the different edits we have, how are we going to finish it, what’s the strategy as it relates to festivals and other things? So, I’ve been working on this project with him for about a year.
What I love about La Jolla…
Our neighborhood sidewalks are packed with dogs (and their tethered human companions), joggers, cyclists, surfers, beach goers, etc.—all of it teeming with positive energy! And, I love that I can do many of my personal errands on my bicycle.
Q: Your film and theater production company, Planet 9 Films, is focused on “new and diverse voices, telling underrepresented stories.” Your projects have included “Marshall,” starring Chadwick Boseman as a young Thurgood Marshall, the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice whose early career was as a lawyer for the NAACP; “Tyson’s Run,” about a boy with autism who becomes a marathon runner; “A Snowy Day in Oakland,” starring Nicole Ari Parker, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, and others, taking a light-hearted look at how folks in a Black neighborhood respond to the opening of a private therapy practice in their community. Can you talk about why it’s important to you to provide a platform for these diverse and underrepresented stories?
A: I think it goes back to my perception of, ‘Why is this that way?’ That’s what drew me in and onto this path. It’s not an investment strategy at all, I’m not interested in the industry of Hollywood; I’m just trying to find a story that I think really needs to be told and I work really hard to find a way to get it on the screen, to get it out there. I want to find a way to have an impact and I think the power of film allows us to do that. It makes a good vehicle for telling stories that may change some hearts and minds. Movies create an opportunity for me to find this unique way to try to have a tiny, little impact in the world and it’s drawing on my background, my passions. With this film, it’s allowing us to see a young person who’s kind of caught up in the Border Patrol system and to see him from a totally different light than how somebody might have thought about him from reading a news story the day before. They read the story and think a certain way, and then they see the film and read it entirely differently. It’s a way for me to put those kinds of movies out into the world, and not for the sake of ticket sales, but it has to be entertaining, it has to be beautiful, it has to be something that people want to come to, otherwise it’s not having any impact at all. So, there’s the ability to make those things happen while telling the stories that are really important to tell, that get into somebody’s mind or heart on important issues.
Q: What is it about these kinds of stories that appeals to you, both as a creator and as a viewer?
A: (Most) projects that I’ve been involved with wouldn’t get made if I didn’t throw myself at it. Maybe that sounds grandiose, but I think that’s just the nature of it. I’m drawn by the opportunity to help facilitate a very important story getting out in the world because I’m operating with a different set of objectives than 99 percent of the industry. I don’t mean to be cliché when I say these things become super algorithm driven and it’s all sequels and there’s not a lot of risk taking. There’s not a lot of newness and risk in terms of what might be commercially viable, so independent film is a very attractive and interesting way to create and have an impact.
Q: When you’re looking toward that next project, what are some elements of the story that tend to be top of mind for you, in order to say yes to moving forward?
A: I have learned to kind of come at it from the standpoint that I have to believe that the film is going to work and it’s going to be viable. It’s going to be something that people are excited to go see, as opposed to it just being important to me. It has to have really good story elements where the experience is going to be fully engaging and engrossing. Like I said, I believe that it can still be very beautiful on the screen, but what I’m looking for is a point of view and a perspective that is underserved and underrepresented, that doesn’t get most of the screentime out there and that will appeal to an audience and kind of change their perspective. “A Snowy Day in Oakland” is sort of about gentrification and a broader story about mental health in the African American community. It’s also about this little block in Oakland with all of these really good people trying to live out their own version of the American dream, or whatever. I think we hit all of those small things that challenge them and we see their perseverance and the power of community. It’s just kind of a fun and uplifting story, it’s got underrepresented characters, and they all get to struggle and shine. For an audience that will see that film, it’s more inspiring and uplifting, right?
My current project is a play we produced back in 2019, and my partner and I bought the movie rights to this play, called “Paradise.” It’s about a Muslim American girl in high school in the Bronx, from a very traditional family steeped in their faith. She falls in love with science and has a teacher who recognizes her ability and encourages her toward this scholarship to Columbia University that would be for young women of Middle Eastern descent, in STEM. It’s a coming-of-age story, and then we’re dealing with science and religion and the complexities of family and individuality. There are all of these things that, I think, allow an audience to see the beauty of her culture and her faith, her life, in a way that we don’t think about very often, don’t see very often, and start to empathize from that perspective. Those are the elements that draw me to do projects, but it has to have all of the pieces.
Q: With “Límite,” what did you want to focus on and explore in this fictionalized retelling of Cruz’s story?
A: I think what we’re exploring are two things. One, is the human story and how easy it is for a young person having a loving family and being a sweet, good person who kind of wants to live right, and how the stakes can just be so high in certain communities. It’s an awareness of that where an audience can really say, ‘I see myself in that person’ and look at what happened to them and gain an understanding of the stakes and what’s happening there. Bear with me, but someone might read about what happened and say that we have so many stories like this, with everything that’s happened over the last four years. This is a case, though, where you might look and say, ‘OK, a smuggler is bringing liquid meth into the U.S., gets caught by Border Patrol, and dies at their hands.’ A lot of people can read that story and maybe feel a little bit bad because they might say, ‘Well, there are consequences to being a criminal’ and you just sort of see that person as a criminal. In that particular case, they broke the law, they got caught, something happened, and he died. There are lots of ways to bring awareness to that—protesting, documentary film, advocacy. All of that is wonderful and important; but film is this other vehicle that says, ‘OK, well, I’m going to create a story that we’re all going to be engrossed in and we’re going to relate to, connect to. I’m going to show the story of this boy and his grandfather, at home. Then, there’s his best friend, and we’re going to create this environment where we’re going to come to understand that he’s not a criminal, he’s a victim of a criminal organization, of circumstances, of the treatment that he received at the border.’ When you look at the archival footage (of what happened), the story that we tell here is another way to look at this kind of story from that person’s perspective. It helps you say that this is a humanitarian issue and we have a responsibility to treat individuals for who they really are, as best as we possibly can—and we’re failing horribly at it. We’re failing people, and by providing a story that we can relate to, we can relive this guy’s life for 40 minutes and see that kind of an event from an entirely different perspective. That’s the purpose of the film, that’s what drew me to it, that’s why it’s powerful. I think it’s a terrific movie, it’s beautifully shot, and a very engaging experience.
Q: What kind of impact has this project had on you?
A: I think about him all the time. All the time. And, my engagement with the world is altered. The film prompted a really interesting discussion at the San Diego International Film Festival from an audience where we had academics who specialized in race or in border-related issues; we had military; we had someone who was the son of a Border Patrol agent. We had this really interesting group of people and the story prompted quite a bit of passion and emotion from all perspectives. That just expanded my own personal experience of watching it and it’s helped me to look at every situation of conflict or disagreement, and have a curiosity about the other person. How does that person that I’m in conflict with right now get to that place? Living through this film and the process has meaningfully enhanced my tendency to think about how somebody got to this place, that I’m in disagreement with.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: One of my uncles told me, fully unsolicited, “You’ll have a hard time finding a better woman than Nancy Jo, don’t screw this up!”
Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?
A: I worked as a waiter at a beachfront restaurant in Italy, near Venice, one summer. It was called La Pergola, on Lido di Jesolo, and I lived above the restaurant with the family owners and the rest of the summer staff.
Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.
A: It starts with my wife and I, and our dog Camus, walking and exploring the tide pools near our house. If the surf conditions are right (as in calm enough!), I get out on my stand-up paddle for an hour or two, usually from Hogan’s beach. It includes a savory scone for myself and a coffee from the Wayfarer bakery in Bird Rock on one of the mornings, and loading up for the week at the farmers’ market on the other morning. An afternoon bike ride to the Mission Bay jetty, around part of the bay and back, for some good exercise and fun people watching. Then, dinner out (usually downtown, North Park area, or somewhere local to us), followed by a concert at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, or live theater at the La Jolla Playhouse or The Old Globe theater.
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https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/undercover-indies-dumb-dumber-smarter-indie-think/
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Undercover Indies: Why 'Dumb and Dumber' is Smarter (and More Indie) Than You Think
|
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2021-10-18T15:30:03+00:00
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For most people, the most widely accepted definition of “independent film” is any sort of movie made outside (or largely outside) the Hollywood studio
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en
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Film Independent
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https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/undercover-indies-dumb-dumber-smarter-indie-think/
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For most people, the most widely accepted definition of “independent film” is any sort of movie made outside (or largely outside) the Hollywood studio system. Many of our most critically acclaimed and important films have been indies, yet too often the average moviegoer has no clue that what they’re watching has been made through means different than the typical blockbuster. With Undercover Indies we hope to shine a light on some familiar film titles that you may be surprised to learn are actually—surprise!—independent productions.
In 1994, a new kind of comedy changed our idea of lowbrow humor. Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s Dumb and Dumber essentially began with the simple idea of making a movie about two dumb guys and the obstacles they face. Nothing terribly groundbreaking. However, it was done in such a charming (and dare I say, clever) way, audiences were hooked.
The film is essentially a road movie, but replace the road movie’s usual angst-filled-leads-on-a-journey-to-find-themselves with two outrageous morons on a mission to find a pretty woman (to return a briefcase full of ransom money intended for her husband’s kidnappers)—and the typical rundown road-movie convertible with a giant, furry van made up to look like a dog.
Why you don’t think it’s an indie.
When Dumb and Dumber was released, ‘90s-comedy icon Jim Carrey was smack in the middle of blasting into superstardom. The In Living Color alum had just released Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which had catapulted him from a relative unknown to a household name. He’d gotten wind of Dumber while on the set for The Mask, which was also released later in 1994 and became another big success. Carrey broke records, becoming the first actor in Hollywood history to have three #1 movies at the box office in the same calendar year. Furthermore, the actor was inhabiting roles that truly only seemed doable by him, and the Jim Carrey brand was in high demand.
Acting across from Carrey was Jeff Daniels, who at the time mostly had success with “critical darlings” such as Terms of Endearment, and who was primarily known for more serious work. However, Daniel’s bizarre transition to such an in-your-face comedy turned out to be brilliant move, helping propel the actor to a diverse, long-lasting career that continues to this day.
Dumb and Dumber was a massive success, making almost $250 million worldwide. A year later, an animated series aired on ABC based on the film’s characters, and in 2003 a prequel was released with an entirely different cast and crew. The original film is still so famous that its sequel, Dumb and Dumber To was released in 2014, a full 20 years later, with Carrey and Daniels returning, respectively, as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne.
The style of Dumber itself is so loud and slapstick, it doesn’t seem to at all adhere to the indie stereotype of being subtle and poetic. There are of course well-known indie comedies, but one tends to imagine them with someone like Michael Cera mumbling their way throughout quirky, dry dialogue. Not Jim Carrey making “the most annoying sound in the world” or Jeff Daniels trying to cover up an inopportune bowel malfunction.
Why it is an indie.
After a bit of flip-flopping and exchanging hands over the course of a few years, Dumb and Dumber was produced by the independent production company New Line Cinema. Not only was 1994 a big year for Jim Carrey, it was a big year for New Line, still one of the largest independent production companies in America—and who, in 1994, was about to become much, much larger. The same year Dumb and Dumber came out, Turner Broadcasting Systems bought New Line. At the time New Line was just starting to put out some films with more conventional marketing (The Mask being a prime example, with tie-ins with McDonald’s and toy-makers). However, the company was still putting out smaller, more typically independent films, and promoting them in creative ways.
Peter and Bobby Farrelly had been writing for nine years without getting any films actually made. They’d never directed before, and only did so because a studio exec had enjoyed their passionate pitch so much, he agreed to install them at the helm. They went into production essentially winging it, literally knowing next to nothing about directing—something that would never happen at a major studio, then or now. The brothers were such novices they were convinced for the first few weeks of production that someone else would be brought on to replace them. The duo is now considered one of the most successful comedy filmmaking teams of all time.
Sure, the film had a famous cast. But after a little more digging, one finds out that, as new (and independent) filmmakers tend to do, the Farrelly brothers took a fair amount of risks and made some fairly bizarre choices.
When Jim Carrey was first presented with the film, he was still considered a bit of an unknown. He was on set for The Mask and hadn’t yet released any of his major 1994 hits. After he’d already agreed to make the film, his career began to blossom, and was actually in a position to be able to renegotiate his Dumber acting fee.
Additionally, the studio flat-out did not want to hire Jeff Daniels—they didn’t have faith that the traditionally serious actor could pull off comedy. The Farrellys wanted him so badly, though, that the studio reluctantly agreed, intentionally lowballing him his acting fee, thinking he’d say no. He didn’t. And it’s probably safe to say that neither New Line nor Daniels regrets the decision casting him in the role.
Dumb and Dumber is truly a movie where, looking back, nothing about the film was as it seemed at the time of its release. Frequently, enduring indies have this effect. We think of them and their success fondly, of their talented actors and quotable one-liners, but we fail to remember the difficult circumstances and counterintuitive (at the time) decisions that went into their actual making. With Dumber you had a writing duo without any prior film success, an up-and-coming actor with only minimal name recognition, and another actor who seemed totally wrong for the role. Pair that with a small, but growing studio willing to take a chance on an unconventional style of humor and you had one of the most famous comedies of all time.
Ultimately, the Farrellys went from having panic attacks because they didn’t even know what “coverage” meant to getting phone calls that their film had just gone to #1. Indie filmmaking allows artists to take these risks and follow their guts, and in some cases, it really, really pays off.
NOTE: a version of this blog originally ran in 2016, authored by Film Independent blogger Kaia Placa. It appears in a revised version here. Special thanks to Kaia.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices, providing a wide variety of resources to help filmmakers create and advance new work. To support our efforts with a donation, please click here and become a Member of Film Independent here.
Follow Film Independent…
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https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/business/media/thinkfilm-a-short-lived-but-wily-distributor-still-influences-industry.html
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en
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Lived but Wily Distributor, Still Influences Industry
|
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[
"Michael Cieply",
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2014-01-06T00:00:00
|
Alumni of ThinkFilm have become a force in an industry that has been learning to think smaller, make do with less and live more by wit than a fat bankroll.
|
en
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/vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico
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https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/business/media/thinkfilm-a-short-lived-but-wily-distributor-still-influences-industry.html
|
LOS ANGELES — In two weeks, the feisty operatives of an ever tighter, tougher independent film business will gather at the annual Sundance Film Festival.
Perhaps the toughest of the lot are the survivors of ThinkFilm.
ThinkFilm, a small, short-lived movie distributor, briefly took the indie world by storm with provocative fare like “Half Nelson,” about a drug-addicted high school teacher, and “Taxi to the Dark Side,” a documentary about the use of torture in the American war on terror.
When it closed most operations in 2008, as financial carnage hit the independent film business, it seemed destined to become just another relic of the art-house movement.
Yet ThinkFilm’s influence lives on. Its alumni have become a force in an industry that has been learning to think smaller, make do with less and live more by wit than a fat bankroll.
Nearly a dozen companies, many of which will be wheeling and dealing at Sundance, are rooted in the diaspora created by ThinkFilm’s demise. Some, like Long Shot Factory, are in the vanguard of a digitally sophisticated do-it-yourself movement. Others, like Tajj Media, run by a co-founder of ThinkFilm, Jeff Sackman, have narrowed their focus to an audience segment or business niche; Tajj Media, for instance, helps filmmakers find government subsidies.
These companies’ vigor underscores the maturing of the independent film business. Once populated by young film school graduates turning out productions on the fly, the industry now includes experienced filmmakers and entrepreneurs. As Sundance turns 30, it is these survivors who are forming the backbone of a more seasoned indie community.
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https://filmmakermagazine.com/3610-urman-leaves-thinkfilm-joins-senator/
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en
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URMAN LEAVES THINKFILM, JOINS SENATOR
|
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Scott Macaulay",
"Sarah Salovaara",
"Amos Posner",
"Filmmaker Staff"
] |
2008-08-29T16:44:00-04:00
|
As we enter a lazy Labor Day news cycle, Anne Thompson picks up on her Variety blog the press release that THINKfilm CEO Mark Urman is leaving the troubled ...
|
en
|
https://filmmakermagazine.com/wp-content/themes/filmmaker/images/favicon.ico
|
Filmmaker Magazine | Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.
|
https://filmmakermagazine.com/3610-urman-leaves-thinkfilm-joins-senator/
|
Effective October 1, veteran film industry executive Mark Urman will join Marco Weber’s Senator Entertainment US as president of his newly formed distribution company. The teaming with Urman follows Weber’s recent acquisition of all shares in U.S.-based Senator Entertainment Inc. in order to focus solely on the production of English language films and to establish this U.S. based distribution entity. The company will be fully bi-coastal with main offices in both Los Angeles and New York.
Urman co-founded THINKFilm in 2001, heading the company’s theatrical division and serving, most recently, as president. Prior to that, he was co-president of Lionsgate Releasing. Urman will work side-by-side with Weber in establishing all windows of distribution for the company’s slate, allowing Weber to concentrate on the original productions the company is making with a broad spectrum of A-list actors and filmmakers.
“I believe this is the perfect time to launch a company of this shape and size,” says Urman, “and I’m thrilled to be joining Marco in this exciting new endeavor. We start with an exceptional line-up that combines commercial crossover films with classically niche-oriented ones, and we’ll have the ability to alternate wide releases– involving hundreds of prints–with prestige titles that expand from exclusive platforms. By building a company that can be big and bold when it wants to be, but streamlined and strategic when it needs to be, we plan on being the best possible combination of a studio specialty division and a true independent.”
Weber commented, “Mark’s expertise in the independent film world is without rival. He has proven consistently that he understands how to design specific campaigns for movies that are high quality, yet challenging to release successfully. It is our good fortune to have secured him as a partner to work with us as the company prepares to release its first slate.”
|
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4383
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dbpedia
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1
| 48
|
https://www.loc.gov/item/2012600311/
|
en
|
The bargain
|
http://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mbrs/ntscrm/00087201/00087201.jpg
|
http://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mbrs/ntscrm/00087201/00087201.jpg
|
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[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
Outlaw Jim Stokes robs a stagecoach using stuffed dummies as "accomplices". Pursued and wounded, he collapses by a water hole. He is found by a kindly miner and nursed back to health by the miner's daughter, Nell. Stokes falls in love with Nell and decides to return the money and reform. Nell and Stokes are married, but the very next day, as he is preparing to send the stolen money to the Overland Stage Company, he is recognized and again must flee, this time with Sheriff Walsh in hot pursuit. Walsh catches up to Stokes in a border town where he takes him prisoner and confiscates the money Stokes had intended to repay, but promptly loses it at the roulette table. Stokes strikes a bargain with the sheriff--he steals the money back, and in return, the sheriff sets him free and gives him the chance to start a new life with his bride.
|
en
|
The Library of Congress
|
https://www.loc.gov/item/2012600311/
|
The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright or other restrictions in the vast majority of motion pictures in these collections. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.
In rare cases, copyrighted motion pictures are made available by special permission to the Library and may be used only for educational purposes. For example, the Gershwin home movies fall within this category. Rights assessment is your responsibility. No registration information exists for some titles, and reproduction of some titles may be restricted by privacy rights, publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Additionally, some works may still be protected by copyright in the United States or some foreign countries. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions.
Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. You should consult the catalog information that accompanies each item for specific information. This catalog data provides the details known to the Library of Congress regarding the corresponding item and may assist you in making independent assessments of the legal status of these items for their desired uses. You should also consult restrictions associated with donations to the Library.
Credit Line: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
More about Copyright and other Restrictions.
|
|||
4383
|
dbpedia
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1
| 33
|
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Bordertown_Caf%25C3%25A9
|
en
|
Bordertown Café
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
Bordertown Café is a 1991 Canadian drama film produced and directed by Norma Bailey and written by Kelly Rebar, based on her 1987 play of the same name. The film stars Janet Wright and Susan Hogan. Set in Alberta, Bordertown Café was filmed outside of Warren, Manitoba.
|
en
|
Wikiwand
|
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Bordertown_Caf%C3%A9
|
Bordertown Café is a 1991 Canadian drama film produced and directed by Norma Bailey and written by Kelly Rebar, based on her 1987 play of the same name.[1] The film stars Janet Wright and Susan Hogan. Set in Alberta, Bordertown Café was filmed outside of Warren, Manitoba.[2]
Hogan plays Marlene, the divorced owner of a small café in a rural Alberta town near the Canada–United States border, whose life is turned upside down when her son Jimmy (Gordon Michael Woolvett) is offered the opportunity to go live with his father and his father's new wife in the States.
|
|||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
2
| 89
|
https://www.thin-film.com/
|
en
|
Thin Film Technology Corp Main Website
|
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] |
2020-06-25T16:50:47+00:00
|
Thin Film Technology Corp. (TFT) is a member in a high performance electronic passive components group, JW Group. TFT provides component solutions with global manufacturing, quality customer service, and top-notch electrical engineering.
|
en
|
Thin Film Technology Corp Main Website
|
https://www.thin-film.com/
|
Thin Film Technology is a leading edge solution provider of high performance passive electronic components. Our mission is total customer satisfaction. We embrace strong relationships and teamwork in pursuit of our mission. TFT is committed to providing highly reliable, highly stable electronic solutions.
With our Sales Engineering business model, we assist our customers along the entire process, from modeling and simulation through mass production.
|
|||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
3
| 8
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelfilm
|
en
|
Levelfilm
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
] |
2022-07-12T15:29:04+00:00
|
en
|
/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelfilm
|
Canadian Film Distribution Company
Levelfilm, stylized as levelFILM, is a Canadian film distribution company based in Toronto, Ontario. The company was founded by David Hudakoc and Michael Baker in 2013,[1] and later acquired two other Canadian distribution houses: Search Engine Films in 2018[2] and KinoSmith in 2021.[3] It has released more than 200 titles, with a focus on independent Canadian films.
History
[edit]
levelFILM was founded by Michael Baker and David Hudakoc in August 2013, who had previously worked together at the U.S. distribution house ThinkFilm.[4] The company's first acquisition, Chen Kaige's Caught in the Web, was announced along with the company's creation.[1]
In 2017, the company sold a majority stake to Laurie Venning, a Canadian investor, entrepreneur, and producer.[5]
At the 2018 Berlin Film Festival levelFILM announced its acquisition of another Canadian distributor, Search Engine Films (SEF). John Bain, the head of SEF at the time, joined as the company's new Head of Distribution.[2] SEF's library was folded into levelFILM's existing catalogue, including titles such as Equals, Kilo Two Bravo, and Mary Shelley.
In 2019, it was announced that levelFILM and U.S.-based distributor Good Deed Entertainment had struck a four-year output deal, ending in 2023.[6]
At the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival levelFILM announced a multi-year output deal with the U.S. company Greenwich Entertainment, beginning with The Capote Tapes.[7] Later in the fall, levelFILM acquired KinoSmith, and folded in its CEO, Robin Smith, as the new Head of Factual. Simultaneously, the company partnered with Smith's other venture, the documentary financing and distribution house Blue Ice Docs, a subsidiary of the Blue Ice Group.[3]
In April 2022 the company was listed at number 9 in The Globe and Mail's list of the 22 most influential people in the Canadian film industry.[8]
During the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival levelFILM signed an exclusive output deal with Bleecker Street. Mafia Mamma, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is set to be the first release of the deal and is scheduled for April 2023.[9]
In October 2022, levelFILM released Eternal Spring, which was selected to be Canada's official submission to the 95th Academy Awards for the Best International Feature Film category.[10] The film was also eligible for Best Documentary and Best Animated Feature, but did not make the shortlist in either category.[11]
Released films
[edit]
List of films released by levelFILM Year Canadian Release Date Title Director Genre 2014 April 11, 2014 That Burning Feeling Jason James Comedy, Romance May 30, 2014 Hotel Congress Michel Kandisky, Nadia Litz Romance, Comedy July 18, 2014 Lawrence & Holloman Matthew Kowalchuk Comedy, Drama November 21, 2014 Rosewater Jon Stewart Drama, Thriller 2015 March 6, 2015 Two Men in Town Rachid Bouchareb Comedy, Drama April 17, 2015 Sunshine on Leith Dexter Fletcher Musical, Drama May 5, 2015 Soul Boys of the Western World George Hencken Documentary, Music May 15, 2015 Wet Bum Lindsay Mackay Drama, Kids & Family August 21, 2015 Bang Bang Baby Jeffrey St. Jules Sci-fi, Romance August 18, 2015 Learning to Drive Isabel Coixet Comedy, Drama September 4, 2015 Before We Go Chris Evans Drama, Romance November 13, 2015 Kilo Two Bravo Paul Katis War, Thriller December 4, 2015 I Smile Back Adam Salky Drama December 11, 2015 People Places Things Jim Strouse Comedy, Romance 2016 January 8, 2016 The Liberator Alberto Arvelo Drama, War March 15, 2016 Glassland Gerard Barrett Drama, Thriller March 18, 2016 Coconut Hero Florian Cossen Comedy, Drama July 15, 2016 Equals Drake Doremus Romance, Sci-fi August 19, 2016 Standing Tall Emmanuelle Bercot Drama September 23, 2016 The Girl King Mika Kaurismaki Drama November 4, 2016 Morris from America Chad Hartigan Comedy, Drama November 11, 2016 Jean of the Joneses Stella Meghie Comedy, Drama November 29, 2016 Dégradé Arab Nasser Drama December 6, 2016 The Great Gilly Hopkins Stephen Herek Kids & Family, Comedy 2017 February 9, 2017 Urban Hymn Michael Caton-Jones Drama, Musical May 9, 2017 Sled Dogs Fern Levitt Documentary May 19, 2017 Alone in Berlin Vincent Perez Drama, War August 25, 2017 Bushwick Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott Action, Adventure September 22, 2017 Don't Talk to Irene Pat Mills Comedy, Drama December 1, 2017 Wexford Plaza[12] Joyce Wong Comedy, Drama December 1, 2017 Suck It Up[12] Jordan Canning Comedy, Drama 2018 January 12, 2018 Never Steady, Never Still[13] Kathleen Hepburn Drama January 16, 2018 The Devout Connor Gaston Drama, Sci-fi March 16, 2018 I Can Only Imagine Andrew Erwin, Jon Erwin Drama March 30, 2018 Journey's End Saul Dibb War, Drama June 22, 2018 Hearts Beat Loud Brett Haley Music, Drama June 22, 2018 Octavio Is Dead! Sook-Yin Lee Drama, Thriller July 6, 2018 22 Chaser Rafal Sokolowski Drama, Action July 13, 2018 Mary Shelley Haifaa Al-Mansour Drama, Romance August 24, 2018 Madeline's Madeline Josephine Decker Drama September 4, 2018 The Night Eats the World Dominique Rocher Thriller October 5, 2018 Transformer Michael Del Monte Documentary October 16, 2018 After Everything Hannah Marks, Joey Power Drama, Romance November 30, 2018 Dead in a Week (or Your Money Back) Tom Edmunds Thriller, Comedy December 14, 2018 Blaze Ethan Hawke Drama, Music 2019 January 15, 2019 The Bookshop Isabel Coixet Drama February 26, 2019 Salt and Fire Werner Herzog Thriller, Drama March 15, 2019 To Dust Shawn Snyder Comedy March 29, 2019 Firecrackers[14] Jasmin Mozaffari Drama May 3, 2019 Tell It to the Bees Annabel Jankel Romance, Drama May 7, 2019 Maze Stephen Burke Adventure, Action, History May 24, 2019 I'm Going to Break Your Heart Jim Morrison, Annie Bradley Documentary, Music June 7, 2019 Mouthpiece Patricia Rozema Drama, Comedy July 2, 2019 Storm Boy Shawn Seet Kids &Family, Adventure, Drama July 5, 2019 The Last Black Man in San Francisco Joe Talbot Drama, Adventure July 23, 2019 The Delinquent Season Mark O'Rowe Romance, Drama August 23, 2019 Angelique's Isle Michelle Derosier, Marie-Hélène Cousineau Drama, History August 23, 2019 The Peanut Butter Falcon Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz Adventure, Comedy, Drama September 13, 2019 Riot Girls Jovanka Vuckovic Action, Sci-Fi, Drama November 1, 2019 The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open[15] Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Drama December 6, 2019 Brotherhood Richard Bell Drama, History 2020 January 17, 2020 Les Misérables Ladj Ly Drama, Action February 7, 2020 The Assistant Kitty Green Drama February 21, 2020 Ordinary Love Lisa Barros D'Sa, Glenn Leyburn Drama, Romance February 28, 2020 The Jesus Rolls John Turturro Comedy, Action March 13, 2020 Hope Gap William Nicholson Drama March 20, 2020 The Rest of Us Aisling Chin-Yee Drama, Comedt April 17, 2020 White Lie Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas Drama May 8, 2020 Fisherman's Friends Chris Foggin Comedy, Drama, Music May 19, 2020 The Roads Not Taken Sally Potter Drama May 22, 2020 Military Wives[16] Peter Cattaneo Music, Drama, Comedy June 5, 2020 2040 Damon Gameau Documentary June 16, 2020 You Don't Nomi Jeffrey McHale Documentary July 31, 2020 Summerland Jessica Swale Drama, War September 4, 2020 Feels Good Man Arthur Jones Documentary September 18, 2020 Blackbird Roger Michell Drama September 18, 2020 Nadia, Butterfly Pascal Plante Drama, Sports October 2, 2020 The Glorias Julie Taymor Drama, History November 6, 2020 The Kid Detective Evan Morgan Drama, Comedy, Thriller 2021 March 3, 2021 The World to Come Mona Fastvold Drama, Romance March 8, 2021 Underplayed Stacey Lee Documentary March 9, 2021 Jump, Darling[17] Phil Connell Drama April 2, 2021 No Ordinary Man Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt Documentary April 6, 2021 Sugar Daddy Wendy Morgan Drama, Music May 4, 2021 I Am Syd Stone[18] Denis Theriault Drama May 7, 2021 Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street[19] Marilyn Agrelo Documentary May 11, 2021 Together Together[20] Nikole Beckwith Comedy, Drama June 15, 2021 Akilla's Escape[21] Charles Officer Thriller, Drama August 13, 2021 Naked Singularity Chase Palmer Thriller, Action, Drama October 21, 2021 Sin La Habana Kaveh Nabatian Drama, Romance December 3, 2021 The Souvenir Part II Joanna Hogg Drama, Comedy 2022 January 7, 2022 See For Me Randall Okita Thriller, Horror January 28, 2022 Aline Valérie Lemercier Drama, Musical February 25, 2022 Scarborough[22] Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson Drama March 11, 2022 Donkeyhead Agam Darshi Drama, Comedy March 18, 2022 A Small Fortune Adam Perry Thriller, Crime, Drama March 25, 2022 Run Woman Run Zoe Leigh Hopkins Comedy, Drama April 8, 2022 Night Blooms Stephanie Joline Drama April 8, 2022 Sundown Michel Franco Drama April 15, 2022 Kicking Blood Blaine Thurier Fantasy, Romance, Horror April 29, 2022 Quickening Haya Waseem Drama May 6, 2022 Stanleyville Maxwell McCabe-Lokos Comedy May 27, 2022 The Middle Man Bent Hamer Drama, Crime, Comedy May 27, 2022 Benediction Terence Davies Drama, Comedy, Romance July 1, 2022 Mr. Malcolm's List[23] Emma Holly Jones Romance, Drama, Comedy August 12, 2022 Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon Richard Claus, José Zelada Animated, Kids & Family September 23, 2022 Eternal Spring Jason Loftus Documentary, Animated October 14, 2022 Drinkwater[24] Stephen Campanelli Comedy October 21, 2022 Drop the Needle[25] Rob Freeman Documentary, Music November 4, 2022 The Swearing Jar[26] Lindsay MacKay Drama, Romance, Musical December 2, 2022 The Inspection[27] Elegance Bratton Drama
References
[edit]
|
||||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
3
| 92
|
https://deadline.com/2019/05/quiver-distribution-launch-berry-meyerowitz-jeff-sackman-movies-1202614186/
|
en
|
Berry Meyerowitz & Jeff Sackman Launch Film Indie Quiver Distribution
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Patrick Hipes"
] |
2019-05-14T16:00:45+00:00
|
Phase 4 Films founder and ex-eOne exec Berry Meyerowitz and onetime Lionsgate Films president Jeff Sackman have launched Quiver Distribution
|
en
|
Deadline
|
https://deadline.com/2019/05/quiver-distribution-launch-berry-meyerowitz-jeff-sackman-movies-1202614186/
|
Phase 4 Films founder and former eOne exec Berry Meyerowitz and onetime Lionsgate Films president Jeff Sackman have teamed to launched Quiver Distribution, with a plan to acquire, market and exploit films across all platforms in the U.S. and Canada.
The company already has two titles in the pipeline at launch: the John Travolta suspense thriller The Fanatic, to hit theaters September 6, and the Nicolas Cage-Laurence Fishburne action thriller Running With the Devil, which will bow September 13. (Both pics are on offer for international buyers at the now underway Cannes film market.)
Quiver, based in Los Angeles and Toronto, solidifies a team-up of the past 2 1/2 years, during which time Sackman and Meyerowitz have collaborated with producers to help finance and sell feature films to the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Sony and Paramount.
“Our collective experience and relationships will bring value to all constituents,” the pair said in a release announcing the launch. “Quiver Distribution will capitalize on the emergence of new platforms by providing entertaining and star driven films for consumers, no matter where they choose to watch them.”
Watch on Deadline
Also joining the Quiver team is Sean Monson, who will oversee finance and operations, and Larry Greenberg, who will oversee acquisitions and U.S. distribution.
Meyerowitz sold his Phase 4 Films to Entertainment One in 2014, becoming head of eOne’s U.S. Film business. Sackman was the first President of Lionsgate Films and later launched and led ThinkFilm. He most recently ran Tajj Media Services, which focused on consulting, producing and executive producing.
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4383
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| 64
|
https://www.yellowaffair.com/news/the-yellow-affair-to-commence-sales-on-power-of-love-directed-by-jonas-rothlaender
|
en
|
The Yellow Affair to commence sales on POWER OF LOVE directed by Jonas Rothlaender. — THE YELLOW AFFAIR
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Steven Bestwick"
] |
2023-01-30T12:30:00+00:00
|
Source: Variety Annika Pham - Jan 29, 2023 Global sales shingle The Yellow Affair has acquired world rights to the modern love story “Power of Love” by German helmer Jonas Rothlaender, whose breakthrough movie “Fado” nabbed a Silver Hugo at Chicago and a German Film Critics’ for best feature de
|
en
|
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2f8d4b7e93e900017cf975/1604660557201-48G5K1MCRV340RWI3RXH/favicon.ico?format=100w
|
THE YELLOW AFFAIR
|
https://www.yellowaffair.com/news/the-yellow-affair-to-commence-sales-on-power-of-love-directed-by-jonas-rothlaender
|
Source: Variety
Annika Pham - Jan 29, 2023
Global sales shingle The Yellow Affair has acquired world rights to the modern love story “Power of Love” by German helmer Jonas Rothlaender, whose breakthrough movie “Fado” nabbed a Silver Hugo at Chicago and a German Film Critics’ for best feature debut.
Julia M. Müller and Luisa Leopold are producing for Germany’s StickUp Filmproduktion, in co-production with Misha Jaari and Mark Lwoff of Finland’s BUFO (“The Gravedigger’s Wife”).
The director’s sophomore feature film turns on power dynamics in a couple and the social norms expected of a male/female relationship.
Toplining the feature are Saara Kotkaniemi (“Deadwind,” “Bordertown”) and Nicola Perot (“Marie-Antoinette,” “Der Hamster”) as Saara and Robert, both in their 30s, who set off on an extensive summer holiday in the Finnish archipelago.
Their love is a constant play with gender role clichés, yet behind the unconventional façade, they struggle with their own insecurities. Stuck on the island and influenced by its rough nature, the pair starts to fall back into the very same archaic relationship patterns that they so desperately try to avoid.
Rounding out the cast are Outi Mäenpää (“Hit Big”), Timo Torikka (“Syke”) Elmer Bäck (“Next of Kin”) and Cecilia Paul (“Helsinki Syndrome”).
The Yellow Affair’s New-York-based CEO Karoliina Dwyer and London-office rep and head of sales Steven Bestwick said they had been tracking the project since its inception and were eager to team up with Rothlaender: “His ability to create engaging and intelligent stories make him a talent to watch. We were also excited by the intensity of this story and the chemistry between Saara and Robert who each struggle to maintain an emotional balance in a relationship story that is raw, passionate and contemporary.”
The movie is co-financeed from Yle, Arte and Rundfunk Berlin-Branderburg (RBB) and has received support from the Finnish Film Foundation, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Eurimages and the West Finland Film Commission. BUFO’s own distribution arm B-Plan will handle the theatrical bow in Finland this fall, and Missing Films German distribution.
Per Dwyer and Bestwick, “Power of Love” is “a great fit with The Yellow Affair’s slate as a” high quality film with a provocative and thought-provoking edge that brings it into a commercial space.”
The feature will debut at the upcoming Berlinale European Film Market (Feb. 15-22).
Prior to Berlin, Dwyer is attending this week’s Göteborg industry confab TV Drama Vision (Feb. 1-2) with Yellow Affair’s upcoming Swedish drama comedy “Keep it Together” (“Hålla samman”), produced by Anagram Sweden for Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
The eight-part family drama is head-written by rated scribe Erik Ahrnbom (“The Bridge,” “Thin Blue Line”), with Maria Blom (“Dalecarlians”) serving as concept director. The series charters two adult sisters’ altered relationships as they are faced with their father’s Alzheimer disease.
The Yellow Affair has started negotiations on the series, due to bow this fall on SVT.
The sales outfit’s current slate also includes Season 2 of the Intl. Emmy-winning transgender drama ‘Rūrangi,” picked up by Hulu for the U.S., Latvia’s Oscar contender “January” by Viesturs Kairiss, and the Finnish coming-of-age “Bubble,” by Aleksi Salmenperä.
|
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4383
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| 31
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https://deadline.com/2008/05/david-bergsteins-thinkfilm-sued-for-fraud-5892/
|
en
|
David Bergstein/ThinkFilm Sued for Fraud
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[
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[
"Nikki Finke"
] |
2008-05-29T01:21:26+00:00
|
A lawsuit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court by Boston-based Allied Advertising Ltd alleging breach of contract, fraud and deceit, and unfair business practices against David Bergstein and his ThinkFilm movie distribution company. It seeks more than $4.
|
en
|
Deadline
|
https://deadline.com/2008/05/david-bergsteins-thinkfilm-sued-for-fraud-5892/
|
A lawsuit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court by Boston-based Allied Advertising Ltd alleging breach of contract, fraud and deceit, and unfair business practices against David Bergstein and his ThinkFilm movie distribution company. It seeks more than $4.1 million in unpaid bills and contracts, plus damages, interest and a 5% penalty for all sums not paid in full within 30 days of a demand for payment. It is yet the latest twist and turn in what is obviously becoming a financial meltdown in Bergstein’s film production and distribution empire which includes ThinkFilm and Capitol Films. (See my previous, Capitol Films Cash Crunch: SAG Demands Meeting With Owner David Bergstein).
The lawsuit follows Bergstein’s reported yacht trip to the Cannes Film Festival , included in the complaint: “Between January and May 2008, while most of the ThinkFilm debt to Allied was outstanding, defendants have gone on a lavish film licensing buying spree at various film festivals around the world, including a film about director Roman Polanski scheduled for release on the Home Box Office cable channel later in 2008.”
The facts claimed in the lawsuit point to a business deal gone sour for Allied Advertising, which is in the business of placing advertising and promotion for feature motion pictures owned, licensed or distributed by client production companies or distributors. On June 21st, 2004, Allied and ThinkFilm entered into an agreement under which Allied would place P&A for movies owned and/or licensed or distributed by ThinkFilm with various media outlets around the U.S. ThinkFilm was supposed to pay Allied whenever Allied advanced payment to the media outlets on ThinkFilm’s behalf, or pay a hefty penalty. That agreement was modified on November 18, 2004.
Then, in October 2006, ThinkFilm was acquired by Los Angeles entrepreneurs David Bergstein shortly after he bought Capitol Films that January. “But between Fall 2006 (when Bergstein assumed control of ThinkFilm) and March 2008, defendants became increasingly delinquent on their obligation to pay Allied invoices when due. Through his manipulation of the business operations and employees of ThinkFilm, Bergstein repeatedly promised to honor and pay in full the debt of Thinkfi;l owed to Allied,” the lawsuit alleges. By November 2007, that sum was $1.9M. ThinkFilm promised to present a schedule to pay up. So Allied says it advanced an additional $2.2M from November 2007 through March 2008.
But, with the total now $4.1M, “defendants have failed to pay any of this arrearage,” the lawsuit claims. “On April 5th, 2008, thinkfilm executives stated in writing to Allied that a repayment schedule had been developed by certain ThinkFilm executives, but that it required the authorization of Bergstein, who dominates and controls ThinkFilm… However, Bergstein has proceeded to deplete much of the hard assets of ThinkFilm by, in March 2008, selling the ThinkFilm Canadian library to Entertainment One Ltd.” This is also when Bergstein went on his “lavish film licensing buying spree” referenced above. A final demand letter was sent to May 12, and the bill remains unpaid, resulting in the lawsuit today.
On the fraud and deceit cause of action, the lawsuit alleges, the defendants “were part of a plan or scheme to defraud and deceive Allied and other third parties. Between January 2008 and May 2008, defendants paid millions of dollars to acquire the rights to new feature motion pictures (or the right to produce or distribute such films). In order to convince film owners, producers, production companies and other third parties that it had credibility with advertising agencies such as Allied, to professionally and effectively advertise forthcoming motion pictures, defendants needed to create an impression that they were paying print and advertising obligations as they came due, which was not true. In furtherance of this scheme, defendants needed to deceive Allied into believing that a payment schedule would be presented and honored in good faith.
“Defendants knew that their representations were false when they made, or they were made recklessly and without regard for the truth… Defendants’ actions were perpetrated with fraud, malice and oppression.”
Interestingly, the lawsuit contends that after Fall 2006, there existed “a unity of interests and ownership between defendant David Bergstein and ThinkFilm LLC such that … defendants are the alter egos of each other in that at all times herein mentioned, thinkFilm was a mere shell, instrumentality and conduit of David Bergstein, through which he carried on his business, exercising complete control and dominance of ThinkFilm to such an extent that any individuality or separateness of these defendants ceased to exist.”
|
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4383
|
dbpedia
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1
| 72
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https://www.album-online.com/detail/en/MDY0OWZjMA/antonio-banderas-jennifer-lopez-bordertown-2006-alb953600
|
en
|
ANTONIO BANDERAS and JENNIFER LOPEZ in BORDERTOWN, 2006, directed by GREGORY NAVA. Copyright MOBIUS ENTERTAINMENT LTD.
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Download this stock image (alb953600) from album-online.com - ANTONIO BANDERAS and JENNIFER LOPEZ in BORDERTOWN, 2006, directed by GREGORY NAVA. Copyright MOBIUS ENTERTAINMENT LTD.
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en
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Album
|
https://www.album-online.com/detail/en/MDY0OWZjMA/antonio-banderas-jennifer-lopez-bordertown-2006-alb953600
| ||||||
4383
|
dbpedia
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2
| 27
|
https://variety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/one-to-handle-thinkfilm-in-canada-1117983085/
|
en
|
One to handle ThinkFilm in Canada
|
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Brendan Kelly"
] |
2008-03-28T07:00:00+00:00
|
Canuck distrib Entertainment One will handle ThinkFilm pics in Canada via its Seville Pictures through 2010.
|
en
|
Variety
|
https://variety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/one-to-handle-thinkfilm-in-canada-1117983085/
|
Canuck distrib Entertainment One will handle ThinkFilm pics in Canada via its Seville Pictures through 2010.
The formerly Canadian-owned ThinkFilm had to find a local distributor after it was purchased by Los Angeles entrepreneur David Bergstein’s CapCo Group in October 2006.
Under Canadian law, a foreign-owned company can’t distribute pics in the country. The only exceptions are the Hollywood majors, who operate under a grandfather clause.
“This (deal) has taken longer than we thought it would,” said ThinkFilm CEO Jeff Sackman. “Timing in life is everything, and had we done this a year ago, there wouldn’t have been an Entertainment One to make a deal with.”
Entertainment One morphed from a DVD distributor into a theatrical distrib last summer.
Sackman said the deal will change little for his company because 90% of its business is in the U.S.
Entertainment One has also acquired ThinkFilm’s library of 235 films, upping its own library to more than 700 titles.
The move turns Entertainment One into a major force in Canada, following its acquisition last summer of Montreal-based Seville.
It also has an output deal with Summit Entertainment and the Yari Film Group.
Seville recently announced that it was pooling its resources with Robert Lantos’ Maximum Films to jointly distribute their pics in Canada.
