From Scott Kirsner’s ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field about digital strategies for social issue filmmakers.
1. Start a blog or create a bare-bones website to generate awareness of what you’re up to; this can be a way for potential collaborators, sources, funders, and DVD-buyers to get in touch with you early on.
2. Participate and post in existing online communities related to your film’s topic.
3. Maintain a database of everyone who you’ve interviewed or who has offered help during production, so you can let them know when the film is finally finished.
4. Consider ways to allow interested parties to get involved with your filmmaking process; some filmmakers have “open-sourced” their research, having others contribute by shooting far-off locations and interviews, and even some editing.
5. Think about posting some clips/excerpts from your rough cut on video-sharing sites to begin building an online presence for your film. Provide links back to the film’s site or to your blog.
05 June 2010
Top Five Marketing and Promotion Strategies
From Scott Kirsner’s ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field about digital strategies for social issue filmmakers.
1. Leverage the lists and websites of membership organizations related to the topic of your film to communicate with viewer who may be interested in seeing/purchasing it.
2. Connect with bloggers who cover the issues in your film, offer them interviews, review copies of the DVD or embeddable clips from the film.
3. Collect email addresses (and ideally zip codes too) from the visitors to your film’s website; you can notify them when the film is playing in theaters or on TV, or when it becomes available on DVD or as a download.
4. Post clips on video-sharing sites or social networking sites, with links back to the film’s main site; this can help introduce it to new audiences.
5. Consider allowing internet users to remix or “mash up” parts of your film, or create their own trailers for it. This adds their perspective to the work and, ideally, helps it reach a broader audience.
1. Leverage the lists and websites of membership organizations related to the topic of your film to communicate with viewer who may be interested in seeing/purchasing it.
2. Connect with bloggers who cover the issues in your film, offer them interviews, review copies of the DVD or embeddable clips from the film.
3. Collect email addresses (and ideally zip codes too) from the visitors to your film’s website; you can notify them when the film is playing in theaters or on TV, or when it becomes available on DVD or as a download.
4. Post clips on video-sharing sites or social networking sites, with links back to the film’s main site; this can help introduce it to new audiences.
5. Consider allowing internet users to remix or “mash up” parts of your film, or create their own trailers for it. This adds their perspective to the work and, ideally, helps it reach a broader audience.
Top Five Distribution Strategies
From Scott Kirsner’s ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field about the digital strategies for social issue filmmakers.
1. Make sure DVDs are available when audiences are most interested in the film: during the theatrical run, during festival screenings and at the time of the first TV broadcast.
2. Consider producing at least two versions of the DVD, at two different price points: one for general audiences and a second version for educational/group use, with discussion guides and supplemental material.
3. Carefully evaluate distribution offers that wrap up digital rights with theatrical or home video rights. What will the distributor do in the near-term to generate revenues with those rights?
4. Focus digital distribution efforts on outlets with already-established audiences (such as Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com’s Unbox); if working with a newer outlet, negotiate for premium placement on the site and additional promotion.
5. Whether selling DVDs or digital downloads/rentals with a business partner, insist on regular reporting of sales figures and the ability to audit them.
1. Make sure DVDs are available when audiences are most interested in the film: during the theatrical run, during festival screenings and at the time of the first TV broadcast.
2. Consider producing at least two versions of the DVD, at two different price points: one for general audiences and a second version for educational/group use, with discussion guides and supplemental material.
3. Carefully evaluate distribution offers that wrap up digital rights with theatrical or home video rights. What will the distributor do in the near-term to generate revenues with those rights?
4. Focus digital distribution efforts on outlets with already-established audiences (such as Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com’s Unbox); if working with a newer outlet, negotiate for premium placement on the site and additional promotion.
5. Whether selling DVDs or digital downloads/rentals with a business partner, insist on regular reporting of sales figures and the ability to audit them.
25 May 2010
Random Connections
A few additional resources and connections gathered while at Hot Docs:
HotDocs Library
A wealth of Canadian documentaries you can watch online. In the youth zone be sure to check out the top shorts made by youth. Plus special sections for educators (including downloadable resource packages) and an industry corner where you can see the industry sessions held at HotDocs Film Festival.
Shooting People
An international network for independent filmmakers.
Arts Engine
Connects media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues.
Ideas from Cinereach
An assortment of articles, panels, case studies, useful links and more.
DocAgora
An open sapce to consider new forms, new platforms, new tools and new ways of financing creative and socially engaged documentary media.
HotDocs Library
A wealth of Canadian documentaries you can watch online. In the youth zone be sure to check out the top shorts made by youth. Plus special sections for educators (including downloadable resource packages) and an industry corner where you can see the industry sessions held at HotDocs Film Festival.
Shooting People
An international network for independent filmmakers.
Arts Engine
Connects media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues.
Ideas from Cinereach
An assortment of articles, panels, case studies, useful links and more.
DocAgora
An open sapce to consider new forms, new platforms, new tools and new ways of financing creative and socially engaged documentary media.
Peter Wintonick’s Soapbox
The often outrageous, sometimes prophetic, always amusing ramblings and insights of Canadian documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick at HotDoc’s Soapbox where each person was allowed to pontificate about the state of documentaries for five minutes.
The first thing people ask is What is your film about? Let’s just try to ask the question without the word “about.” Films are more than what they’re about. They’re more than the content. We’re trying to make documentary cinema. It’s about form and aesthetics and art. It’s really about the communication of complex things rather than of the content. I’m interested in how you project what you see to the eyes of the people who are seeing it. For the last 80 years, documentary has positioned itself in the “about.” I instead ask What is the experience?
We’ll banish the word documentary and call it doc media.
Don’t make any more sad documentaries. The number of funny documentaries playing at festivals is usually three out of 300. Sadness and earnestness have become the sins of documentary. Sadness sells. Or feeling guilty. Problemetizing the world, making everything an issue is so prevalent.
Critic Pauline Kale once said about Godard’s fiction films, that he was actually making documentaries of the future set in the present, because capturing a moment before it passed was more important to him than presenting a finished fictional work.
And now for some speculations on where documentaries will be 20 years from now according to Peter Wintonick:
• Fiction will cease to exist. People will extract all the drama, character stories and pleasure from non-fiction doc media that they used to enjoy from fiction.
• Every doc citizen will have eye plants, this kind of third intuitive eye.
• Closed circuit cameras will become the next TV channels, the next theatres, the next opera houses.
• Documentaries will have saved the world. There will no longer be a need for documentaries. But we will make them anyway out of habit.
• Documocracy will replace ideology, religion and politics.
