Nov 27, 2024
What a crazy world. I just spent a lot of time with my documentary friends who were in town for the DocNYC Film Fest, and boy was that depressing. Not the fest, or the films/panels, all of which were great, but the side conversations. One can’t walk into a meeting with this crowd and not spend the first half of it discussing one’s depression over the election, and what one another thinks are our possible paths forward, and how few of those paths seem feasible. This is not an overtly political post overall, so don’t run for the hills, but we have to start in the mire, because that’s where we are, and it’s going to inform what we do next.
Normally, this is a crowd ready for a fight, ready to speak truth to power and they’re usually convinced they can use their films to make some difference in the world. That was distinctly NOT the vibe I’ve gotten this past couple of weeks. I’ve spoken with people ready to throw in the towel, those who are vowing to read no news. or they’re questioning whether film makes any difference at all. They’re contemplating the 4 year cruise, or debating where in the world they might move. The most common sentiment was to focus on oneself, their own sanity, their health and that of their family and friends. What I did not get from this crowd was any forward thinking, any fight, any direction, or frankly, any hope. That was not expected, given who I was hanging around with – and lest anyone think I am being judgmental, I probably didn’t inspire any of them with my thoughts, either. I’m stuck here with the rest of you.
But giving up and navel gazing is not in my nature. I’m not here to tell you what to do politically, but since every other pundit and sub-stacker is telling us what to take away from all of this, let me add to the noise. People wanted change. No matter how much the left said, “look over here, not there, things are fine, and we’re headed in great directions” – a lot of voters said - No, no we’re not, and I’ll take crazy over more of the same, any day of the week.
Not my kind of thinking, but I think that’s an attitude we should bring to the film and media worlds as well, but with a twist. We’ve been spending many years being told that our new paradigm is better than the old ones. We’ve got our Netflix, our AppleTV, something called Max, and if you’re getting a little frisky, here’s Tubi or Mubi for you. There’s a path to get there – it starts with Sundance, and leads through a FilmFreeway account to a tour of regional film fests and “free cheese” dinners with two drink tickets, to a one week run where no one shows up, and if you’re lucky, you get into the Netflix algorithm where maybe, if you’re lucky and don’t get lost there, a million folks press play on your movie before drifting off to sleep. If not, an aggregator will put you onto TVOD and AVOD platforms, charge you to get there and send you back pennies on the dollar. And if a foundation shined a light on you, you’ve done an impact campaign too, where maybe you did have impact, but it might have been easier to just send every viewer a fiver in the mail to watch your movie, sign a petition and post about it on Facebook. Success!
Don’t you want to vote for more of the same?
Or do you want to blow it all up and build something new? And you don’t care whether you break some cherished things that might get in your way? I bet you’re in that latter camp, too, when it comes to the film status quo. You might just be ready to embrace some crazy in your film life, no?
And with what’s ahead for us in this administration, and the upcoming media economy, there’s even more reason to blow it all up and build something different. There’s going to be a ton of consolidation, cuts to the few cherished homes for indie voices, and as the market moves towards more advertising along with the need for more subscribers and eyeballs, they are not looking for more indie or arthouse films. Heck, even if you’re a brand making a film, my clientele, the market is not getting any easier and you should be looking at blowing some things up as well.
Time to embrace the crazy and banish the lazy in the film world as well. No more status quo. Luckily, as I’ve written about here before, there are some folks thinking along these lines. The flavors of the month seem to be Gathr, Kinema and Jolt (here’s a link to a great summary of a panel featuring them at DocNYC on the D-Word website (free registration needed)). But we also have Galerie, Metrograph (and Metrograph Pictures), Artinii, and other tech plays. And some new studios, like Angel Studios, or Edglrd who are building entirely new models. There are various groups building advocacy for the future, alignments of festivals and exhibitors. There’s people looking more broadly, like the DISCO Network and their Independence Project. And plenty of people are trying to build new finance models that intermingle the usual suspects and new players, such as those brands moving into this space. Fundamental to almost all of these is servicing an underserved but sizable audience, and using tech and data to help do it better. The list of such projects goes on and on.