Seville co-president David Reckziegel said the ThinkFilm pics will increase its Canadian theatrical slate to more than 50 films per year.
Slate includes Paul Schrader’s “The Walker”; “The Air That I Breathe,” with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kevin Bacon; “Nanking”; and the documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side.”
|
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4383
|
dbpedia
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2
| 70
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https://www.monoduo.net/
|
en
|
MONODUO FILMS – Music Documentary Distribution & Sales
|
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en
|
MONODUO FILMS
|
https://www.monoduo.net/
|
Our Films
Have a look at our fantastic line-up!
Monoduo Shop
Want to see our films? Check out which films are available at the moment!
News
Stay up to date with new acquisitions, sales and screenings.
|
||||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 24
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https://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/fox-picks-up-seth-macfarlane-produced-series-bordertown-90845.html
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en
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Fox Picks Up Seth MacFarlane-Produced Series “Bordertown”
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[] |
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Amid Amidi",
"More Articles"
] |
2013-11-11T18:11:26+00:00
|
Seth MacFarlane's stable of animation writers have finally been given a dumping ground for all their offensive Mexican jokes and stereotypes.
|
en
|
Cartoon Brew
|
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/fox-picks-up-seth-macfarlane-produced-series-bordertown-90845.html
|
Seth MacFarlane’s stable of animation writers have finally been given a dumping ground for all their offensive Mexican jokes and stereotypes. Fox has announced a 13-episode pick-up of Bordertown created and written by Family Guy exec producer Mark Hentemann, who will executive produce with MacFarlane. Alex Carter (Family Guy) and Dan Vebber (American Dad) are the co-executive producers.
The show, which wil debut in fall 2014 and will be produced by 20th Century Fox Television, is described as such:
Bordertown will take a satirical look at the cultural shifts occurring throughout America. Set in a fictitious desert town near the Mexico border, the series centers on the intertwining daily lives of two neighbors: Bud Buckwald and Ernesto Gonzales. Married and a father of three, Bud is a Border Patrol agent who feels threatened by the cultural changes that have transformed his neighborhood. Living next door to Bud is Ernesto, an industrious Mexican immigrant and father of four, who is proud to be making it in America. As Bud and Ernesto’s paths begin to cross, their families become bound by friendship, romance and conflict.
The show was designed to replace American Dad! which is moving from Fox to TBS in 2014. Bordertown will air on Sundays alongside The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers on Fox’s Animation Domination line-up.
|
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4383
|
dbpedia
|
2
| 26
|
https://forums.thefashionspot.com/threads/the-indie-film-thread.35531/page-4
|
en
|
The Indie Film Thread
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"F fashionologie Guest"
] |
2005-05-30T09:55:02-04:00
|
Raijin - I don't think that Garden State should be considered 'independent'. It doesn't seem like it at least, it was very famous, had famous actors...I...
|
en
|
/styles/default/logo.og.png
|
the Fashion Spot
|
https://forums.thefashionspot.com/threads/the-indie-film-thread.35531/page-4
|
Raijin - I don't think that Garden State should be considered 'independent'. It doesn't seem like it at least, it was very famous, had famous actors...I don't think so either. However, it was a very good film.
Faust - Where I live, only losers watch indies I mean, how could you ever turn down Legally for a very well made, indie flick ?!?!?! And I think you'd be surprised what the Hollywood Video ninja in my neck of the woods carries ..but yes, I have thought of joining netflix. Thankyou for the list, I'll try and see all of those.
I just watched Mean Creek last night. Many people see an indie film and don't consider it indie because of the people the story is about, maybe in this film they were teens whose only major topic of discussion was ' licking'. However, in the end their cheap talk was left for a very deep music amidst the silence and the only other sound was the creek and their tears. The film ended in a very thought provoking manner. The acting was a bit bad at times, and very good at other times, but I still recommend this film. I definately recommend this film.
fashionologie said:
I agree with you, waukon73.
Thirteen may has gotten a lot of press for being "avant garde," yes, but does that media attention mean it was a major Hollywood production? No. The film was produced by Michael London Productions and Antidote Films, and we should all ask ourselves, "Are these major production companies?" Simple answer: No. Sure, they've produced a few other films, but they're not the big boys when it comes to the league of big-time blockbusters. Moreover, simply looking at the finances, Thirteen's budget didn't even reach $1.5 million, nor did it gross $5 million in the box office. Can you even compare $5 million total to an average of over $50 million the first weekend for major blockbusters? Probably not. Finally, Thirteen was distributed by Fox Searchlight in the states. Yeah, it's Fox, and yeah, Fox is big and ugly and evil, but the truth of the matter is that Fox Searchlight was created for the sole purpose of distributing indie flicks like Thirteen. Granted, the film's not as "indie" as some of the ultra-low budget films out there just barely scraping along, but it still definitely falls under the "indie" category and qualifications. That said, it was a really good film, and even if it weren't indie, which it is, I'd still recommend it.
Last I've heard, big advertising campaigns and hype BEFORE the film gets into theaters kind of disqualify the film from beind an indie. Just because it deals with a serious subject matter, doesn't make it an indie. The film was not bad, I never said it was. Yet, it had that Hollywood polish under all the rough stuff. It's still worth watching, but it's not nearly as strong as Kids, that's all I'm saying...
Arturo let me know your opinion of the films as you go through them, I'd be interested to hear. I just remembered another stong one, which I haven't personally seen yet, "Brazil."
faust said:
Last I've heard, big advertising campaigns and hype BEFORE the film gets into theaters kind of disqualify the film from beind an indie. Just because it deals with a serious subject matter, doesn't make it an indie.
Ok, let's take a quick example: Primer. The film had a measly $7,000 budget, with no major financial backings; ThinkFilm was the only Production Company/Distributor that got behind it. It ended up winning the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival last year, but before doing that, was hyped out the wazoo. There were posters, flyers, trailers in major movie theaters; from what I know, they ended up spending more than twice their budget on advertising and the subsequent hype just built from there. Now this film was about as indie as they come, but it was hyped, yes. Does that mean it's still indie? Why not? It just happened to do well. Now I hate hype as much as the next person, but you can't lie to yourself and say that any movie that's hyped automatically falls out of the indie category.
Now, on to your example of Kids as a good indie film, better than Thirteen. Quality aside, if you're going to disqualify anything that's hyped or advertised as indie, you're going to have to disqualify Kids as well. Why? First off, one of the Production Companies was Miramax Films (read: ultra-mainstream film company). Next, it got so hyped it was almost disgusting, and the hype is still alive and kicking. In fact, among college circles, it's still probably the most hyped film (comparable with City of Lost Children). Moreover, it had the exact same budget as Thirteen but ended up making a whole lot more money than it. By your standards, Kids is actually less of an indie movie than Thirteen.
Oh, and as for your recommendation of Brazil, it's a great film! However, not indie at all. It was directed by Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, assorted Monty Python films, aka not an indie director but good nonetheless), and produced and distributed by Universal, one of the largest film companies around. Needless to say, it's not indie film at all (although it may feel like it is), but it's still good and recommended.
fashionologie said:
Ok, let's take a quick example: Primer. The film had a measly $7,000 budget, with no major financial backings; ThinkFilm was the only Production Company/Distributor that got behind it. It ended up winning the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival last year, but before doing that, was hyped out the wazoo. There were posters, flyers, trailers in major movie theaters; from what I know, they ended up spending more than twice their budget on advertising and the subsequent hype just built from there. Now this film was about as indie as they come, but it was hyped, yes. Does that mean it's still indie? Why not? It just happened to do well. Now I hate hype as much as the next person, but you can't lie to yourself and say that any movie that's hyped automatically falls out of the indie category.
Now, on to your example of Kids as a good indie film, better than Thirteen. Quality aside, if you're going to disqualify anything that's hyped or advertised as indie, you're going to have to disqualify Kids as well. Why? First off, one of the Production Companies was Miramax Films (read: ultra-mainstream film company). Next, it got so hyped it was almost disgusting, and the hype is still alive and kicking. In fact, among college circles, it's still probably the most hyped film (comparable with City of Lost Children). Moreover, it had the exact same budget as Thirteen but ended up making a whole lot more money than it. By your standards, Kids is actually less of an indie movie than Thirteen.
Oh, and as for your recommendation of Brazil, it's a great film! However, not indie at all. It was directed by Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, assorted Monty Python films, aka not an indie director but good nonetheless), and produced and distributed by Universal, one of the largest film companies around. Needless to say, it's not indie film at all (although it may feel like it is), but it's still good and recommended.
First time I hear about Primer. What does that tell you? Thirteen on the contrary was EVERYWHERE. I didn't go see in a special indie/foreign film movie theater, I went to the mainstream one. Kids was all word-of-mouth advertisement. It didn't have Hollywood actors, not even professional actors in it. It got a lot of attention because it was such a strong film. The "hype" is still alive because Larry Clark is still preoccupied with the adolescency theme.
And your point about distribution is not a good one, almost everything is distributed by major studios.
|
||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
3
| 85
|
https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/how-to-promote-your-short-film
|
en
|
How to Promote Your Short Film
|
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[] | null |
Now that you have a short film, it's time to learn how to promote your short film! Our tips will teach you how to get the word out about your masterpiece.
|
en
|
https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/how-to-promote-your-short-film
|
A short film is a great way to get noticed. Call it a demo, proof of concept, a calling card: if you make your own short film, you have the chance to show the world what kinds of films youâre capable of producing. That is â as long as you know how to promote your short film.
But how do you make sure the world watches? You know how to produce, but do you know how to promote your movie? What are the tricks to short film marketing?
In this post, weâll break down six interlocking strategies for how to promote your short film. By the end, you should be an expert short film publicist as well as producer!
Letâs jump in.
1. Build a Website
Weâll start with the most basic prerequisite for how to market a movie in the 21st century: you need a website!Â
Every major feature production launches a website as part of its film marketing plan, and the same principle applies with short film marketing. Any short film producer that doesnât make a website doesnât know how to market a short film.
Your short film website is the hub of your strategy for how to promote your short film. Every other component in your short film promotion plan will redirect people here.
As you can see looking at the site for Shariffa Aliâs film You Go Girl!, the website should be simple but packed with relevant information. When, where, and how can audiences see your film? If they can watch your short film online, the link to do so should be front and center.Â
There should also be links to the teaser and trailer, social media presence, press releases, press and other inquiries, and festival credentials, all of which weâll discuss below.
â
You can design your short film website using any number of powerful tools such as Wordpress, Squarespace, or Wix.
2. Design Poster & Other Graphics
Another essential component in how to promote your short film is a poster and other graphics with a clear design theme and linked aesthetic.
Take a look at the poster for Travon Free and Martin Desmond Jonesâs Oscar-winning short film Two Distant Strangers. Just from the juxtaposition of black and white, hoodie and uniform, we can tell that this is a film about racism and police brutality.
Youâll use these graphics â including a poster, thumbnail, and various other-sized images â on your website, on your Youtube and Vimeo pages where you post your teaser and trailer, and on all your social media feeds.Â
Think about the aesthetic of your film, the kind of images, text, colors, and other design features you want. Reach out to graphic designers and see what you can put together.
3. Cut a Killer Trailer
When you think âfilm marketing plan,â what comes to mind? Most likely, trailers and teasers are obvious answers to the question of how to market a movie. But making a concise, exciting trailer â and even shorter teaser â for your short film promotion is more than a matter of cutting together sections of your short film.Â
Take a look at the trailer for Alison Richâs film Training Wheels. Notice how it gives you a sense of the filmâs tone and sensibility without giving anything away.
An even shorter, hype teaser â like this one for Riz Ahmed and Aneil Kariaâs Oscar-winning short The Long Goodbye â can give us character, setting, tone, and plot, all in 15 seconds or less. Here we see a family dancing together, then an SUV closing in, and the phrase âTheyâre rounding people up!â â character, tension, conflict! Itâs a great example of how to promote your short film.
Focus on conveying the look and feel of your film. Show us who our protagonist is, and give us a quick picture of what theyâre up against.Â
Once youâve made an exciting trailer, itâs time to promote your short film on social media.
4. Engage On Social Media
If you know social media, youâre already halfway to knowing how to market your film. Itâs all about driving up engagement by posting at regular intervals.Â
Each social media outlet offers different opportunities for how to promote your short film. Youtube and Vimeo are great for posting your teaser and trailer. Instagram allows you to post production stills and embed videos.Â
On Twitter, you can Tweet a plot summary or dialogue snippets in less than 160 characters. Once youâve generated some buzz, you can do a Reddit AMA about the process of shooting. The possibilities for how to promote your short film are nearly endless.Â
Focus on making your posts exciting and intriguing, to generate buzz among and beyond your immediate circle of followers. Always link back to your website. Thereâs a reason we made the website number one on this âhow to promote a short filmâ list.
Does this seem daunting? Consider hiring an expert on how to promote a movie on social media. Or check out these guides on how to promote your short film on Youtube; how to promote a movie on Instagram; and how to promote a movie on Facebook.
5. Manage Your E-Mail List
Using social media and SEO for short film marketing is all about casting a wide net to build buzz and expand your reach. But you can also take steps to double down on audiences youâve already reached. Itâs good to keep your short film at the top of their minds.
Remember, a major part of how to market a short film is making sure youâre always on your viewers minds. Repetition is key. Itâs a big part of how to market a short film!
See what we did there?
Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication), you can prompt visitors to your website to leave their email addresses, and then send out press releases to the list of addresses you collected.Â
Whenever you have news to share about your movie, you can send it out to your list. Itâs a great way to keep your fans updated on new developments! An essential tool for anyone who wants to learn how to promote a short film.
6. Networking
This is an essential â but underrated â component in all aspects of the movie business, and of life in general. Opportunities are all about who you know! The same goes for how to promote your short film.
I donât know who you know â actors, directors, influencers â but if you can get some big names to help get your work out into the public eye, it could be the missing puzzle piece for how to promote your short film, and generate buzz in a whole new way.
The same goes for people who know people you know â thatâs what makes it a network! Reach out, think outside the box, and see who you can enlist to help out with short film promotion.
7. Attend Film Festivals
Speaking of new developments: as a short film producer, you probably have your eyes set on one or more prestigious film festivals and their awards and prizes!
Thatâs great! And now, with your website, trailer, social media presence, SEO, and press release system all set up, youâre ready to send in your film. Fingers crossed!After all, thereâs nothing better for promoting your short film than having audiences see it and rave about it.
As your short film (hopefully!) goes through the process of acceptance, screening, and winning awards, be proud of yourself. All the fans who follow your social media and subscribe to your newsletter will be proud of you, too.Â
Wrapping Up
Knowing how to promote a short film may not seem as glamorous as making it. But if no one knows it exists or what itâs about, they wonât see it. Movies are meant to be seen. Help your audience find you!
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https://legacy.friends.ca/explore/article/thinkfilm-close-to-deal-to-sell-canadian-assets/
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ThinkFilm close to deal to sell Canadian assets
|
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[
"Grant Robertson",
"Gayle MacDonald"
] |
2008-01-10T00:00:00
|
Explore the issues that FRIENDS are actively working on, which span Canadian Stories, the CBC/Public Broadcasting, Culture and Public Policy.
|
en
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https://legacy.friends.ca/favicon.ico
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https://legacy.friends.ca/explore/article/thinkfilm-close-to-deal-to-sell-canadian-assets/
|
A rising player in the Canadian entertainment industry is in talks to acquire the domestic assets of North American movie distributor ThinkFilm, which has been offside of federal ownership regulations since it was bought by a U.S. business last year.
Thinkfilm's Canadian assets, which include the rights to dozens of domestic movies, have been forced onto the auction block by Ottawa following the company's 2006 sale to Los Angeles businessman David Bergstein.
After months of wrangling, film industry sources say a deal to finally sell the Canadian assets is now in the works with Entertainment One, a Toronto company that has spent upwards of $100-million in less than a year buying film distribution assets and movie libraries around the world.
Under Canadian rules, foreign-owned distributors in Canada are not allowed to distribute domestic films, meaning the sale of Toronto-based ThinkFilm's Canadian operations to a U.S. buyer violates federal regulations.
Critics within the film industry have been calling for the federal government to enforce its policy on such deals for more than a year, and many have been angered the company has been allowed to operate so long under U.S. ownership.
Unlike Alliance Films, the Canadian movie distribution business bought by U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last year, ThinkFilm is now predominantly run out of New York. After Goldman bought Alliance, it partnered with Toronto-based EdgeStone Capital Partners Inc. to abide by federal ownership rules.
The ThinkFilm transaction would mark the fifth significant acquisition for Entertainment One since it moved from a Canadian-traded income trust last March to London's AIM exchange. The company, run by former Alliance Atlantis executive Patrice Théroux, acquired Montreal-based Seville Films in the fall, and this week announced the takeover of European distributor RCV Entertainment BV.
Reached yesterday, Mr. Théroux would not comment on ThinkFilm, but said, "We're interested in consolidating businesses in territories where we're operating, and buying competitors or libraries in territories where we are."
ThinkFilm's Canadian library includes roughly 50 titles including independent films such as Everything's Gone Green from director Paul Fox and writer Douglas Coupland.
A battle over unpaid loans from Telefilm Canada appears to have been a catalyst for the deal. Telefilm loaned funds to ThinkFilm to cover distribution and marketing costs for a dozen movies. Sources say ThinkFilm owed Telefilm roughly $1-million.
Telefilm, with help from Heritage Canada, got Ottawa's Justice Department to file an injunction demanding ThinkFilm pay up. Repayment terms are being negotiated, smoothing the way for the Canadian ThinkFilm assets to be sold.
When ThinkFilm was sold in October, 2006, its president Jeff Sackman anticipated he would sell off its Canadian titles in a month.
Heritage Canada spokeswoman Josianne Jalbert declined yesterday to comment on Ottawa's role in forcing the sale, saying "the government will ensure that the provisions of the Investment Canada Act and Canada's film distribution policy are respected in this transaction."
Other homegrown distributors have been rumoured to be interested, including Toronto's Maple Pictures, and Montreal's TVA Films.
© Globe and Mail
A rising player in the Canadian entertainment industry is in talks to acquire the domestic assets of North American movie distributor ThinkFilm, which has been offside of federal ownership regulations since it was bought by a U.S. business last year.
Thinkfilm's Canadian assets, which include the rights to dozens of domestic movies, have been forced onto the auction block by Ottawa following the company's 2006 sale to Los Angeles businessman David Bergstein.
After months of wrangling, film industry sources say a deal to finally sell the Canadian assets is now in the works with Entertainment One, a Toronto company that has spent upwards of $100-million in less than a year buying film distribution assets and movie libraries around the world.
Under Canadian rules, foreign-owned distributors in Canada are not allowed to distribute domestic films, meaning the sale of Toronto-based ThinkFilm's Canadian operations to a U.S. buyer violates federal regulations.
Critics within the film industry have been calling for the federal government to enforce its policy on such deals for more than a year, and many have been angered the company has been allowed to operate so long under U.S. ownership.
Unlike Alliance Films, the Canadian movie distribution business bought by U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last year, ThinkFilm is now predominantly run out of New York. After Goldman bought Alliance, it partnered with Toronto-based EdgeStone Capital Partners Inc. to abide by federal ownership rules.
The ThinkFilm transaction would mark the fifth significant acquisition for Entertainment One since it moved from a Canadian-traded income trust last March to London's AIM exchange. The company, run by former Alliance Atlantis executive Patrice Théroux, acquired Montreal-based Seville Films in the fall, and this week announced the takeover of European distributor RCV Entertainment BV.
Reached yesterday, Mr. Théroux would not comment on ThinkFilm, but said, "We're interested in consolidating businesses in territories where we're operating, and buying competitors or libraries in territories where we are."
ThinkFilm's Canadian library includes roughly 50 titles including independent films such as Everything's Gone Green from director Paul Fox and writer Douglas Coupland.
A battle over unpaid loans from Telefilm Canada appears to have been a catalyst for the deal. Telefilm loaned funds to ThinkFilm to cover distribution and marketing costs for a dozen movies. Sources say ThinkFilm owed Telefilm roughly $1-million.
Telefilm, with help from Heritage Canada, got Ottawa's Justice Department to file an injunction demanding ThinkFilm pay up. Repayment terms are being negotiated, smoothing the way for the Canadian ThinkFilm assets to be sold.
When ThinkFilm was sold in October, 2006, its president Jeff Sackman anticipated he would sell off its Canadian titles in a month.
Heritage Canada spokeswoman Josianne Jalbert declined yesterday to comment on Ottawa's role in forcing the sale, saying "the government will ensure that the provisions of the Investment Canada Act and Canada's film distribution policy are respected in this transaction."
Other homegrown distributors have been rumoured to be interested, including Toronto's Maple Pictures, and Montreal's TVA Films.
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https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Only-Child-Velocity-Thinkfilm/dp/B01GWCBNSC
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Amazon.com
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dbpedia
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https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/q-a-mystery-man-on-film-revealed-8f31fd34c9c4
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en
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Q&A: Mystery Man (on Film) Revealed!
|
https://miro.medium.com/v2/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19
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https://miro.medium.com/v2/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19
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[
"Scott Myers",
"scottdistillery.medium.com"
] |
2009-11-12T19:00:00+00:00
|
You know him (but not really), you love him (even though he is a mystery) — it’s Mystery Man (on Film). MM agreed to do a Q&A. Without further ado, here he is! SM: First the handle: Mystery Man on…
|
en
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https://miro.medium.com/v2/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19
|
Medium
|
https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/q-a-mystery-man-on-film-revealed-8f31fd34c9c4
|
You know him (but not really), you love him (even though he is a mystery) — it’s Mystery Man (on Film). MM agreed to do a Q&A. Without further ado, here he is!
Mystery Man Revealed! (sort of, an interview)
SM: First the handle: Mystery Man on Film. If I were to hazard a guess as to your real identity, which would be closer: William Goldman or Donald Kaufman from Adaptation?
MM: Oh come now, Scott, haven’t you figured me out yet? Hehehe… You should know that both of those men are too insecure for my tastes. I love a confident, stylish, witty writer. (If you don’t feel confident, just just fake it. Insecurities are for schmucks.) Give me men like Marcello Mastroianni. He’s just an actor, I know, but he played a writer in La Notte. He was cool, confident, and oh-so-suave. Plus, he looked damn good in a suit. Who said writers have to dress like derelicts? What’s wrong with a writer being stylish? Different? Memorable? Entertaining? I say be better than who you are. I say become the icon you’ve always admired. I say create that persona and live up to it. That thing Shakespeare wrote, “To thine own self be true,” is such bullshit. Hehehe…
SM: Okay, so way back when you started your original MMOF blog, as you cranked up your Commodore 128 computer, what exactly were you hoping to accomplish?
MM: If I take the time to seriously consider the craft and write an article about it, I can verbalize those thoughts more confidently in meetings. Some of these people in the industry are AMAZING. You have to seriously bring your A Game to the table. Beyond that, I enjoy rocking the boat.
SM: I read where The Unknown Screenwriter was an inspiration to you when you first started blogging. What other screenwriting bloggers are in your MMOF Hall of Fame?
MM: Well, I first began on TriggerStreet. I love writing script reviews. Then Unk was my inspiration to blog. So blame him. To this day, I still love his series on the The Transformational Character Arc. I’d put Go Into the Story on that pedestal worthy of daily visits. People used to complain about me being a prolific blogger. You’re a frickin’ machine! Of course, I read John August, Billy Mernit, Bill Martell, and Tedd & Terry’s articles. Danny Stack is great. He had a fabulous series on The Professional Screenwriter, which I highlighted here. Also, to this day, I love what Julie Gray wrote on theme & the entertaining question. Anytime someone sends me an e-mail about theme, I just tell them to read Julie’s article. I still love what Joshua James wrote on the Emotional Logic of Characters or his great formula of WHAT plus WHY equals WHO. And I love MaryAn Batchellor’s “Purpose of Battle Speeches” (here & here).
Script Mag has great articles on their website and podcasts, too. They just finished a 3-part podcast series on “Your Screenwriting Career in Today’s Market” (part one, part two, & part three), which you MUST take the time to hear. I also have to mention Ray Morton. I loved his article called Fouteen Scripts I Never Need to Read Again (Ever) and “How Not to Annoy the Reader” (Part One & Part Two).
For my blog, though, I wanted to showcase not just screenwriters but also the film bloggers because there is so much to be learned from them. Consider Film Studies for Free and, say, their latest collection of scholarly links on the art of close ups. Close ups, man! Unbelievable. Consider Jim Emerson’s fantastic Opening Shots Project. Consider David Bordwell and, for example, his free excerpts from his book, Film Art. The man’s a wonderful film scholar. Screenwriters should listen to him. I love — LOVE — Bordwell’s .pdf on The Man Who Knew Too Much. I also have a real thing for the mind of Matt Zoller Seitz and his video essays, like Zen Pulp. How about Girish Shambu, my all-time favorite blogger. He had a post on Poetics in Cinema that — I kid you not — forever altered my perspective on storytelling.
Do you feel intellectually fed yet? If that’s not enough, I recently posted my own 101 Best Articles.
SM: After all these years, you’ve quit blogging in order to take up Tweeting. What do you Tweet, why do you Tweet, and for whom do you Tweet?
MM: I knew the bottom was going to drop in Hollywood and I wanted to carefully follow the stories. When Anne Thompson started writing about the “Indie Bloodbath,” I thought, “Here we go.” The dynamics of content distribution WILL change. The dynamics of spec sales WILL change. You must now build your own road to a screenwriting career. Personally, I think film is dead and the entire distribution system needs to be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. How do you do that? Start a new movie chain that defies the rules? I don’t know. But these are sober times. Consider these tweets:
“It’s a massacre. It’s the end of funny money.” (http://bit.ly/12dE1N)
Charlie Kaufman: “It’s a disaster out there… I don’t think the mid-range movie is going to exist anymore.” (http://bit.ly/axfjQ)
“The American Indie business is a walking corpse” (http://bit.ly/fBTWH)
How To Survive The Current Indie Producer Hell: “Cut all your budgets by 60%” (http://bit.ly/cgxlM)
“The ways films were financed & sold for the last fifteen years are no longer do-able.” (http://bit.ly/19tgWX)
“Can the ‘Indie Bloodbath’ be traced to the decline of critics?” (http://bit.ly/12qpQa)
“Anything above a micro-budget level is going to have a hard time getting into theaters.” (http://bit.ly/8HSr9)
Ebert: “The bottom fell out of the market… a collapse of confidence in the prospects of [Indie] film distribution.” (http://bit.ly/YoRvr)
“There may be something more insidious at work. It’s possible there simply aren’t as many great movies being made.” (http://bit.ly/1cIYYz)
Peter Broderick’s 10 Principles of Hybrid Distribution (http://bit.ly/1a7OjL)
“The old model — making a film with investors, taking it to festivals, selling it there — is nearly gone” (http://bit.ly/1CaT4)
10 (9 actually) Responses to the Issues Brought Up at the “Indie Film Summit” (http://bit.ly/yNwMp)
SM: I recently started on Twitter, but being the pseudo-old fart that I am, I’m sure I’m doing everything wrong. So for me and any other Twitter neophytes out there, what advice can you give us so we stop making fools of ourselves in cyberspace.
MM: I’ve made a bigger fool of myself than anyone on Twitter, I think. When I first started, I tweeted too much, which pissed off my friends, and some quit following me. I’m trying not to do that anymore and tweet only the most essential articles. I also got hacked recently. Direct messages were being sent from me with links to phishing scams. Sigh… I’d suggest you not click links sent to you in a direct message unless you trust the source. Even then, they could’ve been hacked like me. If you get hacked, change your password. You’ll have to wait some amount of time before Twitter will allow you to start following people again. You can also follow the Spam twitter account or the #spam thread.
SM: As a Certified Mystery Man Tweet Follower, I am amazed by how much great information about movies and screenwriting you manage to dig up. How the hell do you do it? Are you like glued to your computer keyboard or could that other rumor about your sweatshop of research slaves in Saipan be true?
MM: Are you kidding? I don’t have time to search for shit. It’s called Google Alerts. You should look into it. But I do have an assistant (she’s very much like Ulla from The Producers). Hehehe…
SM: We all know that Kevin Smith, John August, and Diablo Cody Tweet. What other screenwriters can you recommend who share their wisdom with the world in 144 character thought bytes on Twitter?
MM: Only one person I ardently recommend for screenwriters — David Hudson. He’s the most obsessive compiler of film links of anyone in the world. He’s AMAZING.
SM: You’re a screenwriter, a columnist for Script magazine, an ex-blogger, and a Tweeter? Which one of those occupations fills you with the most pride and why?
MM: The reaction to my article on the Raiders Story Conference was probably the highest high of blogging. I was thinking, “Look at this! Mystery Man — MYSTERY MAN of all things — is in The New York Times!” “Look at this! Entertainment Weekly!” “Look at this! John August!” “Look at this! NBC Local News in Dallas!” And then it’s over and you’re back to work again.
My favorite article has to be the one I wrote on John Michael Hayes. I had just finished reading about him when he passed away. I couldn’t believe it. So I told his story and how he became a screenwriter. Get this. John Michael Hayes left his family, who never once supported his writing aspirations. He snuck away while his family was at the movies, no less. He hitchhiked his way across the country from Worcester, Massachusetts, all the way to Hollywood while hopping on two canes (recovering from a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis) and with only $15 in his pocket! Can you believe that? I wrote, “Yeah, all you aspiring writers out there think you have it so rough? Tell me you want to be a writer as badly as John Michael Hayes. Tell me you would’ve done what John Michael Hayes did.”
So I posted the article, and his son, Garrett Michael Hayes, commented, “I’ve read a great number of the recent JMH obits and online mentions. Thus far, yours comes closest to capturing a sense of his life.” Then John’s daughter, Meredyth, wrote, “It made my heart full today to read this and I thank you.”
How can you surpass those highs?
I’ll tell you how. Screenwriting. Making films. Nothing beats it.
There you go, some insight, wisdom, and mojo links from Mystery Man. And be sure to check out MM’s 101 Best Articles.
|
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/They-Drive-by-Night
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en
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They Drive by Night | film by Walsh [1940]
|
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Other articles where They Drive by Night is discussed: Raoul Walsh: At Warner Brothers: The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, and White Heat: They Drive by Night (1940) began as a flavourful story of two brothers’ (Humphrey Bogart and Raft, surprisingly well matched) struggles in the trucking business but shifted halfway through to become a murder story (taken in part from Archie Mayo’s Bordertown [1935]).
|
en
|
/favicon.png
|
Encyclopedia Britannica
|
https://www.britannica.com/topic/They-Drive-by-Night
|
In Raoul Walsh: At Warner Brothers: The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, and White Heat
They Drive by Night (1940) began as a flavourful story of two brothers’ (Humphrey Bogart and Raft, surprisingly well matched) struggles in the trucking business but shifted halfway through to become a murder story (taken in part from Archie Mayo’s Bordertown [1935]).
Read More
In Ida Lupino: Early life and work
…roles in such films as They Drive by Night (1940), in which the actress gave perhaps her best performance, playing an unstable wife who is in love with one of her husband’s employees; High Sierra (1941), a classic crime drama starring Humphrey Bogart; and The Sea Wolf (1941), an adaptation…
Read More
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4383
|
dbpedia
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2
| 88
|
https://www.newsweek.com/end-documentary-film-market-91125
|
en
|
The End of the Documentary Film Market
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"David Ansen"
] |
2008-06-28T11:03:51-04:00
|
A - $275,000, B - $2.7 Million, C - $27 Million, D- $270 Million
|
en
|
Newsweek
|
https://www.newsweek.com/end-documentary-film-market-91125
|
It was only a few years ago that everyone was proclaiming the box-office triumph of nonfiction films. "Winged Migration," a movie about birds in flight, grossed over $11 million, a rare bird indeed. "Spellbound" was a surprise success. Morgan Spurlock's big Mac-attack "Super Size Me" made another $11 million, a high-calorie hit in a field where $1 million had been considered boffo. Then in 2004 came Michael Moore's blistering polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11," exploding all notions of what a nonfiction film could achieve with blockbuster-like grosses of $119 million. A year later came the ultimate fluke hit, a French-made documentary about penguins that was so successful ($77 million) I don't have to give the title.
The boom was on, the gold rush began. Distributors gobbled up docs at prices no one was used to paying. The market was flooded with product: some of it superb and laden with critical praise; some of it urgent and timely; some of it aimed at niche markets that would presumably rush out to see a movie about their favorite subjects: crossword puzzles, wine, women's high-school basketball; some of it merely mediocre but so cheap to make in the new era of over-the-counter digital filmmaking that investors figured they had nothing to lose.
Then everybody got burned. Unless documentaries were made by Michael Moore, or featured Al Gore talking about inconvenient truths, the theatrical market for these films collapsed. Huge expectations ran into a wall of audience indifference: "Crazy Love" was supposed to go through the roof yet it made a measly $301,000. "Taxi to the Dark Side" won the best-documentary Oscar—and its grosses, paltry to begin with, went down! Alex Gibney, the director of this tough movie about the torture of terror suspects by Americans, is suing THINKFilm, its distributor, for what he says was an inadequate release. With all due respect to Gibney, he's kidding himself if he thinks tons of marketing money could have made a difference. Even Errol Morris's high-profile film on Abu Ghraib, "Standard Operating Procedure," flopped—$209,000.
When times are tough, bad news is the toughest sell. Then why did "Fahrenheit 9/11" succeed while all the subsequent Iraq movies failed? It's all in the timing, says Moore, who has three of the five top-grossing nonfiction films in history. "If you wait until it's safe to make an Iraq War film, people don't need to go to be told it's a bad idea," he says. "If it feels like medicine or a lecture, they won't go." Moore's point is reinforced by the relative success of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," which, at $7.6 million, is 2008's second most-popular nonfiction film (behind the concert film "U2 3D"). Though reviled by critics, this creationist polemic with Ben Stein reached an audience hungry for its antiDarwinian message.
No distributor has been more invested in quality documentary films than THINKFilm. Its president, Mark Urman, estimates that 40 percent of its releases have been nonfiction. " 'Spellbound' made a ton of money, and we went on a binge," he says ruefully. "One thing I learned is that topicality doesn't sell a ticket." THINKFilm is still releasing nonfiction films, but only the most special ones—it's now distributing HBO's "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," after it has been shown on cable, and Werner Herzog's amazing "Encounters at the End of the World," which did sold-out business its first week in New York. The future of Urman's company, facing lawsuits from creditors it has been unable to pay, is up in the air.
The irony is that we are in the midst of a great era of documentaries—but the audience is a stay-at-home crowd, not the kids who rush out to watch superheroes blow stuff up. Millions watch documentaries on HBO, PBS and the Discovery Channel, and on DVDs. "They've come home to roost where they belong," says Sheila Nevins, the HBO documentary head often called the Queen of the Docs. "The graying of America may be bad for documentary and independent feature films, but it's good for television." Several million people, she claims, see even the lowest-rated documentaries shown on HBO. "You're paying for it, and you want to get your money's worth." In her 25 years at HBO she's seen an almost 300 percent increase in documentary films made. The ones about sex, she says, do the best.
The collapse of the theatrical market isn't only about documentaries. "They're just the canary in the mine shaft," says Moore. The whole world of independent-film distribution is in crisis. Warner Bros. recently shut down its two specialty divisions, Warner Independent and Picturehouse, and folded New Line into its larger corporate entity. Paramount is shutting down Vantage, its art-house division, as a separate entity. Outside investors and hedge-fund groups that rushed into movie financing are retreating fast, their hands bloodied with red ink. The foreign-film market has shrunk to a trickle. The market is in a period of adjustment: fewer movies will be made and released.
Moore thinks a large part of the problem is in the theaters themselves. To prove his point he cites the nonprofit art-house venue he's running in his hometown, Travers City, Mich. Putting his patrons' wishes first, Moore installed cushy seats, banned cell phones, provided state-of-the-art sound and projection—and kept down the price of popcorn. The result: small movies such as "Lars and the Real Girl," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "I'm Not There" did better in this conservative Midwestern town than in most theaters in the country. So did many of the docs he's shown. "Going to the movies is an active experience," says Moore. "TV is passive."
THINKFilm's Urman still believes the right nonfiction film can succeed in theaters. It just has to be the first of its kind, or made by a marquee filmmaker. One such candidate is Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World." Shot in Antarctica, it's filled with breathtaking landscapes above and below the sea and populated by the fascinating, quirky outsiders who work at the McMurdo Station. Herzog's cranky, apocalyptic, mordantly funny narration ponders the survival of the human species—and his visions change the way you look at the world. On an awesomenees index, these sights outscore every computerized object hurled by the Hulk, Hancock or any other Hollywood superhero. There are some thrills only "the real" can provide. And as thrilling as they can be on your TV screen, on a big one they're even better.
|
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4383
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dbpedia
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https://www.amazon.com/Bordertown-Season-1-Richard-Comar/dp/B00E4Q6U64
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en
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Amazon.com
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Enter the characters you see below
Sorry, we just need to make sure you're not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies.
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https://brut.media/us/entertainment/the-life-of-jennifer-lopez-7404df2b-2059-40dd-ab80-def65992cd1c
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en
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The life of Jennifer Lopez
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She used to have a little, now she has a lot ... And she's set to perform at the inauguration of Joe Biden. This is the story of Jennifer Lopez.
|
en
|
https://www.brut.media/us/videos/the-life-of-jennifer-lopez
|
She used to have a little, now she has a lot ... And she's set to perform at the inauguration of Joe Biden. This is the story of Jennifer Lopez.
|
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4383
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dbpedia
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3
| 11
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-feb-14-et-filmanthropy14-story.html
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en
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Movies shoot for change
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[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Chris Lee",
"www.latimes.com",
"chris-lee"
] |
2007-02-14T00:00:00
|
Powerful media players aren't just giving to charities, they're making documentaries that seek to spotlight causes and bring about results.
|
en
|
/apple-touch-icon.png
|
Los Angeles Times
|
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-feb-14-et-filmanthropy14-story.html
|
ALBIE HECHT is an old hand at philanthropy. The former Nickelodeon president who greenlighted such hits as “SpongeBob SquarePants” has long been generous to children’s charities. He has produced public service announcements and telethons, organized community outreach projects and created the Big Help, a campaign aimed at getting kids to participate in community service.
But when Hecht became concerned about the plight of young African war refugees, he decided to try something new: He financed a documentary about Ugandan schoolchildren who are struggling with the ravages of that country’s 20-year civil war while competing in a national music contest.
His film, “War/Dance,” won the documentary directing award at the Sundance Film Festival last month.
“I was at Viacom for 13 years being a big producer,” Hecht said. “Having gone through that, I really wanted ... to do something personal.”
As it turns out, he is one of many media big shots who are trying to “make a difference” with a small, personally realized documentary.
In the eight months since Al Gore’s global-warming wake-up call, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was released, the documentary film marketplace has exploded with backers like Hecht.
Call them “filmanthropists.” They have deep pockets and issue-driven agendas. Rather than make high-class dramas that might carry some mild social message, these producers are turning out full-blown advocacy movies.
Although their individual aims may be different, each has used a nonfiction film to shine a spotlight on social injustices, or government malfeasance, and even to recast history in the service of human uplift and national reconciliation.
Almost without fail, filmanthropists have done well financially before deciding it is time to do good. But they are not passive about their investment. They want to control the process and the message.
AMERICA ONLINE Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis, for one, in 2005 self-financed “Nanking,” which documents a group of Westerners’ heroic efforts to save thousands of Chinese civilians from massacre by Japanese soldiers during the buildup to World War II.
“What I didn’t want to be was dumb money,” said Leonsis, who came across his subject matter while on vacation in the Caribbean. “This is my story. I’m going to put the team together. I’m going to learn the whole industry. And when the film is done, I’m going to feel like this is my movie.”
EBay co-founder Jeff Skoll launched a new company, Participant Productions, in 2004 to make socially crusading films. So far it has produced “Murderball” (about hard-charging wheelchair rugby players), “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Chicago 10” (about antiwar protesters who were put on trial after the 1968 Democratic National Convention), among others.
Endgame Entertainment Chief Executive James D. Stern, better known for backing Broadway musicals such as “Hairspray” and movies including “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” earned his film philanthropy stripes by financing and co-directing “... So Goes the Nation” in 2006. The $2-million documentary deals with the political machinations that ultimately tipped the battleground state of Ohio in favor of George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.
“I thought the story could be incendiary,” Stern said. “There are some films I do that I’m not emotionally invested in. But as a director, this is a story I was very interested in telling.”
Actors turned producers Brad Pitt, Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener combined efforts to produce, along with others, “God Grew Tired of Us,” a documentary chronicling a group of Sudanese teenagers who fled starvation and genocide in their homeland only to be shocked and bewildered by consumer culture in the United States. The film reached theaters last month.
“This came together because we’re a bunch of friends who care about the world and wanted to support a project depicting reality in Sudan,” Mulroney said at the film’s premiere.
ACCORDING to Mark Urman, head of the theatrical division of ThinkFilms, the company that will distribute “War/Dance” next fall, filmanthropy runs contrary to Hollywood’s typical mind-set that puts profits far ahead of any social action.
“While there has always been a great deal of philanthropy in the film business, this is a new iteration: relatively inexperienced people entrenched in another part of the industry making accomplished feature films,” he said. “Rather than write a check, you can make a feature film exposing an ill or advancing things about human endeavor.”
He added: “Fiction movies take so long to make. Documentaries can be more responsive to the zeitgeist. Look at ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’ That was made to get a guy out of the White House.”
At the same time, Jeff Sparks, chief executive of the Heartland Film Festival (a nonprofit organization that recognizes filmmakers whose work “explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life”) contends that filmanthropy’s recent surge is linked to the growing bankability of documentary films.
“On the business side, something like ‘March of the Penguins’ showed that documentaries really can make some money,” Sparks said. “You didn’t see that three years ago. The business model has changed.”
Documentaries, which rarely cost more than $2 million to make, are a comparative bargain weighed against most narrative features. Some recent documentaries have even been moneymakers. “Penguins,” for example, which documented the extraordinary resilience of the Antarctic bird, cost a modest $8 million, eventually grossing $122 million worldwide.
But filmanthropists are the first to tell you: They pay heed more to their hearts than to the bottom line.
Take Charles Ferguson, for example. He created the technology for Microsoft Front Page and sold it to the software giant for $133 million in 1996. He says he spent a “significant fraction” of that fortune to finance his first film, “No End in Sight,” an Iraq war documentary he also wrote and directed. The film, which premiered at Sundance, focuses on the decisions made by the Bush administration since 2003 that Ferguson argues have resulted in widespread Iraqi sectarian violence and several thousand American combat deaths.
“Everyone said the same thing: It’s a very difficult film for a beginning filmmaker to make, very demanding, very complicated -- which was true,” Ferguson said. “They also said, ‘You’ll be competing with 10 other people trying to say the same thing,’ which turned out not to be true at all. I just felt so strongly about the issue and the importance of showing it to the world at large, I had to make it.”
Similarly, Hecht’s cause -- Ugandan war refugee children, many of whom are former conscripts in the rebel army or are grieving the murder of their parents -- dictated his course of action. But rather than saddle his multimedia company, Worldwide Biggies Inc., with the costs of the film, he decided to create a nonprofit called Shine Global. “I’m thinking: I’m a filmmaker, and it sounds like an incredible story,” he said. “Then the event of making this movie became a conversation about, ‘What’s the best way to do this?’ Our financial advisors said, ‘Start a nonprofit.’ That way we can tell stories like this that help end the exploitation of children. The story created the company.”
FILMANTHROPISTS who are short on technical filmmaking know-how need to hire technical advisors and directors to help them conquer moviemaking’s learning curve.
Ferguson first reached out to a friend who helps program the Telluride Film Festival. The trail led Ferguson to Alex Gibney, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of the documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.” Ferguson hired him as an executive producer. In effect, Gibney conducted a go-as-you-learn film school.
“It was like being a major league manager,” Gibney said. “I told him where the balls and bats were, and he did the rest: He conducted 75 interviews. He was a good student, a quick listener and surrounded himself with talented people.”
“No End in Sight” won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance “in recognition of the film as timely work that clearly illuminates the misguided policy decisions that have led to the catastrophic quagmire of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq,” according to the jury’s recommendation.
Ferguson, like other filmanthropists, hopes his film will bring policy changes.
“I hope to improve the level of national debate about Iraq, how we got to this place and what it is actually like,” he said. “Secondly, this is not the last time the United States will use military force. And I wanted to communicate more broadly that war is a serious matter. If you are going to use military force, if you are going to put soldiers in harm’s way, if you are going to invade and occupy a nation, you have to do it seriously.”
