February 16, 2022
My take on the news has been a bit depressing as of late – you know, covid and all that – so this week I want to focus on some good things that have been happening.
- SXSW is going to be off the hook. SXSW is always fun, crowded, and good for all kinds of business, but this year is going to be one of the best. After a covid-hampered Sundance, and two years without the show, people are ready to get to Austin, do some partying, conduct some business, and in the film world, watch some movies. Everyone except me, that is. I’m not able to attend, but I would even as a cautious person, because there’s plenty of ways to enjoy SXSW outdoors as well. In client news, also check out a short from Sophie Harris produced by GoDaddy, Big Water Summer: A Creation Story.
- IFC Films is Reinvigorated and Making Waves. IFC Films has always been a home for some great indie and arthouse films, but lately, they’re on fire. Arianna Bocco and her team are acquiring and releasing some of the best films out there, picking up from the former leaders after a couple of years now. Just check out what they’ve got now, and what’s coming soon. I have a hunch this is about positioning the company for a spin-out from the home, and a big sale, but whatever happens, it’s good for audiences and filmmakers right now.
- Mubi’s Growth, and takeover of Match Factory, promises good things for foreign auteur cinema. Speaking of which, can they just go back to their old name, The Auteurs?
- Gina Duncan is back at BAM, as President, and we have a film buff in charge. Gina Duncan has been at BAM Cinemas, and before that, at the Jacob Burns, and was most recently at Sundance. Now she takes over BAM as President, which has been in need of a shake-up, and it’s good for film that we’ll have a film buff in charge of the bigger picture there.
- Indiewire’s Eric Kohn’s long-read New Column is Tackling the Bigger Issues – I’ve been friendly with the Indiewire folks since it started, under old leadership and new, and have generally been a supporter, but one of my complaints in recent years has been the lack of more in-depth articles on the state of the business. But lately, Eric Kohn has been taking on those issues – from changes in the VOD landscape, to Sundance’s “Spotify moment” with #JihadRehab, and more. Let’s hope he keeps these going, and tackles even bigger issues soon, because we need more conversation about this stuff.
- MoviePass is Relaunching. Last week was the VIP launch event for MoviePass, Part Two. ICYMI, original founder Stacy Spikes has taken it back over - and he was not party to the earlier destruction - and he relaunched it at an event at FilmLinc, which I unfortunately had to miss, as I am rooting for him and the team. A lot of people are skeptical of the relaunch, but MoviePass did a lot of good things before it went down the tubes, and a new version of it, done right, could really help the business. There are many new features, some cool and some a little controversial, but maybe this version will work. Celluloid Junkie's J. Sperling Reich probably has the best run-down of the new features
- The NEA’s recent grants to film organizations were huge (for a few) – This take will be controversial. As Eric at Indiewire noted, the NEA’s recent Covid-Stimulus grants only went to 37 organizations (and only 6% to film), and many great ones missed out on expected funding. But those who did receive funding got some very sizable support. As someone who has applied to, received grants from and been on grants panels for the NEA multiple times, the reported grants were larger than most groups usually get. I’m a fan of giving more money to less organizations (or individuals, pending the funder), as they can make more systemic change.
- Muslim/MENASA Filmmaker Activation. There’s been a lot of deserved handwringing over the Sundance decision to program Jihad Rehab, and their super-frustrating non-response to the critiques thus far. But the good thing about this debacle has been that the MENASA and Muslim film communities have gotten organized, made a strong case for the changes that are needed, and the community is listening. Well, most of the community. Check out the #jihadrehab and #mymuslimfilm hashtags to catch-up on what’s been going on, and be on the look-out for more, because this story is not going away, and now that the film community is paying attention, and folks are getting more organized, some real changes might start to happen.
- LAT short docs launch – giving another home for short films. The LAT has launched their answer to the NYT Op-Docs with a new monthly series of shorts. While The Guardian, NYT Op-Docs, Topic and others have never exactly paid too great for these films, we do need more homes for shorts, and I’ll give this one some time to find its footing – and the launch line-up is promising. I'm glad to be a small part of ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught), by Brit Hensel, which my client REI supported - along with the Nia Tero Foundation and the Upstander Project folks. I've also seen The Beauty President by Whitney Skauge, which is also great. Check these and the others out at the LAT.
- The Academy has shown great leadership in ditching the vaccine requirement for the show: Ok, I’m joking here. I can’t be positive for an entire newsletter. While it remains unofficial, the Academy “leadership” seems to think that it’s ok to not require vaccines for this year’s awards show. Biggest. Mistake. Of. Many. Apparently, done to accommodate Daniel Kaluuya, or some other unvaxxed celeb, this just sends another shitty message that the rules only apply to certain people. Sure, we’re apparently tired enough of this virus that everyone is ditching the masks, but the Academy should set the tone and require full vaccination (meaning, and boosted), and testing, and should talk about these requirements publicly. Not that anyone else will be paying attention, but these are the little dumb things that just feed counter-narratives that we don’t need. The good news here - everyone else seems to know this.
I promise to be back next week with nothing but piss & vinegar.
