Uptown/Detroit Independent Film Festival — Winner, Best Michigan Documentary

Detroit was undoubtedly ground-zero for the film, as the story focused on the auto industry and its workforce.  My team and I spent countless hours at the Wayne State University labor library and other historical archives around the state of Michigan. Relationships with local researchers led to an introduction to one of the directors of the MotorCities National Heritage Area, an affiliate of the National Park Service dedicated to preserving the automotive and labor heritage of the state. The mutual benefits were obvious, as the film was unearthing a vast amount of Michigan history keen to MotorCities and we were certainly excited to link up with any statewide network. But, I’d never heard of a “national heritage area” before so, it warranted further investigating.  A National Heritage Area is “a region that has been recognized by the U.S. Congress for its combination of natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources that have shaped a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape.”

There are 49 such areas across the country and many have established grant programs to support local interpretive projects (including films!)  Outside of my Detroit legacy, the family has roots in West Virginia, leading me to approach the Wheeling National Heritage Area as well.  Since the documentary at least briefly covers those early years, we were at first eligible for a modest Mini-Grant ($1K), which soon grew to a larger Partnership Grant ($6K) after the Board screened our rough cut.  For those producing a film on any aspect of American history or culture, I highly recommend exploring an applicable Heritage Area.  There’s no guarantee of funding availability but, making contact could lead to benefits in other areas. When we reached completion of Brothers On The Line and the film was accepted into the Uptown/Detroit Independent Film Festival as our World Premiere, The MotorCities National Heritage Area launched a campaign of blogs and Facebook messages in advance of our screening dates. TV and radio interviews followed, boosting attendance at this up-and-coming festival and prompting organizers to add a second showing of the film. The free and far-reaching promotion proved to be just as valuable as the earlier grant awards.

Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival – Madison, WI

Aside from historical societies, a number of advocacy groups also played a role in my film’s progression. The Reuther brothers were not just workers’ rights activists; their commitment spanned a broad range of social movements: civil rights, community organizing, voter registration, national healthcare, anti-war, the environment, etc. Unable to cover all of these issues in the eventual 80-minute film, I nonetheless made the effort to reach out to any group who might have a special connection to the material, no matter how slim. During the process, I began an email exchange with The Nelson Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  I was researching the UAW’s environmental activism and The Nelson Institute has one of the leading programs in that field, named after the late Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day. (The UAW was a financial contributor to the first Earth Day in 1970.)  While my communication did not result in funding, the staff at the institute were particularly intrigued by my film for its progressive message and offered to consider it for their annual Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival.  Acceptance into that festival was providential, not just because they provide a screening fee AND honorarium (very rare these days) but, primarily for its location.  If Detroit is the root of our story, then Madison, WI represents the current heartbeat of labor activism.  It was the home of last year’s Madison Uprising in which embattled public sector union members took to the streets after Governor Scott Walker slashed their pensions and benefits.  I couldn’t have asked for a better stage from which to link current affairs to our historical documentary. Brothers On The Line drew a full-house crowd at the festival and was immediately embraced by the South Central Federation of Labor, which set-up their own special screening the following night.  In stretching the boundaries of my “cause” film and throwing the fundraising net a little wider, I was fortunate to catch an ally that paid off with patience. What at first appeared to be a disappointing dead-end in regard to financial support, transformed into the ultimate contact list for today’s frontline activists, all eagerly anticipating our home video release.

