Image courtesy of The Impact Lounge
On Saturday, January 25th at Sundance, we gathered for a no-holds-barred Distribution Town Hall at the Impact Lounge hosted by Caspian.
With Amy Hobby, Dan Mirvish, Glen Reynolds, and Russell Schwartz, we tackled the hard truths of indie film distribution: what’s working, what’s broken, and how we can reshape the future. Some time was spent on traditional sales – but as Amy Hobby said “What sales?” While we discussed split rights, how to find your audience, how to test screen your film, how you need a strategy before you go to festivals (which are distribution) and new exciting emerging platforms, it felt that these were topics we have been talking about for 15 years.
Halfway through I couldn’t take it anymore and I went on a rant about how we are dealing with an economic/structural system that is strangling our field. And while there is hope in a potential untapped audience for independent film – a few conglomerates now dominate and control audience attention and media and they don’t care about us. Until we deal with these issues and structures – the vast majority of filmmakers will be vying for the few drops of blood we wring from turnips.