• Docutopian ideas.
• Happiness will rule and there will no longer be a need for sad documentaries.
• Everyone will become a documentary maker.
• Free will be the basis of the new economy. Although gossip may become the new currency.
• Documentary makers will not longer need to take the vow of poverty. We will be appreciated and well paid.
• Forget 3D. 4D holograms will replace it. Documations will come down off the screen to become people.
• HAL will direct all documentaries thus freeing us to rest.
Peter Wintonick founded the production company Necessary Illusions and started DocAgora, a forum to connect and find out about funding and distributing documentary media.
Linear docs are dead and the infrastructure to support them is dead.
The first thing people ask is What is your film about? Let’s just try to ask the question without the word “about.” Films are more than what they’re about. They’re more than the content. We’re trying to make documentary cinema. It’s about form and aesthetics and art. It’s really about the communication of complex things rather than of the content. I’m interested in how you project what you see to the eyes of the people who are seeing it. For the last 80 years, documentary has positioned itself in the “about.” I instead ask What is the experience?
We’ll banish the word documentary and call it doc media.
Don’t make any more sad documentaries. The number of funny documentaries playing at festivals is usually three out of 300. Sadness and earnestness have become the sins of documentary. Sadness sells. Or feeling guilty. Problemetizing the world, making everything an issue is so prevalent.
Critic Pauline Kale once said about Godard’s fiction films, that he was actually making documentaries of the future set in the present, because capturing a moment before it passed was more important to him than presenting a finished fictional work.
And now for some speculations on where documentaries will be 20 years from now according to Peter Wintonick:
• Fiction will cease to exist. People will extract all the drama, character stories and pleasure from non-fiction doc media that they used to enjoy from fiction.
• Every doc citizen will have eye plants, this kind of third intuitive eye.
• Closed circuit cameras will become the next TV channels, the next theatres, the next opera houses.
• Documentaries will have saved the world. There will no longer be a need for documentaries. But we will make them anyway out of habit.
• Documocracy will replace ideology, religion and politics.
• Docutopian ideas.
• Happiness will rule and there will no longer be a need for sad documentaries.
• Everyone will become a documentary maker.
• Free will be the basis of the new economy. Although gossip may become the new currency.
• Documentary makers will not longer need to take the vow of poverty. We will be appreciated and well paid.
• Forget 3D. 4D holograms will replace it. Documations will come down off the screen to become people.
• HAL will direct all documentaries thus freeing us to rest.
Peter Wintonick founded the production company Necessary Illusions and started DocAgora, a forum to connect and find out about funding and distributing documentary media.
List of Distributors
Some distributors of interest that we found out about while at HotDocs:
Snag Films
Interested in the power of documentary film to effect social change. They show films online internationally for free.
IndieFlix
More grassroots. They offer non-exclusive distribution for independent filmmakers through DVD sales, streaming online pay-per-view. They also have alliances and provide some titles to Joost, Hulu, Snag, Amazon VOD, Netflix, iTunes and others.
Visit Films
Distributes the best in world cinema, films made with reasonable budgets that possess commercial viability. They sell for all rights, not just theatrical or television. They come on board at the completion stage.
Cinetic Media
Offers film producers a variety of services from financing to sales representation for theatrical release and digital media distribution. Committed to grassroots marketing.
KinoSmith
Provides distribution and marketing of Canadian and international films to Canada.
Autlook Films
Based in Austria, they handle theatrical and TV sales and festivals.
Dogwoof Films
UK distributor interested in social issue films that are not necessarily easily mass marketable.
Kloos & Co
Production company and more recently getting into distribution of outstanding documentaries. Clients include Arté, ZDF, Al Jazeera, TV3. Florian Thalhofer helped start the company.
Independent Television Service
They fund, present and promote documentaries and dramas on public television and cable and innovative new media projects on the web.
Rooftop Films
Bringing films to unexpected places, getting new audiences. Their tagline: Underground movies outdoors. Supported by Cinereach.
Some other distributors to check out:
Outsider Pictures
Palm Pictures
FiGa Films
Mitropoulos Films
Music Box Films
Arts Engine
***Also, I highly recommend checking out Cinereach’s excellent list of exhibition and distribution venues.*** And another list of distributors is available at DocAgora.
Snag Films
Interested in the power of documentary film to effect social change. They show films online internationally for free.
IndieFlix
More grassroots. They offer non-exclusive distribution for independent filmmakers through DVD sales, streaming online pay-per-view. They also have alliances and provide some titles to Joost, Hulu, Snag, Amazon VOD, Netflix, iTunes and others.
Visit Films
Distributes the best in world cinema, films made with reasonable budgets that possess commercial viability. They sell for all rights, not just theatrical or television. They come on board at the completion stage.
Cinetic Media
Offers film producers a variety of services from financing to sales representation for theatrical release and digital media distribution. Committed to grassroots marketing.
KinoSmith
Provides distribution and marketing of Canadian and international films to Canada.
Autlook Films
Based in Austria, they handle theatrical and TV sales and festivals.
Dogwoof Films
UK distributor interested in social issue films that are not necessarily easily mass marketable.
Kloos & Co
Production company and more recently getting into distribution of outstanding documentaries. Clients include Arté, ZDF, Al Jazeera, TV3. Florian Thalhofer helped start the company.
Independent Television Service
They fund, present and promote documentaries and dramas on public television and cable and innovative new media projects on the web.
Rooftop Films
Bringing films to unexpected places, getting new audiences. Their tagline: Underground movies outdoors. Supported by Cinereach.
Some other distributors to check out:
Outsider Pictures
Palm Pictures
FiGa Films
Mitropoulos Films
Music Box Films
Arts Engine
***Also, I highly recommend checking out Cinereach’s excellent list of exhibition and distribution venues.*** And another list of distributors is available at DocAgora.
Distribution Now
A few notes taken during a Hot Docs industry session about distribution strategies and getting your movie seen. Watch the session.
A good distributor should and will take the time to explain how things work to filmmakers. (Robin)
You need a combination of passion and knowledge for distribution. Build up a team for distribution just like you did for the making of your film. (Peter)
Let the distributor know what your expectations and goals are. They need to know that up front. (Peter)
Get your movie out however you can. For example, check with small Film Societies around the country and show your film there. (Robin)
You need a strategy and partners. Maybe community partners. Build your audience. (Scilla)
It takes patience and persistence.
Rejection is commonplace. Do not take it personally. Do not be deterred. It often has more to do with what the distributor of festival is looking for at that time and whether it strikes a chord with the person who is reviewing it than the quality of the film.