Leonsis said one of his goals in making “Nanking” was to create a foundation to house the 880 hours of survivor interviews and reams of archival research assembled for the film. But his larger ambition is to foster a Sino-Japanese cultural detente. The Nanking massacre is still a sore subject for both countries, and a vocal minority of right-wing Japanese deny it ever took place.
“Today, China and Japan have disagreements and cultural differences that go back to this time in history,” Leonsis said. “And I honestly believe a film like this can get them talking.”
Although the most recent crop of filmanthropic documentaries is still months away from reaching audiences -- only “Nanking” and “War/Dance” have landed distributors since their Sundance premieres -- that is hardly discouraging to the new breed of documentarians. “The concept of theatrical documentaries is a relatively new phenomenon; the advent of digital film is new,” said ThinkFilm’s Urman. “This wasn’t possible 10 years ago. The audiences, the outlets, the technology were not there.” Now, however, “it’s becoming a regular thing.”
|
||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
2
| 0
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkFilm
|
en
|
ThinkFilm
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
] |
2005-12-30T22:47:57+00:00
|
en
|
/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkFilm
|
Defunct American film distribution company
ThinkFilm (stylized as TH!NKFilm) was an American film distribution company founded in September 2001. It had been a division of David Bergstein’s Capitol Films since 2006.
On October 5, 2010, five of Bergstein's companies in the film industry, Capitol Films, ThinkFilm, R2D2, CT-1 and Capco were forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy by a group of creditors led by the Aramid Entertainment film investment fund seeking payment for outstanding debts of $16 million.[1]
This led to a Hollywood legal battle involving Bergstein, his financial partner, Ronald Tudor, the creditors and various lawyers and companies in the industry.[2][3][4][5][6]
Films distributed
[edit]
Title Release date Time Out March 29, 2002 World Traveler April 19, 2002 The Mystic Masseur May 3, 2002 The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys June 14, 2002 The Last Kiss August 16, 2002 Love in the Time of Money November 1, 2002 Gerry February 14, 2003 Spellbound April 30, 2003 Overnight June 12, 2003 The Heart of Me June 26, 2003 Julius Caesar June 29, 2003 Teknolust August 22, 2003 The Gospel of John September 26, 2003 The Event October 3, 2003 Bus 174 October 8, 2003 Love, Sex and Eating the Bones March 5, 2004 Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself March 12, 2004 The Agronomist April 23, 2004 Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie May 7, 2004 The Story of the Weeping Camel June 4, 2004 Festival Express July 23, 2004 Bright Young Things August 20, 2004 Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry October 1, 2004 Primer October 8, 2004 Born into Brothels December 8, 2004 The Assassination of Richard Nixon December 29, 2004 Mondovino March 23, 2005 Dallas 362 April 10, 2005 Tell Them Who You Are May 13, 2005 Genesis May 27, 2005 Kontroll 5x2 June 10, 2005 The Last Mogul: The Life and Times of Lew Wasserman June 24, 2005 Murderball July 22, 2005 The Aristocrats August 12, 2005 The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till August 17, 2005 Where the Truth Lies October 2, 2005 Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family October 19, 2005 Protocols of Zion October 21, 2005 I Love Your Work November 4, 2005 Lie with Me November 11, 2005 The Boys of Baraka November 30, 2005 Fateless January 6, 2006 The Zodiac March 17, 2006 The Big Question When Do We Eat? April 7, 2006 95 Miles to Go Down in the Valley May 5, 2006 The King Loverboy June 16, 2006 Strangers with Candy June 28, 2006 I Like Killing Flies July 28, 2006 10th & Wolf August 18, 2006 Looking for Kitty September 1, 2006 Half Nelson September 22, 2006 Keeping Mum October 6, 2006 Shortbus October 20, 2006 Tideland October 27, 2006 Fuck November 10, 2006 Candy November 17, 2006 10 Items or Less December 1, 2006 Off the Black December 8, 2006 Funny Money January 26, 2007 Poor Boy's Game February 11, 2007 Glastonbury February 23, 2007 Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary March 2, 2007 The Killing Floor March 14, 2007 Life Free or Die March 30, 2007 The TV Set April 6, 2007 Zoo April 25, 2007 Avenue Montaigne April 27, 2007 The Dog Problem The Wendell Baker Story May 18, 2007 The Trails of Darryl Hunt June 15, 2007 The Ten August 3, 2007 The Hottest State August 24, 2007 Self Medicated August 31, 2007 In the Shadow of the Moon September 7, 2007 Lake of Fir' October 3, 2007 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead October 26, 2007 War/Dance November 9, 2007 The Walker December 7, 2007 Nanking December 12, 2007 Taxi to the Dark Side January 18, 2008 The Air I Breathe January 25, 2008 Alpha Male March 18, 2008 My Brother Is an Only Child March 28, 2008 Then She Found Me April 25, 2008 The Tracey Fragments May 9, 2008 Noise Stuck May 30, 2008 Encounters at the End of the World June 11, 2008 Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired July 11, 2008 Young People Fucking August 29, 2008 Good December 31, 2008 Incendiary February 6, 2009 Phoebe in Wonderland March 6, 2009 Five Dollars a Day April 24, 2009
|
||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
3
| 31
|
https://www.marchedufilm.com/schedule/
|
en
|
Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] |
2019-10-03T16:42:44+00:00
|
Choose which schedule you’d like to consult OR take a look at the FULL Marché du Film 2024 schedule right below! 👉 HOT TIP! Use the filtering option to
|
en
|
Marché du Film
|
https://www.marchedufilm.com/schedule/
|
Choose which schedule you’d like to consult OR take a look at the FULL Marché du Film 2024 schedule right below!
👉HOT TIP! Use the filtering option to see events according to your interests.
🕑 Please note that the dates and times displayed are based on the time zone of your device.
|
|||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
3
| 89
|
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/where-the-real-power-lies/article18173024/
|
en
|
Where the real power lies
|
[
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Grant Robertson",
"Gayle MacDonald"
] |
2006-09-09T04:00:00+00:00
|
Celebrities may wow the crowds and rule the red carpets, but as GRANT ROBERTSON and GAYLE MacDONALD report, it's a half-dozen movie distributors who are the festival's real players. Working behind closed doors and into the wee hours, they're breaking hearts and making careers
|
en
|
The Globe and Mail
|
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/where-the-real-power-lies/article18173024/
|
Jeff Sackman tosses The Book on his desk and it lands with a thud.
The Book is nothing to look at -- a two-inch stack of photocopied pages held together by a plastic coil -- but the head of Toronto-based movie distributor ThinkFilm brandishes it like a preacher does a Bible. And with good reason: Over the next week or so, Sackman and his company will be putting a lot of faith in The Book.
It is a compilation of every movie that has arrived at this year's Toronto International Film Festival without a distributor. As the glitzy fest got under way and red carpets were unfurled in downtown Toronto, ThinkFilm's buyers packed themselves into a windowless conference room, cramming through the pages to determine what they will see, and what they may bid on.
It's a scene playing out in offices and hotel rooms all over town.
"We cull it down to an A-list, a B-list and a C-list, in order of what we believe are the most desirable," Sackman says. "Presumably everybody's doing the same."
Down the hall from Sackman's office, the debate is in full swing. Voices are raised, arguments are won and lost, and the stakes are high. Behind the parade of Hollywood stars that will grace the city in the coming days -- from Brad Pitt to Russell Crowe and Reese Witherspoon -- film distributors are the unseen power brokers who drive the festival machine. At once they can make or break a movie, or have their own fortunes lifted or dashed depending on what they buy.
The distributors are the delivery system of the industry, buying the films they think will make money, and getting them into theatres around the world.
ThinkFilm, one of dozens of players back in the buying game this year, has scored financial hits in the past with documentaries such as Spellbound and The Aristocrats, but has seen other sure-shot titles choke in theatres, making the job of its buyers that much tougher.
"We're dealing in a subjective medium," Sackman explains.
"People say this film is good or that film is bad," Sackman said. "Let's simplify the definition of a good film: It's good when it's profitable. Subjectivity we can leave for the film classes."
Sackman is a shrewd, seasoned distributor, but he and his independent outfit, with offices in Toronto and New York, are admittedly small potatoes compared with the cast of industry heavyweights that have descended on Toronto this week.
The notables include Harvey Weinstein, the bombastic former head of Miramax, who left to start his own distributor; Fox Searchlight's Peter Rice; Focus Features' James Schamus; the Sony Classics duo of Michael Barker and Tom Bernard; and Jon Feltheimer of Lions Gate, the distributor that straddles Vancouver and Los Angeles. Also on the list are New Line's Michael Lynne; Picturehouse's Bob Berney; and newcomer Paramount Vantage, headed by president John Lesher.
Sackman chuckles at the star power some distributors bring to the industry event. "Harvey Weinstein is a celebrity," he says. "Jeff Sackman is not a celebrity."
To insiders, those half-dozen power players are the real show this week. The elite have swooped into town with large entourages in tow that will spend upwards of 12 hours a day screening movies, deciding which ones to go after. The wheeling and dealing in Toronto has a reputation for being less formal than at Cannes and even Sundance. But the talks are no less onerous, held behind hotel-room doors, in bars and fine restaurants, and often lasting into the wee hours.
"Negotiations up here can be relaxed and casual, but they can also be incredibly intense," says Jared Moshé, a partner at New York-based Sidetrack Films, which is bringing the much-anticipated autobiographical documentary, Kurt Cobain: About a Son, to Toronto to find a distributor. "The strategy involves targeting the buyers who you know will respond to the film."
There is a pecking order among distributors that is not unlike that of the stars themselves. Bigger trailers are substituted for private screenings and priority access.
Weinstein's new company is being treated in deal-making circles not unlike the triumphal return of a big-name actor. Weinstein was at the peak of his power as head of Miramax, which he co-founded with brother Bob Weinstein in 1979. But the pair left Disney-owned Miramax in 2005 and are now trying to rebuild their empire as the almighty distributor. He has already locked up several titles that are garnering a lot of buzz, including Emilio Estevez's political film, Bobby, about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, about the controversy surrounding the band's criticism of the Bush presidency.
Tempestuous and ruthless, the Weinsteins are among the most savvy distributors and producers. It wasn't long after starting the new company that the pair scored with TransAmerica, a fringe movie that soon became a mainstream name at the Oscars. As one Toronto producer puts it, Harvey Weinstein is a "force of nature . . . when he decides to throw himself behind a picture, there's no one better."
In the otherwise posh world of the festival, Weinstein once walked into a Toronto screening with two assistants toting two-litre Coke bottles for their boss's movie-viewing tastes. "Harvey is what he is, and he's unique in that," said the Toronto producer.
But the landscape is shifting.
Rice (Fox Searchlight), Schamus (Focus), and Feltheimer (Lions Gate) all come to town with wallets as big as (or bigger than) Weinstein's. All will likely be in the room, or on the phone, should a bidding war break out.
Feltheimer holds buying sway at any festival, but his clout has magnified in recent months after Lions Gate rode Crash to best film at the Oscars this year. Movie fans may not have noticed, but when director / writer Paul Haggis, a native of London, Ont., and producer Cathy Schulman took to the podium to accept the honour, Feltheimer was the first individual thanked. Distributor first -- then husbands, wives and families.
Among the movies seeking distributors in Toronto that have the most buzz are Jennifer Lopez's and hubby Marc Anthony's new film El Cantante, and The Hottest State from Mark Webber and Ethan Hawke. Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nigh ts -- Hollywood to the Heartland is also drawing attention.
Weinstein has already grabbed the worldwide rights to Michael Moore's next doc, on health care and called Sicko, (his company financed it), which has drawn considerable buzz.
Smaller players like ThinkFilm sit those ones out.
"It's pretty obvious when there's an English-language, star-driven film, that's going to be of interest to all the players," Sackman says. "Sometimes it's best for us to wait until after the festival is over and see what's around."
Not surprisingly, the distributors are given preferred access to the dozens of daily showings around town. In certain cases, private screenings are arranged.
But status doesn't mean seats are guaranteed. Last year, Sackman had to smooth-talk his way past a long lineup of moviegoers when he was late for a film the company was interested in seeing. But the efforts proved all for naught. Another lesson of festival buying: You never know what the movie is like until you sit in the theatre. "We ended up walking out after 45 minutes," Sackman recalls.
In cases where films have already shown at other festivals, scouts are often sent to prescreen the movie in New York, Los Angeles or London. Most likely the script has already been read as well.
"If they like a film, they set about doing a deal instantaneously," says one distributor. "A sales agent is usually waiting right outside the theatre. Everybody knows where the seller is."
Then a game of cat and mouse ensues. "The trick is to try to monopolize the agent, lock the hotel-room door, and don't let anyone else in," says one distributor. There are no handshake agreements, but a napkin deal does pass muster.
"It's cutthroat," the distributor says. "They make sure whatever is written on that napkin can be turned into a long-form agreement. They negotiate everything from [prints and advertising]to reps and warranties, insurance, clearances, and what cast members will be available for publicity."
Last year, the highly touted Thank You for Smoking drew two bidders, both of whom thought they'd acquired the film. The double deal, which eventually went to Fox Searchlight, has gone down in film-fest lore as an example of the no-holds-barred bargaining that can happen.
"It's a real war. One team is in one room. One in another. And the sales agent hops back and forth," says the distributor. "It's madness."
While Weinstein is on the comeback trail, Feltheimer is still riding high from the Oscars, and Rice and Schamus bring fat wallets to the table, several distributors have come to the festival with storm clouds overhead. Alliance Atlantis has been embroiled in a messy legal standoff with the former head of its film-distribution arm, Victor Loewy.
An Ontario court placed a temporary injunction on Loewy two weeks ago, preventing him from competing with Alliance Atlantis in the distribution game until an arbitrator decides whether he quit or was fired in the wake of a boardroom argument in July. Loewy is known in the industry for his connections and deal-making skills, but the court injunction leaves him on a tight leash in Toronto.
Sackman, meanwhile, had a falling out with fellow ThinkFilm stakeholder Robert Lantos, of Serendipity Point Films. Sackman is rumoured to be looking for someone to buy the company, and is said to be courting U.S. investor David Bergstein. In a subsequent conversation, Sackman would not comment on the potential sale.
An unexpected gust of uncertainty has also blown through mid-sized player Paramount Vantage, which is making its first appearance in Toronto after the Hollywood giant revamped its distribution operations. However, the sudden firing this week of Tom Freston, who was CEO of parent company Viacom, has sparked talk in Hollywood of a more extensive upheaval at Paramount. Although that's unlikely to disrupt negotiations, it's a topic the company will likely have to address with film companies.
Back at ThinkFilm's offices, the five-year-old company -- started by former Lions Gate executives, including Sackman -- isn't worried about being overtaken by the money thrown around this year in Toronto. Last year, the festival saw a record $30-million (U.S.) worth of deals. One of the most sought-after films at last year's fest was the romantic comedy Trust the Man, starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore. In theatres now, it has so far disappointed at the box office.
"There's virtually no correlation between what one pays for a film and what the film ultimately does," Sackman says. "If your film outgrosses, it doesn't matter that they are Fox or Paramount or Warner Bros. The public decides." That may be, but in the meantime, it's a handful of powerful distributors who decide what the public will decide on.
|
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|
dbpedia
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3
| 5
|
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/05/business/010613-the-children-of-thinkfilm.html
|
en
|
The Children of ThinkFilm
|
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[
"ThinkFilm",
"BORN INTO BROTHELS (MOVIE)",
"Half Nelson (Movie)",
"Movies"
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[
"The New York Times"
] |
2014-01-05T00:00:00
|
ThinkFilm was founded in 2001 as an independent art-house distributor by several former executives at Lionsgate. The company became known for award-winning films like “Born Into Brothels” and “Half Nelson.” After the company closed in 2008, many former ThinkFilm employees went on to lead new film businesses.
|
en
|
https://static01.nyt.com/favicon.ico
|
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/05/business/010613-the-children-of-thinkfilm.html
| ||||||
4383
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dbpedia
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1
| 69
|
http://www.moxiecinema.com/films/a-fistful-of-dollars-1964
|
en
|
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
|
http://www.moxiecinema.com/uploads/films/_cover/dollars_poster.jpg
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[] | null |
en
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/img/favicon.png
|
Moxie Cinema
|
http://www.moxiecinema.com/films/a-fistful-of-dollars-1964
|
Essential Western Films This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements. Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free! By the time Sergio Leone made this film, Italians had already produced about 20 films ironically labelled "spaghetti westerns." Leone approached the genre with great love and humor. Although the plot was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), Leone managed to create a work of his own that would serve as a model for many films to come. Clint Eastwood plays a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town and offers his services to two rivaling gangs. Neither gang is aware of his double play, and each thinks it is using him, but the stranger will outwit them both. The picture was the first installment in a cycle commonly known as the "Dollars" trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the U.S., coined another term for it: the "Man With No Name" trilogy. While not as impressive as its follow-ups For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), A Fistful of Dollars contains all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Not released in the U.S. until 1967 due to copyright problems, the film was decisive in both Clint Eastwood's career and the recognition of the Italian western. ~ Yuri German, Rovi Summary: A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.
Watch Trailer
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4383
|
dbpedia
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3
| 27
|
https://playbill.com/article/john-cameron-mitchells-sex-filled-film-finds-distributor-com-133215
|
en
|
John Cameron Mitchell's Sex-Filled Film Finds Distributor
|
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2006-06-15T12:05:00-04:00
|
John Cameron Mitchell's new film, "Shortbus," will be released in the fall by ThinkFilm.
|
en
|
Playbill
|
https://playbill.com/article/john-cameron-mitchells-sex-filled-film-finds-distributor-com-133215
|
The Hollywood Reporter says that ThinkFilm has obtained the North American rights to Mitchell's comedy-drama, which features actors engaging in actual sex on screen. "Shortbus," according to the industry paper, is largely improvised and "explores the lives of seven straight and gay New Yorkers seeking an emotional connection with one another."
ThinkFilm's Mark Urman, who heads the indie company's theatrical division, told the Hollywood Reporter, "We [at ThinkFilm] all saw it together, and were unanimous about it. It's quite groundbreaking, and we were all impressed with how natural and normal and comedic the extreme sex became without being offensive."
Because of the movie's explicit nature, marketing of the film may be a challenge, but Urman said, "Maybe we won't take TV ads. . . [but] there'll be enormous pre-awareness, and once you let the cat out of the bag, that cat should be allowed to prowl."
"Shortbus" was written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The cast features Raphael Barker, Lindsay Beamish, Justin Bond, Jay Brannan, Paul Dawson, PJ DeBoy, Sook-Yin Lee, Yolonda Ross, Daniela Sea, Rachael C. Smith and Peter Stickles.
|
|||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 45
|
https://festival.idfa.nl/en/film/60a5d7fe-fac0-4afe-b448-9def581bdbbe/the-border-crossed-us/
|
en
|
The Border Crossed Us (2023)
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While a big white surveillance blimp constantly hovers over the small border town of La Joya, Texas, local police officers patrol the neighborhood
looking for human smugglers. The region is littered with traces of
people who have attempted to get into the US by crossing the Rio
Grande. But rather than arresting the immigrants, the officers are
gathering intelligence on the smugglers and smuggling bosses tied to
Mexican cartels. With a visual style that alternates between intimate verité moments, meditative reflection and suspenseful sequences, the film tells the
story of Chief Ramon Gonzalez, detective Manuel Casas and officer Mayra
Garza, as they navigate the complexities of their existence on the
border. As irony would have it, the area they are patrolling was once
Mexican national territory.Slowly the mutual dependence between police and smuggler reveals a system stuck in a never-ending cycle, with the immigrant dangerously caught in between. Meanwhile, the human cost of border enforcement starts taking a personal toll on the protagonists.
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
IDFA
|
https://www.idfa.nl/
|
While a big white surveillance blimp constantly hovers over the small border town of La Joya, Texas, local police officers patrol the neighborhood looking for human smugglers. The region is littered with traces of people who have attempted to get into the US by crossing the Rio Grande. But rather than arresting the immigrants, the officers are gathering intelligence on the smugglers and smuggling bosses tied to Mexican cartels.
With a visual style that alternates between intimate verité moments, meditative reflection and suspenseful sequences, the film tells the story of Chief Ramon Gonzalez, detective Manuel Casas and officer Mayra Garza, as they navigate the complexities of their existence on the border. As irony would have it, the area they are patrolling was once Mexican national territory.
Slowly the mutual dependence between police and smuggler reveals a system stuck in a never-ending cycle, with the immigrant dangerously caught in between. Meanwhile, the human cost of border enforcement starts taking a personal toll on the protagonists.
|
||||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 12
|
https://netflix.fandom.com/wiki/Bordertown
|
en
|
Bordertown
|
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/netflix/images/0/0d/Bordertown.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200811063511
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https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/netflix/images/0/0d/Bordertown.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200811063511
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"Contributors to Netflix Wiki"
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Bordertown (Finnish: Sorjonen) is a Finnish crime drama series created and co-directed by Miikko Oikkonen and starring Ville Virtanen as Detective Inspector Kari Sorjonen. It premiered in Finland on October 16, 2016, on Yle TV1 then it was internationally distributed by Netflix later on. This...
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https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/netflix/images/4/4a/Site-favicon.ico/revision/latest?cb=20210617054825
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Netflix Wiki
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https://netflix.fandom.com/wiki/Bordertown
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Bordertown (Finnish: Sorjonen) is a Finnish crime drama series created and co-directed by Miikko Oikkonen and starring Ville Virtanen as Detective Inspector Kari Sorjonen. It premiered in Finland on October 16, 2016, on Yle TV1 then it was internationally distributed by Netflix later on. This series ended with the last episode on February 2, 2020.
All three seasons will leave Netflix globally in May 2023.
Summary[]
Cast and Characters[]
Ville Virtanen as Detective Inspector Kari Sorjonen
Matleena Kuusniemi as Pauliina Sorjonen
Anu Sinisalo as Detective Constable Lena Jaakkola
Lenita Susi as Katia Jaakkola
Kristiina Halttu as Detective Superintendent Taina Perttula
Olivia Ainali as Janina Sorjonen
Ilkka Villi as Detective Constable Niko Uusitalo
Episodes[]
Awards[]
This series has received three wins.
Gallery[]
Promotional Videos[]
Promotional Images[]
See More[]
on Netflix
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Team – Quiver Distribution
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https://www.quiverdistribution.com/about/team/
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Berry Meyerowitz is the co-founder of Quiver Distribution, a film distribution company operating in the U.S., Canada and international markets which develops and distributes high-quality, talent-driven films with a focus on curating a highly selective film slate from both established and emerging talent.
Meyerowitz has Executive Produced over 30 feature films including: Jungle with Daniel Radcliffe; Chick Fight with Alec Baldwin; and Becky starring Kevin James.
Before launching Quiver with partner Jeff Sackman, Meyerowitz founded Phase 4 Films, where he served as President & CEO and transformed the company into one of the leading independent distributors in the U.S. Following the sale of Phase 4 Films to eOne, Meyerowitz stayed on as President of eOne’s U.S. Film Business and launched its global digital initiative, continuing to double the company’s revenues.
Meyerowitz also served as President of Peace Arch Home Entertainment after selling them his previous company, kaBOOM! Entertainment. He formerly worked at 20th Century Fox as the Director of Marketing where he led successful campaigns for films such as There’s Something About Mary, The Full Monty and The Star Wars trilogy.
Jeff Sackman is the co-founder of Quiver Distribution, a film distribution company operating in the U.S., Canada and international markets which develops and distributes high-quality, talent-driven films with a focus on curating a highly selective film slate from both established and emerging talent.
An entertainment industry veteran, Sackman has produced and executive produced over 75 films including: Lionsgate’s American Psycho with Christian Bale and Buffalo 66 starring Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci and Mickey Rourke; The Grand Seduction starring Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch; IFC Films’ Wrecked starring Adrien Brody; MTV Films’ Academy AwardⓇ nominated Murderball; Becky starring Kevin James; and Chick Fight with Alec Baldwin.
Prior to launching Quiver with partner Berry Meyerowitz, Sackman was a founder and currently serves as Chairman of Hollywood Suite, a television business comprising four exclusive HDTV channels featuring iconic movies that defined the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. He founded and acted as President & CEO of the indie distributor ThinkFilm, which after only five years grew into a powerhouse, clocking numerous Academy AwardⓇ nominations for the company’s impressive slate.
Sackman previously served as the first president of Lionsgate Films, where he successfully led the distributor into the highly competitive U.S. market, a first for a Canadian based entity.
Sean Monson is a co-founder of Quiver Distribution, a film distribution company operating in the U.S., Canada and international markets which develops and distributes high-quality, talent-driven films with a focus on curating a highly selective film slate from both established and emerging talent.
Prior to Quiver, Sean was the Executive Vice President, Finance and Operations of eOne’s U.S. film business which focused on distributing films and television series in the U.S. and around the world. Working alongside Berry Meyerowitz, Sean oversaw all aspects of finance and business operations.
Prior to eOne, Sean was a co-founder of Phase 4 Films where he was Executive Vice President, Finance and Operations. Before Phase 4, Sean was Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations at Peace Arch Home Entertainment.
With over 20 years of experience in the film industry, Sean has played a lead role in managing the banking, cash flow, and M&A activity through numerous years of significant growth at Phase 4 Films, eOne and now Quiver.
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https://topsheet.io/blog/complete-guide-to-film-distribution
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The Complete Guide to Film Distribution
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A film distribution company is responsible for the marketing and distribution of your films to the general public. Films can be distributed through theatrical, video on demand (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.), DVD, and new media.
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favicon.ico
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https://topsheet.io/blog/complete-guide-to-film-distribution
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A film distribution company is responsible for the marketing and distribution of your films to the general public. Films can be distributed through theatrical, video on demand (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.), DVD, and new media.
When looking into distribution options for your films, research the cautionary tales of filmmakers who have gone before you. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for indie filmmakers to get taken for fools and end up getting ripped off.
We're going to talk about what you need to look out for when getting ready to sign an agreement with a distribution company and how to best protect yourself and your product.
What Are Ancillary Rights?
It used to be that films would just show up in a theater, stay for a while, and then disappear. It's hard to imagine a film not advertised. No posters. No T-shirts. No billboards. No trailers. How do you even know if you want to go see it?! Is it worth the...well, pennies back then?
Ancillary rights are supplementary or subordinate rights arising from a primary reason.
In entertainment, this is a contractual agreement in which a percentage of the profits are received and derived from the sale of posters, T-shirts, action figures, books, DVDs, etc. relating to the film.
This deal is made between the distribution company and the filmmaker. GET A LAWYER- one who regularly works on cases involving the entertainment industry. Just like the film insurance agent you hire must know the industry and the specific needs filmmaking requires, so does your lawyer.
Ensure your budget for a lawyer as part of your distribution costs as ancillary rights are just one of the areas filmmakers start to lose their profits.
A quick Google search of "Entertainment Lawyers" will provide you with a list of lawyers.
Or contact other filmmakers you know or have worked with in the past to see which lawyers they have hired and get their personal recommendations.
Plan Distribution Early
If you are looking for investment for your film, chances are, you won't even get an investor until you have your distribution plan figured out.
Investors want to know how you are going to make them money. Is their money safe with you? The film industry is a very high risk for investors, so make your plan is foolproof.
Another reason why you should plan distribution early is to make sure you have it in the budget. Distribution is EXPENSIVE, especially if you are headed for theaters. Your marketing budget will, at a minimum, have to match your film's production budget up to $35M.
If your film hits theaters, at best, you will only walk away with 35% of each ticket. If you sold $100M worth of tickets, your distributor would only see $65M of that amount, at best. And if you had a $33M production budget with a $33M P&A budget, you just broke even… barley.
Different Types of Distribution
There are two types of distribution: leasing and profit-sharing.
Leasing, the distributor agrees to pay a fixed amount for the rights to distribute the film.
Profit-sharing, the distributor gets a percentage of the profits made from the film. This percentage is usually between 10-50%. (Never go for the 50/50 split. You won't make any money.)
Either option has it's pros and cons and depends mostly on how well your film does at the box office. It's the job of the distribution company and the studio to decide which option will benefit them the most.
How to Get Distribution
Several factors can lock in your likelihood of getting distribution:
Big named talent: Have you ever gone to see a movie just because an actor you like was in it? What about your favorite directors or producers? People are funny about entertainment. They want the guarantee that they'll enjoy themselves. We have all been conditioned to believe that certain actors and directors and producers will always put out exceptional content. We believe that, because this was produced by the Russo Brothers or because Chris Hemsworth is in it, it will be good. It's like each person who goes to see your film is a mini investor, "Is this film worth spending $15 and two hours of my time?" Big-name talent sells films because people trust them with their money.
Season: The time of year is a huge factor in whether or not your film will be distributed. Horror films generally do better in the autumn than they do in the spring. And Christmas movies do better in the winter than they do in the summer.
Major studio backing: People trust the quality of major studios.
Story quality: Poor story quality can really ruin your run. You may have some of the other elements to draw your audience to the theater or convince them to download your film, but if the story flops, the people who watch it, won't be telling their friends to go see- or worse, will tell their friends not to view it. Word of mouth and peer pressure are significant factors in a film's success. Don't believe me? Take a look at Napoleon Dynamite! Word of mouth drove the film's success, Fox Searchlight knew that it would be and totally leaned into it with their marketing strategy.
Target audience: What is the age range and demographic that this film targets? Where do they watch their movies? What types of films are they interested in? Is that current demographic over-saturated with cinema?
Social Media: Are people talking about the film? Do the cast members have a high number of followers on their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. accounts? Are people searching YouTube for behind the scenes footage and interviews? Are people in forums discussing the possible plot lines? How many people are engaged or could quickly become engaged online? The level of social media presence is an indicator of the film's success.
If you can hit all of these areas, you're likely to find distribution. But if you can't get the big names involved or major studio backing, you can still find success by getting the right season, the right target audience, a high-quality story, and boosting your social media presence and involvement.
If your film is set up at a major studio, chances are, distribution is already guaranteed through their partners. But if you are making an independent film and want feature film distribution, you have several options.
Film Festivals
There's a reason why film festivals are located all around the country and world. It's not just for fun or showing people your talent. It's often for the chance that a distribution company will pick your film (or a couple companies and end up with a bidding war).
Different film festivals have different categories of film. Some focus only on short films, others are primarily horror. Search for festivals near your area that fit your film best.
What films is your film similar to? Which festivals did they find their success? What did they do well? What could they have done better? What was their marketing strategy while they were at the festival?
There is a delicate line between familiar and new that the filmmaker needs to walk to get the desired distribution.
Film Freeway is a helpful tool to get you submitted into film festivals like Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance, Miami Film Festival, The Animator Showcase, and so much more.
As you are looking into the festival circuit, you can filter by genre, entry fees, film festivals, screenwriting contests, music contests, and others. Be sure to note when the submission deadlines are so you don't miss it.
Distribution Screenings
In order to really pull off this option, you need to be well connected to film distributors and/or have a very talented sales agent who can sway the right people to appear at the private screening.
Sales Agents
The job of the sales agent is to connect your project to the right distributor… for a fee. A good sales agent should have good connections and a reputation for making sales.
Filmhub
Filmhub is an exciting option for the independent filmmaker. Simply submit your film for free, streaming channels will discover, order, and stream your work worldwide while keeping a whopping 80%. They work with many different streaming services like Fandango, Amazon Prime, Dove Channel, and dozens of others.
With Filmhub, you'll have to do a lot of the leg-work to market your film yourself or hire a separate marketing firm, but it may be worth it for you.
Self Distribute
You can put your feature film on Vimeo or YouTube. Or you can get your movie on VOD platforms like Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, and other digital platforms. Another option is to make and sell DVDs or Blu-Rays.
You could also hire a theatrical film booker and do a limited theatrical release in select theaters. Napoleon Dynamite started with a limited release in a handful of theaters and slowly grew into more and more movie theaters until it was nationwide.
If you have an excellent product, sometimes you just need to be adamant about getting it in front of people. With so much content creation and so many platforms, it's too easy to get lost in the shuffle.
Whatever you can do to get your film viewed, creating champions along the way, get it done. Film marketing can be difficult, but it can also be enjoyable.
Getting Into Theaters
Let's be honest, that's every filmmaker's dream, right? Get your film released in theaters, have your film watched by millions on the big screen, be the film that gets applauded, and win all the awards.
Ah, yes, a dream indeed. An expensive dream. And not usually very lucrative for the independent filmmaker. But it may still be worth it because of all the critical notices it can receive from newspapers, magazines, and online reviews.
Let's say you get into Sundance Film Festival and land a distribution company (Woohoo! Go you!), and they want to get your film into movie theaters.
Each theater needs its own print of your film. Each print costs between $1,500 and $2,000 to make.
There are 37,000 theaters in the United States.
The distribution company needs to decide how many theaters and which locations would be the best fit for your film.
They will need to look at the demographics and population of each area...what are the odds that they'll fill the seats enough to offset the high cost of the prints alone?
Not to mention all the "marketing" that they (may or may not) have done.
Most movie theaters use buyers to represent them when negotiating a film with the distribution companies.
Apparently, this can be very "political" in that the buyers will often accept a movie they aren't particularly interested in in order to get a film that they really want coming down the pipes.
All the while, maintaining the delicate balance of having good relationships across the board so everyone can get what they need.
Each theater competes with every other theater in their area to try to get the best movies at the best prices, and the distribution companies need to ensure all of the theaters will all continue working with them.
Once a buyer is interested in a movie, the lease terms are discussed. There are two ways for a movie theater to lease a movie:
Bidding: Bidding is when the theater pays a fixed amount for the right to show the film. For example, the theater could bid $100,000 for a four-week long commitment to a film. If the film brings in more than that $100,000, the theater makes a profit. If they bring in less, the theater has a loss. Bidding isn't commonplace with most distribution companies anymore.
Percentage: With a percentage deal, the distributor and the movie theater negotiate several aspects.
The House Allowance - the weekly box office that theoretically allows a theatre to break-even.
The percentage split for the net box office. (What the box office is left with after the deduction of the house allowance).
The percentage for the gross box office is set.
The length of engagement (usually 4-6 weeks).
The agreement gives the distributor a greater percentage between the net or gross box office, and the distributor ends up making the majority of the money. To make up for the deficit, theaters charge outrageous amounts of money for concessions.
The theaters get paid by ticket percentages and concessions. The distributors get paid by percentages of sales. How do you get paid?
Technically, you'd get a percentage as well. How much of a percentage depends on how good of a lawyer you have, really. Distribution companies are mostly looking out for their bottom line. They are not looking out for you.
From their portion of sales, film distributors will deduct all the costs associated with the film's release. It's common for them to write in a "cross-collateralization clause," which means they can offset theatrical losses against profits from other windows.
Cross-collateralization can occur when the distributor is licensing the producer's work in a package along with a number of other works.
In these situations, the costs and advances for all the works in the package are offset against the revenues from any of the works, including the producer's work.
The producer will want to include language that specifies that the revenues attributed to the producer's work will not be subject to the costs and obligations of other titles in the package (i.e., the producer's work will not be cross-collateralized with other works in a package).
Cross-collateralization is a concern where the producer's work may be sold in a package to support the sale of weaker titles.
The second way in which cross-collateralization can be applied is by crossing the expenses from one market in which the producer's work is distributed against revenues attributed to other markets.
If the producer has the bargaining power, the producer may be able to get each market and territory separately to avoid cross-collateralization among markets and territories. Filmmaker Magazine
What to Watch Out For
We've already established that a majority of independent distribution companies don't have your best interest in mind, and we have all heard the unfortunate horror stories of the filmmakers who got swindled. So, how do you protect yourself and your product and make a fat wad of cash and get the name recognition that you've always wanted?
Hire a lawyer. Seriously, your best bet is to budget in the cost of a really good entertainment lawyer.
Recommend and push for an itemized list of the ways they intend on marketing your indie film (how, when, where, cost of each thing). Make sure you get the exact numbers! Distribution companies will try to hide profits from you. When your film starts making money, and without that itemized list, your distributor might claim that they need to recoup some of their marketing expenses out of the cash that should go to you.
Negotiate a shorter term length. Right now, the average term length for most distributors is 10-15 years. That's 10-15 years where you have no rights to your film. The product that you put all of your blood, sweat, and tears into. What if the distribution company does a horrible job of getting your film out there? You have the option of negotiating a performance requirement in the contract. This provision requires the distribution company to generate specific sales levels within a certain time limit and gives you the right to terminate the contract. This can help ensure your distributor gets their butts in gear and doesn't sit on your film for years and gives you a second chance at getting your film to market within a reasonable time frame if they don't follow through.
The bigger the deal, the less control you have.
Cap film distribution expenses. If you negotiate split profits after expenses, all of your profit will disappear into their "marketing budget." Be sure to cap their expenses so they can't redistribute your money into their pockets.
Deliverables
Deliverables include things like the film, paperwork, documentation, legal documents, trailers, key art, raw film, etc. Distributors just want everything! I recommend keeping it all stored in files in the cloud where nothing bad can happen to it. Below is a detailed list of the things you should keep stored in your "Deliverables" folder, so it's easy to hand over whatever your distribution company requires.
Legal
Archival Clip Licenses
Cast and Crew Restrictions
Certificate of Authorship
Certificate of Origin
Chain of Title
Credit Items
E&O (Not all distributors ask for Errors and Omissions, but it's a good idea to include it to cover your butt- just in case).
Literary Materials
MPAA Documentation
Music
Other Agreements
Film/Audio
Feature film on HDCam or digital file
Original aspect ratio
Native frame rate
5.1 mix
Trailer
Additional versions: Clean output (without titles), DME separated
Key art/Poster art
300 dpi
separated art layers
Audio output:
Channel 1: 5.1 track: Left
Channel 2: 5.1 track: Right
Channel 3: 5.1 track: Center
Channel 4: 5.1 track: Lfe
Channel 5: 5.1 track: Left Surround
Channel 6: 5.1 track: Right Surround
Channels 7+8: Full Mix Stereo L&R
Channels 9+10: M&E Stereo L&R
Pre-Production Materials
Audition tapes, storyboards, script meetings, etc. that might make good DVD "extras" or promotional tools.
Talent agreements
Production
Behind the scenes footage
Still photography
Cast and film crew interviews
Editing
Narration
DME
Music
Outtakes/deleted scenes
Alternative Endings
Press Kit
Getting your film distributed can be a daunting task. This is why we highly, highly recommend getting a lawyer experienced in the film business world. Whether you're fresh out of film school or you're a seasoned indie filmmaker, there is always something more to learn, and it's best not to get duped in the process of creating distribution deals.
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https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/performing-the-border/
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Performing the Border
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https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/performing-the-border
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Ursula Biemann
Ursula Biemann is an artist, writer, and video essayist based in Zurich, Switzerland. Her artistic practice is strongly research oriented and involves fieldwork in remote locations where she investigates climate change and the ecologies of oil and water, as in her recent projects Acoustic Ocean (2018), Forest Law (2014), and Deep Weather (2013). Her earlier work focused on global relations under the impact of the accelerated mobility of people, resources and information, e.g. in the widely exhibited art and research project Sahara Chronicle on clandestine migration networks or her early video works examining the role of gender in the global reorganization of labor in Performing the Border. She is cofounder of World of Matter, an online collective art and media platform on resource geographies. Her video installations are exhibited worldwide in museums and at International Art Biennials in Liverpool, Sharjah, Shanghai, Sevilla, Istanbul, Montreal, Venice and Sao Paulo. She had comprehensive solo exhibitions at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and Helmhaus Zurich among others. Biemann received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and a honorary degree in humanities from the Swedish University in Umeå. (7/19)
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https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0292963/companycredits/
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Tödliche Entscheidung (2007)
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Tödliche Entscheidung (2007) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292963/companycredits/
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https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/new-line-to-distribute-thinkfilm-1429681/
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New Line To Distribute THINKFilm
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2004-08-30T04:00:00+00:00
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New Line Home Entertainment has entered into a multi-picture distribution deal with independent film company THINKFilm.
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Billboard
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https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/new-line-to-distribute-thinkfilm-1429681/
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New Line Home Entertainment has entered into a multi-picture distribution deal with independent film company THINKFilm.
New Line will have U.S. distribution rights to THINKFilm projects that include “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” “The Agronomist” and “Bright Young Things.”
The first title under the deal is “Festival Express,” a rockumentary detailing the 1970 Festival Express concert that featured the Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Janis Joplin, the Band and many others.
The two-disc DVD ($24.98) will be released Oct. 5. Extra features include 50 minutes of previously unseen footage, interviews with tour participants and a featurette on the making of the film.
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https://jeremy-dean.com/the-inependent
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THE INEPENDENT — JEREMY DEAN
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https://assets.squarespace.com/universal/default-favicon.ico
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https://assets.squarespace.com/universal/default-favicon.ico
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JEREMY DEAN
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https://jeremy-dean.com/the-inependent
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Distribution by Wal-Mart
By Nikki Chase
Jeremy Dean found a dusty VHS tape tucked away in the basement of a historical society and was captivated by its the black and white footage of the civil rights struggle. “As I sat alone watching Dr. King speaking to a packed church and the demonstrators fearlessly marching for freedom, it became a key that unlocked a mystery. This was my link from the present inequality that I saw to its roots in the Jim Crow era of the past.”
Dean took to the streets of St. Augustine and interviewed some its youngest, poorest residents. He anticipated a connection between their present-day struggles and the work of Dr. King, but didn’t find it until he started making the film. He hopes that the result will challenge audiences to consider how much America has changed since the days of Dr. King.
Dean credits this unique and relevant perspective on civil rights for landing him a distribution deal with THINKFilm, and then Indican Pictures, which eventually led to a DVD deal with Wal-Mart. The November release of the DVD put Dare Not Walk Alone on the short list of documentaries to ever be carried by the corporation.
Dean shares with The Independent how his choices as a filmmaker led to the distribution deal with Wal-Mart and what he hopes will be a successful DVD release.
How has your experience as a filmmaker differed from other filmmakers who sought the same sort of success but, perhaps, fell short?
I’m not sure if I am all that different, I think everyone is trying to make the best film they can. I was very conscious, though, to make a film that offered a new perspective told in unconventional way. Films about the Civil Rights Movement have become a genre unto themselves and, in my opinion, follow the same script, so I wanted to make something that went in a new direction and spoke to the reality of race 40 years after the movement. This is what makes Dare Not Walk Alone different from any other civil rights film because it is rooted in the present. We have taken two worlds that seem totally disconnected and juxtaposed them to find connections from our history to problems we still face.
This approach felt natural to me because my background is in visual art, where connections are made by combining unrelated things, shifting scale, color, composition, forcing relationships, until a new reality or awareness is created. By combining kids living in ghettos dreaming hip-hop dreams with the hopes and bloodshed of the movement and its aftermath, we have taken two worlds and created a relationship that is not immediately obvious, but in the end leads to a new understanding. Some people love this aspect of the film, others hate it, but no one is ambivalent about it. The film usually gets a strong reaction and starts a dialogue. And that was my hope.
I did not want to just play it safe and do a historical piece, I wanted to take a chance and make something that would challenge our notion of how far we have come. But the truth is that this message has resonated with audiences across the country because they see elements of their community mirrored in the streets of St. Augustine. I think it was that conscious decision to take a risk and try a new approach that separated this film from many others and ultimately got the attention of distribution channels.
Why do you think Dare Not Walk Alone was picked up by Wal-Mart when they have passed on so many other documentaries?
A lot of that credit has to go to Indican Pictures, they did the deal with Wal-Mart, but I think that now more than ever people are ready to talk about race and class in a meaningful way. I had hoped that Katrina and the government’s botched response would have started the conversation but I think Obama’s election really has made the difference. In part because we have a positive framework to begin the discussion as opposed to the usual conversation starters that have more to do with some horrific incident that rightfully enrages African Americans and puts whites on the defensive. I think now we can start the conversation on more of an even playing field. So I think the climate is right for DNWA even though in many ways it is challenging to black and white America alike and does not let either off the hook for where we are today.
But, a film like yours can still launch critical dialogue about race?
Though I am extremely happy to see the election of an African American president in my lifetime, it does not mean that we have finally achieved total equality across the board on issues of race and class in this county. That is where DNWA is so important, because it shows that though we have come a long way, we still have a long way to go, especially as it relates to poverty stricken disenfranchised black communities. As Errol Jones says in the film, “There is poison in the soil, and you have to dig it up, turn it over, expose it to the light, so that we can build community on top of it.” Dare Not Walk Alone is about exposing what has been long forgotten, buried and marginalized so that we can build the beloved community that Dr. King always envisioned.
You’ve mentioned before that being picked up by Wal-Mart was “the beginning of a personal moral dilemma.” Can you elaborate on that?