Washington DC International Film Festival – Nominee, Justice Matters Award

The final resource worth mentioning here did not come from earlier legwork but, actually arose directly from a festival acceptance. If given the opportunity, I knew the documentary would play well in the DC area, as there are a plethora of activist groups to attract and it happens to be my hometown. American Rights at Work and The International Labor Rights Forum, two Capitol Hill based advocacy organizations whose missions support workers’ rights, were great partners in our completion efforts.  However, upon selection into the Washington DC International Film Festival (a.k.a. FilmFestDC), one of the most promising associations was with Teaching For Change, a non-profit organization promoting social and economic justice in the classroom.  In coordination with FilmFestDC programmers, Teaching For Change selects one documentary from the annual festival slate that has potential in the educational market and invites the filmmaker to participate in preview screenings at area high-schools.  Brothers On The Line was chosen and two classroom visits scheduled.  The junior and senior-year students watched the full film prior to my arrival and I came in for a follow-up discussion.  We had an in-depth chat on U.S. history and film technique in both settings; each class with their own unique commentary.  One of my goals for the film is that it would have a long educational shelf-life and this “test-screening” was priceless. The students’ honest observations caused me to view the film in a new light and will aide in the preparation to promote to a younger audience. In discussing their favorite scenes, we also touched on what they might cut out, which could be helpful if I ever need to bring the film under an hour for TV. (Note: be prepared when asking that, as the answers could be brutal!)  Even if not initiated by FilmFestDC, introducing yourself to Teaching for Change is a must when it comes to social justice meets educational filmmaking.

Brothers On The Line was produced before crowd-sourcing really took off so, we relied heavily on nurturing personal relationships. Some offered a modest yet immediate boost; while others revealed their worth in the final hour. But, what I didn’t realize at the time is that all alliances made during production were actually shaping our film festival run.  From New York (Workers Unite Film Festival – Best Documentary Feature) to California (Mendocino Film Festival – Audience Choice Award), our non-traditional circuit has been deeply gratifying as the enthusiasm of our supporters is the driving force behind our success.

From the 2011 Independent Filmmaker Conference.

We could speak forever (realistically a half hour) about the joys of Independent Filmmaking. They are vast, colorful, and Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson inevitably ALWAYS come up! Check out our Quick Chat re: the Fest and Indie Cinema with LES Judge Susan Sarandon:

Learn more about LES Film Festival here: lesfilmfestival.com

Additional IFP alumni screening at the festival: Spotlight on Documentaries alumni Annie Eastman’s Bay of All Saints, Jay Bulger’s Beware of Mr. Baker, and Caveh Zahedi’s The Sheikh and I in Documentary Competition; Katie Dellamaggiore’s Brooklyn Castle, Rebecca Richman Cohen’s Code of the West, Ashley Sabin and David Redmon’s Girl Model, Ben Shapiro’s Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, and Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroes in Documentary Spotlight; and Mark Kendall’s La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus (also fiscally sponsored by IFP) and Kahlil Hudson and Tyler Hughen’s Low & Clear in Emerging Visions. Also screening at the festival are Todd Rohal’s Nature Calls (No Borders) in Narrative Spotlight and Adam Leon’s Gimme the Loot (IFP/Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Visions) in Narrative Competition.

Also at SXSW, IFP’s Rose Vincelli is a part of the “Mentors: Artist Development” session at 11am on Saturday, March 10. She is also moderating IFP’s panel, “Tough Love: Why You’re Still Not Festival Ready” with hybrid distribution guru Jon Reiss and IFP Labs alumnus Tim Sutton, director of Pavilion. “Tough Love” is at 3:30p March 10. If you’re at SXSW, come say hi & glean from our knowledge! Follow IFP on Twitter @ifpfilm for updates from some of the 17 IFP alumni fest premieres and other news from the fest.

Congratulations to everyone – we’ll see you in Austin!

Better than my own scattered memories, for my Sundance diary, I wanted to round up some good writing that might help to establish a lateral picture of this year from many different critical points of view.

The shadow outline of Quvenzhané Wallis on the front page of the arts section of The New York Times was almost a shock to see—BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD felt too intense, too personally magical, for it to be real that anyone outside of the Eccles at its morning premiere would know that this film even existed. It took me a second to digest that BEASTS was the central title in Manohla Dargis’ Sundance wrap-up, and also in her opinion, “the best film to play at Sundance in two decades.”

Manohla’s take on the film summarizes the visceral glory and excitement of experiencing BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD for the first time at Sundance. It is so rare that a film seems to be introducing a new language onto the screen, so fresh and inspiring that it leaves most at a loss for description. BEASTS dominated the atmosphere of the festival, leaving little room for the same level of excitement elsewhere.