Look at theatrical as a way to drive people to the video-on-demand. (Matt)
Currently, doing theatrical and video-on-demand at the same time is unusual. There are barriers to doing this that will probably change in the future. For example, with more mergers, it is possible the same company would be doing both theatrical and video-on-demand. (Matt)
$50,000–$75,000 for broadcast rights is decent.
For exhibitors, they’re more interested in your strategy and your numbers (audience stats, etc) than in your film. (Robin)
As you build up funders, you are building up an audience for your film ahead of time. This can also be a good selling point to potential distributors.
Read the article about the six case studies given in this industry session as covered by Indiewire.
Sandra Whipham (moderator), Director, London Fields Pictures
Scilla Andreen, CEO and Co-Founder, IndieFlix (USA)
Matt Dentler, Head of Programming, Cinetic Rights Management (USA)
Peter Jäger, Managing Director, Autlook Films (Austria)
Aida LiPera, Manager of Acquisitions and Festivals, Visit Films (USA)
Andrew Mer, VP, Content Partnerships, SnagFilms (USA)
Robin Smith, President, KinoSmith (Canada)
A good distributor should and will take the time to explain how things work to filmmakers. (Robin)
You need a combination of passion and knowledge for distribution. Build up a team for distribution just like you did for the making of your film. (Peter)
Let the distributor know what your expectations and goals are. They need to know that up front. (Peter)
Get your movie out however you can. For example, check with small Film Societies around the country and show your film there. (Robin)
You need a strategy and partners. Maybe community partners. Build your audience. (Scilla)
It takes patience and persistence.
Rejection is commonplace. Do not take it personally. Do not be deterred. It often has more to do with what the distributor of festival is looking for at that time and whether it strikes a chord with the person who is reviewing it than the quality of the film.
Look at theatrical as a way to drive people to the video-on-demand. (Matt)
Currently, doing theatrical and video-on-demand at the same time is unusual. There are barriers to doing this that will probably change in the future. For example, with more mergers, it is possible the same company would be doing both theatrical and video-on-demand. (Matt)
$50,000–$75,000 for broadcast rights is decent.
For exhibitors, they’re more interested in your strategy and your numbers (audience stats, etc) than in your film. (Robin)
As you build up funders, you are building up an audience for your film ahead of time. This can also be a good selling point to potential distributors.
Read the article about the six case studies given in this industry session as covered by Indiewire.
Sandra Whipham (moderator), Director, London Fields Pictures
Scilla Andreen, CEO and Co-Founder, IndieFlix (USA)
Matt Dentler, Head of Programming, Cinetic Rights Management (USA)
Peter Jäger, Managing Director, Autlook Films (Austria)
Aida LiPera, Manager of Acquisitions and Festivals, Visit Films (USA)
Andrew Mer, VP, Content Partnerships, SnagFilms (USA)
Robin Smith, President, KinoSmith (Canada)
Doc Music
Tobias Wilner, a composer for films, TV and documentaries, gave an excellent talk at Hot Docs about his process of creating music specifically for documentaries:
I like silence, especially in documentaries.
It’s a documentary, so why even use music? You maybe use it to keep the attention of people or create a mood.
One of the most common mistakes I encounter when directors give me a cut with rough music in it is they have put too much music and too many different themes in it.
I ask to first see the movie with no music, and let’s see if you need music at all. Because sometimes lighting a cigarette can be music. You don’t really need to put so much music in a movie. And if you want to do it, why do you want to use it? Do you want to use it to describe a character? Do you want to describe where you are in the world?
Usually we end up using less music than the director originally wanted to. Because he’s so bored with his movie. He’s watched it so much. But he has to remember that a good piece of music you can listen to 2,000 times and never get bored, but a movie you watch once or twice. So you can actually use the same music a lot. You don’t need to change so much. And then the film will flow better.
I try to use music like a poem — to bring together what’s behind the lines.
“My head is made out of stars, but it is not yet arranged into a constellation.” (Elias Kaneti)
That’s how I feel when I go in to help a director. He has all this video and has to start organizing it. When you organize the pictures, you can actually create art. It’s the same with the music.
I like silence, especially in documentaries.
It’s a documentary, so why even use music? You maybe use it to keep the attention of people or create a mood.
One of the most common mistakes I encounter when directors give me a cut with rough music in it is they have put too much music and too many different themes in it.
I ask to first see the movie with no music, and let’s see if you need music at all. Because sometimes lighting a cigarette can be music. You don’t really need to put so much music in a movie. And if you want to do it, why do you want to use it? Do you want to use it to describe a character? Do you want to describe where you are in the world?
Usually we end up using less music than the director originally wanted to. Because he’s so bored with his movie. He’s watched it so much. But he has to remember that a good piece of music you can listen to 2,000 times and never get bored, but a movie you watch once or twice. So you can actually use the same music a lot. You don’t need to change so much. And then the film will flow better.
There is a Finnish documentary called The 3 Rooms of Melancholia that is a masterpiece both as a film and for the music.
I like to get involved a little before the editing is finished, because music can actually change the mood of the film, maybe make a scene longer. The filmmaker will usually have to do another week of editing once the music is placed.
I try to use music like a poem — to bring together what’s behind the lines.
“My head is made out of stars, but it is not yet arranged into a constellation.” (Elias Kaneti)
That’s how I feel when I go in to help a director. He has all this video and has to start organizing it. When you organize the pictures, you can actually create art. It’s the same with the music.
The Advocacy Part of It
Who carries forward the social issue once the film is done and the filmmaker may be moving on to other projects?
There are two models. One is that the filmmaker is very involved in the outreach part of it. But that is not necessary. You can build partnerships with other people who are passionate about the issue that will carry on that agenda. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
After completion of the film Budrus, we built up partners that were advocacy oriented. (We didn’t use them to help fund the film because we didn’t want to build expectations of what editorially is going to be in the film.) Disparate groups are now using the film as a way to talk about non-violent resistance — from political activists to religious organizations both Muslim and Jewish. (Julia Bacha, Filmmaker, Budrus)
Here are some social issue sites related to documentary:
Active Voice
Putting a human face on public policy. Using film, television and media to spark social change.
Witness
Basically a socially relevent You Tube for human rights. Their tagline: See it. Film it. Change it.
MediaRights
An online database of films that are socially relevant. Become a member and have your film listed. Find potential collaborators, funders and outreach partners.
Samara
Their purpose is to educate and help cause change. Their current project does something nobody’s ever done before — conducting exit interviews with outgoing Members of Parliament in Canada with the idea to gain vital information and feedback on how best to improve the experience of current and future PMs.
