Distribution

On May 7, I led a discussion at the Maryland Film Festival  of what independent film can learn from the upheaval in the music business. At the festival's "Filmmakers Taking Charge" conference, music manager and promoter Jason Foster talked about the value of providing free downloads of songs, in order to make money at live events and with direct sales, often at those events. Read more...

Catherine Stifter and jesikah maria ross just finished their 2.5 year project, Saving The Sierra: Voices of Conservation in Action, and have shared a few lessons in planning a national multiplatform documentary. You can read their article here!

These days, documentary filmmakers face different challenges than their counterparts of the past. Gone are the days of media for consumption; we now live in an era of media for participation.Films are now backed up with online teasers, trailers and other promotional videos; pages on social networking sites; email updates and blogs as well as various other forms of electronic promotion.Read more...

One of the most provocative stories of TIFF, for me, was the launch of British activist filmmaker Franny Armstrong's new film, Age of Stupid. In the film, set in the future, archivist Pete Postlethwaite looks down sadly at the way silly humans created unstoppable global warming by squandering resources without even enjoying them. Those of us who are trying to figure out changing business models for documentary have been tracking the making of this film for some time. Read more...