But to date, many of these potential solutions are narrowly focused on particular slices of the industry. Too often, we also see solutions which are great for one movie, or one niche, but they’re singular and not duplicable – the one-off examples of a movie that went direct to fan and found success. For a bunch of people who get accused of being commies collectivists every other day, we seldom band together on solutions that would benefit all of us.
That’s where we should focus our energies – the bigger picture solutions. We don’t need to follow the right-wingnuts completely - we can blow up the status quo without burning the world to the ground. That's the twist - we aren't going to burn down the good with the bad. Because we’re artists. We’re smart. We can dream up and film a better world. And we can make it more diverse and inclusive, while we’re at it. We can even keep the parts of the industry that work, but we also need to make some drastic changes and quit hoping the old world models will come back around our way.
But that means we need to take the time, and put in the effort, to make those dreams a reality. That’s one smart thing that the right did for the past four years - crazy, evil-genius thinking. We need some of the same, politically, and artistically. It’s time to focus on crazy over lazy – but crazy smart thinking is what we need. Enough with the depression, it’s time to dream crazy dreams for the future of film, and then put in the smart, hard work. Let’s get moving. (after you finish your turkey, if you're an American and celebrating that holiday in some fashion).
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Film
IndieWire Future Of Film Summit Video: At IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit, our own Brian Newman, Keri Putnam (former Sundance Institute CEO), and Sam Harowitz (senior VP, content acquisition and partnerships, Tubi) host a panel called “How to Get Your Film Seen: New Takes on Audience, Funding, and Buyers,” where they shared emerging distribution strategies, success stories, and provided key insights into how filmmakers can thrive in today’s ever-changing distribution landscape. Check out IndieWire’s recap and/or watch the full 30-minute discussion at this link! (GSH)
17th Hamptons Doc Fest Dec 5-11: Providing a festive opening to the holiday season, Hamptons Doc Fest celebrates its 17th year with a seven-day festival screening 32 documentary films from December 5-11 in Sag Harbor, both at the Sag Harbor Cinema and the Bay Street Theater. The Pennebaker Career Achievement Award will be given to Michael Moore, and this year’s Impact Award is given to the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms. Find out about the awards and the line-up at the fest's website. I am attending opening weekend, and think the fest line-up is always great, and it's a low-key way to catch some great films and see some of the doc industry each year. (BN)
The Indie Film Landscape with Keri Putnam: Speaking of Keri (above), next up, join Keri Putnam, Scott Macaulay and Jon Reiss of 8Above on December 5th to discuss Keri’s groundbreaking, extensive and critically important study of the audience and landscape for independent film. This year long-study involved over 200 field interviews with experts throughout our field. Some of the key findings include: 36.7M people watched independent films in the theaters or on small screens and the total audience calculation for independent film is as large as 76.3M.
However in an era where digital platforms prioritize sensationalism over substance, the future of independent media hangs in the balance. While the mainstream market is saturated with fleeting trends and popular content, independent film—offering profound storytelling and diverse perspectives—is increasingly marginalized. Putnam hopes this study will spark dialogue, guide new initiatives, and foster a more vibrant future for independent media. This webinar will be part of that dialogue. We hope to see you there. December 5th at 4pmPT/7pm ET. More info here. (BN)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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The Brown Dog
The Brown Dog launches on WePresent: We've been spending the better part of the past year working hard here at Sub-Genre on the launch of the new film The Brown Dog, by directors Nadia Hallgren and Jamie-James Medina and presented by WePresent of WeTransfer (our client). The Brown Dog is an animated short starring the late Michael K. Williams and Steve Buscemi, and it's Executive Produced by Chiwetel Elijofor, Idris Elba, along with Steve Buscemi. My favorite part - aside from working with these great filmmakers - is that the film was scored by one of my favorite musicians, Tyshawn Sorey.
The film premiered at both the American Black Film Festival and Tribeca (same week), and qualified for the Oscar (TM) race for Best Animated Short when it won an award at the great IndyShorts Film Fest (ahem... voters, check it out).
Well, after a great festival run and many event screenings, the film launched last Friday on WePresent for free, and with a great intro essay by Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker. While I am clearly biased, I can't recommend this film enough - check it out and please help us spread the word - I promise, you'll love it. (BN)
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