Category: Independent Film

Gateway to Cinema – Digital Distribution Case Study

Here’s a video of a panel discussion that took place at the Cannes Film Festival this past May, at the UK Film Center. It’s a fascinating look at the various initiaves that are taking place to reinvent the theatrical experience by virtue of digital technologies. It’s a subject that, as you all know, is dear to my heart. And yes, I’m on the panel.

Gateway to Cinema-goers: A Digital Distribution Case Study from UK Film Centre on Vimeo.

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Video from Cannes Film Festival 1987

John Tilley sent me this great video he took with his brand new camcorder at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987. I edited it down, and added names for everyone John and I could identify. There are a lot of familiar faces if you’ve been in the film business long enough to remember that far back. Check it out. Maybe you are in there somewhere.

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More bad news about VPFs…or is it?

I ran into an exhibitor friend at the Toronto Film Festival (who shall remain nameless) and he went off about how unhappy he was about having signed a VPF deal in order to convert his theaters to Hollywood’s version of digital projection equipment. We talked about all the various implications of the deal, which I’ve outlined in a previous post. But he brought up another angle that I hadn’t realized before.

In order to be eligible for a VPF deal, an exhibitor has to guarantee a certain number of “turns” per screen per year. A “turn” is when you dump the film you are playing and bring in a new one, which then requires the distributor of that new film to pay a VPF fee. The more “turns” the more your equipment has been subsidized. Continue reading “More bad news about VPFs…or is it?”

Getting Ready for your premiere at TIFF

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the Filmmakers Bootcamp, an annual event at the TIFF Lightbox to prepare the Canadian filmmakers for their experience at the Toronto Film Festival. Given the nature of the event, I decided to emphasize practical advice about making the most of the experience. Since the audience was limited to Canadian filmmakers, the good folks at TIFF recorded the session and have made it available on line. Here it is in its entirety, with the hope that it might be of help to others of you who might be navigating Toronto for the first time.


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A Song to Cinema

With all the bad news floating around about movie theaters going out of business, this video, courtesy of the Traverse City Film Festival, stands as a reminder of why we need to preserve the theatrical experience. Kudos to The Treefort Collective for a great job creating the video, and for putting me in a starring role alongside Wim Wenders!

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Before and After

I thought it would be fun to share the following photos, one taken 25 years ago in front of Symphony Space in Manhattan on the occasion of the 1st Columbia University Film Festival, and the other taken 25 years later at the same location. Can you guess who these people are?

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Filmmaker Magazine on the Columbia Film Program

The following article by Charles Lyons appears in the current issue of Filmmaker Magazine. Click on a thumbnail to get started…

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Here’s a link to PDF of the piece.

(reproduced with permission)
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Let’s Focus on the Grown Ups

I just got back from a trip to Brussels, where I gave a master class at RITS on “New Business Models in the Digital World.” The audience, a combination of students and professionals from all over Belgium was managing to stay awake as I spouted off about all the various disruptive forces that were moving the film business in new directions. I talked about diminished windows, squeezed margins, pricing disparities, consumer confusion, conflicting technologies and much more.

During the Q&A period, a fellow raised his hand and challenged one of my earlier statements. I had mentioned that theatrical box office was trending upward only because of increasing ticket prices–mainly due to the premium paid for 3D–and in fact, the number of actual admissions had been trending downward for decades. Continue reading “Let’s Focus on the Grown Ups”

Andrew Sarris – Film Critic and Icon

Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris, Annette Insdorf and Ira Deutchman at the 25th Anniversary of the Columbia University Film Festival

I’m sure I am hardly alone in the devastation I’m feeling in hearing of the death of Andrew Sarris. I grew up reading his reviews in the Village Voice, and he was one of the major influences in my love of film.When I was a young aspiring cinephile, the much hyped feud between Sarris and Pauline Kael was in full throttle. Personally, I found myself more frequently in Kael’s corner. Her more emotional response to films seemed more in line with my youthful spirit, while  Sarris seemed both more orthodox and more academic than I was ready to accept at the time. In spite of this, his early embrace of auteurism was the kindling that lit my fire for many filmmakers that otherwise would never have been on my radar screen. Continue reading “Andrew Sarris – Film Critic and Icon”

Emerging Dances With the Joffrey

Earlier this year, Emerging Pictures worked with Jon Reiss and Sheri Candler on the release of the film “Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance.” We had a simultaneous premiere of the film in 44 cities, at the same time it was having its World Premiere at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, as part of the Dance on Camera Series. After the film, the panel discussion was broadcast to the theaters nationwide, with a Twitter feedback loop. This is a great example of what I’ve been preaching for quite some time–that we need to more focus on “eventizing” independent films, in order to entice people out of their homes and into movie theaters. Check it out…

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