ViewChange on LinkTV
A digital media hub that highlights progress in reducing hunger, poverty and disease in developing nations by harnessing the power of storytelling.
There are two models. One is that the filmmaker is very involved in the outreach part of it. But that is not necessary. You can build partnerships with other people who are passionate about the issue that will carry on that agenda. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
After completion of the film Budrus, we built up partners that were advocacy oriented. (We didn’t use them to help fund the film because we didn’t want to build expectations of what editorially is going to be in the film.) Disparate groups are now using the film as a way to talk about non-violent resistance — from political activists to religious organizations both Muslim and Jewish. (Julia Bacha, Filmmaker, Budrus)
Here are some social issue sites related to documentary:
Active Voice
Putting a human face on public policy. Using film, television and media to spark social change.
Witness
Basically a socially relevent You Tube for human rights. Their tagline: See it. Film it. Change it.
MediaRights
An online database of films that are socially relevant. Become a member and have your film listed. Find potential collaborators, funders and outreach partners.
Samara
Their purpose is to educate and help cause change. Their current project does something nobody’s ever done before — conducting exit interviews with outgoing Members of Parliament in Canada with the idea to gain vital information and feedback on how best to improve the experience of current and future PMs.
ViewChange on LinkTV
A digital media hub that highlights progress in reducing hunger, poverty and disease in developing nations by harnessing the power of storytelling.
Storytelling vs. Advocacy
Is there a place for films that don’t have an overt social agenda? Or is everything becoming advocacy-driven?
We’re looking for good filmmaking and it’s not necessarily always advocacy-oriented with a big A. It can be just finding within a film the opportunity for certain kinds of lessons. Good storytelling is good storytelling and it can meet people in many different places. That’s what we’re really looking for. (Orlando Bagwell, Ford Foundation)
We see filmmakers as the storytellers, the ones who make the product that get the people excited. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
Even if you may get some feedback about why aren’t you making this more clear, more overt, in my experience in the long-term everybody has come around. Every funder who at first may have been wanting us to take a stronger stand on something has seen that the impact is much stronger if the storytelling is the driving force of the film. And that is it’s character-driven and about the experience of individuals, that’s what is ultimately going to touch audience members. Not the exact pitch of what you want them to do afterwards. People are not going to respond as much to that as being emotionally carried through a story. (Julia Bacha, filmmaker, Budrus)
We’re looking for good filmmaking and it’s not necessarily always advocacy-oriented with a big A. It can be just finding within a film the opportunity for certain kinds of lessons. Good storytelling is good storytelling and it can meet people in many different places. That’s what we’re really looking for. (Orlando Bagwell, Ford Foundation)
We see filmmakers as the storytellers, the ones who make the product that get the people excited. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
Even if you may get some feedback about why aren’t you making this more clear, more overt, in my experience in the long-term everybody has come around. Every funder who at first may have been wanting us to take a stronger stand on something has seen that the impact is much stronger if the storytelling is the driving force of the film. And that is it’s character-driven and about the experience of individuals, that’s what is ultimately going to touch audience members. Not the exact pitch of what you want them to do afterwards. People are not going to respond as much to that as being emotionally carried through a story. (Julia Bacha, filmmaker, Budrus)
Social Issue Doc Funders
An inside look at what a few of the foundations and funders are looking for (straight from the people who run the programs). Cinereach looked particularly interesting to us because of their interest in more subtle storytelling versus in-your-face advocacy.
Ford Foundation
Orlando Bagwell, Director, Freedom of Expression—Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program
• We want good narratives. We want films that can have impact.
• The filmmakers are the storytellers. We link you with others to help do other parts like the web part or the social issue action. We build a connected community.
• How do you want to move people? Ford Foundation wants to know and to be active in how you do that, finding strategic partners.
• Interested in using narrative to try to move people to take action about things they care deeply about.
• Interested in how media and documentary can become a critical part of the Foundation’s vision for social change.
• We’re trying to provide a connected community of all our grantees, not just the media ones, but the social justice grantees also. The media work is the one area in our foundation that is underlying all other parts of the foundation.
• We want filmmakers to be filmmakers. We fund Sundance, ITVS, Active Voice, Witness. We bring them to the community of all the people we work with. The idea is that we want to bring you, the filmmaker, to a connected community that is going to serve what you do. We don’t expect you to do it all yourself.
Cinereach
Philipp Engelhorn, Executive Director and Co-Founder
• We are a grant-making organization that funds social issue documentaries done in an artful way. Less advocacy-based, more subtle storytelling. Often allows both sides of the issue to embrace the film. Did Jesus Camp.
• We tend to get involved early on in projects.
• The questions we ask when considering a project: What is the filmmaking craft? Is the story being artfully told? Is there a real passion from the filmmaker? Is it going to be entertaining? Is it a great piece of filmmaking? That’s our top criteria. And then we look at the issue being addressed. We favor story over message, character over agenda, complexity over duality.
• One of our projects, FilmAid, was working with refugees to help them make their own films. We did not mandate what the films were about. We just provided some training and let them create. Then we had a film festival in refugee camps, and the films also travelled.
Sundance Institute
Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
• We look for quality of storytelling, potential for social impact, the creative vision of the filmmaker, track record. We don’t look at distribution strategies.
• Sundance’s mandate is still to support feature-length cinematic storytelling. They we partner with other foundations and organizations to work on other aspects. The inter-connections with the foundation community are very strong. Starting to get in with one entity leads you to introductions and relationships with others.
For more funders, check the helpful lists at Cinereach and at DocAgora.
Also check the Foundation Center, Arts Engine and Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media.
Ford Foundation
Orlando Bagwell, Director, Freedom of Expression—Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program
• We want good narratives. We want films that can have impact.
• The filmmakers are the storytellers. We link you with others to help do other parts like the web part or the social issue action. We build a connected community.
• How do you want to move people? Ford Foundation wants to know and to be active in how you do that, finding strategic partners.
• Interested in using narrative to try to move people to take action about things they care deeply about.
• Interested in how media and documentary can become a critical part of the Foundation’s vision for social change.
• We’re trying to provide a connected community of all our grantees, not just the media ones, but the social justice grantees also. The media work is the one area in our foundation that is underlying all other parts of the foundation.
• We want filmmakers to be filmmakers. We fund Sundance, ITVS, Active Voice, Witness. We bring them to the community of all the people we work with. The idea is that we want to bring you, the filmmaker, to a connected community that is going to serve what you do. We don’t expect you to do it all yourself.
