Join us on Thursday, Sept. 24th for a webinar with Ash Cook of Video Store.Age, Mike Clark of Filmtrade and Sean Drummond of Cindee
If you know me, you know I’m passionate about finding new ways for filmmakers to connect with their audiences – and merch! It’s more important than ever for independent filmmakers to build relationships with the people who care about their work, and giving viewers more ways to engage can help strengthen and sustain those relationships.
In a world where streaming dominates how we watch movies, audiences are rediscovering the joy of physical media and collectibles. Independent filmmakers, meanwhile, are looking for new ways to reach them and generate revenue outside the traditional distribution model.
A new generation of platforms is emerging to meet those needs. Some are imagining new ways to bring together physical media, merchandise, and VOD. Others are building new infrastructure that helps independent filmmakers reach their audiences.
I’m excited to announce that the founders of three of these platforms will join me next month for a new New Platforms, New Possibilities webinar. This is a follow-up to last year’s hugely popular New Platforms, New Potential webinar, and a conversation I’ve been eager to have since.
Ash Cook (founder and CEO of Video Store•Age), Mike Clarke (founder of FilmTrade), and Sean Drummond (founder of Cindee), each bring a distinct perspective to the conversation, exploring how merch, physical media, and VOD are merging in new and creative ways, as well as how emerging platforms are creating new models and opportunities for indie film distribution.
If these platforms are new to you, here’s what you need to know:
Video Store•Age circulates a highly curated selection of independent films on encrypted USB drives, bringing a sense of discovery and physical exchange back to watching movies.
FilmTrade’s Tap to Watch™ card reimagines physical media as a collectible card that grants audiences access to films without needing a disc player. (We used it on the release of The Librarians, so I’ve seen it work firsthand.)
Cindee is tackling the direct-to-audience challenge more broadly as an indie-film platform where audiences can find, watch, and buy access to independent films and screenings directly from filmmakers, and discover new festivals and films.
Together, these models raise some intriguing possibilities for creators and audiences alike.
What We’ll Cover
- How do these models help filmmakers build and keep direct relationships with their audiences?
- Why are audiences and filmmakers showing renewed interest in tangible, collectible objects?
- How are these platforms reshaping the market for film distribution?
- What kinds of films are best suited to your model, and which aren’t?
- What makes a piece of merchandise feel essential to a film, rather than a generic branded item?
- When in a film’s life should a filmmaker start planning for merch and physical release?
- Can physical media raise the perceived value of an independent film?
- What’s on the horizon for this style of distribution?
This event is free! So sign up and spread the word to anyone who might be interested. But feel free to become a paid subscriber or Buy Us a Matcha to support our work.
Bios
Ash Cook
ASH COOK [HOYLE] is the founder & CEO of Video Store•Age. Before launching, he spent almost a decade as a features Programmer at the Sundance Film Festival, working across fiction, nonfiction, and Midnight. Ash is currently serving as the Festival Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first and largest Jewish film festival in the world and the Associate Director of Programming & Operations + the Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies. Ash is a 2026 Queer|Art Mentorship Fellow & a 2021 Project Involve Fellow with Film Independent. He has also worked as the Director of Programming of Damn These Heels Film Festival by the Utah Film Center, a Senior Programmer at Outfest Los Angeles, a Programmer at Palm Springs Shorts Fest and in various curatorial capacities at NewFest NY, Sun Valley Film Festival, Overlook Film Festival, and AFI Fest. Ash has experience in production at ABC Studios, Mssng Peces, and The Annoyance Theater. Ash is originally from Philadelphia, PA and holds a dual degree in Film & English from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Video Store.Age bio
Video Store•Age is a grassroots distributor of independent films. Circulating highly curated, hard-to-access titles on our patent pending encrypted USB drives, we aim for humanistic, hand-to-hand distribution that disrupts algorithms in favor of curation, context, and community.
Mike Clarke bio
Mike is a veteran of four startups prior to FilmTrade. His most recent was acquired by Google in 2017, where he spent several years in product management. This experience inside big tech deepened his interest in alternative models for how technology platforms are owned and governed — a question that sits at the heart of what FilmTrade is building.
Before Google, Mike spent several years on staff at the University of Washington in technology commercialization, supporting inventors and entrepreneurs, managing IP licensing including software and digital content, and co-founding the first makerspace open to the entire campus community.
Since leaving Google in 2024, Mike has focused full-time on film endeavors. He has contributed to two short films with credits in writing, editing, production, and sound recording, and is an active volunteer with the Seattle Film Society. He is also developing a feature-length adaptation of Molly Gloss’s science fiction novel The Dazzle of Day.
FilmTrade bio
FilmTrade LLC was formed in May 2024 after its founder participated in a Sundance Catalyst Future Models program exploring new distribution alternatives. After several more months of research and concept development, a four-person team was assembled in January 2025 to build a minimum viable product.
The FilmTrade Tap to Watch™ Card — a modern, universally-playable alternative to legacy physical media formats like DVD and Blu-ray — launched at the Vancouver International Film Festival in October 2025. To date, FilmTrade has piloted Tap to Watch™ with over two dozen shorts and features, both fiction and non-fiction. Among them are three feature-length documentaries that premiered at Sundance earlier that year.
FilmTrade is currently converting to a Public Benefit Corporation with a mission to improve economic outcomes for independent filmmakers and the cultural organizations that champion their work and provide spaces for it to be seen — expanding audience access to a wider variety of films and artistic expression in the process.
Sean Drummond Bio
Sean Drummond is a film producer and entrepreneur operating at the intersection of indie film and the creator economy. He co-founded the award-winning production company Paxeros in 2016, producing over 100 commercial projects and multiple features including Fully Realized Humans (Tribeca), The Drop (Tribeca) with Duplass Brothers Productions, and No Right Way (Woodstock Ultra Indie Award). After more than a decade in production, he founded Cindee, a platform built to empower filmmakers and festivals to grow, engage, and monetize their audiences directly.
Cindee Bio
Cindee is the home for independent film, powering discovery, ticketing, and streaming for festival-curated movies. Audiences attend festivals through the platform, add films to a watchlist, follow the filmmakers, and get notified when those films play next. Filmmakers manage their own releases and see every sale in real time. They distribute direct, so the audience a film earns at a festival doesn’t disappear when the festival ends, and neither does the revenue.https://jonreiss.substack.com/p/new-platforms-new-possibilities-meet