Feb 17, 2025
If you’ve read this newsletter more than once, or read just about any industry trade publication, you’re aware that the entire independent film sector has been in crisis for quite some time. For every good thing happening – younger audiences are coming back to movie theaters for example – there seems to be two bad ones – but audiences aren’t showing up for documentaries, and the major streamers aren’t buying indie films. Mergers and consolidation have spread throughout the industry, leading to layoffs across studios and streamers, which trickle down to the indie world, and which is also leading to further movement away from specialized films and shows. We see threats (and opportunity) from AI, as well as an FCC that is already attacking traditional and public media. There are rumored cuts to arts/film funding at the NEA and NEH, and questions over whether traditional philanthropists will step up, or not. Add in the lingering effects of the strikes, the fires in LA, the incentives wars, and you could add another dozen things here, and things can sometimes look bleak. It seems like maybe we should wake up and do something about all these issues.
Way back in March of 2019, I wrote what was a pretty popular post in the newsletter called “ Saving the Indie Film Middle Class,” which argued that we needed a new AIVF – an advocacy organization for indie film (that post describes what AIVF was if you don’t know). An organization that would research and define the threats, and the opportunities, bring together coalitions to advocate for a stronger indie/arthouse sector, and make ties to related industries (news, etc.) and build a stronger community advocating for a healthy media sector – the one we deserve. A lot of people emailed me to say – if you launch it, I’ll join the effort, but I was too busy building Sub-Genre to take on that work. I wrote about this same subject many more times and gave a few talks at film fests pushing for the same thing, but again, I was too busy to actually do something about it. A lot of other people have been talking about this same need for a few years, and some people were ready to take on that leadership role and started a small group to explore the idea. And about six months ago, one of them reached out to me and asked if I would join them in the founding of a new advocacy organization – The Future Film Coalition.
The Future Film Coalition is a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that will (in the words of our website) “serve as a research think tank and coalition-builder for advocacy campaigns that will help secure the future of art house and independent media in the US. We expect our efforts may spawn a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization or trade organization in the future, but we believe the first essential step is to lay the groundwork for shared knowledge and collaboration across the field. We will be stronger together than working exclusively in smaller pockets of activism, and we can invest together in research, policy monitoring, information sharing, briefing documents, and convening to mobilize for action at the local, state, and federal levels.” You can read more about all that we hope to accomplish here, and there’s a list of the founding members here – and truth be told, these folks have done a lot more work on getting this started than me, but we also can’t do this on our own, this is going to be the work of our entire community.
To that end, we are hosting a (virtual) Town Hall on February 27th at 12p PT/3p ET where we’ll tell everyone a lot more about what we’ve been doing, hope to do, and how anyone can join the effort. You can register to join the Town Hall here. We hope to include all aspects of the sector – filmmakers, film festivals, exhibitors, distributors, other nonprofits and community groups, academics, and others in the industry. There will be membership, and committees and voting, and all of that fun stuff that goes into building a strong coalition. There will be research, advocacy, and a lot of “roll up the sleeves” kinds of work – so we need a lot of help. And as you can guess – we probably should have started this way back when I wrote that post in 2019 or earlier, so the work is even more urgent now.
If you want to learn more about what we’re doing, add your voice, and maybe get active with us, join us for the town hall.
Note - VACATION - Those of you who read the newsletter often know I usually publish on Thursdays, but this is running on Mon the 17th (a holiday in the US) because I am heading out on vacation with no email/phone until Feb 26th. I needed to get this out before I left town, and with time for people to register for the Town Hall, and I imagine the next newsletter will be in early March. Until then, sign up for the above, and if you need me, well.... I'll be busy swimming in clear waters at an undisclosed location and ignoring all emails.
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Film
One Fix For Movie Theaters? Becoming Nonprofits: Apparently, Jim Zarroli of the NYT visits the Berkshires and found out that the Triplex Theater in Great Barrington converted to a nonprofit movie theater, and it gave him the idea to write an under-researched article on the subject, as you often see happen in the NYT. But hey, at least they uncovered a phenomenon that's been going on for quite some time now, even if they neglected to speak with the Arthouse Convergence folks, who could have told him about many more examples around the US (and the world), and broadened his lens a bit. Anyway, it is good when good movie theaters get attention, so there's that. (BN)
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