Cinereach
Philipp Engelhorn, Executive Director and Co-Founder
• We are a grant-making organization that funds social issue documentaries done in an artful way. Less advocacy-based, more subtle storytelling. Often allows both sides of the issue to embrace the film. Did Jesus Camp.
• We tend to get involved early on in projects.
• The questions we ask when considering a project: What is the filmmaking craft? Is the story being artfully told? Is there a real passion from the filmmaker? Is it going to be entertaining? Is it a great piece of filmmaking? That’s our top criteria. And then we look at the issue being addressed. We favor story over message, character over agenda, complexity over duality.
• One of our projects, FilmAid, was working with refugees to help them make their own films. We did not mandate what the films were about. We just provided some training and let them create. Then we had a film festival in refugee camps, and the films also travelled.
Sundance Institute
Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
• We look for quality of storytelling, potential for social impact, the creative vision of the filmmaker, track record. We don’t look at distribution strategies.
• Sundance’s mandate is still to support feature-length cinematic storytelling. They we partner with other foundations and organizations to work on other aspects. The inter-connections with the foundation community are very strong. Starting to get in with one entity leads you to introductions and relationships with others.
They fund, present and promote documentaries and dramas on public television and cable and innovative new media projects on the web. Their tagline: Diverse stories. Independent filmmakers. Award-winning documentaries. On TV, online and in communities.
Also check the Foundation Center, Arts Engine and Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media.
18 May 2010
Finding Funding Partners
Notes from the Hot Docs industry session Engage My Film about finding and working with foundations, organizations and third sector business to fund your film. Especially for social issue documentaries. Watch the session.
Know the rules of engagement up front when partnering with funders and distributors — particularly who has creative control and who owns it. Filmmakers should not give up their storytelling expertise when partnering. Remember you’re there because you’re storytellers and you know how to do that. Don’t give that up. That’s what they want you for. (Orlando)
The trend is moving away from getting public television funding or finding another broadcasting partner but to instead finding partners like foundations or social sector groups. (Patricia)
I don’t think that equity investment works — people investing in a single film for the purpose of making money. A single film is just always going to be too risky versus investing in several films and spreading the risk around. (Michael)
As you build up funders, you are building up an audience for your film ahead of time. This can also be a good selling point to potential distributors. (Julia)
It may not make sense for you to go directly to Ford Foundation for funding, but look at what foundations and organizations they work with. The best place to start may be small. Make connections. Build it slowly. Most foundation people know each other and once you get one funder, the connection can lead to other funders. (Patricia)
Look at other similar films and see who funded them. Before you call the funder, call the filmmaker and find out how things worked for them. (Patricia)
Also look to organizations that are about the issue your film is about. For example, Global Fund for Children advances children’s issues and it offers a media grant.
Your job as a filmmaker when going to possible funders is to articulate clearly what your film is going to do, perhaps what it’s not going to do and to negotiate that space in between. You can also offer to partners, short-form content not used in your feature that they can use on their website. (Patricia)
I started a non-profit justvision.org around an issue to fund my film projects. (Julia)
Fiscal sponsorship — some foundations require it if they only fund non-profits. Ford Foundation funds both for-profit and non-profit projects. They would rather put more money directly into the pocket of the filmmaker to make the film than have it go to the fiscal sponsor. Sundance grants are also to the artist directly. Cinereach currently can only fund non-profits, so they have a list of organizations that can provide fiscal sponsorship. (These orgs usually take 5–6%.)
Patricia Finneran (moderator), Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (USA)
Julia Bacha, Filmmaker, Budrus (USA)
Orlando Bagwell, Director, Freedom of Expression—Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program, Ford Foundation (USA), also former independent producer
Dan Cogan, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Impact Partners (USA)
Philipp Engelhorn, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Cinereach (USA)
Michael MacMillan, Co-Founder and Chair, Samara (Canada)
Andy Whittaker, CEO, Dogwoof (UK)
Know the rules of engagement up front when partnering with funders and distributors — particularly who has creative control and who owns it. Filmmakers should not give up their storytelling expertise when partnering. Remember you’re there because you’re storytellers and you know how to do that. Don’t give that up. That’s what they want you for. (Orlando)
The trend is moving away from getting public television funding or finding another broadcasting partner but to instead finding partners like foundations or social sector groups. (Patricia)
I don’t think that equity investment works — people investing in a single film for the purpose of making money. A single film is just always going to be too risky versus investing in several films and spreading the risk around. (Michael)
As you build up funders, you are building up an audience for your film ahead of time. This can also be a good selling point to potential distributors. (Julia)
It may not make sense for you to go directly to Ford Foundation for funding, but look at what foundations and organizations they work with. The best place to start may be small. Make connections. Build it slowly. Most foundation people know each other and once you get one funder, the connection can lead to other funders. (Patricia)
Look at other similar films and see who funded them. Before you call the funder, call the filmmaker and find out how things worked for them. (Patricia)
Also look to organizations that are about the issue your film is about. For example, Global Fund for Children advances children’s issues and it offers a media grant.
Your job as a filmmaker when going to possible funders is to articulate clearly what your film is going to do, perhaps what it’s not going to do and to negotiate that space in between. You can also offer to partners, short-form content not used in your feature that they can use on their website. (Patricia)
I started a non-profit justvision.org around an issue to fund my film projects. (Julia)
Fiscal sponsorship — some foundations require it if they only fund non-profits. Ford Foundation funds both for-profit and non-profit projects. They would rather put more money directly into the pocket of the filmmaker to make the film than have it go to the fiscal sponsor. Sundance grants are also to the artist directly. Cinereach currently can only fund non-profits, so they have a list of organizations that can provide fiscal sponsorship. (These orgs usually take 5–6%.)
Patricia Finneran (moderator), Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (USA)
Julia Bacha, Filmmaker, Budrus (USA)
Orlando Bagwell, Director, Freedom of Expression—Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program, Ford Foundation (USA), also former independent producer
Dan Cogan, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Impact Partners (USA)
Philipp Engelhorn, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Cinereach (USA)
Michael MacMillan, Co-Founder and Chair, Samara (Canada)
Andy Whittaker, CEO, Dogwoof (UK)
17 May 2010
Doc Publicity and Marketability
A few marketing bits and pieces I picked up from the industry sessions at HotDocs 2010:
1. Rather than thinking about the website as a way to drive people to see your doc, flip that around and think of it the opposite way. Use your feature linear doc as a way to drive people to the web doc, to the interactive doc, the real content.
2. Theatrical doesn’t make money, but it’s how you get the publicity, the reviews.
3. It is about all types of media, not just the film. That’s a reality. Find partners to help you with the areas that you don’t have the skills for or don't want to do.