Like every other filmmaker I want my film to get out the widest audience possible, so in that respect the Wal-Mart deal is good, but on the other hand I hate to feel like I am benefiting from corporate America that has a strangle hold on this country contributing to outsourcing, greed and the homogenization of America. To quote [folk singer] Greg Brown, “Soon there will be one corporation selling one little box and it will do whatever you want but cost whatever you got.” So it’s a weird position to be in, we need to sell DVDs to pay back all the money we owe for creating the film. For me I guess it’s just more getting used to the idea that this is how the world works, but I am encouraged to see Wal-Mart’s commitment to the King monument in Washington and some of their other initiatives.
How has your career changed since your distribution deal with THINKFilm and then, following their buy-out, Indican Pictures?
In short, very little. This is my first feature so I am still figuring my way through the maze of the industry. But it’s not like as soon as you sign a distribution deal that all your problems are solved and the work is done, in fact it means that now you have more people to deal with and you have to fight to keep the film on the mind of the distributor, and hold them accountable to what you agreed on. THINKFilm opened a lot of doors by getting the film out there in a bigger way but before we could really move forward they (with no warning) were bought by Capitol Films and now owe us money that they refuse to pay because no one at Capitol can figure out the records. So we went on to distribution with Indican Pictures who released it theatrically and is now putting out the DVD. So in a lot of ways as an independent filmmaker you are really never done with your project, the style of work just changes.
What advice can you give other documentarians who are hoping to find the same kind of success for their films?
First I think you have to define what success looks like for yourself. For me it was the process of working on the film and the personal connections I made with those who shared their lives with me. In my opinion the biggest success was convincing a white church to apologize to four African American women who, as young civil rights demonstrators in 1964, were barred from worshiping there, spit on, called all kinds of names and arrested. It is a very moving moment in the film when those ladies come back 40 years later to that same church and enter it for the first time as honored guests to receive a heartfelt apology from the congregation. I don’t think there could be anything better than that. So I think you have to get validation from the work itself and one’s own success is really measured by how well you do with the story at hand and with the resources available. Gaining success in the industry is far more elusive and before anyone reading this gets the wrong idea, I must tell you that I still wait tables to stay alive long enough to keep working on films. True independent films are made by real people who work hard, sometimes against incredible odds, to figure out ways of telling stories. So I guess my advice is to be tenacious and keep working. Make films that say something in a fresh way and once you have done that, don’t give up on it. It took over three years to make Dare Not Walk Alone in a process that stretched me beyond anything I thought I could handle, but we finished it. Then I found out that was just the beginning, getting the attention of distributors and on to theaters and DVD took another three years. In that time there was a lot of room for doubt, but we stuck with it and with hard work and a bit of grace, got it out to the world.
What role did you play, as a filmmaker, in successfully marketing your film?
I think the strength of the film’s marketing is really the film itself because it is very unconventional for its genre, so I think it was new and different enough to catch the attention of people. That being said we did put a lot of time into the art and packaging of the film for its initial release to festivals and distributors. My background in art means that visual images are very important to me and I worked with a very talented graphic designer named Jimmy Reeves who came up with great branding for the film. We used these clear jewel cases that allow you to put something in the spine and I decided to play off the idea of an American flag that Jimmy used for a lot of background imagery. So I soaked real flags in coffee and cut them in strips, frayed the edges and put them in the spine of all the DVD’s we were sending out, I probably did over 100 of them. When I was at Cinequest for our premiere I asked what made them select our film and one of the reviewers said the packaging initially sparked his interest and made him want to watch the film. So every bit helps. Beyond that we just did a lot of old fashioned email and phone calls. A lot of the credit goes to one of the film’s producers Stephen Cobb who is a computer and Internet genius, he really kept the film alive on the web.
What other projects do you have in the works, and do you hope they will follow the same path of distribution as Dare Not Walk Alone?
As with every other filmmaker, I have several projects that I would like to see get made, a few documentaries, one about surfing in the favelas of Brazil but I am most excited about a script for a narrative feature I have been writing, that is getting most of my attention right now.
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https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1163074
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ThinkFilm
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defunct U.S. film distribution company
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/static/apple-touch/wikidata.png
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https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1163074
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defunct U.S. film distribution company
TH!NKFilm
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https://playbill.com/article/john-cameron-mitchells-sex-filled-film-finds-distributor-com-133215
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en
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John Cameron Mitchell's Sex-Filled Film Finds Distributor
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2006-06-15T12:05:00-04:00
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John Cameron Mitchell's new film, "Shortbus," will be released in the fall by ThinkFilm.
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en
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Playbill
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https://playbill.com/article/john-cameron-mitchells-sex-filled-film-finds-distributor-com-133215
|
The Hollywood Reporter says that ThinkFilm has obtained the North American rights to Mitchell's comedy-drama, which features actors engaging in actual sex on screen. "Shortbus," according to the industry paper, is largely improvised and "explores the lives of seven straight and gay New Yorkers seeking an emotional connection with one another."
ThinkFilm's Mark Urman, who heads the indie company's theatrical division, told the Hollywood Reporter, "We [at ThinkFilm] all saw it together, and were unanimous about it. It's quite groundbreaking, and we were all impressed with how natural and normal and comedic the extreme sex became without being offensive."
Because of the movie's explicit nature, marketing of the film may be a challenge, but Urman said, "Maybe we won't take TV ads. . . [but] there'll be enormous pre-awareness, and once you let the cat out of the bag, that cat should be allowed to prowl."
"Shortbus" was written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The cast features Raphael Barker, Lindsay Beamish, Justin Bond, Jay Brannan, Paul Dawson, PJ DeBoy, Sook-Yin Lee, Yolonda Ross, Daniela Sea, Rachael C. Smith and Peter Stickles.
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https://investors.lionsgate.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2005/20-07-2005-172821833
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Lions Gate Home Entertainment and THINKfilm Ink United States Home Video Distribution Deal
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http://investors.lionsgate.com/~/media/Images/L/LionsGate-IR-V3/logo/og-lionsgate-logo.jpg
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http://investors.lionsgate.com/~/media/Images/L/LionsGate-IR-V3/logo/og-lionsgate-logo.jpg
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Lions Gate Home Entertainment (LGHE), a division of Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) Toronto, has inked a home video distribution deal with Toronto-based independent studio THINKFilm. Under the terms of the deal, LGHE will represent all of THINKFilm's theatrical releases for distribution to mass merchant accounts
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~/media/C7E0C1FF686B4A568F6424D60676CEB0.ico
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https://investors.lionsgate.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2005/20-07-2005-172821833
|
Lions Gate Home Entertainment (LGHE), a division of Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) Toronto, has inked a home video distribution deal with Toronto-based independent studio THINKFilm. Under the terms of the deal, LGHE will represent all of THINKFilm's theatrical releases for distribution to mass merchant accounts in the U.S. home video market. THINKFilm will continue to distribute to other direct accounts. The first title in the deal is the Academy-Award® winning BORN INTO BROTHELS, winner of the 77th annual Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, set for release on September 20. In addition LGHE will distribute a number of direct-to-video titles in all of the US home video market. Lions Gate Entertainment President Steve Beeks and THINKFilm President & CEO Jeff Sackman made the announcement.
The three-year deal comes as LGHE continues to enhance its vast library in all genres. The fastest-growing studio in the industry, Lions Gate will add the THINKFilm titles to its already impressive video release schedule of theatrical motion pictures. With this deal, the Company will now be presenting up to 30 theatrical pictures to the video market each year. The deal also bodes well for THINKFilm which has acquired and successfully marketed some of the most interesting and popular independent feature film and documentaries in recent years.
In addition to BORN INTO BROTHELS, LGHE will also be releasing two critically-acclaimed, award-winning documentaries, THE ARISTOCRATS and MURDERBALL, in the fourth quarter. Featuring a who's who of the best comedians in the world, THE ARISTOCRATS was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival this past January. MURDERBALL was a standout on the Festival circuit, earning the Audience and Special Jury Prizes for Best Documentary at Sundance, the Audience and Jury Awards at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival.
"Partnering with a visionary company like THINKFilm gives us access to some of the highest quality movies in the independent film world. The opportunity to work with THINKFilm's Jeff Sackman, who has an incredible reputation in the independent film business, is like welcoming him home," said Beeks. "This deal reflects our continued commitment to the independent film marketplace as titles like BORN INTO BROTHELS, THE ARISTOCRATS and MURDERBALL will further enhance our reputation for delivering original, daring, quality entertainment."
"We are extremely pleased to be working in partnership with Lions Gate Home Entertainment to bring our unique and compelling award-winning films to an even wider U.S. audience," said Sackman. "We've been looking for a more efficient way to service the U.S. mass merchants and have found that in Steve Beeks and Lions Gate, one of the most powerful forces in home entertainment distribution."
ABOUT LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT
Lions Gate is the premier independent producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment and video-on-demand content. Its prestigious and prolific library is one of the largest in the entertainment industry. The Lions Gate brand name is synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
ABOUT THINKFILM:
Privately owned and based in Toronto, THINKFilm was founded in September 2001 by President/CEO Jeff Sackman. THINKFilm represents the new face of independent film, distributing high-quality, award-winning independent films to the home entertainment marketplace. THINKFilm's most recent releases GAME OVER: KASPAROV AND THE MACHINE, OVERNIGHT and MONDOVINO will soon be followed by KONTROLL, DALLAS 362 and the highly anticipated MURDERBALL. More information about THINKFilm can be found online at www.thinkfilmcompany.com.
For further information contact: FOR LIONS GATE Sarah Greenberg / Jodie Magid Lions Gate Entertainment 310.255.3856 / 212.386.6885 sgreenberg@lgecorp.com / jmagid@lgecorp.com For corporate inquiries: Peter Wilkes Lions Gate Entertainment pwilkes@lgecorp.com 310-255-3726 FOR THINKFILM Amanda Dwyer (416) 488-0037 Ext. 242 adwyer@thinkfilmcompany.com Alan Amman mPRm Public Relations 323-933-3399 aamman@mprm.com
SOURCE: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
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https://archive.org/details/pressbook-wb-bordertown
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Bordertown (Warner Bros. Pressbook, 1935) : Warner Bros. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
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https://archive.org/services/img/pressbook-wb-bordertown
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https://archive.org/services/img/pressbook-wb-bordertown
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Pressbook for the film Bordertown, directed by Archie Mayo and distributed by Warner Bros.
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en
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Internet Archive
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https://archive.org/details/pressbook-wb-bordertown
|
Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.
Search the Wayback Machine
Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass.
Save Page Now
Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.
Please enter a valid web address
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https://sva.libguides.com/film
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en
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SVA Library Research Guides at School of Visual Arts
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"Rebecca Clark"
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SVA Library resources for Film studies. Use the tabs to toggle between pages.
|
en
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https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/customers/3062/images/favicon.ico
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https://sva.libguides.com/film/home
|
The SVA Library owns 10,000 film titles on DVD and Blu-ray, and the Film Library owns over 15,000 titles.
The library also has well over 1,000 unpublished shooting film scripts, which appear in various draft stages and sometimes include annotations from the writer. Our main book collection also has a large collection of commercially published scripts.
All can be searched from the Library Catalog.
The library also subscribes to many streaming film collections:
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https://blueharborentertainment.com/
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Blue Harbor Entertainment
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[
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Blue Harbor Entertainment offers filmmakers and content owners a much-needed alternative in today's challenging distribution environment. We provide a comprehensive full-service solution that encompasses theaters, major digital outlets, streaming platforms, and television on a âfor-hire basis.â
|
en
|
//cdn.assemble.me/themes/default/assets/i/favicon.png
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Blue Harbor Entertainment
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https://blueharborentertainment.com/
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Led by industry veterans Amanda Sherwin, Mike Messina and Seth Needle, Blue Harbor Entertainment offers filmmakers a much-needed alternative in todayâs challenging distribution environment. We provide a comprehensive distribution and marketing solution covering theatrical releases, home entertainment, digital streaming platforms, and television â all under a service fee structure that empowers filmmakers. Our experienced team meticulously crafts each release plan and budget to align with a clientâs objectives. This approach not only ensures transparent collaboration but also positions filmmakers to capture the economic upside of their projects.
In an industry marked by consolidation, filmmakers often encounter limited economic options and difficult choices when dealing with traditional distributors. With producer-friendly deal terms and a dedicated team of experts guiding each release, Blue Harbor simplifies taking charge of your movieâs journey, allowing you to avoid the murky waters of self-distribution. Whether you are in the packaging stage, have a completed picture, or find yourself somewhere in between, the experienced team at Blue Harbor can help you chart a successful distribution path for your movie.
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4937942/
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Bordertown (TV Series 2016–2020)
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
"Reviews",
"Showtimes",
"DVDs",
"Photos",
"User Ratings",
"Synopsis",
"Trailers",
"Credits"
] | null |
[] |
2017-01-18T00:00:00
|
Bordertown: Created by Miikko Oikkonen. With Ville Virtanen, Matleena Kuusniemi, Anu Sinisalo, Lenita Susi. Quirky police detective, in Finland, delves into his memory palace to solve despicable crimes all the while trying to keep his family together. If Sherlock was based in Finland this would be it.
|
en
|
IMDb
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4937942/
|
Firstly, I don't write reviews unless I've watched the whole show or series. I watch a lot of foreign content and loved this series. Whilst I agree with one reviewer who criticised the show for wrapping up episodes a little too quickly, thus making the conclusion a tad hard to understand, this really affected only 1 or 2 episodes. Overall, the stories are well thought out, the acting is good and the scenery superb.
I liked the way the characters were developed and found myself invested in their personalities and lives. It's not just a cop show - you experience both the professional and private relationships of Kari, his family members and his work alliances. And whilst the stories do stand alone, it's best to watch the series in sequence to fully appreciate and understand the interrelationships that develop.
I believe a lot of thought went into the casting of the series. Ville Virtanen as the lead character Kari Sorjonen is superb - as well as being a nice bit of eye candy for we ladies. Matleena Kuusniemi, who plays Kari's wife Paulina, is just delightful and I cannot imagine anyone better for that role. Olivia Ainali, who plays their daughter Janina, looks like she could be their offspring and plays her role as a young adolescent, coping with all the complexities of that age group and peer pressures, very convincingly.
I'm hoping for a second series. Nine out of ten from me.
|
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4383
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dbpedia
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3
| 49
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https://www.thinkfilm.de/panel/spacetime-i-theoretical-physics-and-film-klaus-wyborny
|
en
|
Spacetime I: Theoretical Physics and Film - Klaus Wyborny
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
"Spacetime I",
"Klaus Wyborny",
"Thinkfilm",
"experimental",
"cinema",
"film",
"congress",
"arsenal",
"berlin"
] | null |
[] | null |
Transcript of a lecture by Klaus Wyborny at the Think:Film Congress
Whenever I think about the relation between film and theoretical physics I feel quite alone. I have yet to meet someone in the film scene who understands what I'm aiming at and why it
|
de
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https://www.thinkfilm.de/sites/default/files/favicon_0.ico
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https://www.thinkfilm.de/panel/spacetime-i-theoretical-physics-and-film-klaus-wyborny
|
Transcript of a lecture by Klaus Wyborny at the Think:Film Congress
Whenever I think about the relation between film and theoretical physics I feel quite alone. I have yet to meet someone in the film scene who understands what I'm aiming at and why it could be of any relevance. The only exception was the wonderful Hollis Frampton , but too soon he passed away, and that was that. On the other hand, when I talk to physicists they have serious problems understanding the complexity of the film medium. Let’s see if we can change that today. So the theme of my lecture is film and theoretical physics. Both are highly complex phenomena. And to give a short overview of what "physics" is, is meanwhile beyond anybody's capabilities. But "film" is a strange invention, too.
The first thing I want to point out is that it has in the meantime completely changed its material base. It started with something we call celluloid, a mechanical thing, mechanical stuff. And now it's an electronic phenomenon. The material basis has been completely transformed. Despite that, our idea of film has stayed more or less the same. That's strange. Generally when technologies become obsolete the content the technology used to transport undergoes significant changes. So that's interesting.
The second point is: When film was invented everybody was impressed by its ability to present motion. That was obviously a big plus in relation to photography. But it in fact just added the attribute of motion. The more important invention was installed three or four years later when different film strips were glued together. That happened by pure chance. If another material carrier had been the basis it wouldn't have been possible. But as film had sprocket holes and could be cut with scissors and glued together it became possible to generate "film programs". And when those programs, in which different space-time sections had been put together following some "idea", were presented to an audience, the audience had to cope with it. That was the origin of imaginative editing. Today we can clearly see that editing was a much more far reaching invention than the reproduction of motion was. Because by editing and discovering the potential of what I call "linear cuts", time constructions became possible that were very hard to achieve in other art forms. Literature has a bit of that potential, too, but that's all. What is a linear cut?
Consider a person sitting in one space and you film it. Then you place him in a different location and film that, too. Splicing those shots together, one generates a linear cut. Seeing it, you think the person has moved from space one to space two. Because we inject the laws of physical causality into film for some reason, we assume that the person has moved and that he needed some time for that, a time not directly presented in the film. At the cut point there is a time jump. And that's something really interesting, because it made larger amounts of time accessible for the imagination. One could say that by film's potential of being edited it became suddenly possible to depict all the time in the world. And because it furthermore introduced the concept that one can depict large scale temporal developments it paved the way for the usual interpretation of Schwarzschild's symmetrical solution of Einstein's field equation, which is known to us as the big bang theory. Before that, everybody was thinking in terms of a static universe. So it might not have been pure coincidence that cinema came before the theory of general relativity.
Something similar happened to Husserl's phenomenology. When he first described how we see objects - that was in 1911 - meaning the way we imagine for example the invisible backside of a cup while actually seeing only the front, his formulations were very insecure, almost obscure. The second formulation of 1926 was much clearer, and I think not only because he was a better writer then, but also because of the movies. For in most movies one has the experience that the camera looks behind an already familiar object in a later shot. And we compare that with what we have imagined about the object's backside before. So the phenomenological thought that we see more than what we actually see was meanwhile a widely shared commonplace experience, and formulating it in the framework of phenomenology had become much easier.
That as an introduction. In both cases the movies made the access to new modes of thinking possibly a bit easier. But from now on we want to argue the other way around, and walk into areas where theoretical physics can offer some help, if we want to understand certain complex film phenomena. Before I really start I have to point out, however, that the physics I'll be discussing will not really "explain" those phenomena, at least not in a mathematical way. If you expect that, you will be disappointed. I will just present certain concepts, and then give some idea of how those concepts might be applied to certain confusing aspects of film, hoping to arrive at different, maybe fresher, ways of looking at them. So keep in mind that the transfer of ideas into the film medium will mostly be understood metaphorically.
--- looped projection of Lumière's "Arrival of a train"
So the new semester has just started, a reason to show Lumiere's "Arrival of a train" again. I don't know how often I have seen it, fifty times maybe, not as often as I've seen my own films, of course, but pretty often. The last time was probably 10, maybe 20 years ago, though. Showing it again last week I was amazed to what extent it was different from what I remembered of it. It's not that I suddenly saw things that I had never seen in it before, for in the course of the film I slowly remembered that I might have seen the stuff in previous viewings – but in the very moment I encountered the images again, I had completely forgotten most of the details. And that is very interesting because it leads us to the question: What do we remember of a film while we see it? Or what do we see at all when we see a film?
In the case of "Arrival of a train" I definitely remembered the basic geometrical structure. I knew the train was going from right to left and to the front, I remembered people climbing out, I even remembered reflections on the train and I think a few trees in the background. Not much more. Last week I was above all overwhelmed by the multitude of people moving about the station, and the interesting ways people were dressed. I had thought there were only ten or a maximum of twenty. I had actually been at the station, where the train had been filmed in I guess 1896, in La Ciotat. While shooting my film "The Open Universe" in Marseille I undertook the effort to go there. For filmmakers it’s a magic place. It's hard to tell why, because the film was not part of the legendary first film presentation on the Boulevard des Capucines , but that doesn't seem to matter. For most filmmakers it serves as a metaphor for the beginning of cinema nevertheless. It was a boring station, though, not very interesting, eventually a train came in but it was electrically driven, and just one person got out. But even after the visit the film kept its magic. So I was thinking of that while I was watching it last week.
I also realized another effect: While looking at specific details which I momentarily thought I had never seen before, I could not see any other details, I mean: at the same time. That is also very interesting. We can only look at one thing at a time. And that’s a problem, because when we see a film, we only see its images for a certain period. With paintings it's different: At the paintings in a museum we can look as long as we want. In narrative films the usual shot length is maybe three seconds. The Lumière film, well, despite the fact that I've seen it at least fifty times, I really don't know how long it is, well, maybe it's forty, fifty seconds long. That’s quite long for one shot, but we can look at paintings much longer. So the limitation of time forces us to be satisfied with an imperfect perception of the whole thing; it's never complete.
One other thing is obvious: when something is moving in a film image, our eye almost by reflex gets attached to this moving thing. On the other hand we know that space is a very important quality of images. So we also try to at least get an idea of where the space might be, in which the picture had been recorded. But unfortunately we can only see one thing at a time when we watch a film image. So when we concentrate on the movement, we have only vague ideas about the space in which it takes place. And to concentrate on the space is only possible when we forget about the movement. That’s reminiscent of something one encounters in physics, something all of you have heard of. It's Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: If you want to locate a particle you can't at the same time determine its, to put it perhaps over-simply, velocity. Because if you want to locate the particle perfectly, you practically have to stop it. So in this case you have an uncertainty in the velocity. On the other hand, if you want to measure its velocity, it is not in one spot anymore. So there is a certain spatial uncertainty, and the product of the two, which was Heisenberg's discovery, is a constant. That's quite remarkable. For some reason something similar seems to happen in cinema. If your attention concentrates on a certain thing you have to neglect other things. If you concentrate on the movement you forget about the space. And the other way around: You can only concentrate on space when there is little movement in an image, let's say if you have a wide angle shot of a forest. Only when there is no spectacular motion-aspect is one capable of concentrating on the spatial quality. So I think there is an uncertainty principle at work when we watch images appear in a film.
-- end of looped projection of "Arrival of a train"
One could of course think, that the uncertainty will vanish if the shot is long enough. Now it’s a pleasure to have among us the magnificent movie master Michael Snow. Some of his films have very long lasting shots indeed. But for some reason one can't exhaust them, they become more and more complex the longer you watch. There are many miniscule things happening, and they all seem to superimpose. It's very hard to describe what's taking place inside you while you watch his films.
In the avant-garde there was (and still is) a direction that concentrated on films with long lasting shots and quite slow developments within the image, especially in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. I guess it started with Warhol's work, but significant contributions were made by – to drop a few more names in addition to Michael Snow – Ernie Gehr, Barry Gerson and Larry Gottheim. And it was astonishing to realize how interesting they were, how inexhaustible. Another, almost opposite, direction used very fast editing, and in these films – I’d like to mention the work of Kurt Kren – it is amazing how much information we can collect when we see something that's edited very fast.
To give you an example of that, I’ll show you a piece I shot in 1973, when I was interested in narrative editing. I wanted to explore how narrative editing worked. At that time there were no video recorders yet, so whenever you started to theorize about editing, you had to work with the memory of films you had seen, trying to recall how their editing operated. That was very unsatisfactory. So to overcome this handicap I sat in front of a TV with a Super-8 camera on a tripod and watched films on the regular programs. And whenever there was a cut in a chosen film I pushed the trigger and stopped the camera immediately after. So each time, at each cut of a movie, the camera registered three or four frames of the appearing shot. Each shot was thus kind of recorded, and at the end you can see the complete montage system of a chosen feature film within a few minutes.
I suspected of course, that it might be impossible to see anything if you have just 3 or 4 frames of each shot. But then I was surprised that one could understand the whole film even in this concentrated form lasting just 2 or 3 minutes instead of the 90 minutes of the original. Let's look at one of the short versions now. It's part of a 100-minute work called "Elementary Film History", which I finished in 1974.
----- projection of the compact version of "Kiss of Death" (2 minutes)
The original film of this section is Henry Hathaway's "The Kiss of Death", made in 1947, with Victor Mature. What do we see in it? We see how our attention is attracted by movement, of course. Like a reflex: whenever something moves – 4 frames seem to be enough – our eyes want to follow. But we see many other things. Mainly the montage figure you are watching now, which is called "shot-reverse-shot". It occurs very often, almost in an inflationary mode, I would say. And we see also that when images reappear, we go back to an almost identical framing. I call this the "dominance of the return-cut" in the narrative film formula. If you look at it in this fast form, there seems to be a formula behind it indeed. And the return cut is by far the most frequent cut. Now the physicist comes into play; as a physicist you want to find out what the formula might be. It's not that difficult to get a grasp of it. The regularity of it, that you cut back to the same framing, that the same patterns appear in different guises, all that makes it possible to develop an understanding of what narrative film editing is about.
-- the film is still running
Well, of course first of all it's about faces. Ah, look, Richard Widmark is in it, too. The face, and that you recognize faces, is the most dominant structure in narrative films. That has little to do with physics of course. But then there are always residues behind the faces, residues of something the physicist would call "space". A film is something that modulates "space" in the course of time. Oh, now we have reached the end: very important this title "The End", because it makes it clear that the film is finished. But let's get into loop mode and look at the film again.
-- compact version of "Kiss of Death" is running from the start in loop mode now
When mathematicians or physicists think about space, they usually think about "coordinates". Up to Einstein it was not complicated to attach coordinate systems to each space you saw. In wide angle shots, let's say here, in this room, it's easy to establish a coordinate system. And here you see that these total shots get decomposed into close-ups. And that there are two different kinds of cuts: most of them are "return-cuts", which go back to the same face again and again and again. And sometimes there is a type of cut in which the space is switched. These are the "linear cuts" we have already talked about. They are linear in the person we follow when he or she changes his or her location. See, here we are in a prison, and now, one of the persons moves to another space in a car. That was a linear cut, connecting 2 spaces. As a physicist you would immediately say that these cuts represent coordinate-transformations. Coordinate transformations are very simple mathematic structures. They have the wonderful quality that they are additive. So when you make a coordinate-transformation you can add another one. And you have a result. If you have a series of let’s say 5 coordinate-transformations, you can replace it by a single cut. You can calculate with it, so to speak. And you can make films much shorter. So it's not important how the coordinate-transformation actually happens. If you have a camera in position one, you can put in a box, take a taxi, make a big detour, go to location two, record location two. When you cut the two together, the viewer directly connects the two and it does not matter which path the camera took in between. Coordinate-transformations split up into simple translations and rotations. And another one is called "zoom", with which you magnify things. To a certain extent you can describe all the cuts you are just seeing on screen as space translations, space rotations, and zooms.
There wouldn't be much of a mystery about it, if there were not the factor of time. Time makes the whole thing very complicated, because there is a time segment attached to each of these images. Sometimes you have time jumps, and sometimes you have the feeling that time passes smoothly, that it's continuous. In narrative films you usually have the impression, that there are hardly any time jumps. But these you register carefully. Most of the time, however, the action appears to be continuous. For example in shot-reverse-shot systems you seem to have zero time loss at each cut. Whereas in linear cuts, when you change locations, you often encounter time jumps. Because Richard Widmark's body needs some time to go from space A to space B. And because he can't be in two spaces at the same time. Quantum physics taught us that there are some things that have different properties. But narrative films usually describe classical bodies which behave properly.
If you watch this 2-minute film a few times you get a clearer and clearer understanding of what a movie is. Actually after you have seen it a few thousand times I bet, ten percent of you could formulate a complete editing theory of the narrative cinema. Something you can discover in almost every film that can be seen on the screen, even today, something you can also discover in TV series. Of course most of the narrative stuff in TV is not as ambitious as an art film, but nevertheless you will observe most of the structures there, too. You could call it a universal pattern, one might even dare say (as many do) that there is a "language" hidden behind it. A universal language. I once met a person however – Grahame Weinbren – with whom I talked about "film language", and that it might have a grammar, and yes, that I possibly had discovered a grammar there, in this short film, which you are just seeing. But he said: "No, Klaus, that's impossible. In a grammar you have the word "no". It requires the word "no" and there is no word for "no" in cinema." And I think Grahame was right. A film image says "yes" all the time. No film image says "no". Film is affirmative. You trust that it's real. At least it's very difficult to construct the word "no" in cinema. Much more difficult than in a language, where saying "No" is the easiest thing. Maybe all languages started with the word "No", the rest of it is embroidery, are attempts to rationalize excuses. So the narrative structure I had discovered is just a structure, nothing more. Just as music is a structure, a certain way of structuring sounds in very specific ways, and not a language. There is no language of music and there is no language of film. So much for that.
--- end of the looped projection of the compact version of "Kiss of Death"
So this was an example of how theoretical physics can come into play when you analyze certain phenomena of cinema.
Now we come to a field which is more complex. Going back in my memories, I remember several conversations with my friend Paul Sharits , most of them conducted casually while drinking in bars and so forth. In such talks filmmakers usually don't talk much about film, and if they do, it's generally just in the form of short sentences, very short remarks. But for some reason one keeps some of those remarks as precious jewels. And one of Paul Sharits's casual remarks, I think from the early ‘70s, was: "I hate cameras, I love projectors." That astonished me, because I thought the camera was at the heart of film production. But he said: "No, the camera bores me. Projectors are the really interesting thing." Well, at that time I of course thought he was just being provocative, but his remark had such a paradoxical ring that I kept thinking about it. And slowly I came to think Paul was right. Projectors are really the heart of cinema.
So I came to think that a film is something in which a projector shoots particles at the viewer. The terminology is strikingly fitting: a projector is a "thrower", and films are ordered ensembles of so called "shots" whose impact on the audience is carefully calculated by filmmakers. All the time something is hitting the viewer from the screen. This "something" is modulated light that emerges from the projector, is reflected on the screen and reaches your eye from there. Exactly that was operating in Tony Conrad's and Paul Sharits's first films. In some of them there were even warnings that they might induce epileptic seizures. I refer of course to "The Flicker" and "Ray Gun Virus". And just as Paul's title suggests: in those films the projector was perceived as a "gun", shooting colored light rays (or rather light particles) at the viewer in order to see what would happen. Of course, one can't be satisfied with just, let's say in the extreme case, destroying the viewer’s brain by high energy flicker.
As a trained physicist this reminded me of something. As a student I was working at "DESY" for a while, a so called electron synchrotron, an early form of the hadron collider that recently made the news in connection with the Higgs particle. In DESY we were accelerating electrons to high speeds and shot them on selected specimens of matter. Just to see what happens. So there was some parallel, for in Tony's and Paul's films we also have particles shot at a target, the particles being light particles, of course. But what was the target? First of all it is the human eye, naturally. But it's more than just the eye, it is the human brain, human consciousness, human perception.
So I thought: "Hey, what if Paul's ‘ray gun’ does more than just throw colored light at the viewer, infecting his brain with a virus? What if the projector ejects particles which are images?" And what does a viewer make of it when those "image particles" contain objects he wants to perceive in the very moment they hit his brain? Could there be a connection between this type of setup and the scattering experiments I helped set up as a physicist? So in order to find out a few things about it I had to produce a film that could be used in such an "image-particle" experiment. At that time I also became interested in Beethoven, so I suddenly – it was 1977 – decided to make a film out of his last piano sonata , taking the music score Beethoven wrote and transferring its rhythmical structures into a visual form. Meaning I generated a shooting score of it, following Beethoven's tempo values plus his accellerandos, meno allegros and ritardandos. So the unmodulated allegro con brio with metronome 120 would mean a quarter note is 12 frames long, an eighth 6 and a sixteenth note 3 frames, etc. Using the single frame features of my Super-8 camera, I then made a film of it, right in the camera, so that for each note of the music a picture of the same length would pop up.
When the film was finished (and screened of course at 24 frames per second) it turned out to be quite spectacular. For a while I was showing a silent version of it, because it was not so easy to play the Beethoven Sonata in a way that it would fit the tempo the changing film-images adopted. It actually took me almost thirty years of practice till I finally managed to perform something that could be approximately synced with my visual interpretation of Beethoven's score. But I finally managed, and if you look it at now, you will experience that the images really hit your brain like particles. So let's look at it, it’s the beginning of a 80-minute film called "Hommage to Ludwig van Beethoven", which I finished in 2006.
--- projection of "op. 111-1" (8 min.), the first part of "Hommage to Ludwig van Beethoven"
Well, thank you. So now you were part of a scattering experiment. Picture-particles got shot into your brains and generated all kinds of brain-particles. But what do you make of it? That's really the question. Even I have no answer, although I've made the film. And even though I've seen it maybe a hundred times. Also in this special case we encounter the question that arose in Lumière’s "Arrival": What does one keep in memory of a "film"? In this film the question becomes even more dramatic: So what have you kept in your memory? I think it's impossible to answer. Every one of you probably has a different memory of it. The only reliable answer that all of us can admit to is: "I remember that I've seen this thing." But you can't really say what you saw. One can of course remember a few structures, and denote some of them by certain words, but one knows immediately that these words describe just a minuscule amount of what was offered. In a certain way the idea of memory of a film becomes completely ridiculous in this case. What you remember most is maybe the surprising experience you had, and how it affected your body.
In this film the unit is the shot: a more or less representational shot in which you can recognize a few things. Then the next shot appears, sometimes four frames long, sometimes three, two, sometimes twenty frames or even more. Of course one recognizes hardly anything in the very short ones unless they have some drastic graphic quality, only then you register recognizable stuff. In the shots lasting longer the images can be subtler. And having observed this we are able to proceed to a new chain of arguments, turning the screw a bit tighter: Let's try to find out what all films have in common. This film definitely had very fast editing. In narrative films the editing is, as we all know, considerably slower, you have cuts at an average of let's say three seconds. In some films the average shot length might be longer, of course, in action sequences the editing is often faster.
Trying to find out what all films have in common I am again grateful for Paul Sharits's remark "I hate cameras, I love projectors." Nowadays projectors are almost museum pieces. The knowledge of how they work is not common knowledge anymore. On projectors you generally see 2 reels. On one, called the feed reel, is the part of the film which has not yet been projected. The other one is called take-up reel, on it you have the part of the film that was already shown. From the feed reel the film is transported by sprocket wheels that give stability to the transport, into something called "the gate". In the gate the light emitted by the light source hits and penetrates the film and from there the image is thrown at the screen, from where it hits your brain. In a certain sense the image in the gate is the present tense of a film. So you have the future on the feed reel, the projected past on the take-up reel, and the present tense in the gate. Now, what exactly is the present tense? It's something philosophers have argued about for a few thousand years. Even physicists are surprisingly insecure about it, as we have seen when we mentioned Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In film it seems to be comparatively simple. The present tense is what is in the gate, it is presented to us by the picture you see at this very moment.
Discussing Lumière's film, we have already found out, however, that we only get hold of sections of the projected image, our attention does not go beyond certain parts. That’s true also for films that have hundreds of shots, of course. But while we look at the parts that catch our attention in the present shot, we also have a memory of what is on the take-up reel, meaning of what has already been shown. In our brains we have definitely stored residues of that. The strongest memory is of course the memory of the preceding shot. To get an idea of what is taking place when we watch a film, we can use a simple model. Just assume that the new "picture particle" which is in the "gate of presence" is aimed at a "pool of impressions" that your brain has distilled from all the shots that have appeared before. And on the surface of this "pool of collected impressions" floats, as if on a raft, the last image you have seen, the preceding shot, the preceding event. The impressions of the other ones, of the shots having appeared before (meaning the ones that are now on the take-up reel), are much less distinct, they seem to have a somehow fluid aspect, that’s why we choose the metaphor of a "pool". As the memory trace of a film is not concentrated in an area with clear boundaries, the term "pool" of course lacks precision. So "sea of impressions" (which alludes to the well know "electron sea model" that proved useful in understanding electric conductivity) might be in some respect more appropriate, but then the model would lose some handiness. So let's stick for now with the "pool".
So whenever a new shot gets into the gate, an "image particle" is ejected from there. Reaching the brain it hits the pool of impressions with a big splash. Doing this it hits the raft floating on top first. The raft (presenting our memory of the preceding shot) gets destroyed or it at least loses its distinctness, so that most of its structures disappear within a fraction of a second, while some remnants start sinking down. Meanwhile the present particle already works havoc in the memory-liquid, where it modifies and destroys a considerable amount of the impressions deposited there. As if a meteorite hits the sea a lot of the memory-stuff splashes out and gets lost. Having finished its destructive job – all this happens within half a second (and it keeps on going) – the picture particle drifts up to the pool's surface, forming a new raft there, which now floats on a "sea of changed impressions", getting more and more structure within its remaining projection time – till the next picture particle will be in the gate, by which the present raft will also be destroyed and the pool modified anew. So that works as model, an approximate model of what happens, when we see a film. I think it's true for all kinds of films, also the Beethoven film with the extremely fast editing. But it's also usable for narrative motion pictures. In each case you get impressions from images and they get modified or destroyed by the next shot. Somehow a pool of those impressions vaguely remains and when the film is over, the remaining pool plus the impressions of the last shot (preferably a happy end, because it feels good when it's superimposed on a film) is what you think you have seen when you leave the cinema.
And this again is very interesting if you are a trained physicist. Because this model also has some resemblance with how scattering experiments in physics are set up. In them you also have particles being shot on something which often has a complex structure, and this structure gets destroyed or at least modified by the process. We have already observed that even watching a seemingly simple film like Lumière's "Arrival" is a complicated affair. You can't see the whole thing completely, because there are several uncertainty principles at work. In particle physics similar effects occur. In many cases the uncertainty principle also restricts the precision there. The processes taking place when high energy particles hit a target often become so complicated that it's practically impossible to describe them by a compact mathematical formula. That's why one restricts the physical analysis to an analysis of the incoming particles and the outgoing ones. The function that compares incoming and outgoing particles is called "scattering matrix". And in many areas of contemporary physics the scattering matrix represents the ultimate knowledge you can get out of an experiment. Because the uncertainty principle is in the heart of matter and it's impossible to really describe what is taking place in all its minute details. At the core of all things is an unstable, unimaginable boiling process, which by principle is not describable.
Generally one can say that whenever you realize that something like an uncertainty principle is at work, then the only way to get to a reliable understanding of what's taking place is by examining the scattering matrix. Now, what is the scattering matrix in the case of film? The simplest model we find in early film history again, in the period where you had only total shots of the locations in which the action takes place and no close-ups. In those early films you usually see the present location, let's say a room, then a few people would enter, they interact, and then they leave. Obviously that is a scattering process, the incoming particles being the persons entering the room, the outgoing particles the people leaving it. The scattering matrix would describe how they have been changed by their interactions. These changes can be obvious, for example if a person gets terribly wounded, or so subtle that one hardly notices a change. But even then there must have been some change, otherwise the shot was useless. One can say, the reason for a scene appearing in a film is always that it induces subtle changes in the acting persons. Otherwise the scattering matrix of this particular shot would be trivial and the shot superfluous.
In the case of the Beethoven film the impression pool is quite chaotic. The new shots almost destroy the past impressions, only very little remains of them. Also every viewer has his own pool, so to speak, everybody sucks different impressions out of the film, dependent on his personal capabilities and his momentary psychological disposition. In narrative features it's different, the impression pools of narrative films have a certain stability, and that’s why every viewer stores approximately the same impressions of certain aspects appearing on screen. Narrative stability is exhibited in 2 layers. In the first, all the locations the viewer has seen in the preceding shots form a compositum, usually a connected fabric of spaces, almost in the form of a geographical map. And in the second layer he registers the characters that have entered those entangled premises and how their dispositions get changed by their interactions. When a new interaction takes place for the same person, the changes add up.
So what is the scattering matrix of a whole film? Very simple. In our deliberations of what happens in a single shot, we have to replace the location, in which the interaction takes place with the entangled fabric of spaces generated in the course of the film. And then you have to consider the changes that have affected the characters acting in it. Again you have their state when they first entered the movie, and the state in which they left it. So each movie is a scattering experiment with actors, and the changes in their dispositions are described by a scattering matrix. If you like, it presents the "content" of a film.
That’s of course just the final situation, when the film is finished, meaning when it's completely on the take-up reel. When it's still entirely on the feed reel, one doesn't even know the actors and of course all the spaces that will appear are also still unknown. You might have a speculative idea of it though, because you might have heard about the film, in an advertisement or from friends, or because you have an idea of what kind of movie a specific actor prefers to perform in. But there is no actual scattering matrix yet. Just as the impression pool is a function of the projection time so is the scattering matrix. If you stop the film in the middle, you have only memories of the actors that have appeared up to this point. And how they have changed until "now". All this is expressed by the "momentary scattering matrix". As soon as the projector starts again, this momentary matrix gets modified by what happens in the next shots, more or less according to our "pool model". Interesting is how the composite space-fabric gets constructed in the course of the film, thus giving us a "realistic" playground for what is affecting the actors. This space construction can of course be described with the help of space-time coordinates. Which brings us back to "The Kiss of Death" and the editing theory we talked about. The developing space-time fabric is constructed mainly by linear cuts. Return cuts use this fabric and give a ground for what is described in the scattering matrix. Well, I hope I haven't overstrained your attention. If you became interested in it, you can read more in my editing theory book. The last 100 pages of it deal with the aspects we have just talked about, relating them to Feynman Graphs and a mathematical field called topology , but that’s beyond the scope of this talk.
One might of course ask if that's not a bit too complicated. After all, film is just an industrial commodity, put out by thousands of small companies generally not run by geniuses. So there shouldn't be much of a mystery behind it. And the rules used to fabricate those films can't be very complex. Well, I think that’s true with respect to "making" films, at least to a wide extent. Most films are made following very simple rules. But don't forget that we have described what a "viewer" makes of it. And that is something that takes place in our brains. So what we described is our perception of a projection of what was "made" following simple rules. There the whole territory of our brain comes into play. And one of the great mysteries of cinema is that each viewer has to perform the act of seeing without the help of others. Brakhage has expressed that very precisely by calling one of his films "The act of seeing with one's own eyes". Well, at present nobody knows how a film is stored in our brain and how the brain manages to make something out of it. But we have at least developed a plausible model. I doubt that neuroscientists are capable of presenting a simpler one. And more than that: I'm afraid a simpler one will never be available.
But again: why bother about something that will become obsolete soon? Meanwhile it's obvious that the mechanically based cinema with its celluloid, its projectors, showrooms and reels will have no future. And here I come back to the opening statement of my talk, where I mentioned that "film" has managed to change into an electronic phenomenon without changing its character. I'm afraid the narrative film-form that was developed in the last century, with all its editing strategies and cuts and scattering matrices and so forth, will remain with us, will remain with humanity for at least a few thousand years, experiencing (and surviving) several more transitions of its material base. To a great extent its future is still hidden from us on the feed reel, so to speak, in the future of our civilization. But in the gate of presence we continuously get glimpses of it – and we leave them behind us on the take-up reel of our past achievements. Thank you.
***
thrown out:
OK, so I think we agree that it's quite complicated. The film was shot in 1977/88 with a single frame Super-8 camera in locations where I grew up as a boy. That made shooting easy because I felt at home. It looks like a lot of work but it was actually not that much. The work energy put in was nothing compared to what an experimental physicist has to invest if he wants to prove a hypothesis. It took me hardly two weeks. Each day I went to the locations I had chosen at ten o'clock in the morning. With me I had my script, based on Beethoven's score, and then I was just, you know, a little bureaucrat, clicking on my camera, all the time counting single frames, hoping not to make mistakes while putting filters in front of the lens for certain shots, making fades, all that kind of stuff. The next day I went there again and so forth, and within three weeks it was finished. After this I had enough confidence to get busy with the second movement of "opus 111", which of course is also part of the "Homage to Ludwig van Beethoven". For that I filmed "three voices", three layers of rhythmically edited images, whose rhythms I derived from Beethoven's score. After the shooting was finished I superimposed them with an optical printer. The result turned out to be even more spectacular than the film you just saw, of course. But that is not the point, at the moment. Let’s rather come back to our question "What do we see in a film and what do we remember?"
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https://television.mxdwn.com/news/creator-of-netflix-and-yles-bordertown-mikko-oikkonen-working-on-new-nordic-thriller-titled-helsinki-syndrome/
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Creator of Netflix and YLE's 'Bordertown,' Mikko Oikkonen, Working on New Nordic Thriller Titled 'Helsinki Syndrome' -
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2021-04-11T20:39:42-07:00
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Finnish public broadcasting company YLE and German production-distribution company Beta Film have joined the creator of Finnish Netflix series Bordertown, Mikko Oikkonen, for his new Nordic limited series thriller Helsinki Syndrome, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show will be presented to buyers by Beta at
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Ryan Michaels April 11th, 2021 - 8:39 PM
Finnish public broadcasting company YLE and German production-distribution company Beta Film have joined the creator of Finnish Netflix series Bordertown, Mikko Oikkonen, for his new Nordic limited series thriller Helsinki Syndrome, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show will be presented to buyers by Beta at the MIPTV television market, which starts Monday.