Similar to Manohla’s Sundance wrap-up, James Rocchi’s brief history of Sundance-past gets at what felt special in 2012. Rocchi documents the ennui of mini-majors in the mid-2000s followed by an ambivalent and uneven climate post-financial crisis, and believes that this is the year that the festival’s relevance in handling the cultural zeitgeist through independent film reasserted itself.

However, for many festival attendees, last year’s festival was the one that seemed like a return to form, when the festival presented many low-budget outside-the-box gems like TAKE SHELTER, THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM, TERRI and THE OREGONIAN. Mike S. Ryan at Hammer To Nail champions the independent spirit of the 2011 lineup to cast a critical eye at this year’s festival, but still found some shining talent in the new independent auteurs of 2012, particularly COMPLIANCE and THE COMEDY (which he produced).

Tom Hall’s reports for Filmmaker are insightful Sundance diaries. His “Sex, Drugs And Falling Apart” alludes to the festival’s external influences: the mountains, the feeling of remoteness and insularity of snow and ice, offer a backdrop for movie watching that can intensify our experiences as movie goers—as Tom says, “the perfect weather for introspection.”

One oft-overlooked element of festival coverage is the mood of the festival environment, so heavily influenced by off-screen factors such as the Saturday blizzard, which effectively stopped traffic and destroyed well-laid plans on what is typically the festival’s busiest day. Also in the air was the fact that some of the most highly buzzed about films were also those dealing with sobering realities: rape in the military (THE INVISIBLE WAR) and rapidly melting glaciers (CHASING ICE). There are always many difficult films in the documentary competitions, but somehow this year the brokenness of our society and culture really burned.  Surrounding all this was the independent film industry’s own tragic loss, the untimely death of veteran distributor, Bingham Ray, in the middle of the festival.

I don’t know if it was the overriding solemnity, but this year’s Sundance had a sense of palpable earnestness. I heard more conversations dealing with the films than about budgets and sales numbers. It felt grounding—like the industry was there because they believed in all of this, in spite of everything.

And yet Karina Longworth, who always does bring really worthwhile thoughts to elucidate the big picture of Sundance, noticed a continued upsetting festival trend in a conversation published on Indiewire.  Says Karina: “It’s shocking how little debate actually happens about the merits of any individual film at the festival, because too many attendees with a “voice” approach the festival as though it’s a place of right and wrong answers.”

This, to me, is an essential point about major festivals in general: ‘What did you like?’ and ‘What is your favorite?’ are the dominant questions. In our fear not to miss a film, we ask everyone we encounter what they thought of what they just watched. A curious colleague who asks, ‘What did you think?’ usually doesn’t care to stick around to dig in and try to read the film with you. And this atmosphere of heavy consumption defines every Sundance—for many of us, our job is to see as much as possible, and often that means we’re not digesting as well as we should be. Sometimes the less assuming yet very thoughtful film is lost in the mix. (For me, the overlooked victims this year were the weighty and complex THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA and the intensely cinematic FOR ELLEN.)

There was almost too much work to love at this year’s Sundance. I can’t believe how much excellence and artistic ability I experienced at the festival this year, and I missed seeing many films that were highly praised by others. Speaking of earmarks, it will be very difficult for next year’s festival to compete with this year’s anomalous crop of exceptional films.

From the 2011 Independent Filmmaker Conference.

It has been a noticeably quieter festival this year. Streets are not nearly as crowded as in in the past, and it has been much easier to make reservations at restaurants. Some of this is being attributed to the lack of snowfall for skiers, but real skiers usually stay away during Sundance due to the crowds.

Antonio Campos, Pat Kaufman & Brady Corbet

One place that was busier than ever this year was the New York Lounge. Right up until the signs were being taken down last evening, it remained a popular destination for filmmakers and festival goers to meet up for coffee and conversation. Later  in the afternoon, Film Commissioner Pat Kaufman was meeting with Antonio Campos, director of the much talked about “Simon Killer”, and his star, indie darling Brady Corbet.