4. A film has to have a website because often people respond to what they know immediately. They’re reacting to the film, so the film's website is probably the first place they’re going to go to look for something else, more information, more content.
5. If the media is talking about the same subject matter as your doc, it makes your doc relevant.
6. What you’re going to get people to pay for is what they can’t find elsewhere for free and what can’t be stolen. What can’t be stolen is the interactive element. Non-linear storytelling gives them options in how they experience the content which can get them coming back again and again.
7. People love contests. It doesn't have to be a big prize.
1. Rather than thinking about the website as a way to drive people to see your doc, flip that around and think of it the opposite way. Use your feature linear doc as a way to drive people to the web doc, to the interactive doc, the real content.
2. Theatrical doesn’t make money, but it’s how you get the publicity, the reviews.
3. It is about all types of media, not just the film. That’s a reality. Find partners to help you with the areas that you don’t have the skills for or don't want to do.
4. A film has to have a website because often people respond to what they know immediately. They’re reacting to the film, so the film's website is probably the first place they’re going to go to look for something else, more information, more content.
5. If the media is talking about the same subject matter as your doc, it makes your doc relevant.
6. What you’re going to get people to pay for is what they can’t find elsewhere for free and what can’t be stolen. What can’t be stolen is the interactive element. Non-linear storytelling gives them options in how they experience the content which can get them coming back again and again.
7. People love contests. It doesn't have to be a big prize.
16 May 2010
More Online Doc Sites to See
Examples of non-linear storytelling:
The Global Lives Project is a cross-continental collaboration aimed at building a video library of the human experience online. It started with a grassroots effort to document a day in the life of 10 regular folk around the world who represent the diversity of the world’s population.
havana-miami.tv
Each week, three videos from Havana, three videos from Miami, over three months. Follow everyday life as experienced by six young men and women from each city. Includes a timeline, profiles of people and a searchable graph that sorts videos by tagged topic.
theplaceswelive.com
The Places We Live is a series of stunning 360º photogrpahs and audio stories that take you across continents and into the lives of twenty families living in urban slums.
cityofmemory.org
City of Memory is an urban story map of New York City with stories from people and neighborhoods of the present and the past. Includes curated as well as user-submitted stories.
gdp.nfb.ca
GDP: Measuring the Human Side of the Canadian Economic Crisis is a bilingual project that features an interactive map and timeline embedded with videos, audio slide shows, photos and comments, sortable by theme.
prisonvalley.arte.tv
Prison Valley explores the prison industry and the Colorado community whose economy is based upon it. I haven't checked this one out yet. You have to register to take advantage of all the embedded interactivity and to explore the spaces and characters within the content. Supposedly a dense and richly rewarding media experience with stunning cinema verité video.
justvision.org
The creators of the feature documentary Budrus started a nonprofit to help fund the making of their film and talk about the issues involved. Their plan is to have 5-minute videos that you can pause and link to other videos or what people are saying about it or find more information.
oneocean.cbc.ca
One Ocean takes a more traditional approach where online content acts as a support to an educational documentary tv series. It's a place to learn more about the topic and play games.
Kensington Communications creates and produces television and interactive media. Check out the links to Interactive Projects in the right column. Here are a couple of examples:
The City Sonic project features location-based storytelling and a gaming component built around mobile smartphones. Each short film tells the story of one musician and their shared history with a noted Toronto music venue. You can get bonus information or prizes when accessing pieces on your mobile while you are at specific locations.
Diamond Road Online was launched in conjunction with a TV series about the gem. The site contains a database of over 300 documentary sequences with more than 10 hours of video. It allows users to follow their own interests. You can choose to follow a particular character or a specific theme or let the online recommendation engine tell you a more continuous story. Intelligent software analyzes what you've already seen, combines it with content ratings from other users and then recommends what should be seen next. At any time you can become an editor by creating, commenting on or sharing your own mini-documentaries with the online community. View a demonstration of how Diamond Road Online was constructed and how it works. Uses Web 2.0. Uses collaborative filtering and personal recommendations. Every piece of content is tagged with keywords. The content creator can also tag a sequence as an introductory clip so that it would play before anything else related to that story.
Online Doc Tool #3: Cisco Eos
Cisco Eos is a social entertainment platform that harnesses the power of social networking and connects your brand to your fans. Great for filmmakers, bands and media companies. Andy Whittaker, CEO of Dogwoof, was touting it, saying it’s a hub to link between your film and the issues and other relevant parties, to give information and education and build an online community. Allows you to create and manage a website that can provide more personal experiences around your film. Can include paid content. Features social networking capabilities, content management and audience analytics. Hosted by Cisco. Templates available or customize your own look. Can serve as a central publishing hub for artists to push content out to destination sites, but still be able to draw audiences or data back to their own site. Here are some sites using Cisco Eos:
dirtyoil.co.uk and tarsands.co.uk
paramore.net
blondie.net
clubdevo.com
circasurvive.com
maydayparade.com
dirtyoil.co.uk and tarsands.co.uk
paramore.net
blondie.net
clubdevo.com
circasurvive.com
maydayparade.com
Online Doc Tool #2: YellowBird
YellowBird is a new camera and technology that provides a totally interactive 360º view. The camera is similar to Google Streetview technology except that instead of photographs, the camera records video. The YellowBird Flash player then makes it possible to watch the 3D content interactively. The viewer is able to choose their viewing direction like you are actually there turning your head, looking around. Just check out some examples on their site and it will all make sense. Here are a few more examples:
Batavia Stad
Click on the Batavia Stad 360 Tour.
Day of Song
Highrise
The YellowBird part of the site is coming soon (July). Katerina Cizek, director and coordinator of Highrise, a project for the National Film Board of Canada, gave a preview of their current Highrise project in development: Out My Window. She described it as nuggets of stories from people who live in highrises around the world. Each person’s apartment is a 360º interactive environment where you can see the action and click on objects and people to access their stories, videos or informational blurbs.
The overarching Highrise project is a documentary experiment that takes a global look at the human experience of vertical living. Their aim is to challenge conventional notions of documentary and what it means to be an urban species in the 21st century. You can currently see The Thousandth Tower, their first Highrise project. Personal photo stories of six Toronto highrise residents equipped with digital cameras and powerful points-of-view.
Batavia Stad
Click on the Batavia Stad 360 Tour.