Peter Franzén (Vikings) stars as Elias Karo in the eight episode limited series. Elias, having had his life ruined by “corrupt bankers and government officials,” kidnaps four journalists and wants them to expose three people in high places that caused Elias to lose both his father and his family fortune, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series, which is set to start production in June, is influenced by the Finnish banking crisis of the 1990s and imagines future financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Variety.
Juuso Syrjä, who directed some episodes of Bordertown, is returning to direct Helsinki Syndrome. Fisher King, a Helsinki-based division of Beta’s Scandinavian production companies, is set to produce the series.
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Think Films | 1,297 followers on LinkedIn. We tell stories for change and we find and engage audiences to think deeper about pressing social issues. | We’re a South Australian based purpose-driven production studio dedicated to documentaries and impact storytelling.
We're passionate about showcasing the solutions to some of our most pressing global problems through film and multimedia. Films that change perceptions, create inspiration and drive positive social change.
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https://au.linkedin.com/company/thinkfilms
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I've recently become nail-bitingly obsessed with something called dot watching. It's an exciting little deviation from work-related demands. The reason I've become obsessed with dot watching is an incredible person called Abdullah Zeinab - an Adelaide born ultra-endurance cyclist who's redefining limits. Seven years ago, whilst Abdullah was filming the inaugural Indian Pacific Wheel Race across Australia, one of the main characters in his film, Mike Hall, died in a tragic road accident whilst competing. Drawing on inspiration from Mike and other competitors in the race, Abdullah decided to begin his own cycling journey and went on to win that very same race just one year later. He subsequently won the 2019 Trans America Bike Race (6800kms) and the 2022 Rhino Run (2,741km course across Africa.) This year Abdullah is taking part in the 10th anniversary of the prestigious Transcontinental Race (founded by Mike Hall). He sees this as an opportunity to not only take on his biggest challenge to date, but also to close a circle that was opened seven years ago when he met Mike and began his ultra-endurance journey. For Abdullah, cycling is about much more than riding a bike. He believes its true value lies in the opportunity to explore the outer limits of his mind by pushing his body beyond its conceivable limits. Abdullah is currently in second place. He's the underdog in this race, having never competed in a TCR before. He has now been riding for 3 days, 20 minutes and has slept for only around 6 hours. Our Think Films team is currently in Bosnia filming the race and making their way towards the third checkpoint at Kosovo. Below are stills taken recently of Abdullah riding through Bosnia. Tonight I leave for Istanbul where I'll join them at the finish line. I'm very excited to be producing this documentary which will be an immersive, psychological exploration of the lengths one will go to in pursuit of happiness and relief from the tyranny of external validation. A film that so many of us will relate to. Already we have interest from an international film festival and a streamer in this film. Exciting times ahead. If you're keen to explore dot watching Abdullah as he races, he's number 21 and here's the dot watching link: https://lnkd.in/gaX5uXCm Stay tuned for an immersive look into one man's extraordinary journey. 🚴♂️🎥 #DotWatching #UltraEndurance #Cycling #Documentary #TranscontinentalRace
In 2014, my journey to Emmaus Community in Perth marked the beginning of a lasting connection. Initially tasked with creating a short film spotlighting the community's impact in providing long-term homes for adults facing mental health challenges, I soon found myself immersed in a world of deep human connection. Six years later, among national lockdowns at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, we unveiled a powerful documentary on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) titled "A Place to Call Home." This documentary explored Emmaus Community's transformative influence, not only on its residents but also on the broader mental health landscape of Western Australia. At its heart, "A Place to Call Home" narrated the remarkable genesis of Emmaus Community, rooted in Br Al Archer's journey from pursuing fame and fortune in Los Angeles to his unwavering commitment to providing stability and support for those in need. Through this documentary, viewers were invited to connect with Emmaus residents as they witnessed the unveiling of their photographic portraits for the first time. I love that the essence of our work at Think Films lies both in sharing short form stories for online audiences and also longer form pieces for viewers across broadcast and streaming platforms. Photo by Claudio Raschella #documentaries #stories #impact #television #cinema #videos #films
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3
| 86
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-reasons-why-i-think-film-festivals-now-remain-virtual-choksi
|
en
|
10 reasons why I think film festivals will now remain virtual and hybrid forever
|
https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/C4D12AQFzDQHWz1298Q/article-cover_image-shrink_720_1280/article-cover_image-shrink_720_1280/0/1640698522182?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=wYdPAIiTqyDTrVxJYJa14xH473L-4q3kbV5LhCgKAGk
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Sonia Swaroop Choksi"
] |
2021-12-28T13:52:13+00:00
|
In 2020, remember the time when people were ready to wait for the covid-crisis to get over? When we sipped hot coffee while watching the news on our televisions, as if it was about someone else and not me or us, the immediate network? And then do you remember exactly the date or week when everyone s
|
en
|
https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca
|
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-reasons-why-i-think-film-festivals-now-remain-virtual-choksi
|
In 2020, remember the time when people were ready to wait for the covid-crisis to get over? When we sipped hot coffee while watching the news on our televisions, as if it was about someone else and not me or us, the immediate network?
And then do you remember exactly the date or week when everyone started showing up online? Work From Home, remote working, etc. suddenly became words of the year. I am not able to put dates to these but it looks like really long back to me somehow!
And then, at one point I found myself thinking that when everything is making the switch to the virtual world, why should Film Festivals stay behind? Almost all major Film Festivals across the globe which were scheduled to be held in 2020 or after started turning virtual;
Further back in time, during the spring of 2020, the “We Are One: Global Film Festival”—spearheaded by Tribeca Enterprises and more than twenty other festivals including Cannes, the Venice International Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival—ran on YouTube from May 29 to June 7, 2020. Sundance Film Festival, which had a year of pandemic festival planning at its disposal, took place digitally from late January to early February of this year. Through its Sundance-built platform that included a smartphone festival app, it streamed premieres online and held a few physically distanced in-person events.” according to the University of California Press.
The process of making the transition from physical to online may have been difficult for film festival circuits, but the end results of this transition, according to most people involved in the process, are actually positive. Thanks to virtual reality, footfall for film festivals has actually increased, even more than what they were in pre-pandemic times because the logistical costs are greatly minimized.
If the transition to an online festival increases convenience for the audience, then why should it not be made permanent?
Even if the pandemic had not caused worldwide lockdown, logical analysis says that film festivals would have anyway made the transition, at least to the point of a physical-virtual hybrid format. This is because as the brand of a film festival, say for eg., London Indian Film Festival gains more repute, it will try to diversify its guest list, including people from as many countries and regions as possible. This kind of inclusion will raise curiosity for cinema enthusiasts of those places. virtual presence then enables them to attend the festival without any traveling costs or hassles.
The biggest cause of celebration in a virtual film festival is the fact that these festivals can be held through simple and easily navigable software like zoom or YouTube. In fact, the entire process of a virtual film festival can now be done through simple tools that any tech-savvy person can understand.
From creating an informational website for a festival (via wx.com etc) to streaming it (Facebook Live or Youtube or Instagram). From creating an online ticket counter (Match My Talent Events, BookMyShow, insider) to identifying a video broadcasting player (IBM Cloud Player, Vimeo, and JW Player) and all the way to securing payment gateway for ticket sales (Vimeo OTT, for example, has a payment gateway that transforms your live content into a full-scale subscription service or even pure payment gateways like Razorpay), to eventually conducting a film festival virtually, has never been easier, I say.
Like all great inventions, virtual film festivals combine the best of both the worlds- you get to witness the next generation of outstanding cinema, gain new perspectives, as one does in a film festival, but apart from that, with virtual, you get to show up in film festivals of other countries (which is a whole other experience in itself), without actually having to travel to those countries!
I know! Film Festivals are supposed to be experienced, with friends, not watched on a screen alone, like a regular binge-watcher. But, as it turns out, attending a film festival isn't that different from attending a physical film festival. After all, the final destination is a movie screen.
Yes, you don't get the actual 3D experience of attending a physical event, you don't get to meet the various kinds of people you might have met otherwise…but, there is also the element of infinite scale. You’re basically watching a lineup of premieres. It’s exciting!” said Manmeet Dawar, our Project Lead, when I had asked her for her sense of it all.
Someone said to me that it's a lonely experience. That got me thinking. Is it or is it not? Well, one can invite other people and friends, and have a shared viewing experience. In the time of the pandemic, when the virus is attacking and re attacking our society in a kind of a- more dangerous progression, experiencing a virtual film festival, with friends through remote viewing, seems like a very safe and prudent choice. And I do sincerely feel that being with friends is fine but eventually, I watch a film by myself. It really doesn’t matter if I know anyone else in the physical crowd or not, isn’t it?
And oh, the Q&A with filmmakers. This goes to a whole new intimate level in virtual that can never be possible in a physical event. Very few filmmakers are actually invited to them and so a very limited direct interaction happens with indie filmmakers there. What is a film without really getting the world of the person who brought the story to us!
Festival fraternities and circuits have realized that halting a film fest is not commercially viable; sooner or later they will have to make the shift to virtual. This is especially true of high-profile film festivals like Cannes or SXSW or Sundance or Venice. This is because such film festivals actually decide the competitors and winners in even bigger commercial awards like the Oscars. For example, if a film A has had a great round at SXSW, Cannes, and London, it is very likely that it will be on the top contenders' list for Oscars too.
Therefore, if film festivals are halted altogether, then there will be a huge void in the Oscar season. Obviously, big money-making machinery like the Oscars cannot be stopped…it must go on!
Not that the grass isn't greener on the other side!
Besides the profit, no travel required for participants also translates to greater diversity in the audience. When supported by an internet connection, a film festival leads to the inclusion of a more ethnically diverse audience, and therefore, more appreciation for independent filmmakers.
Apart from all these benefits, a virtual film festival incurs fewer costs than a physical film festival. Decor, lighting, food, personnel costs, all such costs are minimized.
And oh, the masterclasses and talks. It's no more about the budget feasibility of the festival to fly in the experts, regardless of where they come from. Everyone has to eventually log in from their living rooms and hence the scale of knowledge and expertise possible in a virtual film festival is a treasure!
The positive implications of a virtual film festival are universal and timeless. Its viability outlasts the CoVid pandemic. Then why shouldn't they replace the current norm?
With this being so clear in my head, we did take the responsibility to put together the unbiased video festival, Malhaar again this year as its season II. The show must not just go on but also thrive, not just survive!
About Malhaar Film Festival: Malhaar is a vision to create a window of global vernacular cinema- Cinema which is vernacular in its concept, approach, communication and the minutest of its details yet universally relevant, relatable and retainable. This is possible when endless narratives come up as a direct result of cinema appreciation. This is possible when we stop figuring out what ‘sells more’. Malhaar is that space where a democratic approach to the business of making cinema is shaping up, where the “business” of film festivals is fine-tuned, and where the conversation of a truly global narrative is being explored.
In 2021, where humans across the globe have experienced life like never before, Malhaar helps to form a collective consciousness around a range of topics and themes. Bringing together a community of content creators and audiences who are sensitive, expressive and respectful of mankind.
This year, Malhaar unfolds to observe different moods that a creator can wrap a theme into. Hence, a warm welcome again to both - the amateurs and the experienced creators, to narrate their untold stories in their own language.
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https://www.the-numbers.com/market/distributors
|
en
|
Distributors Movie Breakdown 1995
|
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Distributors Movie Breakdown 1995-2024
|
https://the-numbers.com/images/logo_2021/favicon.ico
|
The Numbers
|
https://www.the-numbers.com/market/distributors
|
Our Theatrical Market pages are based on the Domestic Theatrical Market performance only. The Domestic Market is defined as the North American movie territory (consisting of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Guam).
The yearly amounts on our Theatrical Market pages are based on box office years. Each box office year starts on the first Monday of the year, so the previous year ends on the Sunday before the first Monday. For example, the "2017 box office year" started on January 2, 2017 so the "2016 box office year" ended on Sunday, January 1, 2017.
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dbpedia
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| 90
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https://www.ranker.com/list/movies-where-actors-really-did-it/rydavis
|
en
|
15 Movies With Real, Unsimulated Sex Scenes
|
https://imgix.ranker.com/list_img_v2/537/2400537/original/real-sex-in-hollywood-movies
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https://imgix.ranker.com/list_img_v2/537/2400537/original/real-sex-in-hollywood-movies
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Ryan Davis"
] |
2016-06-29T00:00:00
|
Working as an actor requires being open to some crazy things. Having to film a sex scene can give even the most courageous actors some stage fright, but ...
|
en
|
/img/icons/touch-icon-iphone.png
|
Ranker
|
https://www.ranker.com/list/movies-where-actors-really-did-it/rydavis
|
Working as an actor requires being open to some wild things . Having to film a love scene can give even the most courageous and reputable actors some stage fright. But imagine if you had to do it for real? I mean, movies where they really did it with full on penetrative intercourse. You'd think it would be taboo, but plenty of movies have incorporated real sex between actors in order to establish a sort of genuine authenticity to the film.
While some may think that esteemed actors engaging in that kind of behavior for a movie is gratuitous and inappropriate, many actors have agreed to the conditions. Racy and controversial director Lars von Trier has utilized un-simulated scenes for several of his films, including his movie Nymphomaniac .
These types of scenes in film can be crucial to the story that writers and directors are trying to tell. But at what point is the boundary between real and fantasy crossed? For a lot of artists, both behind the scenes and in front of them, there is no line.
|
||
4383
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 66
|
https://variety.com/2022/global/global/estonia-series-production-chernobyl-bordertown-1235402098/
|
en
|
Inside ‘Estonia,’ Beta’s Series About Europe’s Deadliest Maritime Disaster From the Creatives Behind ‘Chernobyl’ and ‘Bordertown’
|
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[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Elsa Keslassy"
] |
2022-10-19T08:18:27+00:00
|
The eight-part show, budgeted at $14.7 million, charts the sinking of the MS Estonia on Sept. 28, 1994, which killed over 850 people.
|
en
|
Variety
|
https://variety.com/2022/global/global/estonia-series-production-chernobyl-bordertown-1235402098/
|
It’s pitch dark and stormy and Pelle Heikkilä, one of Finland’s biggest stars, is getting slammed by massive waves in a 10-meter-deep water tank.
The shoot of “Estonia,” a Scandinavian limited series about Europe’s deadliest civil maritime disaster, is underway in Belgium at an indoor water stage. The eight-part cinematic show, which is budgeted at €15 million ($14.7 million) and is being shopped by Jan Mojto’s Beta Film (“Babylon Berlin”) at Mipcom, charts the sinking of the MS Estonia on Sept. 28, 1994, which killed over 850 people.
The series is directed by Swedish director Måns Månsson (“The Real Estate,” “Chernobyl”) and Finnish director Juuso Syrjä (“Bordertown,” “Helsinki Syndrome”), who are polar opposites, one coming from festival-friendly auteur filmmaking, the other coming from high-end commercials.
Like the cast and crew of the series, the tragedy itself involved multiple countries, including Estonia, because it was an Estonian ship and departed from Tallinn; Sweden, because nearly half of the people who died in the shipwreck were Swedes; Finland, because the ship sinked in the Baltic sea near Finland; and finally, Germany, because the ferry was built by a West German shipyard.
Heikkilä (“Helsinky Syndrome,” “Invisible Heroes”) plays Ari Luoma-Aho, a Finnish rescue swimmer whose helicopter unit was the first one to arrive on the scene.
“I don’t have to act in there, I’m really trying to survive and save people. It’s like total chaos,” says Heikkilä, who admits that the role was different from any he’s played before because Luoma-Aho is still alive and isn’t a public figure.
“At first, Ari refused to be a part of this because he was skeptical about how it would be done, because he’s seen other TV series and movies about ‘Estonia’ and thought they were always done wrong and glorified the rescuers,” says Heikkilä, who stars alongside Doris Tislar, Katia Winter, Jussi Nikkilä, Peter Andersson and Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey.
“But when he read parts of the script, he said ‘I think you’re on to something. Like it’s close to the reality,'” he continues.
The immersive and subjective point of view of the series is precisely what Syrjä had in mind. “The camera is one of the characters and when we are in middle of this chaos, we push to be there, go in the middle of the accident, because we need to feel it and it’s handheld,” says Syrjä.
JP Passi, the Finnish cinematographer of “Estonia” who also worked on the Emmy- and BAFTA-winning mini-series “Chernobyl,” says he approached filming through thinking “how the scene was in reality, how it felt, looked – knowing that it was very, very dark.”
“They let us keep it as dark and as gritty and as crazy as we wanted to so that it feels that it’s the real thing and we’re in middle of everything,” says Passi, who collaborated on the series with VFX producer and supervisor Stefan Rycken and Dave Bannister.
On the set, Tislar, an Estonian actor, is also soaking wet, having completed underwater scenes for days. She plays Grete Kukk, an Estonian dancer who was meant to perform with her group on board on the MS Estonia and was one of the 138 people who survived. Grete almost drowned because she had put her life vest on backward and had to change rafts.
Tislar, who admits she wasn’t a good swimmer when she was cast and had to train every day for the role, also has a heavy heart when speaking about the project.
“It’s a series but we have to understand that it’s not entertainment, it’s not just another thriller action movie,” says Tislar. “It’s a real-life thing, and we have the responsibility of honoring the ones who didn’t survive, even if the focus is on the ones who did survive.”
It’s telling that “Estonia” re-teams Månsson and Passi, who previously worked together on “Chernobyl” which dramatized another European disaster, the 1986 explosion at the Nuclear Power Plant.
Månsson, who was a second-unit director on “Chernobyl,” says “Estonia” represents the biggest challenge he’s even taken on.
“I thought ‘Chernobyl’ was technically difficult, but this is way more complicated,” says Månsson. “It’s an ethical and moral minefield.”
While the sinking of the ship is an important part of the show, “Estonia” also spotlights the tentacular probe launched in the aftermath of the tragedy by the Joint Accident Investigation Committee established by Sweden, Estonia and Finland.
Showrunner Miikko Oikkonen (“Bordertown,” “Helsinki Syndrome”), who co-wrote the series with Olli Suitiala and Tuomas Hakola, says the starting point of the project was the fact that hundreds of testimonies of survivors and rescuers where finally unclassified.
“When I started to read the final report and went through the material, I realized the investigation itself was even more interesting than the accident,’ says Oikkonen. “It was a power play, a political game between these countries and it involved many conflicts of interests.”
The probe went on for nearly four years, and was deserted by all but one member, the young Henri Peltonen, who is one of the series’ protagonists. Inspired by a real character, Peltonen was determined to uncover the truth and penned the final report.
“The investigation was an equally horrible experience, and it was metaphorically also sinking. These two storylines are mirroring each other,” says showrunner Miikko Oikkonen (“Bordertown,” “Helsinki Syndrome”) who co-wrote the series with Olli Suitiala and Tuomas Hakola.
“When they started the investigation, they said that it is going to take two weeks, then maximum two months,” says Oikkonen. By the time the final report was published three and a half years later, five of the six-people on the board were gone – they either died or resigned.
With no one to blame, the disaster remained a sort of cold case which became, with time, almost taboo in Sweden, says Månsson.
Månsson says the impact on Swedish society was “massive” because the country “didn’t have any wars, and never had any disasters before… and all of the sudden, almost 500 Swedish people died and we were not ready for that.”
He says he finds the “lack of accountability” and the fact that “to this day no one knows what actually happened” frightening.
Månsson attribues the investigation’s lack of resolution to the Nordics’ conflict-averse attitude. “In so many other parts of the world, this would have gone to court, and would have been a legal battle,” says Månsson.
What the investigation did provide was “detailed information on what happened inside the ship, corridors, cabins and how people were feeling, because they interviewed survivors,” says Syrjä, adding that he used the wealth of intel to make it “as true as possible,” and also “fined-tuned” it “to make it more dramatic.”
Matti Halonen (“Bordertown”), who produced the series with Johannes Lassila (“Bordertown”) at Fisher King, the BETA-owned company behind “Nymphs” and “Bordertown,” says he and Oikkonen’s initial idea was to tackle the disaster like a “war trauma.” “I’ve made a couple war films and I see a lot of similarities in this kind of conflict,” says Halonen, who founded Fisher King with Oikkonen in 2013.
“When you have a war, no one wants to have it. It shouldn’t happen. We have all the same things here,” Halonen continues.
Justus Riesenkampff, executive chair of Beta Nordic Studios, which Fisher King is part of, says “Estonia” marked a milestone for the company and for Finland. “It’s a totally new level. ‘Estonia’ has a budget that’s three times higher than the average Finnish series,” says Riesenkampff.
The series was ordered by C More, TV4 and MTV3 Telia Estonia, and Beta already closed significant pre-sales, including Germany’s broadcaster SevenOne Entertainment Group, which bought “Chernobyl.” Fisher King produced the series with Swedish Kärnfilm AB, Andre Logié at Panache Production Belgium and Estonian Oü.
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https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bordertown_1935
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Bordertown (1935)
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https://resizing.flixster.com/nznhycn69LUO3TONmEl4TsV4QOo=/206x305/v2/https://resizing.flixster.com/cgClw9ZFkrlV0TsPfNM22CvAvvo=/ems.cHJkLWVtcy1hc3NldHMvbW92aWVzLzc5ZTcyYjdmLTlkMDEtNDgwMy04OWE4LTA5Y2M2NDUwZjI4NS53ZWJw
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[] |
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[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
After the L.A. judicial system disbars him following an angry outburst, recent law-school graduate Johnny Ramirez (Paul Muni) finds a job at a small casino south of the border. When Johnny's creative ideas help transform the failing casino into a high-class operation, the owner (Eugene Pallette) makes him the co-owner. But the owner's obsessive wife, Marie (Bette Davis), falls in love with Johnny, causing his life to spiral into a snare of jealousy, deceit and murder.
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https://www.rottentomatoes.com/assets/pizza-pie/images/favicon.ico
|
Rotten Tomatoes
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https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bordertown_1935
|
Let's keep in touch!
>
Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:
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4383
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https://chrisjonesblog.com/2012/04/12-ways-film-distribution-must-change-for-distributors-and-filmmakers-to-survive-a-manifesto-for-change.html
|
en
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It’s time for film makers to take action over distribution… it’s OUR problem, not theirs!
|
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Chris Jones"
] |
2012-04-12T00:00:00
|
It’s no secret that the current distribution model is broken, but I believe that a whole new model is about to evolve. And I woke this morning in something of a…
|
en
|
Chris Jones Filmmaker Blog
|
https://chrisjonesblog.com/2012/04/12-ways-film-distribution-must-change-for-distributors-and-filmmakers-to-survive-a-manifesto-for-change.html
|
It’s no secret that the current distribution model is broken, but I believe that a whole new model is about to evolve. And I woke this morning in something of a frenzy, needing to brain dump my thoughts… so here they are…
Here are the distribution problems right now…
1. The high impact life of your film is 14 days, max. Any buzz you create, any momentum you build, is now created on a global scale. Social media does not know boundaries – posters, trailers, interviews, articles – all go global in a moment, and ideally viral. I believe that you can only get REAL buzz for your project for a few weeks, something Morgan Spurlock discussed at NAB last week. After those two weeks, internet dies back considerably.
2. It follows then that you need to get your movie out as quickly as possible, and in as many territories as you can, and finally on all devices (TV, web, phone etc.). Ideally this would happen on the same day too.
3. If we create buzz and then fail to deliver an easy way for people to legally watch our films, we are simply begging people to rip and upload our films to share. I don’t believe these people think of themselves as pirates. This isn’t about money, it’s about us promising something amazing and then failing to deliver a way to watch the film legally and easily.
4. No single platform, aside from iTunes, seems to work well as yet. And iTunes being Apple owned, is housed a ridiculous walled garden.
5. Forget theatres, they are operating in a different century.
As a film maker, all this means that I will get very little back from current distribution methods and my film will get seen mostly via illegal downloads.
So the problem really comes down to an archaic distribution infrastructure run by largely backward thinking business people. Like all empires, this one will topple, and topple very soon. I genuinely wonder what the Cannes Film Market will look like in five years as I can’t see how things can carry on as they are.
Three Structures we need in place
Here’s what needs to happen for your film, and my film, to have a better chance of success today…
1. We need to release globally on the same day.
2. We need to release on every platform available to us (phone, online, VOD, theatre etc) on that same day. People should be able watch your film in their chosen environment and on the platform or device that suits them.
3. We need to remove as many barriers to purchase as possible (no staggered release, no geolocking, must be value for money, must be easy to purchase).
Without these three structures in place, the future is extremely challenging for filmmakers.
We need to own it
So, we as filmmakers need to own this problem. We need to own the destiny of our films and not just pass it on to third parties and cross our fingers. We need to find bold new collaborators who think like we do. The distributor of tomorrow is more likely a technology company with great marketing, transparent accounting and strong media partners than what we have today.
My Manifesto…
Filmmakers and sales agents need to start to think truly globally.
Sales agents and distributors need to wake up to the fact that filmmakers are now powerful marketers in the life cycle of the film, not just the creators.
The audience is no longer just a passive consumer, through social media and transmedia the audience are active participants.
If the audience wants a film right now, because we have created demand – they will find it. You either supply it to them, in the way they want it, at a price point that they accept, or they will find it illegally.
Distributors need to start thinking collaboratively – they MUST embrace new technology, transparency and partnerships.
Theatre owners need to enter the digital age – movies should be uploaded and downloaded online, not transported on 35mm or hard drives as is the current and ridiculous state of affairs.
Theatre owners (especially independents) should open themselves up to deals where film makers can use tools like ‘Demand It!’ in order to build a small, local audience for a film – the filmmaker can then upload remotely – the theatre would screen their film, maybe for one day, or even just one screening, after the film maker having driven traffic there.
And while we are on it, let’s see large plasma screen that are hooked to the web replacing paper posters inside theatres. Really, why on earth is this not happening now?
Artwork should be centralized so that all distributors can share and benefit from each others hard work. Yes I know they will bitch about who pays for what, but we need to move past this and start to really collaborate.
Rewards MUST be shared honestly – what if a centralized third party, money-service held all cash, releasing it to parties in accordance with deals made between all parties? Before we all say, ‘that will never happen’, remember, PayPal stole the internet market from Visa and Mastercard (at least at the low end of the market). It is possible and there is money to be made with an online collection agency. This would also make investment easier due to confidence and transparency.
And it’s a global release on one day people, on ALL platforms. This is why we need sales agents and distributors with vision, who can work collaboratively. We the filmmaker cannot do this alone, it’s too much work and we don’t have the connections or relationships. We need reliable and honest partners.
Let’s ditch DVD and BluRay. Mastering and carrying stock makes no sense when we live in an online world. There is no stock to warehouse or ship when your film is delivered via non-physical digital files.
Can we make moves toward a genuine ‘universal master’? So we make ONE file, from which all other files and formats are derived? Maybe uncompressed 1920×1080 HD in 4:4:4 with six discrete audio channels? In order to future proof your movie, there may be a higher quality master that you create before making this Universal Master. But when your film hits sales and distribution, why is there not one single format we can all work toward?
Final thoughts… over the years, I have seen filmmakers struggle with film technology that was expensive and a genuinely high barrier to entry. MiniDV removed that barrier, and cameras like the 5D MkII and now the Black Magic camera have crystalised that entry point. Desktop editing, proliferation of knowledge on the web, books and training courses have brought tools, knowledge and experience to everyone. Social media has connected us all in a way that we can genuinely help each other and collaborate… We are now in the final furlong… and distribution is the final fence to jump. Make no mistake, distribution that genuinely works for filmmakers and investors is the highest, most challenging barrier to overcome… but it will happen.
I have said it many times, but it needs to be said again. There’s never been a more exciting time to be a filmmaker.
Onwards and upwards!
Chris Jones
My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com
My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker
My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix
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| 8
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https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakdowns/2008-2/bordertown/
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en
|
BORDERTOWN – Bomb Report
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Azrael says:"
] |
2018-11-29T16:25:18-04:00
|
en
|
https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakdowns/2008-2/bordertown/
|
Bordertown
Rate Movie
[Total: 39 Average: 4.2]
Directed By: Gregory Nava
Written By: Gregory Nava
Release Date: January 29, 2008
Domestic Distributor: ThinkFilm
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Martin Sheen, Antonio Banderas
Box Office Info:
Budget: $20 million Financed by: Möbius Entertainment; New Mexico State Investment Council Domestic Gross: $0 Overseas Gross: $8,329,799
It was announced in March 2000 that Bordertown was in development at New Line, but the project eventually was put into turnaround. MGM then picked up Bordertown, which had a starring role commitment from Jennifer Lopez, but again the project fell apart. Eventually Bordertown landed at David Bergstein and Ron Tutor’s Möbius Entertainment — which financed the $20 million production with a $15 million loan from New Mexico State Investment Council, who would take 10-11% of the film’s profits — only if there were any.
Bordertown was filmed in 2005 and premiered at the Berlin Intl Film Festival in February 2007 and was booed. It never attracted a US distributor, so it was released by David Bergstein and Ron Tutor’s distribution company ThinkFilm. A limited theatrical release was planned, but ThinkFilm dumped Bordertown straight to video.
The film saw a release overseas to a poor $8.3 million across numerous distributors, with $2.8 million from Spain as the strongest showing and it went straight to video in Russia and most smaller markets.
David Bergstein had made a habit of not paying cast and crew for their work or paying residuals to union members and in 2007 the DGA brought Bergstein to arbitration and won. Gregory Nava was never paid his $450,000 salary for writing and directing Bordertown and as of 2010, he still was never paid despite the court order. In June 2018, David Bergstein was sentenced to 8 years in prison for defrauding investors out of $26M. Good riddance.
|
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https://distributionadvocates.substack.com/p/da-presents-film-school
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Distribution Advocates Presents: The Truth About Film School (Episode 4)
|
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2024-02-14T16:02:10+00:00
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Why is distribution almost completely absent from film school curriculums?
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https://substackcdn.com/icons/substack/favicon.ico
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https://distributionadvocates.substack.com/p/da-presents-film-school
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Why is distribution almost completely absent from film school curriculums? Host Avril Speaks delves into this discrepancy and looks at the real-world consequences for filmmakers. This episode features conversations with
, , Alece Oxendine, and Pat Murphy.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Avril Speaks:
I do want to ask you just the pointed question, do you think film school is a scam?
Jameka Autry:
Okay. Are we asking? Are we going there? Is this the question?
Avril Speaks:
Yeah, that’s my question. Do you think film school is a scam?
Jameka Autry:
I don’t think it’s a scam. I do think that it is overpriced for the actual value on the other side. In a lot of jobs and a lot of positions, you’re not going to be making a significant amount of money. You really have to weigh the pros and cons of if film school is going to be worth it, meaning am I in a position to take on a quarter of a million dollars worth of debt? And that’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of money to think about paying something back. I don’t think it’s a scam. I do think that you can learn really valuable skills, but is it overpriced? Absolutely. So here’s my story.
Avril Speaks:
Hello out there and welcome to Distribution Advocates Presents. I am your host, Avril Speaks, producer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Distribution Advocates. Our team has commissioned this series of conversations where we delve into concerns about the current landscape of independent film distribution. We’ll chat with folks who are navigating these spaces, debunk some outdated myths, and look to innovative, sustainable, and equitable solutions for distributing films to their waiting audiences.
In this episode, we’ll amble through the hallowed and expensive halls of film school as we dissect its function and value in the current industry of distribution. I’ll be joined by filmmaker-turned-professor Jameka Autry. We’ll also hear from Columbia Film School’s Industry Outreach Director Alece Oxendine, and filmmaker Pat Murphy, who attended NYU Tisch.
Thank you so much for doing this. Why don’t you introduce yourself to our audience?
Jameka Autry:
Sure. My name is Jameka Autry. I am a producer, filmmaker, investigative storyteller. I am a professor at Columbia University. All of those things.
Avril Speaks:
How long have you been teaching at Columbia?
Jameka Autry:
I first started teaching in the fall of 2020.
Avril Speaks:
You came into this experience having had experience in the field as a producer. Talk a little bit about your experience as a producer and what you were doing before you went into the classroom as an educator.
Jameka Autry:
Absolutely. By training, I was a photographer. I decided I wanted to go into business for myself. I was doing a lot of photojournalism, and so I went to Duke and they had a Center for Documentary Studies program. I started off on the photography side and there was a class that I took with Elisabeth Haviland James, and she was an amazing producer. She did The Loving Story (2011), and I just fell in love with filmmaking from taking her class. So I started over my program at Duke. Duke Center for Documentary Studies when I was there was not an accredited MFA program. There was only a certificate program, and so it was exponentially cheaper than it is now. I went and pursued a certificate, and then I moved to New York after I finished that program and ended up working for almost five years with Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, who are two amazing producers.
But I got my start really working on the post-production side first, which I think is different from most producers. They usually go from a production assistant to an associate producer to then producer, and I started opposite of that. I was an assistant editor and then I went to an associate producer, and then a co-producer and then a producer. Did a ton of all the non-glamorous things such as clearances, post-production supervising. I was really in the weeds on a lot of the technical things, which at first, I think I was really upset about, but it was the best training ground possible because it made me a better producer on the front side.
I worked with Ricki and Annie for about five years, then I went to Cinereach, worked with their original productions team, which was also a wonderful experience. I learned a lot about the industry, but from a different side, learned more about the business and that prepared me to actually go out and become an independent producer.
Avril Speaks:
I love your story about how you got started coming up through post, because sometimes, I feel when we talk about producing, we don’t even talk about the opportunities there. That’s a whole other skill set.
Jameka Autry:
There is, I think now, more of a place to specialize in your specific field of producing, and I think it’s a better place to start than just saying upon graduation, “I’m an independent producer,” and hanging out a shingle and being expected to do every single thing and every single job, which we know is an immense list for independent producers. And sometimes it’s better to start in the skill set where you can really grasp and make an impact.
So I had been independently producing for about three to four years when I had an opportunity to go to Berkeley. I did a fellowship at UC Berkeley at their Investigative Reporting Program, which for me, was just building another skill set in the investigative reporting realm. The fellowship at Berkeley was amazing. It was a, quote unquote, job, so I was a salaried employee of the university but also had the opportunity to audit classes, learn from amazing investigative journalists, although it was only for one year instead of their traditional two-year program. So that’s how I was able to make it work for me. That’s a film school hack.
Jemma Desai:
I didn’t come through film school, but I did come to it through a love of watching films, watching Parajanov films, every single Pasolini film. Really, that was my film school.
Barbara Twist:
I went to film school for undergrad. I studied film studies with also some film production. I’m a big believer in knowing what’s come before you so that you’re better informed. It gives you an opportunity to explore and see what’s out there.
Avril Speaks:
A good friend of mine that I went to school with is always like, “I demand a refund. They need to refund me my money.”
Pat Murphy:
I think film schools should orient more towards the business side of filmmaking.
Avril Speaks:
So stepping into the world of academia, once you started teaching, what were you starting to see? What were some of the first things you started to notice in terms of those differences between your real lived experience versus the classroom teaching experience of teaching film, or documentary film in particular?
Jameka Autry:
When I got the job at Columbia, I asked really specifically, “What are my thresholds? What can I teach? What can I not teach?” And they said, “Well, really, it’s up to you. We really trust you in this role,” and they let me build the program or my class structure in the way that I thought it should run, which was great. Duke really teaches you how to be a one-man-band-type filmmaker. It doesn’t teach you anything about the business. That part was something that I still had to really learn when I came to New York.
In the real world, you’re working in teams. There’s always a collaboration. You have a lot of voices and opinions that you have to navigate, but everything is done in a team structure. The one-man-band setup is great to learn those technical skills about “how do I run camera at the same time I’m running sound,” and “how do I actually learn to edit?” It really gave me a foundation for some of those things, but it’s not at all like the actual industry.
Avril Speaks:
I would love to know, just from your class, what are some things that you’ve implemented to try and bridge this gap?
Jameka Autry:
It’s hard because I think in a classroom setting, you are in a position where you’re still getting to know the students and they have a structured program that they go through. Columbia’s program is three years, even for producing students. But I really, really focus on the fact that you have to know who you are as a producer before you’re actually going to be really good to anyone else, and so figuring out what you don’t like is as important as figuring out what you do like. Because we know that “producer” is no longer like a one-size-fits-all. There’s different specialties within the producing field. Some people are line producers, some people are creative producers, some people just work on distribution, so it really just depends on where your skill set lies, and I focus a lot with the students on trying to figure out, what do you not like? Because if you know what you don’t like, you can figure out what you do like.
And just through some of these practices and walking them through the steps of making a budget, making a treatment, working on a pitch deck, I figure out, okay, you’re really good at writing, you’re not great at visuals, or you’re really great at numbers. Do you like the numbers? One of the things that I do in my class and the way it’s structured is that we talk about money and financing. I give the students a very, very accurate picture of what the industry is and how to navigate it, meaning that it’s not a lot of theory and “let’s study film.” It’s really the basics about producing. It’s how do you write a treatment? What are some of the things you look for in legal conversations? How do you put together a distribution deal?
And again, a lot of this is classroom discussion and not real life, but I wanted to mirror it and make the class as close to real life as possible. Because I think this industry is really full of smoke and mirrors, especially on the unscripted side. There’s so much independent wealth that’s floating around in these spaces. You’re working alongside people who have trust funds or who have a wealthy spouse, and they don’t have to actually worry about the paying of the bills on a monthly basis. They’re just doing this for the passion, but that’s not most people’s journey. I think a lot of people that are working below the line are people that need the paycheck.
Really dispelling some of those myths is also important, and you have to be committed in the classroom to telling that story. You have to be committed to telling the story of when you graduate, you are probably going to be making no money for a really long time. What does that look like? How do you navigate that? How do you get your first job? And so I’m really focused on some of the skill sets that people have so that they can actually go out and apply for a job.
Avril Speaks:
So let’s talk about some illusions of grandeur, especially as it relates to the myth of film school. I laugh because in Distribution Advocates, we often talk about filmmakers having a plan for their film, and oftentimes, people are just like, “Oh yeah, my plan is to premiere at Sundance and then get a deal with A24, and then just become famous.” The question we’ve been asking at Distribution Advocates is does film school help perpetuate that idea and also everything that comes along with that idea? Can you talk about that a little bit in terms of that myth?
Jameka Autry:
Yeah, it’s a really dangerous myth that I think has been sold, and I don’t know where it comes from exactly. I think of Spike Lee being discovered out of NYU and becoming this overnight phenomenon. That was a very, very, very different time and I think that that time has passed. I don’t think that that is at all the landscape that is out there anymore.
Avril Speaks:
Similar sentiments were also shared by Alece Oxendine and Pat Murphy when I sat down with them.
Alece Oxendine:
My name is Alece Oxendine. I’m the Director of Industry and Festival Outreach for Columbia University’s film program. 15 years ago, you could be an auteur. If you went to film school 15 years ago and you’re making films and you’re doing what you have to do, you can be an auteur. You cannot be an auteur right now. Right now, you have to be an entrepreneur and there’s no way of getting around that. When I say entrepreneur versus auteur, I feel like an auteur can create in a vacuum and there’s people that support that auteur, and they tend to be mostly men unfortunately. They have the privilege, I should say, of creating in the vacuum and just being in their own esoteric world that is an anomaly and not the norm. We need to be paying attention to distribution. You need to learn about it, you need to know about it.
Avril Speaks:
And so you’ve had some experience with producer and professor, Michelle Materre. She was someone who did make it a point to educate filmmakers about distribution while she was here, and her class in film distribution at the New School was very well known and lauded, from what I understand.
Alece Oxendine:
Michelle was a formidable voice when it came to distribution. One of the few classes I’ve ever heard of about distribution, I actually begged her for a syllabus, so I have one of her syllabus on distribution somewhere floating around on my Google Docs. I would see her talking to an echo chamber or see her talking into empty spaces, yelling, “Hey, y’all.” I know how challenging it was for her to make sure she had a voice in distribution, and that’s been what my crusade is. We are living in a different world than we’ve ever had before in the industry, and this is coming from someone who studied the historiography of cinema. We need to be paying attention to distribution. Know about it, learn about it, be respected in the space of distribution, and she was the first person I learned this from.
Avril Speaks:
As someone who went to film school and also as someone who’s a former professor, I used to teach everything from pre-production through post. I’ve never taught a distribution class. I know that there are some schools that have them here and there, but it’s rare.
Pat Murphy:
My name is Pat Murphy. I’m a documentary editor and director and producer. I definitely don’t want to say that I regret my NYU film school education whatsoever. I’m very grateful and lucky to have been able to have that experience. I learned a ton about the craft of filmmaking and documentary filmmaking specifically at Tisch. Professors there ended up being some of my first jobs out of the industry. NYU did not teach anything about the business of film, about marketing or distribution certainly. You do have to question this kind of system. While I learned a ton about the craft, they did not really prepare me for the real world.
Avril Speaks:
I went to Columbia and I also used to teach film at a couple of different colleges, and I so value education. I loved teaching, but in retrospect, what type of education were we pushing? Now that I’m no longer teaching and I’m full throttle as an independent filmmaker, it’s something that I think about a lot, but it’s rare that you touch on that side of things in terms of what happens to your film after you’ve made it? Jameka, I’m wondering if you have any insight or any thoughts on that in terms of why that is and why film school is set up that way, that it’s very much on practice and very little on business?
Jameka Autry:
I think there’s a disconnect. A lot of it is systemic and also political. I think that you have a mismatch of systems in a way. I think that adjunct professors are the ones who are able to actually go out and have the time to still navigate and work a lot of times in the industry, so they’re seeing these things firsthand. Whereas, tenured professors who are there and teaching full time, their access to the actual industry is a little bit more limited. They might be learning from their colleagues who are out in the field, but I don’t think that they actually are on the front lines anymore.
So they’re teaching practice, meaning they’re teaching things that are technical in nature, things that are going to be stable and usually never change, but the business around is changing and there’s not a lot of actual business courses. And when they are, I think you see them taught by adjuncts who are actually out in the business in a more real way and can actually report back and bring back that information. But adjuncts are in a place where they’re being paid very low wages for teaching a class, and so you still have this system of taking and extracting, and not actually giving back to those sources that are actually pouring into the system.
Avril Speaks:
You mentioned a lot of adjuncts, they’re just coming in for that class so they’re not necessarily ingrained in the day-to-day of that program and of the students, and just what that means in terms of the overall structure of the program. I think the other thing too is having schools that will support tenured professors in making work. I’ve experienced at times that not every program supports professors taking a semester to go and make a film, you know what I’m saying? It’s really also a matter of that program supporting those professors getting that kind of real world experience, so I think that’s an issue as well.
Jameka Autry:
I’m a huge advocate for anyone having to go back in the field and relearn their skills. I don’t care if you’re a professor. I actually think that industry execs who are making a lot of decisions also need to go back into the field. It’s funny because a lot of them unfortunately have never sometimes been in the field, but I think even if you started off there, you need to go back every 10 years and maybe re-up. I think that when you’re not out in the field, it’s really easy to make a lot of decisions that impact people in really specific ways, and if you don’t have that understanding, if you don’t have that skill set, if you don’t have that training, you’re making decisions that really are out of your place, out of your bounds.
Avril Speaks:
The industry changes so fast, even in terms of distribution. What works today is not what people were doing even three years ago. Even before the pandemic, things were different than they are now. You have to be in it in order to know and to understand what’s trending. Also, let’s be real. This is kind of a closed door industry.
Jameka Autry:
The level of nepotism in this industry is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I think there’s different degrees of nepotism. I will say that I got my first big job because the person who was interviewing had gone to Duke, so there was a name recognition and that’s how I got my foot in the door. But I’ve also seen a lot of production studios where someone will say, “I was also a graduate of XYZ College and I’m looking for a job, and do you have a job?” And I can’t tell you how many interns or production assistants that I had to teach the basics. There was no skill set there.
Avril Speaks:
It’s so funny, when I graduated from Columbia, Michael Moore spoke at our graduation and his whole speech was basically like, “You’ve just wasted your money.”
Jameka Autry:
Oh, no. That was the graduation speech? You wasted your money?
Avril Speaks:
That was our graduation speech. I mean, it was essentially like, “You spent all this money and now you’re going to spend the rest of your life trying to pay it back, working for corporate America to try and pay this money back.” And essentially, his graduation speech was, you just spent, in my case, six years in a scam.
Jameka Autry:
So as someone who has gone through the Ivy League system, you feel that it is a scam.
Avril Speaks:
It’s a very heavy term.