An exhausted team from NY State that had worked non stop in the upkeep of the lounge celebrated their most successful year yet.

The end of a long day for the film commissioner

Even with less of a crowd on the streets, sales have been brisk, which is great news for filmmakers. IFC Films acquired North American distribution rights to Josh Radnor’s “Liberal Arts”, which co-stars Elizabeth Olsen, Alison Janney and Richard Jenkins. Sony and Samuel Goldwyn Company have partnered to acquire the delightful “Frank and Robot”.

Other festival sales this week have included ” Me at the Zoo”, “Queen of Versailles”, ” Searching for Sugar Man”, ” Black Rock”, “For A Good Time Call…”, “The Words” and “Indie Game: The Movie”.

In all, a very healthy sales environment will keep Sundance as a continuous source of rich content for distributors. A quieter remainder of the week will follow, but hopefully there will be more announcements of deals as the week moves toward the close this weekend.

Celebrating a successful year for the New York Lounge

We had a full house for the panel, with many questions. As John moderated, Pat talked about the process of applying for the credit and some of the necessary requirements to be completed, such as using a qualified stage and what that means. We also commented on doing your own “calculus” for a micro budget film to see if the cost of the stage and all of the paperwork involved would offset what would be a small return.

Mike and I touched on when and why a producer may want to finance the credit in order to use the funds for his film, as well as some of the legal requirements needed to do so, such as forming a C-Corp that would be used only for the tax credit, while using an LLC for the actual production account. While there was some lively discussion around this topic, in the end it is the only way a lender can get involved with the financing and be assured repayment.

Steven brought up the topic of Crowd Funding, which started a whole other discussion around all of the work involved in launching the campaign and using all of the social media available to make it successful.

In all, it was a very successful morning, resulting in many business cards being shared and appointments being made to meet in New York in the coming weeks.

The evening was fantastic! We went to the premier of “Two Days In New York”, written, directed and starring French actress Julie Delpy. The comedy was incredibly funny, with solid performances from Ms. Delpy and her leading man, Chris Rock. The scene stealer of the film though, as he was in the prequel “Two Days In Paris”, was Albert Delpy, the star’s real life father playing her fictional one.

Following the film, we were invited to the after party, which was attended by the entire cast, including another scene stealer, Kate Burton. I have long been a fan of Ms. Burton’s work on stage & screen, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to have conversation with her. She seemed genuinely excited to be back at Sundance again, representing both this film and “Liberal Arts”, Josh Radner’s follow up to the Sundance Audience Award winner “HappyThankYouMorePlease”.

Alas, we were much too tired to make it to the party afterward, having been up since 4am NY time. After a good night’s sleep, we will have no excuses!

Friday got down to business at the NY Lounge, as it kicked off the first panel discussion at 11am on distribution trends. Steven Beers of Greenberg Traurig moderated the lively discussion amid panelists Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures, Matt Dentler of Cinetec Film Buff, John Reiss (filmmaker & author), Erika Opeka of New Video Digital and Logan Mulvey, founder of Go Digital.

Much of the discussion was around how the filmmaker can best find a distributor, and having a viable product to sell.  “Margin Call” , a Sundance hit last year was used as an example of a film with a low budget that used an interesting roll out on VOD on the same date as it’s theatrical release. Because of the aggressive marketing campaign, the film made a great profit on both platform, earning in excess of it’s $4MM theatrical run on VOD.

If a filmmaker has it, you should spend money on the best publicist you can find, and set up your “digital footprint”  – your film should be easily found in a Google search or on FaceBook. Make sure you make the most of your social network. If your film is being released on Netflix, make sure every one in your social network is adding it to their queue.

The process begins in production. Do not wait until you have finished your film to start thinking about distribution.

Much was also made of the value of a good review, especially by the New York Times. The Times has recently stated that it will review any film that has at least a 7 day run in NY. If you think your film is the real deal, and will be well reviewed, it might be worth figuring out how to have a one week theatrical run, in addition to any digital distribution. That good review is an excellent marketing tool for the distributor.