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Film
Netflix and Disney face a growing challenge: streaming mercenaries: Streaming mercenaries, similar to ‘churners and returners’ are people who subscribe to a service (say Disney+) to watch a flick or two, and then unsubscribe after their show/movie is over (I’ve done this for a couple HBO max shows now). Rob Walker for Fast Company points out that this behavior is increasingly common. He explains that “traditionally, one of the attractions of a subscription model has been signing up customers who passively stick around, absorbing fee hikes out of sheer habit. But consumers are changing. And increasingly, the streaming wars aren’t just about attracting customers, but retaining them.” Walker points out that after the release of Hamilton on Disney+ hundreds of thousands of people subscribed, though after a few months, 1/3rd left. We’ve seen similar behavior with HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Peacock (post-Tokyo olympics, Peacock lost half of their new subscribers). The takeaway: Mercenary streamers “present a twofold challenge [to streamers]: The nonstop pressure to raise new tentpoles — and to make sure there’s enough under the tent to make the newcomers stay.” As a result, streamers are hiking prices up for loyal subscribers (you’d think this would in turn create more mercenary streamers, right?). Check out Walker’s piece for the numbers. (GSH)
The Olympics are meant to be a beacon of progress. A century of documentaries tells another story: The Olympics is supposed to be about a great coming-together to watch and celebrate human progress. Over the years, a substantial body of film has been created and/or commissioned to relay this story of human triumph and human ideals (world peace, strength, advancement/progress…etc). The International Olympic Committee (IOC), for instance, began commissioning films that documented the games and the stories behind some of its athletes in 1912. Many of these IOC documentary films were beautifully shot — Tokyo Olympiad (1965) by Kon Ichikawa, for instance, “is a triumph of filmmaking on any subject, crafted as subtly and gorgeously and intimately as you could hope (and beginning, naturally, with a stunning image of the rising sun)”, explains Vox’s Alissa Wilkinson. Many more films can be found in the Criterion Channel’s 100 Years of Olympic Films collection, which too, are strikingly cinematic works (most are documentaries, while others are storyless and venture into the experimental). “The genius of both the IOC’s full archive and Criterion’s longitudinal collection”, writes Wilkinson, “is that it tells a story that’s not in any of the individual films alone. Some Olympic Games don’t have a film because they didn’t happen…. Others carry giant asterisks next to them because of boycotts… [and many more are haunted by] genocides, regional wars, official policies of segregation, and even several pandemics.” Other Olympics documentaries require less reading between the lines: Festival of Nations and Festival of Beauty directed by Leni Riefenstahl are a “staggering achievement”, cinematically, though “they cloak heinous genocidal ideology.” In these propaganda pieces, Adolph Hitler can be seen enjoying himself in the stands at the 1936 games held in Berlin. Another film, The Odyssey, by Asif Kapadia, documents “the upheaval caused by the 2012 Games to the lives of disadvantaged Londoners and the British economy at large.” Check out Wilkinson’s Vox piece for more on the history of these Olympics films and how they can be used to frame a century of human progress, failure, peace, strife, health, and sickness. (GSH)
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Branded Content
Augmented Reality is the Future of Online Shopping: Augmented Reality looks like it’s the future of online shopping, which probably also means it’ll offer the most seamless entrance into the metaverse, as discussed in previous newsletters. Snapchat is now offering an AR shopping experience which lets users/customers virtually try on Nike Air Force 1’s through various filters and quickly make a purchase. IKEA “created a shoppable AR “escape room” game on Snapchat… which allowed users to click through to shop for the very products they’re attempting to declutter from the virtual room.” The birth of a new kind of online shopping — an AR-powered social commerce — is expected to “grow three times faster than traditional e-commerce over the next three years… [and] global social commerce sales… are expected to skyrocket from $492 billion in 2021 to $1.2 trillion in 2025.” Unsurprisingly, Gen Zers and Millennials are driving these numbers. Megan McCluskey for Time has the news. (GSH)
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Miscellany:
Getting Past the NFT Monkey Business - The WSJ has a pretty good deep-dive into the issues around NFT's, particularly when it comes to copyright issues, outright theft and other "monkey business" that is difficult to police in a decentralized space. Worth a read if you're interested in the future of this space.(BN)
NFT Collectors Turning to Tangible Art: But the NYT features NFTs this week in a different way- as a gateway drug to buying the "real" thing as more and more collectors discover they want something more tangible. (BN)
15 Monkeys Have Reportedly Died While Testing Elon Musk’s Midlife Crisis Brain Chip: Getting back to monkey-business, Elon says that when inserted into our brains, his Neuralink chip will one day be capable of replaying memories and restoring body functionality in users with spinal cord injuries. He also boasts we’ll be able to scroll through social media hands-free, with only our minds. This is the social media experience I’ve been missing (said no one ever)! So far, the brain chip has helped a monkey play pong (the video game… which I admit is kinda cool). But at what cost? On a serious note, the latest is that 15 monkeys didn’t survive the chip — reportedly, in recent UC Davis trials, monkeys experienced brain haemorrhaging and engaged in self-harm. The Gamer’s Rhiannon Bevan has the story. (GSH)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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