For a long time, I really felt like I had wasted money and time because first of all, that program broke my soul. It’s okay, I got it back, but I came out of it broken mentally, spiritually, in many ways. So for a long time, I felt like this was such a waste. I didn’t really understand the value of it until I started teaching. I realized, particularly Columbia because they’re so story focused, it’s a very story-heavy program, and I started to understand the importance of story, and I still feel that way. That’s something I’ve been able to carry with me as a producer, as an exec. Basically in every arena of my career, I’m understanding how important story is and how helpful that time was to really understand what that is and what that looks like and how to build the story. Now, did I need to put myself into this kind of debt in order to learn that? I don’t know. That’s a question I can’t answer.
Scam is a heavy word, but I do really think that it’s a structure that needs to be looked at on both ends, from a student perspective in terms of students going into film programs, but also on the administrator end. As professors, as admins who are running film schools, I think that there needs to be some work on what is the narrative about the film industry that we’re perpetuating and that we’re giving the students. They’re coming out of these programs with certain expectations about how their career is going to go and how they’re going to get there that I think are unrealistic.
And I get asked a lot, would you recommend film school? I love teaching and so I placed a lot of value on education, but in retrospect, in thinking about what type of education we were pushing or we were teaching, even as a professor, it’s something that’s really worth taking a look at, both from a film school perspective and also from the perspective as filmmakers who are looking to make our work.
So Alece, I’m curious from your perspective, whether or not filmmakers choose to attend film school or not, what do you believe they need to know about the business of film, specifically as it relates to distribution?
Alece Oxendine:
When filmmakers go and they’re talking to the distributor or they’re talking to—whether a financier or anybody along in the process—the more you understand your audience, the better. It makes that distribution process easier, because that’s distribution. I think people miss what the definition is, and that’s how people get confused and scared. When they hear distribution, they’re like, “It’s money, and I didn’t want to work in finance. I’m a filmmaker. I don’t know anything about finance. I don’t know what I’m doing. I get really scared.” And I said, “Actually, it is just you connecting with your audience.” Think of distribution being that way, and it kind of demystifies everything and it makes it a lot easier for you to approach distribution. It’s like, no, it’s just connecting with my audience. I know who my audience is. So when you talk to a distributor, you talk to a sales agent, you talk to anybody, you say, “Here’s my audience. Can you reach this audience?” It’s an important question to ask when you’re talking to distributors and you’re talking about distribution. “Can you reach this audience?” The first question you ask.
Avril Speaks:
So we’ve heard here some useful tools that can be gained by going to film school, but there are also real flaws with the current model. Film school tends to focus on the creative. Not even every film school teaches business, period. It’s like an ongoing conversation that I feel like I’m always having. Whenever I do panels, you have to stress, this is the film business. It’s a business. And I think a lot of times when people see the stars walking the red carpet and stuff, people think that that’s all that film is, and they’re just like, “Oh, I just want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of that.” Or, “I have a story to tell and I want to learn how to tell that story.” So when you go to film school and when people create film schools, when they create these departments, you’re teaching people how to tell stories.
But the problem I think that we have in the industry is that this thing of telling stories and this thing of a business, they don’t always match up. I do think that there needs to be some restructuring of graduate film school. It’s an MFA, which is a master of fine art, but filmmaking is a business. It hasn’t been a fine art for a while, and so I think that there needs to be a restructuring that looks at the film school experience in that light, as a business in terms of what are you creating and also what are you thinking about in terms of audience and how does that connect with the market that’s in place today? But I also think if that’s going to be the case, there has to be the support for students and for faculty to make it a program of practice.
You have professors in here who are very knowledgeable in their craft. Why aren’t the professors out making movies and bringing the students in on that filmmaking process? Kind of like shadowing or like an apprenticeship type of situation. That had always been my dream of how to do this whole thing of teaching, of teaching film school, is making the practice of it be incorporated into the curriculum. How about we make a film from soup to nuts, from beginning to end, and really see what that process is like putting a film together, financing it. Yes, making it, but it’s financing it. It’s finding the audience, distributing it, exhibiting it, and letting students see the entire process of that.
That’s all for this episode of Distribution Advocates Presents. Tune in for other series installments discussing the landscapes of film festivals, distribution, sales agents, awards, and exhibition. This episode is produced by Moso Haus. Our producer is Nacey Watson Johnson. Our supervising producer is Ivana Tucker, and our production manager is Samiah Adams. Sound design is by Emily Crain. Special thanks to the team at Distribution Advocates, Abby Sun, Carlos Gutierrez, Karin Chien, Amy Hobby, and Kelly Thomas, as well as this episode’s guests, Pat Murphy, Jameka Autry, Alece Oxendine, Jemma Desai, and Barbara Twist. And of course, a heartfelt thank you to our funders, Ford Foundation, Prospective Fund, and Color Congress. Until next time, I’m your host, Avril Speaks, signing off.
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https://www.europa-distribution.org/interview-with-cecile-salin-head-of-acquisitions-of-diaphana-distribution-france/
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Interview with Cécile Salin, Head of Acquisitions of Diaphana Distribution, France
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"Europa Distribution"
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https://www.europa-distribution.org/interview-with-cecile-salin-head-of-acquisitions-of-diaphana-distribution-france/
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By Jesús Silva
Cécile Salin, Head of Acquisitions of Diaphana Distribution, shared with us the particularities of her job as an independent film distributor in France.
While acknowledging the important measures implemented by the French government to tackle the crisis this year, Salin points out the urgency to think about the consequences of the pandemic in the near future.
Could you give us an overview of your company’s history and setup?
Diaphana Distribution was founded in 1989 by Michel Saint-Jean. We have been distributing films for over 30 years, while working in production for the last 20 — the first film we produced was Harry, He’s Here to Help (2000) by Dominik Moll. We release around 12 films every year, and more than half of them are French-speaking. We focus on acquiring quality arthouse cinema for a large audience, trying to pick up films in festivals like Cannes, Venice, Berlin … As a company, we have two main targets: finding new talents and developing long-lasting relationships with our directors.
At the moment, we are developing three films with our production branch, and we are also involved in the co-production of the new Lukas Dhont film. For years, we have been attending co-production markets to poll films. We don’t have a sales company attached to our brand, like a lot of our competitors in France, so we are basically attending markets to read scripts and find projects at the same time as our competition. We don’t usually go on buying at this stage, but I have the feeling that, from now on, we are going to be involved in more co-productions, also of non-French-speaking titles.
In your opinion, what are the particularities and challenges of the French market for film distribution?
We have around 4,200 screens across the country, which is huge. France has more independent cinemas than Germany, where there is almost the same number of screens, but a lot of them are located at multiplexes. The network of independent cinemas in France allows us to have a real circuit for arthouse films. Another particularity of the French market is that local films represent 40-50% of the admissions every year. Actually, during the pandemic, the share of French films was even higher due to the lack of American blockbusters. It is also interesting to note that there is space for all kinds of distributors in the market: the ones like us, focusing on arthouse films for a wide audience, the ones making pure arthouse and those releasing more commercial titles.
As for the challenges, it is similar to other territories. Right now, we have to speak about the pandemic, which has accelerated some trends that were already present in the market. The big streaming platforms were not so strong in France as in other countries, but they have grown up a lot recently. I think we may have to rethink our media chronology for the future. There is a balance to find if we want to remain competitive.
What do you think is the role of a film distributor?
Distributors are essential, especially nowadays, when there is so much content available on cinemas, platforms, TV, YouTube, … The role of film distributors is to help the audience navigate all this content. We speak to the press and work on promotion to create awareness about the titles. When people see our logo on a film, they know what it means. For us, it is really about bringing a large audience to watch arthouse films, trying to make them curious about cinema. We often release films that deal with important topics, because we believe cinema is also a great way to express ideas and try to change things. This is why I think film distribution is important.
How do you usually approach your marketing strategy? Can you give us an example of a successful promotional campaign for a European film that you had in the past?
Apart from the usual promotional materials, we try to focus on the specific themes of the films. In every project, we try to establish partnerships with associations, create pedagogical kits for schools, … I would mention the example of In the Name of the Land (Edouard Bergeon, 2019), a film about the suicide of a farmer, starring Guillaume Canet. We knew it was an excellent film, but we needed to attract people. We worked a lot on the marketing, engaging with local associations and organizing more than 400 press screenings in little towns across France. It was four months of work before the release, and the film made almost 2 million admissions. It was one of the most special and successful campaigns we had so far. Girl (2018), the first feature by Lukas Dhont, was also a good example. The director came on a long tour with us, which was also crucial for the promotion.
What is usually the split of income for your films in terms of windows? How is it evolving?
70% of our income comes from theatrical distribution, 13.6% from video and VOD, 7% from TV and the rest from additional sources. It is important to mention that, for French films, producers hold the TV rights, so it really changes the numbers. As for the current trends, SVOD is becoming more important, while DVD is decreasing.
What measures were put in place to help distributors during the pandemic, and how will it affect the circulation of independent films in the near future?
Talking about specific support during the pandemic, the government announced various measures: an increase in the Support Fund for distributors by the CNC, a bonus for the films affected by the curfew, support for certain non-French-speaking titles, the reimbursement of a part of the P&A costs for films that were released right before the lockdown or scheduled for the following months, and an Extra Solidarity Fond. All these measures are great, but some of them are still to be paid.
The CNC tried to arrange something for the reopening of cinemas, in terms of controlling who will be allowed to release which films and when, so the competition is not that harsh. There was also a discussion in order to organise a “white week” (during one week, only the films that were already released in October could be relaunched). But there were too many different opinions and, unfortunately, both of those initiatives collapsed.
Even though the situation now is very tough, the question should be: “how will it look like in one year?”. In 2020, the number of admissions in France went down from 200 million to 70 million. What will happen next year? If there are fewer admissions there will be less money in the CNC, which means less support for production, distribution, … I’m more worried about the repercussions the pandemic will have in the following years.
At the moment, are you releasing some of your films directly on VOD and TV or postponing all your titles?
We cannot go directly on VOD or TV because this year we have only French titles, so the producers decide if they want to go straight to other windows. We did postpone everything during the lockdown. If cinemas reopen on 19 May, as the government announced, we would release 3 films until July: Under the Stars of Paris (Claus Drexel, 2020), A Night Doctor (Elie Wajeman, 2020) and The Rose Maker (Pierre Pinaud, 2020). As for other titles, we have a clear stream of releases but without specific opening dates. We are also waiting for the Cannes selection announcement.
On a more personal note, what keeps you motivated to do this job, and how do you see the future?
I’m just a film-lover, and I truly enjoy this job: discovering films at festivals, reading scripts, meeting people, … When you love films, you just want to convince other people that these are important, a great way to see life from another point of view. I know the future is uncertain, but I want to believe that cinema will survive. We need to dream in these times.
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/05/business/010613-the-children-of-thinkfilm.html
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en
|
The Children of ThinkFilm
|
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[
"ThinkFilm",
"BORN INTO BROTHELS (MOVIE)",
"Half Nelson (Movie)",
"Movies"
] | null |
[
"The New York Times"
] |
2014-01-05T00:00:00
|
ThinkFilm was founded in 2001 as an independent art-house distributor by several former executives at Lionsgate. The company became known for award-winning films like “Born Into Brothels” and “Half Nelson.” After the company closed in 2008, many former ThinkFilm employees went on to lead new film businesses.
|
en
|
https://static01.nyt.com/favicon.ico
|
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/05/business/010613-the-children-of-thinkfilm.html
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3
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https://tfip.org/impact-services/
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en
|
Think-Film Impact Production
|
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[
""
] | null |
[
"jicao"
] |
2023-04-12T15:47:24
|
en
|
https://tfip.org/impact-services/
|
Impact Production Services
We offer a wide range of production services further elevating our unique impact approach and offering. We combine vast film industry and political experience, trustedstakeholder relationships and high-level think-tank ideation in house. Your film will have a whole life around it and bring your art and vital issue the reach and success it deserves.
DEVELOPMENT
Impact assessment of production slates to spotlight content and maximise impact opportunities. Script consulting and creative development insight to analyse risks and help filmmakers harness the power of story effectively.
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/thinkfilm-at-5-140576/
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en
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ThinkFilm at 5
|
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[
"Gregg Goldstein",
"The Associated Press"
] |
2006-10-24T05:00:00+00:00
|
ThinkFilm has thrived for five years in the dog-eat-dog world of New York indie film distribution.
|
en
|
The Hollywood Reporter
|
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/thinkfilm-at-5-140576/
|
Unsimulated gay sex. Improvised dialogue. No stars, and barely any professional actors. A $2 million budget cobbled together piecemeal. What distributor in its right mind would take on a film with as many risks as John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus”? And after the controversial film became a critical hit at this year’s Festival de Cannes, what distributor would Mitchell trust to roll out such a minefield to the public?
The answer to both questions is ThinkFilm, a company that has grown over the past five years by taking exactly these kinds of chances, walking a tightrope without the net of corporate affiliation and nabbing several Oscars along the way. Born when Lions Gate Films opted to shutter its New York offices and move its headquarters to Los Angeles in 2001, ThinkFilm is comprised of former executives and assistants who worked in the company’s New York and Toronto offices and decided that staying indie — and staying in their hometowns — would be their priority.
The other key mandate, of course, was to seek out daring, challenging films, which can be a very risky business. For every movie like 2004’s children-of-prostitutes docu “Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red-Light Kids,” or the current critical darling “Half Nelson,” there have been boxoffice disasters like Gus Van Sant’s 2003 film “Gerry.” But such failures have not deterred this indie’s indie: At least one sure-to-be-controversial docu about a popular and ubiquitous four-letter word, “Fuck,” is set for release Nov. 10.
“Their name is very fitting, in that they truly believe audiences want to think and want to be challenged,” Film Society of Lincoln Center program director Richard Pena says. “Their audience is people who go to films to have their minds opened up, not to be pacified.”
Having founding staff members that were already a tight-knit, assimilated group has been one secret to ThinkFilm’s success. The core group that runs ThinkFilm today still largely consists of the original Lions Gate refugees, including former president Jeff Sackman; former president creative, East Coast Mark Urman; former vp home entertainment Marc Hirshberg; and former vp acquisitions and business affairs Randy Manis. Today, ThinkFilm employs 35 staffers, many of whom have risen internally like Daniel Katz, a once titleless Lions Gate employee whom ThinkFilm promoted to vp acquisitions in 2004.
“The idea was that there was no formal hierarchy,” ThinkFilm president and CEO Sackman says. “We put together a team of qualified, capable people who work well together, have the respect of the industry, the respect of each other — and just hustle.”
“They’ve shown they can be successful with films where other companies might say, ‘I don’t think there’s a market for this,'” Pena says. “They find the market. And any company with Mark Urman is at an immediate advantage. He has great taste, a wealth of experience and a great attitude.”
What got ThinkFilm going back in 2001, however, was more than just a solid group of employees. Sackman had a friend (whom he declines to name) who armed him with a low-seven-figure loan to acquire Canadian distribution rights to more than 40 films from Blackwatch Releasing, which was going out of business. The deal, which ThinkFilm senior vp finance and operations Hirshberg describes as “miraculous,” included the 2003 release “Last Wedding” (the opening-night selection for the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival) and many stateside Sony Pictures Classics releases including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” which won the foreign-language Oscar in 2001.
The loan and the TV and video rights to the films “basically gave us our fuel to get going,” says Sackman, who repaid his friend within two years.
Before the official launch, says ThinkFilm U.S. theatrical head Urman, “We were subterranean and secretive — nobody knew what any of us was doing.” The company had a bittersweet debut at the Toronto fest just four days before the Sept. 11 attacks but rebounded in 2002 with three acquisition announcements at the Sundance Film Festival: Peter Care’s “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,” Bart Freundlich’s “World Traveler” and Laurent Cantet’s “Time Out.”
Within two months, Think-Film founded its straight-to-video genre division, Velocity Home Entertainment, headed by Sackman and overseen by vp finance and operations Hirshberg, and made its first worldwide-rights-and-prebuy deal with Thom Fitzgerald’s “The Event.”
The company enjoyed solid growth until January 2003, when issues arose over ThinkFilm’s initial financial backing, and Sackman’s longtime friend, Alliance Communications founder Robert Lantos, stepped in, buying a 50% stake in the company and taking over as chairman. ThinkFilm received another cash infusion in August 2004, thanks to private equity from Canadian investment firms Covington Capital Corp. and Dynamic Venture Opportunities Fund.
As any independent distributor knows, money is hard to come by, and Urman attributes the company’s overall longevity to its intelligent use of resources. “What we spend on (prints and advertising) on some of our big boxoffice films relative to what other people spend is just so much less,” he says, comparing ThinkFilm’s summer release “Strangers With Candy” to another film from a studio specialty division that he declines to name.
“They went out on 800 prints to make something around $4 million, and we never did more than 100-and-something prints to make more than $2 million. They must have spent $7 million-$8 million in P&A, and we spent 1?5 of that. So, who’s making more money? It’s all about the bottom line.”
And it’s about the future. That expansion financing from 2004 helped ThinkFilm start releasing its theatrical features on DVD under the new ThinkFilm Home Entertainment label (alongside its Velocity straight-to-DVD titles). The company also has launched an international sales division, which debuted at Cannes in 2005 under the direction of Alliance Atlantis Pictures International president Mark Horowitz. ThinkFilm recently promoted David Fenkel from vp marketing to vp international sales, tasking him with heading up the company’s international division.
“It occurred to us that the international theatrical exploitation of nonfiction film was a growing market,” Urman says. “We were discovering these films at Sundance nobody knew anything about, getting them a great deal of attention, and then someone else was picking up international rights and making money. Why would we want something else to do that?
“It’s an advantage going into markets if you’re in a position to make a worldwide offer,” Urman continues. “One negotiation, one delivery — and you just have more to offer any buyer.”
And considering its positioning for the future, ThinkFilm has just begun to strike multipicture deals to build its brand and its relationships with filmmakers and stars.
Whether such arrangements lead to even bigger ambitions — such as a sale of the privately held company or a rethinking of ThinkFilm’s modus operandi — remains under wraps. Sackman will say only that “this company has been for sale since it started,” adding that he’s very content with the way the business is operating. “I’ve been in this business 20 years, and I’ve seen 50 distributors come and go,” he says, “So, I’m very proud of the fact that we continue to exist. Period.”
|
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https://www.theguerrillarep.com/blog/how-did-film-distribution-get-so-broken
|
en
|
How Did Film Distribution Get So Broken? — Guerrilla Rep Media
|
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/641c70c6404e8240d813222f/641c82d5c65ee52a3811e8dc/646e55186e63382830d0ae74/1684953148451/How+did+Film+Distribution+get+so+broken.jpg?format=1500w
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] | null |
[
"Ben Yennie"
] |
2019-05-29T14:19:00-04:00
|
Filmmakers know the system sales agents use to exploit their content is well, exploitative. The issue runs deeper that dishonesty. Here’s an exploration.
|
en
|
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/641c70c6404e8240d813222f/b01f6638-445a-47b7-a5b2-90fd18c71b66/favicon.ico?format=100w
|
Guerrilla Rep Media
|
https://www.theguerrillarep.com/blog/how-did-film-distribution-get-so-broken
|
It’s no secret that many (if not most) filmmakers think film distribution is broken. While there are many reasons for it, part of it is due to the rapid change in the amount of money flowing to distributors, and what constituted effective marketing. What works for marketing films now isn't what worked in the past, and the systems distributors built themselves around have fallen apart. Here's an elaboration.
First, some history.
Independent Film Distribution used to be primarily a game of access. By controlling the access and becoming a gatekeeper, it was easy to make buckets of cash. If you had a VHS printer and access to a warehouse facility that could help you ship to major retail outlets you could make literal millions off of a crappy horror film.
In those days it was also significantly harder and significantly more expensive to make a film, as you’d need to buy 16mm or 35mm film, get it duplicated, cut it by hand using a viola, and then reassemble it and have prints made. This was a very expensive process, so the number of independent films that were made was much smaller than it is today.
Then DVD came along, and around the same time some of the early films from the silent era that actually had followings entered the public domain. As such, a good amount of companies started printing those to acquire enough capital to buy libraries and eventually build themselves into major studios. Sure, DVD widened the gate a bit, but it also expanded the market so everyone was happy.
Around this time, Non-Linear Editors and surprisingly viable digital and tape cameras were coming into prominence. As a result, it became much more possible to make an independent film than it was before. Of course, at that time it was still beyond the reach of most people, and since the average amount of content being made went up, the demand was growing enough that there still wasn’t a massive issue with oversaturation.
A similar expansion was expected with Blu-Ray, but at around the same time, alternative services like iTunes were starting to become viable as broadband internet was becoming commonplace. As such, the demand for physical media started to dwindle, and as a result, the revenue being made dropped.
At the same time, Full HD cameras were now very affordable, and some even rivaled 35mm film. So the amount of money being made in the industry went down, and more films were being made than ever before.
Shortly after that, the ability to disintermediate and cut out the gatekeepers came to be. As such, the market became flooded with often low-quality films that the challenge was no longer getting your film out there, it was now getting your film noticed. That’s where we are now, and nobody has fully been able to solve that problem yet.
Here’s a summary of how we got there, and how the process of distribution has changed.
Access USED to be enough
It used to be that access was all you needed. Once you had that, you could make an insane amount of money selling other people’s content.
Sell it on the box art
The box art being caught was the most important thing. Stores didn’t let you return movies because you didn’t like them, and other than your own limited circle of friends consumers didn’t have a lot of power to let people know about bad movies, or bad products in general.
Sell it on the trailer
Even if it was bad, nothing would come of it. Once you had their money, that was all you needed. The idea of making your money in the first weekend before bad word of mouth got around was much more viable as people couldn’t just tweet it out or rant about it on Facebook or YouTube.
Let’s contrast that with how things work Now:
Access is easy
Anyone with a few thousand dollars can put their film up on most Transactional platforms on the internet. You can also put it on Amazon or Vimeo yourself for free. There are very few in terms of quality controls.
the Poster/keyart is still important, but reviews are more important.
Sure, people still get their eyes caught by a poster. But the reviews matter significantly more in terms of getting them to a purchase decision. The poster may catch their eye, but the meta score from users on whatever platform you’re watching the film on is important.
The trailer might still be the deciding factor
Generally, after people see the poster, they’ll read the synopsis, and then they’ll either watch the trailer or read the reviews. If they watch the trailer, they may have more leniency on reviews.
Also, if the trailer is really good, it can get a bit of viral spread.
If it’s bad, it will become known.
|
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|
https://metrograph.com/meanwhile-on-earth-press-copy/
|
en
|
Metrograph Appoints Independent Film Veteran David Laub as Head of Metrograph Pictures
|
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[
"Ted Gerike"
] |
2024-03-01T21:50:57+00:00
|
The former A24 Executive will build a slate of theatrical releases for distribution as Metrograph continues to grow into a next generation independent movie studio
|
en
|
Metrograph
|
https://metrograph.com/meanwhile-on-earth-press-copy/
|
(New York, NY - February 6, 2024). Metrograph announced today that Independent Film Distribution Executive David Laub has joined the company as Head of Metrograph Pictures. Laub departs his role at A24 and will assemble a team to build a prestigious slate of theatrical releases that Metrograph will distribute. Prior to Laub’s appointment, the company focused on restorations. Metrograph, founded by Alexander Olch in 2016, is coming off an incredibly successful, record-breaking year at both its New York theater and Metrograph At Home, its SVOD service, under CEO Christian Grass. The further development of its theatrical distribution label expands Metrograph’s growth as a next generation movie studio. This comes at a time when the industry is in dire need of fresh thinking and inventive distribution options. Laub will immediately hit the ground running at the upcoming Berlinale and European Film Market next week.
For the past nine years, David Laub has been a highly respected distribution executive for film and television studio A24. During his tenure, Laub worked in all aspects of film distribution including acquisitions, marketing, publicity, and exhibition. Among the projects he oversaw there include the Academy Award ® nominated Aftersun, the Academy Award nominated ® Close, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and The Souvenir: Part II, Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up and First Cow, Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, and the restoration of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense. David has also worked across the wider A24 slate on campaigns of such releases as Academy Award ® Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar, Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems and Good Time, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and Red Rocket, Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award ® winning Moonlight, and Robert Eggers’ The Witch and The Lighthouse. Prior to A24, Laub spent 3 years as Co-President of Oscilloscope Laboratories and 2 years as their Head of Acquisitions, where he worked on films such as Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Oren Moverman’s The Messenger, Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff, and Lynn Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. He started his career at ThinkFilm where he worked for 5 years. He has a BA in Film Studies and English from Wesleyan University, and an MA in Film Studies, also from Wesleyan.
At Metrograph, Laub will be reporting to and working closely with CEO Christian Grass, who joined the company in 2018 to grow the brand. This is a significant step to expand Metrograph’s national footprint as it comes off record 2023 and January 2024 theatrical box office numbers under Director of Programming Inge de Leeuw. Laub will be building a theatrical slate of American Independent, International and Documentary Features as well as continuing to release restorations of classic films from around the world. Metrograph will be looking at both finished films as well movies in earlier stages to potentially provide financing. The company is currently looking at projects with an aim to get up to 10 robustly supported releases per year.
Christian Grass, CEO, said, “Metrograph Pictures is an important building block in our strategy to continue the strong growth of the Metrograph brand. It was important for us to find someone as passionate, strategic and experienced as David to lead this venture. His passion for film and filmmaker relationships are as impressive as his knowledge of all aspects of the business. We are really excited to work with him on building this into a significant distribution label.”
David Laub, Head of Metrograph Pictures, said: “I am so proud to be heading up this new venture for Metrograph. Their taste and passion for cinema is second to none, and they have demonstrated an incredible ability to connect great movies with fresh and enthusiastic audiences. We are excited to work with a wide range of films and filmmakers, and be a robust new presence in the distribution landscape."
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-22/a24-movies-become-private-equity-bet-with-225-million-infusion
|
en
|
A24’s Risky Hollywood Moment
|
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2024-02-22T00:00:00
|
The masters of hipster cringe have Oscar hardware and Wall Street cash. Can it finally go mainstream?
|
en
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Bloomberg.com
|
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-22/a24-movies-become-private-equity-bet-with-225-million-infusion
|
Over the years, indie film companies have tackled freakish cultural abnormalities, from unutterable sexual taboos to all manner of other transgressive topics. But not long ago, executives at A24, arguably the reigning champion of American art-house films—which recently put out a movie called Dicks: The Musical that featured a flying, animated vagina—attempted to do something truly beyond the pale by even the libertine standards of its cohort. A24 pursued a deal to make league-sanctioned films for the NFL. “For us, it was like, how do you take this thing that’s so well established and so Americana and have an A24 look and vibe?” says A24’s head of TV and nonfiction, Ravi Nandan, without irony.
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https://www.banderasnews.com/0709/ent-bordertown.htm
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en
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Bordertown: Changing the World a Little
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Based on fact, the newly released Bordertown is a film about the bizarre murders of over 400 young women in the Mexican town of Juarez. One of the victims happened to be a Dutch tourist and her mother hopes the film will raise awareness further so that something can be done about bringing the killers to justice and preventing more lives being taken.
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Mindy Ran - Expatica
go to original
Based on fact, the newly released Bordertown is a film about the bizarre murders of over 400 young women in the Mexican town of Juarez. One of the victims happened to be a Dutch tourist and her mother hopes the film will raise awareness further so that something can be done about bringing the killers to justice and preventing more lives being taken.
Arsene van Nierop was only able to sit through film once or twice. The film: Bordertown, staring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderes, which opens in the Netherlands this week. The reason: the gritty dramatization of the real-life events around the brutal, unsolved, rape/murders of over 400 women in Juarez, Mexico remind her too graphically of the fate of the only European women included in those numbers, her daughter Hester.
Separating fact from fiction
It was really shocking to see the film because I recognised it, says Mrs van Nierop. I thought, this is the true situation. This is not just a Hollywood film, its a reality film. I could feel what my daughter must have felt.
Hester van Nierop had just graduated from an Architecture course in 1998 and wanted to take some time to travel. She decided to go visit her sister, working in Mexico. Their parents decided it would be a great family holiday and spent a week with their daughters.
At the end of the holiday, they put Hester on a bus heading towards the US, and went south to Mexico City to return to the Netherlands. They had only just arrived home when the police were at their door to inform them that Hester had been beaten unconscious, raped, murdered and left in a hotel room.
Hester went to the wrong place, met the wrong man and went to a hotel with him, says Mrs. Van Nierop. She was beaten unconscious; she was used, strangled and left naked under the bed. The woman who was cleaning the hotel found Hester and called the police. She wasnt missing because he threw her passport and identity papers out of the window and they found them. Happily; we did not have to look for her for months and months.
Jennifer Lopez as the journalist
Happily might seem a strange choice of words, but one of the most haunting, and repetitive scenes in the film Bordertown is that of the mothers of Juarez out in the desert with sticks, poking them through the thin layer of sand to find the bodies of their daughters, shallowly buried underneath.
The plot of Bordertown focuses on one story of a young Mexican survivor to highlight and explore the horrifying real life events over the past 10 years or so. Lauren Fredericks (played by Jennifer Lopez) is an ambitious journalist sent to cover the slowly emerging stories of hundreds of young women found raped, murdered and buried in the desert sands around Juarez, Mexico, a bordertown with the US.
Most of the young women work in the Maquiladoras, which are factories that have sprung up over the border as a result of the North American Freetrade Agreement between the US and Mexico, and provide shockingly cheap labour to produce goods for the American market.
Once in Juarez, Lauren asks for the aide of an old colleague and local newspaper editor, Diaz (played by Antonio Banderas) and is soon swept up in trying to protect and expose the would-be murderers of the only survivor, 16 year old Eva (played by Maya Zapata).
While Bordertown is a both a great film, and a great vehicle to increase awareness, it is difficult to know what is fact, and what is fiction. Director of the film, Gregory Nava, based Bordertown on meetings with Amnesty International and news reports of the huge numbers of unsolved murders, almost always occurring to young women working in the Maquiladoras, and living in extreme poverty in the surrounding desert.
The victims were usually attacked while riding the buses used to transport workers to and from the factories. Some of these buses run late into the night and stop in dark and dangerous places. To date, while there are wild speculations as to who is behind the murders, such as the sons of the rich out to rape and murder for sport, to bus drivers taking advantage of the lack of action of the government, not a single case has been brought including that of Hester van Nierop.
The Governments blind eye
They know his name and the place where he was living, says Mrs. Van Nierop. There are several witnesses who saw him afterwards, but the police did not look for him. They knew who it was immediately after Hesters murder because the man was in the hotel for three days. They could make very nice composite pictures of him, but they waited and waited.
Now, nine years later, the government of Mexico has finally sent out these composites to all of the states of the country, including the name of the man they claim is wanted for Hesters murder. They waited nine years to send this, says Mrs van Nierop. I am glad they did, but it is not enough.
Wrong place wrong time or part of a feminicide?
It took five years before Mrs van Nierop could speak out about her daughters murder. She felt it should be a private grief. It was the publication of an in-depth report on the murders and disappearance of the young women of Juarez by Amnesty International in 2003 that changed her mind.
In the first moments you think, okay my daughter was in the wrong place, that it was an individual murder, she continues. And then, you find she is one of 400 women. And, they dont mention the women who have disappeared. Disappearance is not a crime, and the police do nothing about it. They say they have simply crossed the border, but these women have been murdered.
I feel responsible to all the women who are murdered there. My daughter Hester was such a kind, energetic, spontaneous and splendid woman. It is not possible she died for nothing. Now I can fight against the murders of Juarez, because I am fighting with my daughter Hester.
Casa Amiga
She decided to go to Mexico, to see and understand what had happened to her daughter firsthand. After some research, she discovered a woman named Esther Chavez who was running a shelter called Casa Amiga to help and support the grieving mothers of Juarez. Chavez told her; you are one of us, and invited Mrs van Nierop to Juarez in 2004.
It was the first time I could see the poverty of the women, explains Mrs van Nierop. I felt the horrible atmosphere in the city of Juarez. I saw the difference between the rich people who live there and the poor. The rich people live in castles and the poor live in the desert in houses of paper.
When I saw this, I understood it was impossible for the women to join together to support each other. I thought they need help from abroad, its easier for me to cry and speak out about this criminal situation than for the women there.
Stichting Hester
In 2005, she started the Stichting Hester, which pays for a psychologist for Casa Amiga to help the grieving women, and a behavioural therapist specialised in children to help spot siblings who are traumatised or suffering from abuse, incest, violence or witnesses to violence and need help.
Mrs van Nierop hopes that when the issue returns to the European Parliament this fall, with the pressure by Amnesty International and the additional awareness created by the film that the Mexican government will finally do something to halt what she refers to as feminicide.
I think the government wants to change the situation, she says, but they want to change it because it creates a bad image. They want to change it through words, but they have to change the culture, the corruption, the way they prosecute murderers, the whole situation in Juarez before the murders will stop.
Together, I hope we can change the world a little bit.
Mindy Ran is a freelance writer based in the Netherlands.
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https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2022/03/24/interview-with-think-films-founder-danielle-turkov-wilson/
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en
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Interview with Think Films founder Danielle Turkov Wilson
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2022-03-24T00:00:00
|
Founder Danielle Turkov Wilson is the executive director of the UK Impact Production company Think Film. The UK-based company has produced an array of short and feature films across European countries with an emphasis on creating content that addresses social issues. Wilson spoke to Rohan Pemmasani regarding the work at Think Film, the filmmaking process,...
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en
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/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Favicon-70x70.png
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The Badger Herald
|
https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2022/03/24/interview-with-think-films-founder-danielle-turkov-wilson/
|
Founder Danielle Turkov Wilson is the executive director of the UK Impact Production company Think Film. The UK-based company has produced an array of short and feature films across European countries with an emphasis on creating content that addresses social issues.
Wilson spoke to Rohan Pemmasani regarding the work at Think Film, the filmmaking process, the future of cinema, communal issues, film festivals as well as the Academy Awards.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
Advertisements
For the readers who are not familiar with Think Films and your work, could you please give us a brief introduction on what the company is and its overarching principles?
There is a new concept across the [cinema] industry, which is not so new in North America, called Impact Production. And you know, a lot of you might have already heard of it, you have some great companies in the U.S. that are involved in impact production, including companies like Participant Media and Picture Motion. And you even have some really established documentary film companies, like ones run by Julie Goldman, who are really putting impact into the essence of their film storytelling.
From protest to party: The 50-year evolution of the Mifflin Street block party
They’re not necessarily impact companies, but they have impact really in the DNA of their projects. I would say that I was deeply inspired by the way these operations and their work in the U.S. in the film industry. I felt like in Europe, there was definitely a different identity when it comes to dealing with impact, you know, language and cultures and heritage and history that’s slightly different. And therefore means that impact had to be dealt with in a very unique way in different elements of the film industry. So I just really decided that I wanted to set up a new entity in Europe, which would really focus on impact from a policy perspective.
So you know, really thinking about how social policies, political movements and geopolitical discussions could play a role in the way you develop, present, pitch, place and even eventually market and distribute your film. Think Film is really that kind of media consultancy agency, a bit like Accenture and Deloitte, rolling out strategic processes, understanding impactful thinking and political movements, knowing how that can influence a film, a documentary, a media piece and how that rolls across the film supply chain.
There are many filmmakers who prefer not to ‘make a point’ through their film, they just want to present a story through the filmmaking process. Why do you think film is a good medium to have an impact on society?
I think that’s a great question. I, first of all, believe that film in any format, whether that’s fiction or documentary, AR or VR, or immersive, whatever it might be, the art comes first. It is a subjective position that sometimes filmmakers become Ph.D. experts in an issue. They spend five or six years, sometimes even longer looking into an issue and breathing it and consuming as much data and facts they can. So even though they become experts, they’re no different to an academic. In my perspective, at that level, the amount of research that’s done, you know, the art is a personal subjective eye on an issue.
How the “day-and-date” release strategy changed the film industry
Unlike what maybe you’re used to seeing with impact campaigns on films, I truly believe it’s about impactful thinking and strategy. That means not necessarily driving a specific narrative, but promoting a democratic debate that will reach a compromise with your content. So your content is sparking that discussion and providing solutions or actions for different communities to get involved in, [eventually] giving that stepping stone from awareness to action.
So the art should always be independent, it should always spark their interest in debate. But the impact should be done strategically to bring all different voices to the table. We can really reach a strong compromise on some of the biggest questions, and we all know that there are many different perspectives and opinions on issues in our communities.
And we have to reach compromises. To deny [the compromises] and to only speak to one community with your film, to only advocate and preach to the choir, as we say, is not going to move the needle in society and get someone to empathize with your perspective. So that’s what I think impact is and what we do when we deliver impact strategies and campaigns with our films.
Last Night in Soho: Edgar Wright’s best since Baby Driver
I wanted to talk about the art aspect of film. Someone approaches you with their film — how are you confident that their ability to artistically approach the subject is sound? You worked with the Cannes Film Festival and a variety of producers, so for film festivals and other distributors, how do you know that the art aspect of film will be technically proficient for them?
Well, I think art is in the eye of the beholder, right, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And beauty is a form of art, in my opinion. Therefore, when you’re looking at who and how people commission, you have to look at their history, their identity, what makes them tick, what kind of stories have really influenced them in the past?
I’m not saying them, we all have to make those same kinds of stories. But knowing what works for them allows you to disrupt a market effectively, and you can only disrupt something that you truly understand.
If you look at the actual impact here, if you look at the geopolitical identity of France, and their relationships with French-speaking Africa and the French-speaking Polynesia, and their history, they have a duty to elevate those filmmakers. So, often you’re seeing some of the stories and films that are selected are based on the need to make sure that they address those questions.
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Of course, for me, aside from what festivals decide, how do you know the art can really come out authentically in the story? I think there are two things. I think a storyteller is either was living or is living, evidence of an issue they’re dealing with. They have either been through it themselves, they have fought that fight — they have lived that, they breathe that issue or they have been deeply affected by something they’ve seen.
I still believe in today’s world, we should have filmmakers from Uganda come and make films about migration in Europe. I think that we need to empower more diverse and more authentic storytelling. But the day when the observation part of filmmaking, the art of the observation, is lost, is the day we actually lose the empathy to make powerful stories.
Because we can’t just make the stories of the lives we’ve lived. That would mean we’re not pushing the boundaries of what we could conceive and think about stories from the world. So I think yes, identity plays a huge role. So both the personal experiences, the observer, the need to observe others’ experiences as well.
The film directors or filmmakers, I would like to imagine, are the individuals that experience the ‘societal issue.’ But what is the process for selecting the cinematographer or the editor – which are more technically demanding jobs. Do the filmmakers select their team? In other words, how do you have confidence that the filmmaker will have the ability to make a film that is equivalent to their original idea?
I think creativity in this setting is just like in any other setting. A film production is really like setting up a business every time. In my opinion, when you’re setting up a business, you’re kind of looking for the right counterparts that don’t have the same skills as you but feel empowered by the same visions as you or you feel a connection to the story or the style or the approach. And every time when you’re resetting your team, you’re looking for the right pieces to elevate the success of that business.
So here, we’re talking about the success of the film. And so of course, what you’re looking for is someone who can own that part of the story in a way that they are the expert, and that you respect that deeply. So if you’re a director, you’re going to want a DOP or, that you trust their vision so much that you don’t even need to question them at all. They are going to deliver something that is within their expertise set, and that’s a tough thing to be able to do as a creative to allow someone to deliver their expertise.
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But if you do that, then often what you’re seeing is the power of everybody’s talent coming together and in a way that makes your piece elevated. If you try to micromanage every element of your production, you kind of lose the essence of what film production is, which is [for example] allowing the editor to be the magic storyteller that pieces all the bits together that sees the gaps that you never saw. It should be empowering because they are themselves storytellers in their own right, in your story. And yes, you may be the director, but everyone plays a role in a film, and everyone brings that film together, or that media piece together to create success.
So I think the protagonist, the talent, the director, the producer, the editor, the impact producer, the line producers, we all play parts in bringing the story to life.
Speaking more about craft and festivals, I’m sure you’ve heard of the news about the Academy Awards. I wasn’t originally planning on asking you about the Academy Awards, but given the news that they are planning to pre-record some aspects of the ceremony intrigued me.
They are planning on handing the following awards off-air: Editing, Sound Design, Original Score, Documentary Short and Live Action Short. What do you think are the implications, and does this change the perception of Think Film’s content or general audiences regarding the craft of a film?
Well, I would say that I don’t, you know, necessarily agree with that decision. I feel that taking certain roles out of the public eye means that you potentially diminish their value in the production, and you make people feel like those roles are not equivalent to or relevant to be recognized in public space.
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Often, these people spend hours getting traumatized. Some of the people I’ve worked with work on trauma content or documentaries and spend hours in a room, you know, almost traumatizing themselves with the content. If these are people that don’t deserve to be recognized for their work, I really don’t know why such awards exist, you know, and I believe we have a duty across film production and directors to stand together against that and protest. And so we prefer that this was done publicly.
And I also believe that, you know, there should be criteria that assess the impact value of a film as well. If you look at “Parasite,” you know, the whole underbelly of that film is social injustice and poverty. And if you look at Squid Games, it’s about debt, and what lengths people will get to when they’re in debt. That is, these are all social justice issues, the best stories are changing the way people feel — people didn’t even know the debt issues of Southeast Asia and Asia. They are one of the largest economies that are suffering from debt.
And so I just think, to not qualify awards for jobs, that you’ve just mentioned, is kind of denying the power that film can, can have to maintain justice, make people accountable, share new ideas. If we lose that, then I think we’re really heading into a dark era.
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Brief descriptions of each Registry title can be found here, and expanded essays are available for select titles. The authors of these essays are experts in film history, and their works appear in books, newspapers, magazines and online. Some of these essays originated in other publications and are reprinted here by permission of the author. Other essays have been written specifically for this website. The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress.
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The Library of Congress
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Brief descriptions of each Registry title can be found here, and expanded essays are available for select titles. The authors of these essays are experts in film history, and their works appear in books, newspapers, magazines and online. Some of these essays originated in other publications and are reprinted here by permission of the author. Other essays have been written specifically for this website. The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress.
In most cases, the images linked to Registry titles listed below were selected from the Library's Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, however some are drawn from other Library collections.
View a list of all expanded essays
7th Heaven (1927)
"Seventh Heaven" (also referred to as "7th Heaven"), directed by Frank Borzage and based on the play by Austin Strong, tells the story of Chico (Charles Farrell), the Parisian sewer worker-turned-street cleaner, and his wife Diane (Janet Gaynor), who are separated during World War I, yet whose love manages to keep them connected. "Seventh Heaven" was initially released as a silent film but proved so popular with audiences that it was re-released with a synchronized soundtrack later that same year. The popularity of the film resulted in it becoming one of the most commercially successful silent films as well as one of the first films to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Janet Gaynor, Frank Borzage, and Benjamin Glazer won Oscars for their work on the film, specifically awards for Best Actress, Best Directing (Dramatic Picture), and Best Writing (Adaptation), respectively. "Seventh Heaven" also marked the first time often-paired stars Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell worked together. Added to the National Film Registry in 1995.
Expanded essay by Aubrey Solomon (PDF, 694KB)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Special-effects master Ray Harryhausen provides the hero (Kerwin Mathews) with a villanous magician (Torin Thatcher) and fantastic antagonists, including a genie, giant cyclops, fire-breathing dragons, and a sword-wielding animated skeleton, all in glorious Technicolor. And of course no mythological tale would be complete without the rescue of a damsel in distress, here a princess (Kathryn Grant) that the evil magician shrinks down to a mere few inches. Harryhausen's stunning Dynamation process, which blended stop-motion animation and live-actions sequences, and a thrilling score by Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho," "The Day the Earth Stood Still") makes this one of the finest fantasy films of all time. Added to the National Film Registry in 2008.
Expanded essay by Tony Dalton (PDF, 900KB)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Considered to be one of the best westerns of the 1950s, "3:10 to Yuma" has gained in stature since its original release as audiences have recognized the progressive insight the film provides into the psychology of its two main characters that becomes vividly exposed during scenes of heightened tension. Frankie Laine sang the film's popular theme song, also titled "3:10 to Yuma." Often compared favorably with "High Noon," this innovative western from director Delmer Daves starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin in roles cast against type and was based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. Added to the National Film Registry in 2012.
12 Angry Men (1957)
In the 1950s, several television dramas acted live over the airways won such critical acclaim that they were also produced as motion pictures; among those already honored by the National Film Registry is "Marty" (1955). Reginald Rose had adapted his original stage play "12 Angry Men" for Studio One in 1954, and Henry Fonda decided to produce a screen version, taking the lead role and hiring director Sidney Lumet, who had been directing for television since 1950. The result is a classic. Filmed in a spare, claustrophobic style—largely set in one jury room—the play relates a single juror's refusal to conform to peer pressure in a murder trial and follows his conversion of one juror after another to his point of view. The story is often viewed as a commentary on McCarthyism, Fascism, or Communism. Added to the National Film Registry in 2007.