Day of Song
Highrise
The YellowBird part of the site is coming soon (July). Katerina Cizek, director and coordinator of Highrise, a project for the National Film Board of Canada, gave a preview of their current Highrise project in development: Out My Window. She described it as nuggets of stories from people who live in highrises around the world. Each person’s apartment is a 360º interactive environment where you can see the action and click on objects and people to access their stories, videos or informational blurbs.
The overarching Highrise project is a documentary experiment that takes a global look at the human experience of vertical living. Their aim is to challenge conventional notions of documentary and what it means to be an urban species in the 21st century. You can currently see The Thousandth Tower, their first Highrise project. Personal photo stories of six Toronto highrise residents equipped with digital cameras and powerful points-of-view.
Online Doc Tool #1: Korsakow
Korsakow is a piece of software you can use to create database narratives. Developed by Florian Thalhofer. Allows users without programming expertise to create nonlinear narratives. Free and open source for PCs and Macs. Watch some of the online video tutorials to get a better grasp of it. And here are some examples of sites using Korsakow:
thewayisawit.org
A look at Starbucks and Cosco from the employee's point of view.
forgotten-flags.com
Germans' changed perceptions of their country after the 2006 Soccer World Cup.
lovestoryproject.com
People from different countries tell their stories of love.
7sons.com
A personal trip to the Bedouins in Egypt.
13tershop.de
Stories of love, loneliness, greed and happiness from the Bremer shopping mall in Germany. A project where new film clips are posted daily and use the Korsakow system to link to each other. Computer terminals in the shopping center operate as video recording stations and give the audience the opportunity to record their own stories.
istanbul.arte.tv
Will include an interactive web documentary by Florian to be posted July 2010. About the Galata Bridge as the central structure and action of the city. Florian showed us parts of it in process at the moment. The site is already worth checking out.
thewayisawit.org
A look at Starbucks and Cosco from the employee's point of view.
forgotten-flags.com
Germans' changed perceptions of their country after the 2006 Soccer World Cup.
lovestoryproject.com
People from different countries tell their stories of love.
7sons.com
A personal trip to the Bedouins in Egypt.
13tershop.de
Stories of love, loneliness, greed and happiness from the Bremer shopping mall in Germany. A project where new film clips are posted daily and use the Korsakow system to link to each other. Computer terminals in the shopping center operate as video recording stations and give the audience the opportunity to record their own stories.
istanbul.arte.tv
Will include an interactive web documentary by Florian to be posted July 2010. About the Galata Bridge as the central structure and action of the city. Florian showed us parts of it in process at the moment. The site is already worth checking out.
How to Do Online Docs
Notes from a Hot Docs industry session about the Poetics of Online Documentary. Watch the session.
You can tell stories in a non-linear way. You don't have to make a single path.
Think of your doc website in this way – there is a subject and a space to work in, to tell stories.
The structure of your site should be story-driven.
Just use the tools you know. You don't have to use everything that's out there. (Florian)
Know your audience and talk to them. Bring users in on your project early to test it and get feedback.
Choose the appropriate amount of interactivity for your project and your audience and no more. Innovate just enough.
Think about how navigation can be content. (Katarina)
Give ways to engage. Link or collaborate with other organizations.
There are growing expectations to experience things on different platforms (web, smartphone) in different ways, not the same way on every platform. (David)
Education market – kids want to discover it for themselves, not be told. (Annette)
Florian Thalhofer, Interactive and web producer
Katarina Cizek, National Film Board of Canada
David Oppenheim, Kensington Communications
Annette Bradford, CBC Documentary Unit
Florian Thalhofer, Interactive and web producer
Katarina Cizek, National Film Board of Canada
David Oppenheim, Kensington Communications
Annette Bradford, CBC Documentary Unit
14 May 2010
11 Favorites from the Festival
Saw a couple dozen docs in Toronto the beginning of May at the HotDocs Film Festival. Half of them great. The rest merely mediocre. Here are the top 11 Paul and Julie picks (in the order we saw them):
The Woman with the Five Elephants
Authentic. Magical. Unassuming. Poetic.
Captivated by Swetlana and her love of words. She translates Dostoyevsky from Russian into German and reveals her process and her life story. As she works on translating one particular passage, she describes the difficulties, the differences in essence and sound between the two languages. She says that in Russian it is so eloquent, but when I translate it to German, to sounds like a stuffed mattress. By Vadim Jendreyko (Switzerland)
Arsy-Versy
Funny. Inventive. Beautifully shot.
An absurd and delightful 50-year-old Lubos lives with his endearing if slightly disappointed mother and loves to take pictures of bats. He ventures into caves and mines with his body covered in lights or hangs upside down in trees, capturing hundreds of images of his bat friends. By Miro Remo (Slovakia)
Osadné
Wryly funny. Charming. Kind.
Three characters that you would follow anywhere. The mayor, the local orthodox priest and the leader of the Ruthenian Revival Movement. They all have ideas of how to revitalize their tiny, dwindling Slovakian village in the easternmost part of the EU. Includes a trip to the big city (Brussels) to try to persuade EU leaders to support their cause. By Marko Skop (Slovakia)
The Peddler
Humanity. Character. Wit.
Another lovely one. Cinematic. It’s the kind of film we would do. This older fellow travels from village to village in Argentina in his old, beat-up car. At each village he barters for lodging and food in exchange for directing a feature film starring the locals. He doesn’t even have a camera, just a script and the will to make a movie. He gets everyone involved. He’s a master improviser, working with what he has. He edits it all together on VHS and screens it for the locals to see. He brings laughter and community to the village. Then on to the next town. By Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich (Argentina)
La Belle Visite
Beautiful. Relaxed. Subtle.
Purely observational with stunning cinematography. Captures a profound, reflective portrait of the final years of life. Take a breath, sit back and enjoy the slow pace and the clever moments of humor. The last scene, a slow walk around the hotel-turned-home, is lovely. Made by a young filmmaker with a great, humble presence. He could be a cohort of ours. I look forward to seeing what else he does. By Jean-Francois Caissy (Quebec)
Peter in Radioland
Tender. Imaginative. Powerful.
An excellent short character portrait of the director's 63-year-old father. He’s home on sick leave, depressed and wanting to go back to the comforts of an analog world of vinyl records and long-wave radios. Interwoven moments of stop motion animation with observational footage. Remembrances and longings. Peter talking about his life: “When I was working, I was Peter with a capital P. And now I feel very small in this world. I can feel I’m shrinking.” By Johanna Wagner (Sweden) Watch it on YouTube.
Marwencol
Unexpected. Remarkable. Original.