Expanded essay by Joanna E. Rapf (PDF, 258KB)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
This biographical drama directed by Sir Steve McQueen, and produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, is based on the 1853 slave memoir “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup, an African-American free man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841, and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
13 Lakes (2004)
James Benning's feature-length film can be seen as a series of moving landscape paintings with artistry and scope that might be compared to Claude Monet's series of water-lily paintings. Embracing the concept of "landscape as a function of time," Benning shot his film at 13 different American lakes in identical 10-minute takes. Each is a static composition: a balance of sky and water in each frame with only the very briefest suggestion of human existence. At each lake, Benning prepared a single shot, selected a single camera position and a specific moment. The climate, the weather and the season deliver a level of variation to the film, a unique play of light, despite its singularity of composition. Curators of the Rotterdam Film Festival noted, "The power of the film is that the filmmaker teaches the viewer to look better and learn to distinguish the great varieties in the landscape alongside him. [The list of lakes] alone is enough to encompass a treatise on America and its history. A treatise the film certainly encourages, but emphatically does not take part in." Benning, who studied mathematics and then film at the University of Wisconsin, currently is on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Added to the National Film Registry in 2014.
Expanded essay by Scott MacDonald (PDF, 316KB)
20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
Directed by Morgan Neville and produced by Gil Friesen, “20 Feet from Stardom” uses archival footage and interviews sharing behind-the-scenes experiences, and shining the spotlight on backup singers, including Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Jo Lawry, Claudia Lennear, and Tata Vega. Archival footage includes performances with Sting, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Tom Jones, Ike & Tina Turner, Luther Vandross, and more. A highlight of the film includes an interview with Mick Jagger telling the story of how Merry Clayton came to sing the iconic background vocals on “Gimme Shelter.” Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
42nd Street (1933)
At a little less than 90 minutes, "42nd Street" is a fast-moving picture that crackles with great dialogue and snappily plays up Busby Berkeley's dance routines and and the bouncy Al Dubin-Harry Warren ditties that include the irrepressably cheerful "Young and Healthy" (featuring the adorable Toby Wing), "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and the title number. A famous Broadway director (Warner Baxter) takes on a new show despite his ill health, then faces disaster at every turn, including the loss of his leading lady on opening night. The film features Bebe Daniels as the star of the show and Berkeley regulars Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell, and Ruby Keeler, whom Baxter implores, "You're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Added to the National Film Registry in 1998.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick's landmark epic pushed the envelope of narrative and special effects to create an introspective look at technology and humanity. Arthur C. Clarke adapted his story "The Sentinel" for the screen version and his odyssey follows two astronauts, played by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, on a voyage to Jupiter accompanied by HAL 9000, an unnervingly humanesque computer running the entire ship. With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent more than two years creating his vision of outer space. Despite some initial critical misgivings, "2001" became one of the most popular films of 1968. Billed as "the ultimate trip," the film quickly caught on with a counterculture audience that embraced the contemplative experience that many older audiences found tedious and lacking substance. Added to the National Film Registry in 1991.
Expanded essay by James Verniere (PDF, 691KB)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
Directed by Stuart Paton, the film was touted as "the first submarine photoplay." Universal spent freely on location, shooting in the Bahamas and building life-size props, including the submarine, and taking two years to film. J. E. Williamson's "photosphere," an underwater chamber connected to an iron tube on the surface of the water, enabled Paton to film underwater scenes up to depths of 150 feet. The film is based on Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and to a lesser extent, "The Mysterious Island." The real star of the film is its special effects. Although they may seem primitive by today's standards, 100 years ago they dazzled contemporary audiences. It was the first time the public had an opportunity to see reefs, various types of marine life and men mingling with sharks. It was also World War I, and submarine warfare was very much in the public consciousness, so the life-size submarine gave the film an added dimension of reality. The film was immensely popular with audiences and critics. Added to the National Film Registry in 2016.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Freight handlers Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter Dracula and Frankenstein's monster when they arrive from Europe for a house of horrors exhibit. After the monsters outwit the hapless duo and escape, Dracula returns for Costello whose brain he intends to transplant into the monster. Lon Chaney Jr. as the lycanthropic Lawrence Talbot, Bela Lugosi in his final appearance as Dracula and Glenn Strange as the Monster all play their roles perfectly straight as Bud and Lou stumble around them. Throughout the film, Dracula and the Monster cavort in plain view of the quivering Costello who is unable to convince the ever-poised and dubious Abbott that the monsters exist. until the wild climax in Dracula's castle, where the duo are pursued by all three of the film's monstrosities.
Expanded essay by Ron Palumbo (PDF, 424KB)
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous 1925 case of Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins, who became trapped underground and whose gripping saga created a national sensation lasting two weeks before Collins died. A deeply cynical look at journalism, "Ace in the Hole" features Kirk Douglas as a once-famous New York reporter, now a down-and-out has-been in Albuquerque. Douglas plots a return to national prominence by milking the story of a man trapped in a Native American cave dwelling as a riveting human-interest story, complete with a tourist-laden, carnival atmosphere outside the rescue scene. The callously indifferent wife of the stricken miner is no more sympathetic: "I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons." Providing a rare moral contrast is Porter Hall, who plays Douglas' ethical editor appalled at his reporter's actions. Such a scathing tale of media manipulation might have helped turn this brilliant film into a critical and commercial failure, which later led Paramount to reissue the film under a new title, "The Big Carnival."
Expanded essay by Molly Haskell (PDF, 330KB)
Adam's Rib (1949)
With an Oscar-nominated script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, "Adam's Rib" pokes fun at the double standard between the sexes. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play husband and wife attorneys, each drawn to the same case of attempted murder. Judy Holliday, defending the sanctity of her marriage and family, intends only to frighten her philandering husband (Tom Ewell) and his mistress (Jean Hagen) but tearfully ends up shooting and injuring the husband. Tracy argues that the case is open and shut, but Hepburn asserts that, if the defendant were a man, he'd be set free on the basis of "the unwritten law." As the trial turns into a media circus, the couple's relationship is put to the test. Holliday's first screen triumph propelled her onto bigger roles, including "Born Yesterday," for which she won an Academy Award. The film is also the debut of Ewell, who would become best known for his role opposite Marilyn Monroe in "The Seven Year Itch", and Hagen, who would floor audiences as the ditzy blonde movie star with the shrill voice in "Singin' in the Rain."
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
When Richard the Lion-Hearted is captured and held for ransom, evil Prince John (Claude Rains) declares himself ruler of England and makes no attempt to secure Richard's safe return. A lone knight, Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), sets out to raise Richard's ransom by hijacking wealthy caravans traveling through Sherwood Forest. Aided by his lady love, Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), and band of merry men (including Alan Hale and Eugene Pallette) Robin battles the usurper John and wicked Sheriff of Nottingham to return the throne to its rightful owner. Dashing, athletic and witty, Flynn is everything that Robin Hood should be, and his adversaries are memorably villainous, particularly Basil Rathbone with whom Flynn crosses swords in the climactic duel. One of the most spectacular adventure films of all time, and features a terrific performance by the perfectly cast Flynn. Only a spirited and extravagant production could do justice to the Robin Hood legend; this film is more than equal to the task. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score won an Oscar, as did the editing and art direction.
The African Queen (1951)
Adapted from a novel by C.S. Forester, the film stars Humphrey Bogart in an Oscar-winning portrayal of a slovenly, gin-swilling captain of the African Queen, a tramp steamer carrying supplies to small African villages during World War I. Katharine Hepburn plays a prim spinster missionary stranded when the Germans invade her settlement. Bogart agrees to transport Hepburn back to civilization despite their opposite temperaments. Before long, their tense animosity turns to love, and together they navigate treacherous rapids and devise an ingenious way to destroy a German gunboat. The difficulties inherent in filming on location in Africa are documented in numerous books, including one by Hepburn.
Airplane! (1980)
"Airplane!" emerged as a sharply perceptive parody of the big-budget disaster films that dominated Hollywood during the 1970s. Written and directed by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, the film is characterized by a freewheeling style and skewered Hollywood's tendency to push successful formulaic movie conventions beyond the point of logic. One of the film's most noteworthy achievements was to cast actors best known for their dramatic careers, such as Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges, and provide them with opportunities to showcase their comic talents.The central premise is one giant cliche: a pilot (Robert Hays), who's developed a fear of flying, tries to win back his stewardess girlfriend (Julie Hagerty), boarding her flight so he can coax her around. Due to an outbreak of food poisoning, Hays must land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller (Bridges) and and his tyranical former captain (Stack). Supporting the stars is a wacky assemblage of stock characters from every disaster movie ever made.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 477KB)
“¡Alambrista! (1977)
“¡Alambrista!” is the powerfully emotional story of Roberto, a Mexican national working as a migrant laborer in the United States to send money back to his wife and newborn. Director Robert M. Young’s sensitive screenplay refuses to indulge in simplistic pieties, presenting us with a world in which exploitation and compassion coexist in equal measure. The film immerses us in Roberto’s world as he moves across vast landscapes, meeting people he can’t be sure are friend or threat, staying one step ahead of immigration officials. “¡Alambrista!” is as relevant today as it was on its 1977 release, a testament to its enduring humanity. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Expanded essay by Charles Ramírez Berg (PDF, 556KB)
Interview with Edward James Olmos (PDF, 2MB)
Alien (1979)
This film's appeal may lie in its reputation as "a haunted house movie in space." Though not particularly original, "Alien" is distinguished by director Ridley Scott's innovative ability to wring every ounce of suspense out of the B-movie staples he employs within the film's hi-tech setting. Art designer H.R. Giger creates what has become one of cinema's scariest monsters: a nightmarish hybrid of humanoid-insect-machine that Scott makes even more effective by obscuring it from view for much of the film. The cast, including Tom Skerritt and John Hurt, brings an appealing quality to their characters, and one character in particular, Sigourney Weaver's warrant officer Ripley, became the model for the next generation of hardboiled heroines and solidified the prototype in subsequent sequels. Rounding out the cast and crew, cameraman Derek Vanlint and composer Jerry Goldsmith propel the emotions relentlessly from one visual horror to the next.
All About Eve (1950)
Scheming ingénue Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) ingratiates herself with aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) moving in on her acting roles, her friends and her stage director beau. The dialog is often too bitingly perfect with its sarcastic barbs and clever comebacks, but it's still entertaining and quote-worthy. The film took home Academy Awards for best picture, best director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), best screenplay (Mankiewicz) and costume design (Edith Head and Charles Le Maire). George Sanders won a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as the acid-tongued theater critic Addison DeWitt. Thelma Ritter as Margo's maid, Celeste Holm as Margo's best friend, and Marilyn Monroe, in a small role as an aspiring actress, give memorable performances.
Movie poster
All My Babies (1953)
Written and directed by George Stoney, this landmark educational film was used to educate midwives throughout the South. Produced by the Georgia Department of Public Health, profiles the life and work of "Miss Mary" Coley, an African-American midwife living in rural Georgia. In documenting the preparation for and delivery of healthy babies in rural conditions ranging from decent to deplorable, the filmmakers inadvertently captured a telling snapshot at the socioeconomic conditions of the era that would prove fascinating to future generations. Added to the National Film Registry in 2002.
Expanded essay by Joshua Glick (PDF, 391KB)
Watch it here
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
This faithful adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic pacifist novel is among the greatest antiwar films ever made, remaining powerful more than 80 years later, thanks to Lewis Milestone's inventive direction. Told from the perspective of a sensitive young German soldier (Lew Ayres) during WWI, recruited by a hawkish professor advocating "glory for the fatherland." The young soldier comes under the protective wing of an old veteran (Louis Wolheim) who teaches him how to survive the horrors of war. The film is emotionally draining, and so realistic that it will be forever etched in the mind of any viewer. Milestone's direction is frequently inspired, most notably during the battle scenes. In one such scene, the camera serves as a kind of machine gun, shooting down the oncoming troops as it glides along the trenches. Universal spared no expense during production, converting more than 20 acres of a large California ranch into battlefields occupied by more than 2,000 ex-servicemen extras. After its initial release, some foreign countries refused to run the film. Poland banned it for being pro-German, while the Nazis labeled it anti-German. Joseph Goebbels, later propaganda minister, publicly denounced the film. It received an Academy Award as Best Picture and Milestone was honored as Best Director.
Expanded essay by Garry Wills (PDF, 713KB)
Lobby card
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
The rich visual texture, using glorious Technicolor, and a soaring emotional score lend what is essentially a thin story a kind of epic tension. A movie unheralded by critics and largely ignored by the public at the time of its release, All That Heaven Allows is now considered Douglas Sirk's masterpiece. The story concerns a romance between a middle-aged, middle-class widow (Jane Wyman) and a brawny young gardener (Rock Hudson)—the stuff of a standard weepie, you might think, until Sirk's camera begins to draw a deeply disturbing, deeply compassionate portrait of a woman trapped by stifling moral and social codes. Sirk's meaning is conveyed almost entirely by his mise-en-scene—a world of glistening, treacherous surfaces, of objects that take on a terrifying life of their own; he is one of those rare filmmakers who insist that you read the image.
Expanded essay by John Wills (PDF, 187KB)
Movie poster
All That Jazz (1979)
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse takes a Felliniesque look at the life of a driven entertainer. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider, channeling Fosse) is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, an ex-wife Audrey, girlfriend Kate, young daughter, and various conquests. Reminiscent of Fellini's "8 1/2 ," Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. Fosse shows the stiff price that entertaining exacts on entertainers (among other things, he intercuts graphic footage of open-heart surgery with a song and dance), mercilessly reversing the feel-good mood of classical movie musicals.
All the King's Men (1949)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren and directed by Robert Rossen, "All the King's Men" was inspired by the career of Louisiana governor Huey Long. Broderick Crawford won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Willie Stark, a backwoods Southern lawyer who wins the hearts of his constituents by bucking the corrupt state government. The thesis is basically that power corrupts, with Stark presented as a man who starts out with a burning sense of purpose and a defiant honesty. Rossen, however, injects a note of ambiguity early on (a scene where Willie impatiently shrugs off his wife's dream of the great and good things he is destined to accomplish); and the doubt as to what he is really after is beautifully orchestrated by being filtered through the eyes of the press agent (Ireland) who serves as the film's narrator, and whose admiration for Stark gradually becomes tempered by understanding. In addition to its Oscars for Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, the film won the Best Picture prize.
All the President's Men (1976)
Based on the memoir by "Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about uncovering the Watergate break-in and cover up, "All the President's Men" is a rare example of a best-selling book transformed into a hit film and a cultural phenomenon in its own right. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein, and features an Oscar-winning performance by Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee. Nominated for numerous awards, it took home an Oscar for best screenplay by William Goldman (known prior to this for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and after for "The Princess Bride"). Pakula's taut directing plays up the emotional roller coaster of exhilaration, paranoia, self-doubt, and courage, without ignoring the tedium and tireless digging, and elevating it to noble determination.
Expanded essay by Mike Canning (PDF, 72KB)
Allures (1961)
Called the master of "cosmic cinema," Jordan Belson excelled in creating abstract imagery with a spiritual dimension that featured dazzling displays of color, light, and ever-moving patterns and objects. Trained as a painter and influenced by the films of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, and Hans Richter, Belson collaborated in the late 1950s with electronic music composer Henry Jacobs to create elaborate sound and light shows in the San Francisco Morrison Planetarium, an experience that informed his subsequent films. The film, Belson has stated, "was probably the space-iest film that had been done until then. It creates a feeling of moving into the void." Inspired by Eastern spiritual thought, "Allures" (which took a year and a half to make) is, Belson suggests, a "mathematically precise" work intended to express the process of becoming that the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin has named "cosmogenesis."
Amadeus (1984)
Milos Forman directed this deeply absorbing, visually sumptuous film based on the lives and rivalry of two great classical composers — the brash, youthful Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the good, if not truly exceptional, Antonio Salieri. Based upon Peter Shaffer's highly successful play, which Shaffer personally rewrote for the screen, "Amadeus," though ostensibly about classical music, instead shines as a remarkable examination of the concept of genius (Mozart) as well as the jealous obsession from less-talented rivals (Salieri). In an Oscar-winning performance, F. Murray Abraham skillfully lays bare the tortured emotions (admiration and covetous envy) Salieri feels for Mozart's work: "This was the music I had never heard...It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God. Why would God choose an obscene child to be his instrument?"
America, America (1963)
"My name is Elia Kazan. I am a Greek by blood, Turk by birth, American because my uncle made a journey." So begins the film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan, and the one he frequently cited as his personal favorite. Based loosely on Kazan's uncle, Stavros dreams of going to America in the late 1890s. Kazan, who often hired locals as extras, cast in the lead role a complete novice, Stathis Giallelis, whom he discovered sweeping the floor in a Greek producer's office. Shot almost entirely in Greece and Turkey, Haskell Wexler's cinematography evokes scale and authenticity that combines with Gene Callahan's Oscar-winning art direction to give the film a distinctly European feel. Intended as the first chapter of a trilogy, the epically ambitious "America, America" also earned Oscar nominations for best director, best screenplay and best picture.
American Graffiti (1973)
Fresh off the success of "The Godfather," producer Francis Ford Coppola weilded the clout to tackle a project pitched to him by his friend, George Lucas. The film captured the flavor of the 1950s with ironic candor and a latent foreboding that helped spark a nostalgia craze. Despite technical obstacles, and having to shoot at night, cinematographer Haskell Wexler gave the film a neon glare to match its rock-n-roll soundscape. Lucas' period detail, co-writers Willard Huyck's and Gloria Katz's realistic dialogue, and the film's wistfulness for pre-Vietnam simplicity appealed to audiences amidst cultural upheaval. The film also established the reputations of Lucas (whose next film would be "Star Wars") and his young cast, and furthered the onset of soundtrack-driven, youth-oriented movies.
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An American in Paris (1951)
Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Georges Guetary, (The film was supposed to make Guetary into "the New Chevalier." It didn't.) The thinnish plot is held together by the superlative production numbers and by the recycling of several vintage George Gershwin tunes, including "I Got Rhythm," "'S Wonderful," and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." Highlights include Guetary's rendition of "Stairway to Paradise"; Oscar Levant's fantasy of conducting and performing Gershwin's "Concerto in F" (Levant also appears as every member of the orchestra). "An American in Paris," directed by Vincente Minnelli, cleaned up at the Academy Awards, with Oscars for best picture, screenplay, score, cinematography, art direction, set design, and even a special award for the choreography of its 18-minute closing ballet in which Kelly and Caron dance before lavish backgrounds resembling French masterpieces.
Interview with Leslie Caron (PDF, 1.36MB)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Director Otto Preminger brought a new cinematic frankness to film with this gripping crime-and-trial movie shot on location in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where the incident on which it was based had occurred. Based on the best-selling novel by Robert Traver, Preminger imbues his film with daring dialogue and edgy pacing. Controversial in its day due to its blunt language and willingness to openly discuss adult themes, "Anatomy" endures today for its first-rate drama and suspense, and its informed perspective on the legal system. Starring James Stewart, Ben Gazzara and Lee Remick, it also features strong supporting performances by George C. Scott as the prosecuting attorney, and Eve Arden and Arthur O'Connell. The film includes an innovative jazz score by Duke Ellington and one of Saul Bass's most memorable opening title sequences.
Animal House (1978)
(see "National Lampoon's Animal House")
Annie Hall (1977)
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. "Annie Hall" blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as "Sleeper" and "Bananas" with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, "Annie Hall" beat out "Star Wars" for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. Added to the National Film Registry in 2001.
Expanded essay by Jay Carr (PDF, 302KB)
Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974)
Directed by Jill Godmilow and Judy Collins, this Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles the life of musician-conductor Antonia Brico and her struggle to become a symphony director despite her gender. Told by many that it was ridiculous for a woman to think of conducting, she admits, "I felt that I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try." And the pain and deprivation which she has known all her life are over-shadowed in this film by her ebullient, forthright warmth. The narrative of her life alternates with glimpses of her at work—rehearsing or teaching. She also reflects on the emotional experience of conducting— including the acute separation pangs that follow a concert.
Expanded essay by Diane Worthey (PDF, 458KB)
The Apartment (1960)
Billy Wilder is purported to have hung a sign in his office that read, "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" Here, that Lubitsch touch seems to hover over each scene, lending a lightness to even the most nefarious of deeds. One of the opening shots in the movie shows Baxter as one of a vast horde of wage slaves, working in a room where the desks line up in parallel rows almost to the vanishing point. This shot is quoted from King Vidor's silent film "The Crowd" (1928), which is also about a faceless employee in a heartless corporation. Cubicles would have come as revolutionary progress in this world. By the time he made this film, Wilder had become a master at a kind of sardonic, satiric comedy that had sadness at its center. Wilder was fresh off the enormous hit "Some Like it Hot," his first collaboration with Lemmon, and with "The Apartment" Lemmon showed that he could move from light comedian to tragic everyman. This movie was the summation of what Wilder had done to date, and the key transition in Lemmon's career. It was also a key film for Shirley MacLaine, who had been around for five years in light comedies, but here emerged as a serious actress who would flower in the 1960s.
Expanded essay by Kyle Westphal (PDF, 428KB)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The chaotic production also experienced shut-downs when a typhoon destroyed the set and star Sheen suffered a heart attack; the budget ballooned and Coppola covered the overages himself. These production headaches, which Coppola characterized as being like the Vietnam War itself, have been superbly captured in the documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Despite the studio's fears and mixed reviews of the film's ending, Apocalypse Now became a substantial hit and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Duvall's psychotic Kilgore, and Best Screenplay. It won Oscars for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography. This hallucinatory, Wagnerian project has produced admirers and detractors of equal ardor; it resembles no other film ever made, and its nightmarish aura and polarized reception aptly reflect the tensions and confusions of the Vietnam era.
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Applause (1929)
This early sound-era masterpiece was the first film of both stage/director Rouben Mamoulian and cabaret/star Helen Morgan. Many have compared Mamoulian's debut to that of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" because of his flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries. The tear-jerking plot boasts top performances from Morgan as the fading burlesque queen, Fuller Mellish Jr. as her slimy paramour and Joan Peters as her cultured daughter. However, the film is remembered today chiefly for Mamoulian's audacious style. While most films of the era were static and stage-bound, Mamoulian's camera reinvigorated the melodramatic plot by prowling relentlessly through sordid backstage life.
Apollo 13 (1995)
The extreme challenges involved in space travel present compelling cinema storylines, and one cannot imagine a more harrowing scenario than the near tragic Apollo 13 space mission. Director Ron Howard’s retelling is equally meticulous and emotional, a master class in enveloping the audience into a complicated technological exercise in life-and-death problem-solving. Based on the 1994 book “Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13” by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, “Apollo 13” blends skillful editing, crafty special effects, a James Horner score, and a well-paced script to detail the quick-thinking heroics of both the astronaut crew and NASA technicians as they improvise and work through unprecedented situations. The talented cast includes Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. Howard went to great lengths to create a technically accurate movie, employing NASA's assistance in astronaut and flight-controller training for his cast, and obtaining permission to film scenes aboard a reduced-gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of the weightlessness experienced by the astronauts in space. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
John Huston's brilliant crime drama contains the recipe for a meticulously planned robbery, but the cast of criminal characters features one too many bad apples. Sam Jaffe, as the twisted mastermind, uses cash from corrupt attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern) to assemble a group of skilled thugs to pull off a jewel heist. All goes as planned — until an alert night watchman and a corrupt cop enter the picture. Marilyn Monroe has a memorable bit part as Emmerich's "niece."
Atlantic City (1980)
Aided by a taut script from playwright John Guare, director Louis Malle celebrates his wounded characters even as he mercilessly reveals their dreams for the hopeless illusions they really are. Malle reveals the rich portraits he paints of wasted American lives, through the filter of his European sensibilities. He is exceptionally well served by his cast and his location--a seedy resort town supported, like the principal characters, by memories of glories past. Burt Lancaster, in a masterful performance, plays an aging small-time criminal who hangs around Atlantic City doing odd jobs and taking care of the broken-down moll of the deceased gangster for whom Lou was a gofer. Living in an invented past, Lou identifies with yesteryear's notorious gangsters and gets involved with sexy would-be croupier (Susan Sarandon) and her drug-dealing estranged husband.
The Atomic Café (1982)
Produced and directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, the influential film compilation "The Atomic Cafe" provocatively documents the post-World War II threat of nuclear war as depicted in a wide assortment of archival footage from the period (newsreels, statements from politicians, advertisements, training, civil defense and military films). This vast, yet entertaining, collage of clips serves as a unique document of the 1940s-1960s era and illustrates how these films—some of which today seem propagandistic or even patently absurd ("The House in the Middle")—were used to inform the public on how to cope in the nuclear age.
Expanded essay by John Willis (PDF, 45KB)
Attica (1974)
The September 1971 Attica prison uprising is the deadliest prison riot in U.S. history. To protest living conditions, inmates took over the facility, held hostages, issued a manifesto demanding better treatment, and then engaged in four days of fruitless negotiations. On Day 5, state troopers and prison authorities retook the prison in a brutal assault, leaving 43 inmates and hostages dead. Cinda Firestone’s outstanding investigation of the tragedy takes us through the event, what caused it, and the aftermath. She uses first-hand interviews with prisoners, families and guards, assembled surveillance and news camera footage, and video from the McKay Commission hearings on the massacre. An ex-inmate ends the film with a quote hoping to shake public lethargy on the need for prison reform: “Wake up, because nothing comes to a sleeper, but a dream.”
The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
Scott Nixon, a traveling salesman based in Augusta, Ga., was an avid member of the Amateur Cinema League who enjoyed recording his travels on film. In this 16-minute silent film, Nixon documents some 38 streets, storefronts and cities named Augusta in such far-flung locales as Montana and Maine. Arranged with no apparent rhyme or reason, the film strings together brief snapshots of these Augustas, many of which are indicated at pencil-point on a train timetable or roadmap. Nixon photographed his odyssey using both 8mm and 16mm cameras loaded with black-and-white and color film, amassing 26,000 feet of film that now resides at the University of South Carolina. While Nixon's film does not illuminate the historical or present-day significance of these towns, it binds them together under the umbrella of Americana. Whether intentionally or coincidentally, this amateur auteur seems to juxtapose the name's lofty origin—'august,' meaning great or venerable—with the unspectacular nature of everyday life in small-town America.
View this film at Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina External
The Awful Truth (1937)
Leo McCarey's largely improvised film is one of the funniest of the screwball comedies, and also one of the most serious at heart. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are a pair of world-weary socialites who each believe the other has been unfaithful, and consequently enter into a trial divorce. The story began life as a 1922 stage hit and was filmed twice previously. McCarey maintained the basic premise of the play but improved it greatly, adding sophisticated dialogue and encouraging his actors to improvise around anything they thought funny. "The Awful Truth" was in the can in six weeks, and was such a success that Grant and Dunne were teamed again in another comedy, "My Favorite Wife" and in a touching tearjerker, "Penny Serenade." The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
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Baby Face (1933)
Smart and sultry Barbara Stanwyck uses her feminine wiles to scale the corporate ladder, amassing male admirers who are only too willing to help a poor working girl. One of the more notorious melodramas of the pre-Code era, a period when the movie industry relaxed its censorship standards, films such as this one led to the imposition of the Production Code in 1934. This relative freedom resulted in a cycle of gritty, audacious films that resonated with Depression-battered audiences.
Expanded essay by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (PDF, 819KB)
Back to the Future (1985)
Writer/director Robert Zemeckis explored the possibilities of special effects with the 1985 box-office smash "Back to the Future." With his writing partner Bob Gale, Zemeckis tells the tale of accidental time-tourist Marty McFly. Stranded in the year 1955, Marty (Michael J. Fox)—with the help of his friend eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (played masterfully over-the-top by Christopher Lloyd)—must not only find a way home, but also teach his father (Crispin Glover) how to become a man, repair the space/time continuum and save his family from being erased from existence. All this, while fighting off the advances of his then-teenaged mother (Lea Thompson). The film generated a popular soundtrack and two enjoyable sequels.
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Vincente Minnelli directed this captivating Hollywood story of an ambitious producer (Kirk Douglas)as told in flashback by those whose lives he's impacted: an actress (Lana Turner), a writer (Dick Powell) and a director (Barry Sullivan). Insightful and liberally sprinkled with characters modeled after various Hollywood royalty from David O. Selznick to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, witty, with one of Turner's best performances. Five Oscars include Supporting Actress (Gloria Grahame), Screenplay (Charles Schnee). David Raksin's score is another asset.
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Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Though only 81 minutes in length, "Bad Day" packs a punch. Spencer Tracy stars as Macreedy, a one-armed man who arrives unexpectedly one day at the sleepy desert town of Black Rock. He is just as tight-lipped at first about the reason for his visit as the residents of Black Rock are about the details of their town. However, when Macreedy announces that he is looking for a former Japanese-American Black Rock resident named Komoko, town skeletons suddenly burst into the open. In addition to Tracy, the standout cast includes Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Dean Jagger. Director John Sturges displays the western landscape to great advantage in this CinemaScope production.
Badlands (1973)
Stark, brutal story based on the Charles Starkweather-Carol Fugate murder spree through the Midwest in 1958, with Martin Sheen as the killer lashing out against a society that ignores his existence and Sissy Spacek as his naive teenage consort. Sheen is forceful and properly weird as the mass murderer, strutting around pretending to be James Dean, while Spacek doesn't quite understand what he's all about, but goes along anyway. Director Terrence Malick neither romanticizes nor condemns his subjects, maintaining a low-key approach to the story that results in a fascinating character study. The film did scant box office business, but it remains one of the most impressive of directorial debuts.
Ball of Fire (1941)
In this Howard Hawks-directed screwball comedy, showgirl and gangster's moll Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) hides from the law among a group of scholars compiling an encyclopedia. Cooling her heels until the heat lets up, Sugarpuss charms the elderly academics and bewitches the young professor in charge (Gary Cooper). Hawks deftly shapes an effervescent, innuendo-packed Billy Wilder-Charles Brackett script into a swing-era version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or "squirrely cherubs," as Sugarpuss christens them. Filled with colorful period slang and boogie-woogie tunes and highlighted by an energetic performance from legendary drummer Gene Krupa, the film captures a pre-World War II lightheartedness.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)
Directed by Robert M. Young, produced by Moctesuma Esparza, and co-produced by Edward James Olmos, who stars as Gregorio, some of the film’s most beautiful scenes come from acclaimed cinematography Reynoldo Villalobos. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” is one of the key feature films from the 1980s Chicano film movement. Edward James Olmos was a working actor but not yet a star when he and several friends, meeting at what would become the Sundance Film Festival, decided to make a film about a true story of injustice from the Texas frontier days.
Shot on a tiny budget for PBS, “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” accurately tells the story of a Mexican-American farmer who in 1901 was falsely accused of stealing a horse. Cortez killed the sheriff who tried to arrest him, outran a huge posse for more than a week, barely escaped lynching and was eventually sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The incident became a famous corrido, or story-song, that is still sung in Mexico and Texas. While some characters speak in Spanish and others in English, the filmmakers decided not to use subtitles to give audiences the same experience as those caught up in the unfolding tragedy.
“This film is being seen more today than it was the day we finished it,” Olmos said in a 2022 interview with the Library of Congress. “‘The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez’ is truly the best film I’ve ever been a part of in my lifetime.”
Interview with Edward James Olmos (PDF, 2MB)
Bambi (1942)
One of Walt Disney's timeless classics (and his own personal favorite), this animated coming-of-age tale of a wide-eyed fawn's life in the forest has enchanted generations since its debut nearly 70 years ago. Filled with iconic characters and moments, the film features beautiful images that were the result of extensive nature studies by Disney's animators. Its realistic characters capture human and animal qualities in the time-honored tradition of folklore and fable, which enhance the movie's resonating, emotional power. Treasured as one of film's most heart-rending stories of parental love, "Bambi" also has come to be recognized for its eloquent message of nature conservation.
Expanded essay by John Wills (PDF, 360KB)
Expanded essay by Gail Alexander (wife of Stan Alexander - “Flower”) (PDF, 371KB)
Original drawing of Bambi
Bamboozled (2000)
Mixing elements of “A Face in the Crowd,” “The Producers,” “Network” and “Putney Swope,” Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” showcases his unique talents, here blending dark comedy and satire exposing hypocrisy. An African American TV executive (Damon Wayans) grows tired of his ideas being rejected by his insincere white boss, who touts himself with an “I am Black People” type of vibe. To get out of this untenable situation, Wayans proposes an idea he feels will surely get him fired: a racist minstrel show featuring African American performers donning blackface. The show becomes a smash hit while at the same time sparking outrage, including militant groups leading to violence. As with the best satire, the focus is not on believable plot but rather how the story reveals the ills of society, in this case how Hollywood and television have mistreated African Americans over the decades. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
The Band Wagon (1953)
Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan star in this sophisticated backstage toe-tapper directed by Vincente Minnelli, widely considered one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. Astaire plays a washed-up movie star (in reality he'd been a succesful performer for nearly 30 years) who tries his luck on Broadway, under the direction of irrepressible mad genius Buchanan. Musical highlights include "Dancing in the Dark" and "That's Entertainment" (written for the film by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz) and Astaire's sexy Mickey Spillane spoof "The Girl Hunt" danced to perfection by Charisse. Fred Astaire would only make three more musicals after "The Band Wagon," before turning to a film and television career that included the occasional turn as a dramatic actor.
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The Bank Dick (1940)
Perhaps more than any other film comedian in the early days of movies, W.C. Fields is an acquired taste. His absurdist brand of humor, at once dry and surreal, endures for the simple reason that the movies bear up under repeated viewings; in fact, it's almost a necessity to watch them over and over, if only to figure out why they're so funny. In his second-to-last feature, The Bank Dick (which he wrote under the moniker "Mahatma Kane Jeeves"), Fields as unemployed layabout Egbert Souse -- Soosay, if you don't mind -- replaces drunk movie director A. Pismo Clam on a location shoot in his hometown of Lompoc, California before chance lands him in the job of bank detective -- after which the movie becomes a riff on the comic possibilities of his new-found notoriety. The stellar comic supporting cast includes future Stooge Shemp Howard as the bartender at Fields' regular haunt, The Black Pussy, and Preston Sturges regular Franklin Pangborn as bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington.
Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 401KB)
The Bargain (1914)
After beginning his career on the stage (where he originated the role of Messala in "Ben-Hur" in 1899), William S. Hart found his greatest fame as the silent screen's most popular cowboy. His 1914 "The Bargain," directed by Reginald Barker, was Hart's first film and made him a star. The second Hart Western to be named to the National Film Registry, the film was selected because of Hart's charisma, the film's authenticity and realistic portrayal of the Western genre and the star's good/bad man role as an outlaw attempting to go straight. Added to the National Film Registry 2010.
Expanded essay by Brian Taves (PDF, 1692KB)
Watch it here
The Battle of the Century (1927)
"Battle of the Century" is a classic Laurel and Hardy silent short comedy (2 reels, ca. 20 minutes) unseen in its entirety since its original release. The comic bits include a renowned pie-fighting sequence where the principle of "reciprocal destruction" escalates to epic proportions. "Battle" offers a stark illustration of the detective work (and luck) required to locate and preserve films from the silent era. Only excerpts from reel two of the film had survived for many years. Critic Leonard Maltin discovered a mostly complete nitrate copy of reel one at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s. Then in 2015, film collector and silent film accompanist Jon Mirsalis located a complete version of reel two as part of a film collection he purchased from the Estate of Gordon Berkow. The film still lacks brief scenes from reel one, but the film is now almost complete, comprising elements from MoMA, the Library of Congress, UCLA and other sources. It was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in conjunction with Jeff Joseph/SabuCat. The nearly complete film was preserved from one reel of 35mm nitrate print, one reel of a 35mm acetate dupe negative and a 16mm acetate print. Laboratory Services: The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Cineaste Restoration/Thad Komorowksi, Point 360/Joe Alloy. Special Thanks: Jon Mirsalis, Paramount Pictures Archives, Richard W. Bann, Ray Faiola, David Gerstein.
The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
John Huston's documentary about the WW II Battle of San Pietro Infine was considered too controversial by the U.S. military to be seen in its original form, and was cut from five reels to its released 33 minute-length. powerful viewing, vivid and gritty. Some 1,100 men died in the battle. scenes of grateful Italian peasants serve as a fascinating ethnographic time capsule. Filmed by Jules Buck. Unlike many other military documentaries, Huston's cameramen filmed alongside the Army's 143rd regiment, 36th division infantrymen, placing themselves within feet of mortar and shell fire. The film is unflinching in its realism and was held up from being shown to the public by the United States Army. Huston quickly became unpopular with the Army, not only for the film but also for his response to the accusation that the film was anti-war. Huston responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot. Because it showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale. General George Marshall came to the film's defense, stating that because of the film's gritty realism, it would make a good training film. The depiction of death would inspire them to take their training seriously. Subsequently the film was used for that purpose. Huston was no longer considered a pariah; he was decorated and made an honorary major.
Expanded essay by Ed Carter (PDF, 423KB)
View this film at National Film Preservation Foundation External
The Beau Brummels (1928)
Al Shaw and Sam Lee were an eccentrically popular vaudeville act of the 1920s. In 1928 they made this eight-minute Vitaphone short for Warner Bros. The duo later appeared in more than a dozen other films, though none possessed the wacky charm of "The Beau Brummels." As Jim Knipfel has observed: "If Samuel Beckett had written a vaudeville routine, he would have created Shaw and Lee." Often considered one of the quintessential vaudeville comedy shorts, the film has a simple set-up—Shaw and Lee stand side by side with deadpan expressions in non-tailored suits and bowler hats as they deliver their comic routine of corny nonsense songs and gags with a bit of soft shoe and their renowned hat-swapping routine. Shaw's and Lee's reputation has enjoyed a recent renaissance and their brand of dry, offbeat humor is seen by some as well ahead of its time. The film has been preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is an animated, musical retelling of the fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince du Beaumont. The film follows Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara), an intelligent and rebellious young French woman, who is forced to live with a hideous monster, the Beast (voiced by Robby Benson), after offering to take her father's place as the Beast's prisoner. Unaware that the Beast is actually an enchanted prince, Belle falls in love with him. "Beauty and the Beast" was the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category. Alan Menken won an Oscar for his original score, and he and lyricist Howard Ashman (posthumously) earned Oscars for the film's theme song "Beauty and the Beast."
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Becky Sharp (1935)
Actress Miriam Hopkins had a long and successful movie career, appearing in many classics, including "Trouble in Paradise" and "Design for Living." However, it is as this film's titular heroine that she received her only Academy Award best-actress nomination. Based upon Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair," "Becky" is the story of a socially ambitious woman and her destructive climb up the class system. "Becky Sharp" merits historical note as the first feature-length film to utilize the three-strip Technicolor process, which, even today, gives the film a shimmering visual appeal. The lengthy, complicated restoration process of "Becky Sharp" by the UCLA Film and Television Archive marked one of the earliest archival restorations to garner widespread public attention. Partners in this painstaking effort included the National Telefilm Associates Inc., Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Cineteca Nazionale (Rome), British Film Institute, The Film Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paramount and YCM Laboratories. More information can be found at https://cinema.ucla.edu/restoration/becky-sharp-restoration External.
Before Stonewall (1984)
In 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. After years of harassment, this infamous act proved a tipping point and led to three days of riots. The Stonewall riots are credited with launching the modern gay civil rights movement in the U.S. Narrated by Rita Mae Brown, "Before Stonewall" provides a detailed look at the history and making of the LGBTQ community in 20th-century America through archival footage and interviews with those who felt compelled to live secret lives during that period. Elements, prints and a new 2016 digital cinema package are held in the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Behind Every Good Man (1967)
This pre-Stonewall UCLA student short by Nikolai Ursin offers a stunning early portrait of Black, gender fluidity in Los Angeles and the quest for love and acceptance. Following playful street scene vignettes accompanied by a wistful, baritone voice-over narration, the film lingers tenderly on our protagonist preparing for a date who never arrives. The film is preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation on behalf of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project. Special thanks to John Campbell, Stephen Parr and Norman Yonemoto.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer's persona, including the man's cultured walk, talk and even his expensive clothes, and is mistaken as "Chauncey Gardner," whose simple adages are interpreted as profound insights. He becomes the confidant of a dying billionaire industrialist (Melvyn Douglas, in an Academy Award-winning performance) who happens to be a close adviser to the U.S. president (Jack Warden). Chance's gardening advice is interpreted as metaphors for political policy and life in general. Jerzy Kosinski, assisted by award-winning screenwriter Robert C. Jones, adapted his 1971 novel for the screenplay which Hal Ashby directed with an understatement to match the subtlety and precision of Sellers' Academy Award-nominated performance. Shirley MacLaine also stars as Douglas's wife, then widow, who sees Chauncey as a romantic prospect. Film critic Robert Ebert said he admired the film for "having the guts to take this totally weird conceit and push it to its ultimate comic conclusion." That conclusion is a philosophically complex film that has remained fresh and relevant.
Expanded essay by Jerry Dean Roberts (PDF, 118KB)
Ben-Hur (1925)
Adapted from General Lew Wallace's popular novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" published in 1880, this epic featured one of the most exciting spectacles in silent film: the chariot race that was shot with 40 cameras on a Circus Maximus set costing a staggering (for the day) $300,000. In addition to the grandeur of the chariot scene, a number of sequences shot in Technicolor also contributed to the epic status of "Ben-Hur," which was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Ramon Novarro as Judah Ben-Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala. While the film did not initially recoup its investment, it did help to establish its studio, MGM, as one of the major players in the industry.
Expanded essay by Fritzi Kramer (PDF, 254KB)
Lobby card
Ben-Hur (1959)
This epic blockbuster stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite who takes on the Roman Empire during the time of Christ. Featuring one of the most famous action sequences of all time -- the breathtaking chariot race -- the film was a remake of the impressive silent version released in 1925. Co-starring Stephen Boyd as Judah Ben-Hur's onetime best friend and later rival, it also featured notable performances by Hugh Griffith and Jack Hawkins. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, who found success with "Mrs. Miniver" "The Best Years of Our Lives" and others, "Ben-Hur" broke awards records, winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, and score. Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt was brought in to coordinate all the chariot race stunt work and train the driver The race scene alone cost is reported to have cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot.
Expanded essay by Gabriel Miller (PDF, 499KB)
Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)
In 1913, a stellar cast of African-American performers gathered in the Bronx, New York, to make a feature-length motion picture. The troupe starred vaudevillian Bert Williams, the first African-American to headline on Broadway and the most popular recording artist prior to 1920. After considerable footage was shot, the film was abandoned. One hundred years later, the seven reels of untitled and unassembled footage were discovered in the film vaults of the Museum of Modern Art, and are now believed to constitute the earliest surviving feature film starring black actors. Modeled after a popular collection of stories known as "Brother Gardener's Lime Kiln Club," the plot features three suitors vying to win the hand of the local beauty, portrayed by Odessa Warren Grey. The production also included members of the Harlem stage show known as J. Leubrie Hill's "Darktown Follies." Providing insight into early silent-film production (Williams can be seen applying his blackface makeup), these outtakes or rushes show white and black cast and crew working together, enjoying themselves in unguarded moments. Even in fragments of footage, Williams proves himself among the most gifted of screen comedians.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
A moving and personal story directed by real-life veteran William Wyler, the film depicts the return to civilian life by three World War II servicemen, portrayed by Dana Andrews, Fredric March and Harold Russell. Adapted by Robert Sherwood from MacKinlay Kantor's novel "Glory for Me," Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography is memorable for emotionally evokative long dolly shots. It also starred Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Cathy O'Donnell, and Virginia Mayo. The film won nine Oscars including Best Picture, as well as two awards for Russell, who lost his hands in the war.
Expanded essay by Gabriel Miller (PDF, 319KB)
Betty Tells Her Story (1972)
Liane Brandon’s classic documentary explores the layers of storytelling and memory - how telling a story again can reveal previously hidden details and context. In this poignant tale of beauty, identity and a dress, the filmmaker turns the storytelling power over to the subject. Deceptively simple in its approach, the director in two separate takes films Betty recalling her search for the perfect dress for an upcoming special occasion. During the first take, Betty describes in delightful detail how she found just the right one, spent more than she could afford, felt absolutely transformed … and never got to wear it. Brandon then asks her to tell the story again, and this time her account becomes more nuanced, personal and emotional, revealing her underlying feelings. Though the facts remain the same, the story is strikingly different. “Betty Tells Her Story” was the first independent documentary of the Women’s Movement to explore the ways in which clothing and appearance affect a woman’s identity. It is used in film studies, psychology, sociology, women’s studies, and many other academic disciplines as a perceptive look at how our culture views women in the context of body image, self-worth and beauty in American culture. The film was restored with a grant from New York Women in Film & Television’s Women's Film Preservation Fund.
Inductees' Gallery - Liane Brandon, producer and director
Big Business (1929)
As gifted in their repartee as they were in their physical antics, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were the perfect team for the transition from silent film comedy to sound. Their legendary career spanned from 1921 to 1951 and included more than 100 films. This two-reeler finds the duo attempting to sell Christmas trees in sunny California. Their run-in with an unsatisfied customer (played by James Finlayson) lays the groundwork for a slapstick melee eventually involving a dismantled car, a wrecked house and an exploding cigar. The film was produced by the team's long-time collaborator, Hal Roach, the king of no-holds-barred comedy.
Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 308KB)
The Big Heat (1953)
One of the great post-war noir films, "The Big Heat" stars Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame. Set in a fictional American town, the film tells the story of a tough cop (Ford) who takes on a local crime syndicate, exposing tensions within his own corrupt police department as well as insecurities and hypocrisies of domestic life in the 1950s. Filled with atmosphere, fascinating female characters, and a jolting—yet not gratuitous—degree of violence, "The Big Heat," through its subtly expressive technique and resistance to formulaic denouement, manages to be both stylized and brutally realistic, a signature of its director Fritz Lang.
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The Big Lebowski (1998)
From the unconventional visionaries Joel and Ethan Coen (the filmmakers behind "Fargo" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") came this 1998 tale of kidnapping, mistaken identity and bowling. As they would again in the 2008 "Burn After Reading," the Coens explore themes of alienation, inequality and class structure via a group of hard-luck, off-beat characters suddenly drawn into each other's orbits. Jeff Bridges, in a career-defining role, stars as "The Dude," an LA-based slacker who shares a last name with a rich man whose arm-candy wife is indebted to shady figures. Joining Bridges are John Goodman, Tara Reid, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and, in a now-legendary cameo, John Turturro. Stuffed with vignettes—each staged through the Coens' trademark absurdist, innovative visual style—that are alternately funny and disturbing, "Lebowski" was only middling successful at the box office during its initial release. However, television, the Internet, home video and considerable word-of-mouth have made the film a highly quoted cult classic.
Expanded essay by J.M. Tyree & Ben Walters (PDF, 354KB)
The Big Parade (1925)
One of the first films to deglamorize war with its startling realism, "The Big Parade" became the largest grossing film of the silent era. From a story by Laurence Stallings, director King Vidor crafted what "New York Times" critic Mordaunt Hall called "an eloquent pictorial epic." The film, which Hall said displayed "all the artistry of which the camera is capable," depicts a privileged young man (John Gilbert) who goes to war seeking adventure and finds camaraderie, love, humility and maturity amid the horrors of war. Along the way he befriends two amiable doughboys (Karl Dane and Tom O'Brien) and falls for a beautiful French farm girl (Renée Adorée). Vidor tempered the film's serious subject matter with a kind of simple, light humor that flows naturally from new friendships and new loves. A five-time nominee for Best Director, Vidor was eventually recognized by the Academy in 1979 with an honorary lifetime achievement award. Both stars continued to reign until the transition to talking pictures, which neither Gilbert nor Adorée weathered successfully. Their careers plummeted and both died prematurely.
The Big Sleep (1946)
Howard Hawks directed this Raymond Chandler story featuring private eye Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart. Appearing opposite him in only her second film was a former model named Lauren Bacall, with whom Bogart had fallen in love (and vice versa) during filming of "To Have and Have Not" earlier that year. Hawks and his writers attempted to untangle the threads of Chandler's complicated plot which caused frequent production delays. More than a month behind schedule and about $50,000 over budget, the film was ready in mid-summer1945, and that version was distributed to servicemen overseas. Shortly thereafter "To Have and Have Not" was released, and audiences loved the Bogart-Bacall chemistry, so the wide release of "The Big Sleep" was further delayed the wide release by rewriting scenes to heighten the chemistry and bring out Bacall's "insolent" quality that audiences found so appealing the pair's earlier film. The pre-release cut is only two minutes longer, but contains 18 minutes of scenes missing from the final picture. The first "draft" was discovered at the UCLA Film and Television Archive where both versions have since been preserved.
The Big Trail (1930)
This taming of the Oregon Trail saga comes alive thanks to the majestic sweep afforded by the experimental Grandeur wide-screen process developed by the Fox Film Corporation. Audiences marveled at the sheer scope of the panoramic scenes before them and delighted in the beauty of the vast landscapes. Hollywood legend has it that director Raoul Walsh was seeking a male lead for a new Western and asked his friend John Ford for advice. Ford recommended an unknown actor named John Wayne because he "liked the looks of this new kid with a funny walk -- like he owned the world." When Wayne professed inexperience, Walsh told him to just "sit good on a horse and point."Wayne's starring role in "The Big Trail" did not catapult him to stardom, and he languished in low-budget pictures until John Ford cast him in the 1939 classic "Stagecoach."
Expanded essay by Marilyn Ann Moss (PDF, 375KB)
The Birds (1963)
"The Birds" was the fourth suspense hit by Alfred Hitchcock—following "Vertigo," "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"—revealing his mastery of his craft. Hitchcock transfixed both critics and mass audiences by deftly moving from anxiety-inducing horror to glossy entertainment and suspense, with bold forays into psychological terrain. Marked by a foreboding sense of an unending terror no one can escape, the film concludes with its famous, final scene, which only adds to the emotional impact of "The Birds."
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
This landmark of American motion pictures is the story of two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Director D.W. Griffith's depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroes stirred controversy that continues to the present day. But the director's groundbreaking camera technique and narrative style advanced the art of filmmaking by leaps and bounds. Profoundly impacted by the novel "The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan," Griffith hired its author Thomas F. Dixon Jr. to adapt it as a screenplay. At the heart of the story are two pairs of star-crossed lovers on either side of the conflict: Southerner Henry B. Walthall courts Northerner Lillian Gish, and the couple's siblings, played by Elmer Clifton and Miriam Cooper, are also in love. The ravages of war and the chaos of reconstruction take their toll on both families. The racist and simplistic depictions of blacks in the film is difficult to overlook, but underneath the distasteful sentiment lies visual genius.
Expanded essay by Dave Kehr (PDF, 599KB)
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Black and Tan (1929)
In one of the first short musical films to showcase African-American jazz musicians, Duke Ellington portrays a struggling musician whose dancer wife (Fredi Washington in her film debut) secures him a gig for his orchestra at the famous Cotton Club where she's been hired to perform, at a risk to her health. Directed by Dudley Murphy, who earned his reputation with "Ballet mécanique," which is considered a masterpiece of early experimental filmmaking, the film reflects the cultural, social and artistic explosion of the 1920s that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Ellington and Washington personify that movement, and Murphy—who also directed registry titles "St. Louis Blues" (1929), another musical short, and the feature "The Emperor Jones" (1933) starring Paul Robeson—cements it in celluloid to inspire future generations. Washington, who appeared with Robeson in "Emperor Jones," is best known as "Peola" in the 1934 version of "Imitation of Life."
The Black Pirate (1926)
This swashbuckling tour-de-force by Douglas Fairbanks, king of silent action adventure pictures, is most significant for having been filmed entirely in two-strip Technicolor, a process still being perfected at the time, and the precursor to Technicolor processes that would become commonplace by the 1950s. Fairbanks plays a nobleman who has vowed to avenge the death of his father at the hands of pirates, and once upon the pirates' vessel, protects a damsel in distress (Bessie Love)taken hostage by the band of thieves. Fairbanks wrote the original story under a pseudonym, and Albert Parker directed.
Expanded essay by Tracey Goessel (PDF, 356 KB)
The Black Stallion (1979)
When a ship carrying young Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno) and a black Arabian stallion sinks off the coast of Africa, Alec and the horse find themselves stranded on a deserted island. Upon their rescue, Alec and horse trainer/former jockey Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney) begin training the horse to become a formidable racer. Directed by Carroll Ballard and based on the Walter Farley novel of the same name, the film was executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola who finally persuaded United Artists to release the film after shelving it for two years. The film's supervising sound editor, Alan Splet, received a Special Achievement Award for his innovations including affixing microphones around the horse's midsection to pick up the sound of its hoof beats and breathing during race sequences. "The Black Stallion" was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for Mickey Rooney and one for Best Film Editing for Robert Dalva.
Expanded essay by Keith Phipps (PDF, 375 KB)
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
In a 1983 interview, writer-director Richard Brooks claimed that hearing Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954 inspired him to make a rock & roll-themed picture. The result was "Blackboard Jungle," an adaptation of the controversial novel by Evan Hunter about an inner-city schoolteacher (played in the film by Glenn Ford) tackling juvenile delinquency and the lamentable state of public education— common bugaboos of the Eisenhower era. Retaining much of the novel's gritty realism, the film effectively dramatizes the social issues at hand, and features outstanding early performances by Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow. The film, however, packs its biggest wallop even before a word of dialog is spoken. As the opening credits roll, Brooks' original inspiration for the film – the pulsating strains of "Rock Around the Clock" – blasts across theater speakers, bringing the devil's music to Main Street and epitomizing American culture worldwide.
Blacksmith Scene (1893)
Not blacksmiths but employees of the Edison Manufacturing Company, Charles Kayser, John Ott and another unidentified man are likely the first screen actors in history, and "Blacksmith Scene" is thought to be the first film of more than a few feet to be publicly exhibited. The 30-second film was photographed in late April 1893 by Edison's key employee, W.K.L. Dickson, at the new Edison studio in New Jersey. On May 9, audiences lined up single file at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to peer through a viewing machine called a kinetoscope where glowed images of a blacksmith and two helpers forging a piece of iron, but only after they'd first passed around a bottle of beer. A Brooklyn newspaper reported the next day, "It shows living subjects portrayed in a manner to excite wonderment."
First Motion Picture Copyright Found
National Film Preservation Foundation - Blacksmithing Scene External
Blade Runner (1982)
A blend of science fiction and film noir, "Blade Runner" was a box office and critical flop when first released, but its unique postmodern production design became hugely influential within the sci-fi genre, and the film gained a significant cult following that increased its stature. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a retired cop in Los Angeles circa 2019. L.A. has become a pan-cultural dystopia of corporate advertising, pollution and flying automobiles, as well as replicants, human-like androids with short life spans built for use in dangerous off-world colonization. Deckard, a onetime blade runner – a detective that hunts down rogue replicants – is forced back into active duty to assassinate a band of rogues out to attack earth. Along the way he encounters Sean Young, a replicant who's unaware of her true identity, and faces a violent confrontation atop a skyscraper high above the city.
Expanded essay by David Morgan (PDF, 358 KB)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
This riotously funny, raunchy, no-holds-barred Western spoof by Mel Brooks is universally considered one of the funniest American films of all time. The movie features a civil-rights theme (the man in the white hat (Cleavon Little ) turns out to be an African-American who has to defend a bigoted town), and its furiously paced gags and rapid-fire dialogue were scripted by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Unger. Little as the sheriff and Gene Wilder as his recovering alcoholic deputy have great chemistry, and the delightful supporting cast includes Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, and Madeline Kahn as a chanteuse modelled on Marlene Dietrich. As in "Young Frankenstein," "Silent Movie," and "High Anxiety," director/writer Brooks gives a burlesque spin to a classic Hollywood movie genre.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 662 KB)
Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
Part of the vibrant New Wave of independent African-American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, Billy Woodberry became a key figure in the movement known as the L.A. Rebellion. Woodberry crafted his UCLA thesis film, "Bless Their Little Hearts," which was theatrically released in 1984. The film features a script and cinematography by Charles Burnett. This spare, emotionally resonant portrait of family life during times of struggle blends grinding, daily-life sadness with scenes of deft humor. Jim Ridley of the "Village Voice" aptly summed up the film's understated-but- real virtues: "Its poetry lies in the exaltation of ordinary detail."
The Blood of Jesus (1941)
Also known as "The Glory Road," this was among the approximately 500 "race movies" produced between 1915 and 1950 for African-American audiences and featuring all-black casts. In this film, a deeply devout woman (Cathryn Caviness) faces a spiritual crossroads after being accidentally shot, and is forced to choose between heaven and hell. Spencer Williams, who wrote, directed and starred in the film, produced the film in response to a need for spiritually-based films that spoke directly to black audiences. Long thought lost, prints were discovered in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas, in the mid-1980s.
Expanded essay by Mark S. Giles (PDF, 256 KB)
View this film at Southern Methodist University Central University Libraries External
The Blue Bird (1918)
Maurice Tourneur's beautiful expressionist adaptation of Maurice Maeterlink's play remains one of the most aesthetically pleasing films. The film is a sumptuously composed pictorial entrance into a fantasy world, which tries to teach us not to overlook the beauty of what is close and familiar.
Expanded essay by Kaveh Askari (PDF, 445 KB)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, then both best known for their star-turns as part of the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players" troupe on TV's "Saturday Night Live," took their recurring "Blues Brothers" SNL sketch to the big screen in this loving and madcap musical misadventures of Jake and Elwood Blues on a mission from God. An homage of sorts to various classic movie genres — from screwball comedy to road movie — "The Blues Brothers" serves as a tribute to the lead duo's favorite city (Chicago) as well as a lovely paean to great soul and R&B music. In musical cameos, such legends as Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker all ignite the screen. Added to the National Film Registry in 2020.
Interview with Dan Aykroyd (PDF, 2MB)
Interview with John Landis (PDF, 2MB)
Body and Soul (1925)
One of the truly unique pioneers of cinema, African-American producer/director/writer/distributor Oscar Micheaux somehow managed to get nearly 40 films made and seen despite facing racism, lack of funding, the capricious whims of local film censors and the independent nature of his work. Most of Micheaux's films are lost to time or available only in incomplete versions, with the only extant copies of some having been located in foreign archives. Nevertheless, what remains shows a fearless director with an original, daring and creative vision. Film historian Jacqueline Stewart says Micheaux's films, though sometimes unpolished and rough in terms of acting, pacing and editing, brought relevant issues to the black community including "the politics of skin color within the black community, gender differences, class differences, regional differences especially during this period of the Great Migration." For "Body and Soul," renaissance man Paul Robeson, who had gained some fame on the stage, makes his film debut displaying a blazing screen presence in dual roles as a charismatic escaped convict masquerading as a preacher and his pious brother. The George Eastman Museum has restored the film from a nitrate print, producing black-and-white-preservation elements and later restoring color tinting using the Desmet method.
Bohulano Family Film Collection (1950s-1970s)
Delfin Paderes Bohulano and Concepcion Moreno Bohulano recorded their family life for more than 20 years. Shot primarily in Stockton, California, their collection documents the history of the Filipinx community (once the largest in the country) during a period of significant immigration. The couple moved to the United States following American military service during World War II. They were involved in the local Filipino American community, including the building of Stockton's new Filipino Center in the early 1970s. The movies record community events, family gatherings, trips to New York, Atlantic City, and Washington, DC, as well as the family's 1967 visit to the Philippines. The 15-reel collection is shot on Super 8mm, 8mm, and 16mm, and in color and silent. Preserved by the Center for Asian American Media. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Setting filmmaking and style trends that linger today, "Bonnie and Clyde" veered from comedy to social commentary to melodrama and caught audiences unaware, especially with its graphic ending. The violence spawned many detractors, but others saw the artistry beyond the blood and it earned not only critical succes which eventually showed at thebox office. Arthur Penn deftly directs David Newman and Robert Benton's script, aided by the film's star and producer Warren Beatty, who was always eager to push the envelope. Faye Dunaway captures the Depression-era yearning for glamour and escape from poverty and hopelessness.
Expanded essay by Richard Schickel (PDF, 530KB)
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Born Yesterday (1950)
Judy Holliday's sparkling lead performance as not-so-dumb "dumb blonde" Billie Dawn anchors this comedy classic based on Garson Kanin's play and directed for the screen by George Cukor. Kanin's satire on corruption in Washington, D.C., adapted for the screen by Albert Mannheimer, is full of charm and wit while subtly addressing issues of class, gender, social standing and American politics. Holliday's work in the film (a role she had previously played on Broadway) was honored with the Academy Award for Best Actress and has endured as one of the era's most finely realized comedy performances.
Expanded essay by Ariel Schudson (PDF, 394KB)
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Boulevard Nights (1979)
"Boulevard Nights" had its genesis in a screenplay by UCLA student Desmond Nakano about Mexican-American youth and the lowrider culture. Director Michael Pressman and cinematographer John Bailey shot the film in the barrios of East Los Angeles with the active participation of the local community (including car clubs and gang members). This street-level strategy using mostly non-professional actors produced a documentary-style depiction of the tough choices faced by Chicano youth as they come of age and try to escape or navigate gang life ("Two brothers...the street was their playground and their battleground"). In addition to "Boulevard Nights," this era featured several films chronicling youth gangs and rebellion — "The Warriors" (1979), "Over the Edge" (1979), "Walk Proud" (1979) and "The Outsiders" (1983). The film faced protests and criticism from some Latinos who saw outsider filmmakers, albeit well-intentioned, adopting an anthropological perspective with an excessive focus on gangs and violent neighborhoods. Nevertheless, "Boulevard Nights" stands out as a pioneering snapshot of East L.A. and enjoys semi-cult status in the lowrider community.
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Director Kimberly Peirce made a stunning debut with this searing docudrama based on the infamous 1993 case of a young Nebraska transgender man who is brutally raped and murdered (along with two other people) in a small Nebraska town. Released a year after the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, the film brought the issue of hate crimes clearly into the American public spotlight. Sometimes compared to Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," "Boys" raised issues that are still relevant 20 years later: intolerance, prejudice, the lack of opportunity in small towns, conceptions of self, sexual identity, diversity and cultural, sexual and social mores. New York Times' critic Janet Maslin lauded the film for not taking the usual plot routes: "Unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope." Several things helped create that result, particularly the performance of 22-year-old Hilary Swank, who won an Oscar as Brandon.
Boyz N the Hood (1991)
In his film debut, John Singleton wrote and directed this thought-provoking look at South Central L.A.'s black community. A divorced father (Larry Fishburne) struggles to raise his son, Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) in a world where violence is a fact of life. Tre is torn by his desire to live up to his father's expectations and pressure from friends pushing him toward the gang culture. Roger Ebert praised the film for its "maturity and emotional depth," calling it "an American film of enormous importance." The lead players are backed by strong supporting performances from Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Tyre Ferrell, Angela Bassett and Nia Long.
Brandy in the Wilderness (1969)
This introspective "contrived diary" film by Stanton Kaye features vignettes from the relationship of a real-life couple, in this case the director and his girlfriend. An evocative 1960s time capsule—reminiscent of Jim McBride's "David Holzman's Diary"—this simulated autobiography, as in many experimental films, often blurs the lines between reality and illusion, moving in non-linear arcs through the ever-evolving and unpredictable interactions of relationships, time and place. As Paul Schrader notes, "it is probably quite impossible (and useless) to make a distinction between the point at which the film reflects their lives, and the point at which their lives reflect the film." "Brandy in the Wilderness" remains a little-known yet key work of American indie filmmaking.
This article by director Paul Schrader originally appeared in the Fall 1971 issue of "Cinema Magazine." (PDF, 1764KB)
Bread (1918)
Billed as a "sociological photodrama, "Bread" tells the story of a naïve young woman in a narrow-minded town who journeys to New York to become a star but faces disillusionment when she learns that sex is demanded as the price for fame. Ida May Park, director and scenarist of "Bread," was among more than a half-dozen prolific women directors working at the Universal Film Manufacturing Company during the period in which Los Angeles became the home of America's movie industry. Park directed 14 feature-length films between 1917 and 1920, and her career as a scenarist lasted until 1931. She reasoned that because the majority of movie fans were women, "it follows that a member of the sex is best able to gauge their wants in the form of stories and plays." In an essay Park contributed to the book "Careers for Women," she stated that women were advantaged as motion picture directors because of "the superiority of their emotional and imaginative faculties." In the two surviving reels of "Bread," one of only three films Park directed that are currently known to exist, she displays an accomplished ability to knowingly vivify her protagonist's plight as she fends off an attacker and places her frail hopes in a misshapen loaf of bread that has come to symbolize for her the good things in life.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Truman Capote's acclaimed novella—the bitter story of self-invented Manhattan call girl Holly Golightly—arrived on the big screen purged of its risqué dialogue and unhappy ending. George Axelrod's screenplay excised explicit references to Holly's livelihood and added an emotionally moving romance, resulting, in Capote's view, in "a mawkish valentine to New York City." Capote believed that Marilyn Monroe would have been perfect for the film and judged Audrey Hepburn, who landed the lead, "just wrong for the part." Critics and audiences, however, have disagreed. The Los Angeles Times stated, "Miss Hepburn makes the complex Holly a vivid, intriguing figure." Feminist critics in recent times have valued Hepburn's portrayals of the period as providing a welcome alternative female role model to the dominant sultry siren of the 1950s. Hepburn conveyed intelligent curiosity, exuberant impetuosity, delicacy combined with strength, and authenticity that often emerged behind a knowingly false facade. Critics also have lauded the movie's director Blake Edwards for his creative visual gags and facility at navigating the film's abrupt changes in tone. Composer Henry Mancini's classic "Moon River," featuring lyrics by Johnny Mercer, also received critical acclaim. Mancini considered Hepburn's wistful rendition of the song on guitar the best he had heard.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
John Hughes, who had previously given gravitas to the angst of adolescence in his 1984 film, "Sixteen Candles," further explored the social politics of high school in this comedy/character study produced one year later. Set in a day-long Saturday detention hall, the film offers an assortment of American teen-age archetypes such as the "nerd," "jock," and "weirdo." Over the course of the day, labels and default personas slip away as members of this motley group actually talk to each other and learn about each other and themselves. "The Breakfast Club" is a comedy that delivers a message with laughs. Thirty years later, the movie's message is still vivid. Written and directed by Hughes, the film's cast includes Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Director James Whale took his success with "Frankenstein," added humor and thus created a cinematic hybrid that perplexed audiences at first glance but captivated them by picture's end. Joined eventually by a mate (Elsa Lanchester), the Frankenstein monster (Boris Karloff reprising his role and investing the character with emotional subtlety) evolves into a touchingly sympathetic character as he gradually becomes more human. Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorious is captivatingly bizarre. Many film historians consider "Bride," with its surreal visuals, superior to the original.
Expanded essay by Richard T. Jameson, (PDF, 672KB) examines "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" in a single entry.
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
At the heart of David Lean's antiheroic war epic about a band of British POWs forced to build a bridge in the wilds of Burma is the notion of men clinging to their sanity by clinging to military tradition. The film's cast, which reflects a broad spectrum of acting styles, includes Alec Guinness as the British commanding officer and Sessue Hayakawa as his Japanese counterpart, and William Holden as an American soldier who escapes from the camp and Jack Hawkins as the British major who convinces him to return and help blow up the bridge. Lean elects to keep the musical score to a minimum and instead plays up tension with nature sounds punctuating the action. For many film critics and historians, "Bridge on the River Kwai" signals a shift in Lean's directorial style from simpler storytelling toward the more bloated epics that characterized his later career.
Sessue Hayakawa and Alec Guinness in a scene from "The Bridge On The River Kwai"
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
In this fast-paced screwball comedy from director Howard Hawks, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn), an eccentric heiress with a pet leopard named Baby, proves a constant irritant to paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant), who is trying to raise $1 million to complete his dinosaur skeleton reconstruction project. Based on a short story by Hagar Wilde, Hawks worked closely with Wilde and screenwriter Dudley Nichols to perfect the script, in which the role of Susan Vance was written specifically with Hepburn in mind. Although now considered a cinematic classic, "Bringing Up Baby" received mixed critical reviews upon release and performed well in only certain areas of the United States, thus reaffirming the film industry's then-current view of Hepburn as "box office poison." Significantly, "Bringing Up Baby" is possibly the first American film to use the term "gay" as a reference to homosexuality.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 25KB)
Broadcast News (1987)
James L. Brooks wrote, produced and directed this comedy set in the fast-paced, tumultuous world of television news. Shot mostly in dozens of locations around the Washington, D.C. area, the film stars Holly Hunter, William Hurt and Albert Brooks. Brooks makes the most of his everyman persona serving as Holly Hunter's romantic back-up plan while she pursues the handsome but vacuous Hurt. Against the backdrop of broadcast journalism (and various debates about journalist ethics), a grown-up romantic comedy plays out in a smart, savvy and fluff-free story whose humor is matched only by its honesty.
Expanded essay by Brian Scott Mednick (PDF, 432KB)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
"Brokeback Mountain," a contemporary Western drama that won the Academy Award for best screenplay (by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) and Golden Globe awards for best drama, director (Ang Lee) and screenplay, depicts a secret and tragic love affair between two closeted gay ranch hands. They furtively pursue a 20-year relationship despite marriages and parenthood until one of them dies violently, reportedly by accident, but possibly, as the surviving lover fears, in a brutal attack. Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the short story upon which the film was based, described it as "a story of destructive rural homophobia." Haunting in its unsentimental depiction of longing, lonesomeness, pretense, sexual repression and ultimately love, "Brokeback Mountain" features Heath Ledger's remarkable performance that conveys a lifetime of self-torment through a pained demeanor, near inarticulate speech and constricted, lugubrious movements. In his review, Newsweek's David Ansen wrotes that the film was "a watershed in mainstream movies, the first gay love story with A-list Hollywood stars." "Brokeback Mountain" has become an enduring classic.
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Most associated with epics such as "Intolerance" and "The Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith also helmed smaller films that struck a chord with silent era audiences. "Broken Blossoms," Griffith's first title for his newly formed United Artists, is one example. Set in the slums of London, it concerns an abused 15-year-old girl, Lucy, portrayed by Lillian Gish and the former missionary turned shopkeeper Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) who rescues her from her brutal father. More than a tender but chaste love story, "Broken Blossoms" entreats audiences to denounce racism and poverty.
Expanded essay by Ed Gonzalez (PDF, 495KB)
Lobby card
Additional image
A Bronx Morning (1931)
Part documentary and part avant-garde, this renowned city symphony was filmed by Jay Leyda when he was 21. It features sensational and stylish use of European filmmaking styles The images movingly show the resilience of people persevering with style and enthusiasm during the early years of the depression. "A Bronx Morning" won Leyda a scholarship to study with the renowned Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Added to the National Film Registry in 2004.
Expanded essay by Scott Simmon for the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) (PDF, 284KB)
Watch it here
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
"The best Wim Wenders documentary to date and an uncommonly self-effacing one, this 1999 concert movie about performance and lifestyle is comparable in some ways to "Latcho Drom," the great Gypsy documentary/musical. In 1996, musician Ry Cooder traveled to Havana to reunite some of the greatest stars of Cuban pop music from the Batista era (who were virtually forgotten after Castro came to power) with the aim of making a record, a highly successful venture that led to concerts in Amsterdam and New York. The players and their stories are as wonderful as the music, and the filmmaking is uncommonly sensitive and alert," wrote film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975)
This powerful documentary by the Kentucky-based arts and education center Appalshop represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region. The 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster, caused by the failure of a coal waste dam, killed more than 100 people and left thousands in West Virginia homeless. Local citizens invited Appalshop to come to the area and to film a historical record, fearing that the Pittston Coal Co.'s powerful influence in the state would lead to a whitewash investigation and absolve it of any corporate culpability. Newsweek hailed the film as "a devastating expose of the collusion between state officials and coal executives."
Expanded essay by the film's director Mimi Pickering (PDF, 793KB)
Bullitt (1968)
The winding streets and stunning vistas of San Francisco, backed by a superb Lalo Schifrin score, play a central role in British director Peter Yates' film renowned for its exhilarating 11-minute car chase, arguably the finest in cinema history. In one of his most famous roles, Steve McQueen stars as tough-guy police detective Frank Bullitt. The story, based on Robert L. Pike's cr
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https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/El_Mariachi
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en
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El Mariachi
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https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/filmguide/images/3/39/Site-community-image/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1200?cb=20230325223105
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https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/filmguide/images/3/39/Site-community-image/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1200?cb=20230325223105
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Contributors to Moviepedia"
] |
2024-07-12T14:06:28+00:00
|
El Mariachi is a 1992 Spanish-language American independent action film and the first installment in the saga that came to be known as Robert Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy. It marked the feature-length debut of Rodriguez as writer and director. The Spanish language film was shot with a mainly...
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en
|
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/filmguide/images/4/4a/Site-favicon.ico/revision/latest?cb=20230313154015
|
Moviepedia
|
https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/El_Mariachi
|
El Mariachi is a 1992 Spanish-language American independent action film and the first installment in the saga that came to be known as Robert Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy. It marked the feature-length debut of Rodriguez as writer and director. The Spanish language film was shot with a mainly amateur cast in the northern Mexican bordertown of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico across from Del Rio, Texas, the home town of leading actor Carlos Gallardo. The US$7,225 production was originally intended for the Mexican home video market, but executives at Columbia Pictures liked the film and bought the American distribution rights. Columbia eventually spent $200,000 to transfer the print to film, to remix the sound, and on other post-production work, then spent millions more on marketing and distribution.
The success of Rodriguez's directorial debut led him to create two further entries, Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). For the two sequels, Antonio Banderas took over from Carlos Gallardo for the main character El Mariachi, though Gallardo co-produced both films and had a minor role in Desperado.
In 2011, El Mariachi was inducted into the Library of Congress to be preserved as part of its National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is also recognized by Guinness World Records as the lowest-budgeted film ever to gross $1 million at the box office.
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https://observer.com/2008/02/beastie-boy-forms-indie-film-company/
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en
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Beastie Boy Forms Indie Film Company
|
[
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Gillian Reagan",
"observer.com",
"gillian-reagan"
] |
2008-02-05T21:14:03
|
Ch-check it out! Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA of the Beastie Boys, is launching his own independent film distribution company. "We're kind of winging it," Mr. Yauch told the Hollywood Reporter. He plans to release two to 10 films in the first year.
|
en
|
Observer
|
https://observer.com/2008/02/beastie-boy-forms-indie-film-company/
|
Ch-check it out! Adam Yauch, a.k.a. MCA of the Beastie Boys, is launching his own independent film distribution company. "We’re kind of winging it," Mr. Yauch told the Hollywood Reporter. He plans to release two to 10 films in the first year. Former ThinkFilm vice president David Fenkel will run Oscilloscope Pictures, an arm of Mr. Yauch’s music and film production outfit Oscilloscope Laboratories. These guys worked together on the Beastie Boys documentary Awesome! I F***in’ Shot That! at ThinkFilm. They’ll oversee postproduction and marketing work at the Oscilloscope Laboratories’ downtown Manhattan production space. The duo plans to acquire narrative and documentary features from festivals for release in the U.S. and provide funds to complete and release unfinished films. Mr. Fenkel told the Hollywood Reporter that many of the company’s marketing campaigns will incorporate an "indie music-style, DIY approach." Keepin’ it real, we see.
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3
| 87
|
https://www.screendaily.com/killer-unveils-production-slate-first-project-with-thinkfilm/4032480.article
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en
|
Killer unveils production slate, first project with THINKFilm
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Mike Goodridge",
"Jeremy Kay"
] |
2007-05-17T04:00:00+00:00
|
Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler's Killer Films, which produced tomorrow's Quinzaine entry Savage Grace, has unveiled its new project slate including its first title with THINKFilm following the two companies' recent finance and distribution partnership.THINKFilm will handle international sales on The Electric Slide, the story of Eddie Dodson, one of ...
|
en
|
/magazine/dest/graphics/favicons/favicon-32x32.png
|
Screen
|
https://www.screendaily.com/killer-unveils-production-slate-first-project-with-thinkfilm/4032480.article
|
Subscribe to Screen International
Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry. Subscribe now for monthly editions, awards season weeklies, access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations.
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|
dbpedia
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3
| 68
|
https://time.com/archive/6906653/indie-film-shakeout-there-will-be-blood/
|
en
|
Indie-Film Shakeout: There Will Be Blood
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Erin Davies"
] |
2009-11-07T05:00:00+00:00
|
Update: An earlier version of this story was inadequately sourced and Universal was not given an opportunity to respond to speculation. In addition, Focus Features'...
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
|
TIME
|
https://time.com/archive/6906653/indie-film-shakeout-there-will-be-blood/
|
Update: An earlier version of this story was inadequately sourced and Universal was not given an opportunity to respond to speculation. In addition, Focus Features’ new film slate for 2010 and its global distribution capabilities are competitive strengths that should have been noted. We sincerely regret the errors.
The economic recession may be ending but the independent film industry’s shakeout continues to roll, as we were recently reminded by Disney’s October decision to gut its Miramax division, cutting staff by more than 70%.
It’s just the latest move in what has already been a bloodbath. Over the past 24 months the indie film industry — responsible for recent Academy Award winners like Slumdog Millionaire, There Will Be Blood, and Juno — has lost dozens of key players on both the front and back end of the production process.
(See the top 10 Sundance hits.)
Mark Gill, who served as president of Warner Independent Pictures and Miramax/LA and is now CEO of the indie-film production and financing company the Film Department, estimates that of the 38 indie-film financing firms — the so-called front end — that existed in 2007, only 11 remain. And they are mostly sitting on their hands. While Wall Street investment in independent movies totaled more than $2 billion from 2005 to 2007, according to Deutsche Bank, it has plummeted to practically nothing since then.
(See TIME’s audio slide show “85 Years of Warner Bros. Movies.”)
It’s just as rough on the back end. Small distributors like ThinkFilm, which released the popular documentaries The Aristocrats, Born into Brothels and Murderball, are struggling, while financially stronger studios — the Hollywood heavies — are scaling back. Just two years ago, each of the six major studios had at least one specialty film division that bought indie films at events like the Toronto International (TIFF) and Sundance festivals, arranged for them to be shown at movie theaters and marketed them to the public. Today only Twentieth Century Fox, Sony and Universal still have specialty divisions — Disney does, too, but in name only. Paramount closed Paramount Vantage, Time Warner shut down Warner Independent as well as Picturehouse and absorbed New Line into Warner Brothers, Disney has radically reduced Miramax, and Universal sold Rogue.
(See films from the Toronto film festival.)
How important were those specialty arms? In 2007, they accounted for more than 30% of indie box-office revenues. The big studios’ specialty divisions were also key players in film-festival bidding wars, often paying between $2 million and $10 million per film. This year the highest price paid for a film at the Toronto festival was $1 million by the Weinstein Co. for Tom Ford‘s A Single Man. “Indie Bloodbath” was how influential movie-industry blogger Anne Thompson described the dearth of high-priced sales at the festival.
(See how to plan for retirement at any age.)
While Toronto festival co-director Cameron Bailey is optimistic that by year’s end money spent to acquire 2009 TIFF films will be comparable to that of prior years, others say he’s dreaming. “Usually there would be one film that came close to a double-digit million-dollar sale, if not hitting that,” says Ted Hope, a 20-year veteran indie-film producer whose credits include 21 Grams and The Ice Storm. “Then you would have four or five films in that $4-to-$6 million range and four to seven films in that $1-to-$3 million range. Now we likely have just three or fewer films in the $1-to-$2 million dollar range.”
(See 10 lessons from the 2009 summer box office.)
Lower sale prices aren’t just a bummer for indie filmmakers; the prices also undercut the economics of American filmmaking, denying investors the sale price needed just to break even. Hope says some sales do happen for less money but they are not true business deals. “The international films can sell for low six figures to what buyers remain here precisely because they are subsidized by their local governments.”
So is what’s happening just a recession rut? Partly, yes, but the business is also changing in fundamental ways. Just look at the way indie filmmakers raise money today. In the past, they would “presell” their movie to foreign distributors, using not much more than a script and a cast list. That meant certain funding for the filmmaker no matter how good or bad the film turned out to be. The filmmaker could then go to a private investor who, knowing that the movie was already presold to foreign territories, would view it as less risky and invest. With money from both foreign rights and private investors, the filmmaker could then secure a bank loan for the remaining funds.
(See the top 10 Cannes film-festival moments.)
That funding model is now dead. One reason is the foreign presell market has dried up — foreign governments now prefer to focus on their domestic film industries. Another reason is that U.S. films are often priced too high for investors to make money on, a problem that has intensified with dropping DVD sales around the world. Without being able to presell foreign territories, everything falls apart. “Imploded is the word I would use,” says Roger Smith, senior motion-picture analyst at Global Media Intelligence.
Nor is there any encouraging news from theaters. From 2001 to 2005 independent film made up around 25% of the total domestic-box-office gross. That percentage has dropped to 18% for year-to-date 2009.
So how will the indie-film shakeout ultimately play out? Given falling revenue, poor economics and a dearth of new indie projects, financial investors will likely limit commitments to commercially viable films — those offering strong potential for ancillary sales in video games and merchandise. That means more projects directed at the end market for those products — teens. But for hard-core indie investors, those who love taking risks on creative projects and look to hedge their bets by investing across many films, that game is over for now. And indie fans will soon feel it.
See the 100 best movies of all time.
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http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2015/06/bordertown.html
|
en
|
Thelma Todd: BORDERTOWN
|
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|
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3Zlnwa5F2zA/VXnIwhT1wRI/AAAAAAABCNk/z_rVvr8x7zs/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/bordertown_poster_500_85594.jpg
|
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Benny Drinnon",
"View my complete profile"
] | null |
The story in movie BORDERTOWN involved murder by carbon monoxide and had Margaret Lindsay in the cast. Thelma Todd died of carbon m...
|
en
|
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/favicon.ico
|
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2015/06/bordertown.html
|
A Blog For Thelma Todd Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
|
|||
4383
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dbpedia
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1
| 51
|
https://javafilms.fr/film/on-the-line/
|
en
|
Documentary Sales & Distribution
|
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[
"https://player.vimeo.com/video/525619930"
] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] |
2021-03-19T11:20:58+00:00
|
Every year, over 100,000 Mexicans are deported to their countries of origin by the U.S. administration. Many of them, however, have grown up or built their lives in the United States.
|
en
|
Java Films | Documentary Sales & Distribution
|
https://javafilms.fr/film/on-the-line/
|
On the Line
Every year, over 100,000 Mexicans living in the USA are deported to Mexico. Many of them have grown up and spent decades in America, working, paying taxes, starting families. Some can’t even speak Spanish. In a matter of days. they find themselves torn away from their children and loved ones and escorted across the border. Unable to return home and unable to appeal their deportation.
The border town of Tijuana has become an airlock between two worlds, where the broken lives of migrants end up. For many of these deportees, the only work available is in relocated American call centres. They spend their days answering calls from American consumers, pretending to be working from America, and their evenings looking at the lights from across the border, trying to maintain some some of contact with their families left behind.
Rocio, Richard and Sergio are just three of those affected. We follow them for nearly a year as they struggle to make sense of the situation they are now in and rebuild their lives.
|
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4383
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dbpedia
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2
| 53
|
https://chrisjonesblog.com/2012/04/12-ways-film-distribution-must-change-for-distributors-and-filmmakers-to-survive-a-manifesto-for-change.html
|
en
|
It’s time for film makers to take action over distribution… it’s OUR problem, not theirs!
|
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[
"Chris Jones"
] |
2012-04-12T00:00:00
|
It’s no secret that the current distribution model is broken, but I believe that a whole new model is about to evolve. And I woke this morning in something of a…
|
en
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Chris Jones Filmmaker Blog
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https://chrisjonesblog.com/2012/04/12-ways-film-distribution-must-change-for-distributors-and-filmmakers-to-survive-a-manifesto-for-change.html
|
It’s no secret that the current distribution model is broken, but I believe that a whole new model is about to evolve. And I woke this morning in something of a frenzy, needing to brain dump my thoughts… so here they are…
Here are the distribution problems right now…
1. The high impact life of your film is 14 days, max. Any buzz you create, any momentum you build, is now created on a global scale. Social media does not know boundaries – posters, trailers, interviews, articles – all go global in a moment, and ideally viral. I believe that you can only get REAL buzz for your project for a few weeks, something Morgan Spurlock discussed at NAB last week. After those two weeks, internet dies back considerably.
2. It follows then that you need to get your movie out as quickly as possible, and in as many territories as you can, and finally on all devices (TV, web, phone etc.). Ideally this would happen on the same day too.
3. If we create buzz and then fail to deliver an easy way for people to legally watch our films, we are simply begging people to rip and upload our films to share. I don’t believe these people think of themselves as pirates. This isn’t about money, it’s about us promising something amazing and then failing to deliver a way to watch the film legally and easily.
4. No single platform, aside from iTunes, seems to work well as yet. And iTunes being Apple owned, is housed a ridiculous walled garden.
5. Forget theatres, they are operating in a different century.
As a film maker, all this means that I will get very little back from current distribution methods and my film will get seen mostly via illegal downloads.
So the problem really comes down to an archaic distribution infrastructure run by largely backward thinking business people. Like all empires, this one will topple, and topple very soon. I genuinely wonder what the Cannes Film Market will look like in five years as I can’t see how things can carry on as they are.
Three Structures we need in place
Here’s what needs to happen for your film, and my film, to have a better chance of success today…
1. We need to release globally on the same day.
2. We need to release on every platform available to us (phone, online, VOD, theatre etc) on that same day. People should be able watch your film in their chosen environment and on the platform or device that suits them.
3. We need to remove as many barriers to purchase as possible (no staggered release, no geolocking, must be value for money, must be easy to purchase).
Without these three structures in place, the future is extremely challenging for filmmakers.
We need to own it
So, we as filmmakers need to own this problem. We need to own the destiny of our films and not just pass it on to third parties and cross our fingers. We need to find bold new collaborators who think like we do. The distributor of tomorrow is more likely a technology company with great marketing, transparent accounting and strong media partners than what we have today.
My Manifesto…
Filmmakers and sales agents need to start to think truly globally.
Sales agents and distributors need to wake up to the fact that filmmakers are now powerful marketers in the life cycle of the film, not just the creators.
The audience is no longer just a passive consumer, through social media and transmedia the audience are active participants.
If the audience wants a film right now, because we have created demand – they will find it. You either supply it to them, in the way they want it, at a price point that they accept, or they will find it illegally.
Distributors need to start thinking collaboratively – they MUST embrace new technology, transparency and partnerships.
Theatre owners need to enter the digital age – movies should be uploaded and downloaded online, not transported on 35mm or hard drives as is the current and ridiculous state of affairs.
Theatre owners (especially independents) should open themselves up to deals where film makers can use tools like ‘Demand It!’ in order to build a small, local audience for a film – the filmmaker can then upload remotely – the theatre would screen their film, maybe for one day, or even just one screening, after the film maker having driven traffic there.
And while we are on it, let’s see large plasma screen that are hooked to the web replacing paper posters inside theatres. Really, why on earth is this not happening now?
Artwork should be centralized so that all distributors can share and benefit from each others hard work. Yes I know they will bitch about who pays for what, but we need to move past this and start to really collaborate.
Rewards MUST be shared honestly – what if a centralized third party, money-service held all cash, releasing it to parties in accordance with deals made between all parties? Before we all say, ‘that will never happen’, remember, PayPal stole the internet market from Visa and Mastercard (at least at the low end of the market). It is possible and there is money to be made with an online collection agency. This would also make investment easier due to confidence and transparency.
And it’s a global release on one day people, on ALL platforms. This is why we need sales agents and distributors with vision, who can work collaboratively. We the filmmaker cannot do this alone, it’s too much work and we don’t have the connections or relationships. We need reliable and honest partners.
Let’s ditch DVD and BluRay. Mastering and carrying stock makes no sense when we live in an online world. There is no stock to warehouse or ship when your film is delivered via non-physical digital files.
Can we make moves toward a genuine ‘universal master’? So we make ONE file, from which all other files and formats are derived? Maybe uncompressed 1920×1080 HD in 4:4:4 with six discrete audio channels? In order to future proof your movie, there may be a higher quality master that you create before making this Universal Master. But when your film hits sales and distribution, why is there not one single format we can all work toward?
Final thoughts… over the years, I have seen filmmakers struggle with film technology that was expensive and a genuinely high barrier to entry. MiniDV removed that barrier, and cameras like the 5D MkII and now the Black Magic camera have crystalised that entry point. Desktop editing, proliferation of knowledge on the web, books and training courses have brought tools, knowledge and experience to everyone. Social media has connected us all in a way that we can genuinely help each other and collaborate… We are now in the final furlong… and distribution is the final fence to jump. Make no mistake, distribution that genuinely works for filmmakers and investors is the highest, most challenging barrier to overcome… but it will happen.
I have said it many times, but it needs to be said again. There’s never been a more exciting time to be a filmmaker.
Onwards and upwards!
Chris Jones
My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com
My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker
My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix
|
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2008-05-16T07:00:00+00:00
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Chicago reporter, Lauren Adrian, travels to Mexico to break the silence surrounding the unsolved deaths of hundreds of women near an American-owned faâ¦
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en
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