A story well told. Masterfully edited. Unfolding layers. After a brutal beating, Mark constructs a miniature WWII-era town in his backyard as a form of therapy. Using dolls that represent people in his real life, he creates stories and photographs the scenes. Fantastic photos. It was a surprise that they were his photographs. It’s a movie that you can’t fully describe. Just go see it. And I’m sure he must be Rob Brock’s brother (One Buccaneer). By Jeff Malmberg (U.S.)
Freetime Machos
Genuine. Candid. And really funny.
A great friendship between two guys. Engaging characters that draw you in despite their faults. They are part of a rugby team in Finland that does more losing than winning, constantly aggravating their coach. See them on the pitch and in their homes. Also seamlessly integrates local issues like Nokia’s cutting of jobs, without detracting from the main portrait. Just a wonderful story told well. By Mika Ronkainen (Finland)
Space Tourists
Memorable. An adventure.
The changed world of the Soviet space program. Combines the experience of a millionaire’s childhood dream to go into space and rural Kazhaks on the ground who salvage space parts that drop from the sky after launches. Each has a purpose. A great experience. Love the poster (see below). By Christian Frei (Switzerland)
The Parking Lot Movie
Fun. Informative. Engaging.
Not very polished, but well-structured. Amusing characters. Parking lot attendants at a small lot in Charlottesville, Virginia. A mixture of grad students, philosophers, musicians and marginal-type characters. They endure long stretches of tedium followed by brief moments of aggravation with customers such as one who quibbles over paying $1 as she drives out in her SUV. They talk about cars, capitalism, drunkenness, justice, spirituality and working in the service sector. I liked the different texts on the gate bar. We watched it outside on top of the Cumberland parking garage at night, shivering uncontrollably. By Meghan Eckman (U.S.)
Seltzer Works
Beautiful. Succinct.
A short about the dying industry of seltzer bottling. Followed one of the only guys left in the country who does it (in New Jersey). The process was beautifully shot. High quality cinematography. Good main character. Well done. By Jessica Edwards (U.S.)
And my two favorite posters:
The Woman with the Five Elephants
Authentic. Magical. Unassuming. Poetic.
Captivated by Swetlana and her love of words. She translates Dostoyevsky from Russian into German and reveals her process and her life story. As she works on translating one particular passage, she describes the difficulties, the differences in essence and sound between the two languages. She says that in Russian it is so eloquent, but when I translate it to German, to sounds like a stuffed mattress. By Vadim Jendreyko (Switzerland)
Arsy-Versy
Funny. Inventive. Beautifully shot.
An absurd and delightful 50-year-old Lubos lives with his endearing if slightly disappointed mother and loves to take pictures of bats. He ventures into caves and mines with his body covered in lights or hangs upside down in trees, capturing hundreds of images of his bat friends. By Miro Remo (Slovakia)
Osadné
Wryly funny. Charming. Kind.
Three characters that you would follow anywhere. The mayor, the local orthodox priest and the leader of the Ruthenian Revival Movement. They all have ideas of how to revitalize their tiny, dwindling Slovakian village in the easternmost part of the EU. Includes a trip to the big city (Brussels) to try to persuade EU leaders to support their cause. By Marko Skop (Slovakia)
The Peddler
Humanity. Character. Wit.
Another lovely one. Cinematic. It’s the kind of film we would do. This older fellow travels from village to village in Argentina in his old, beat-up car. At each village he barters for lodging and food in exchange for directing a feature film starring the locals. He doesn’t even have a camera, just a script and the will to make a movie. He gets everyone involved. He’s a master improviser, working with what he has. He edits it all together on VHS and screens it for the locals to see. He brings laughter and community to the village. Then on to the next town. By Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich (Argentina)
La Belle Visite
Beautiful. Relaxed. Subtle.
Purely observational with stunning cinematography. Captures a profound, reflective portrait of the final years of life. Take a breath, sit back and enjoy the slow pace and the clever moments of humor. The last scene, a slow walk around the hotel-turned-home, is lovely. Made by a young filmmaker with a great, humble presence. He could be a cohort of ours. I look forward to seeing what else he does. By Jean-Francois Caissy (Quebec)
Peter in Radioland
Tender. Imaginative. Powerful.
An excellent short character portrait of the director's 63-year-old father. He’s home on sick leave, depressed and wanting to go back to the comforts of an analog world of vinyl records and long-wave radios. Interwoven moments of stop motion animation with observational footage. Remembrances and longings. Peter talking about his life: “When I was working, I was Peter with a capital P. And now I feel very small in this world. I can feel I’m shrinking.” By Johanna Wagner (Sweden) Watch it on YouTube.
Marwencol
Unexpected. Remarkable. Original.
A story well told. Masterfully edited. Unfolding layers. After a brutal beating, Mark constructs a miniature WWII-era town in his backyard as a form of therapy. Using dolls that represent people in his real life, he creates stories and photographs the scenes. Fantastic photos. It was a surprise that they were his photographs. It’s a movie that you can’t fully describe. Just go see it. And I’m sure he must be Rob Brock’s brother (One Buccaneer). By Jeff Malmberg (U.S.)
Freetime Machos
Genuine. Candid. And really funny.
A great friendship between two guys. Engaging characters that draw you in despite their faults. They are part of a rugby team in Finland that does more losing than winning, constantly aggravating their coach. See them on the pitch and in their homes. Also seamlessly integrates local issues like Nokia’s cutting of jobs, without detracting from the main portrait. Just a wonderful story told well. By Mika Ronkainen (Finland)
Space Tourists
Memorable. An adventure.
The changed world of the Soviet space program. Combines the experience of a millionaire’s childhood dream to go into space and rural Kazhaks on the ground who salvage space parts that drop from the sky after launches. Each has a purpose. A great experience. Love the poster (see below). By Christian Frei (Switzerland)
The Parking Lot Movie
Fun. Informative. Engaging.
Not very polished, but well-structured. Amusing characters. Parking lot attendants at a small lot in Charlottesville, Virginia. A mixture of grad students, philosophers, musicians and marginal-type characters. They endure long stretches of tedium followed by brief moments of aggravation with customers such as one who quibbles over paying $1 as she drives out in her SUV. They talk about cars, capitalism, drunkenness, justice, spirituality and working in the service sector. I liked the different texts on the gate bar. We watched it outside on top of the Cumberland parking garage at night, shivering uncontrollably. By Meghan Eckman (U.S.)
Seltzer Works
Beautiful. Succinct.
A short about the dying industry of seltzer bottling. Followed one of the only guys left in the country who does it (in New Jersey). The process was beautifully shot. High quality cinematography. Good main character. Well done. By Jessica Edwards (U.S.)
And my two favorite posters:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)