Lastly, the panelists discussed revenues and box office returns. Both Mr. Deutchman and Mr. Dentler pointed out that the ” steroid era” of independent film has passed. There was a specific point in time that a few filmmakers were able to make a lot of money on a few films. Today, for an indie to make a $1MM is still a lot of money! We should not lose sight of this. Even after the buying frenzy of last year’s Sundance, only “Margin Call” was the real breakout money maker.  Others have done well and made a profit compared to their costs, but there is no blockbuster.

Tonight, I am very much looking forward to the premier of Ira Sachs’s film, “Keep The Lights On”. More on that to come!

Sundance 2012 promises to be a busy one. We are once again a sponsor for the New York Lounge on Main street, where passerby can stop in for free NY bagels and coffee and have a meeting place to plan their day or strategize for their films. Each day, beginning Friday, there is a panel discussion at 11am. HSBC will be hosting one on Monday morning, “The Tax Man Cometh – Financing the NY State Tax Credit”. The lounge also hosts daily musical performances by up & coming singer songwriters at 4pm.

We are most excited to have worked with several of the filmmakers presenting their work at the festival this year, and were able to get tickets to a few of them, including ” Keep The Lights On”, ” Arbitrage” and ” 2 Days in New York”.

We are also looking forward to the NYU Tisch party, dinner with IFP at the beautiful new Montage Hotel, many parties, and most of all catching up with old friends and making new ones.

I’ll keep you posted & will try to get some good photos as well!

The elation comes with some heart-stabbing moments; there were many projects, particularly narrative features, which I was hoping to see listed among the chosen yet that will not be premiering in Park City in January. I realize I’m not the only one who noticed that A LOT of good filmmakers made movies this year. This means we should be expecting some really all-star lineups coming out of festivals throughout the year, and I don’t just mean at the “top tier” fests.

If you are a first time feature filmmaker, or are bringing a feature around the festival circuit for the first time in 2012, I think it’s pretty safe to say that competition is particularly stiff this year for those coveted spots at the next big target fests: Slamdance, SXSW, Tribeca and LAFF.  If you are being a good strategist, then you’ve already applied to these festivals. But if it doesn’t work out, what are your options to get the most attention for your film without a market fest or “top tier” premiere?

The good news is that it is far from the end of the world if you choose to premiere at a great regional festival. There are many great, successful, award-winning and critically lauded independent films that have had amazing festival runs without the filmmaker setting foot into Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW, Tribeca or LAFF.   And contrary to some kind of bizarre urban legend that I feel like we programmers are constantly trying to shut down, you do not need to premiere at a top tier festival to get noticed by the good regional festivals.  The best regional festivals take their submissions processes very seriously. While there are tips to making sure your submission doesn’t get buried in the pile, and while there are good films that constantly slip through the cracks, it is simply a fallacy that regional festivals ignore films that haven’t played anywhere yet. In fact, programmers enjoy inviting these films the most, for they are the ones that give us the opportunity to discover new films and artists. That’s part of the reason WHY many of us are in this game: to expand our cinematic horizons and help others to do the same.

Another big question when it comes to the regional festival run is obviously one of priorities. What you won’t get at the best regional film festivals is the slew of buyers, publicists, agents, journalists and other various industry reps that are simply on site at any market festival. And without a doubt, the easiest way to get buyers to watch your film is to have it premiere at Sundance. However, many up-and-coming directors find it really hard to get the attention of the greater industry at a festival with so much to talk about and so many distractions. But maybe you’ll go to a regional festival, and one or two of the industry’s finest will be on a panel on a jury, and you might actually be able to have a normal conversation. The same is true for meeting other filmmakers—regional festivals provide a great opportunity for this, sometimes more so than the biggest festivals. Sundance and Tribeca do not exclude these possibilities by any means—it’s just that regional festivals tend to be so much smaller and MORE easily navigable, that smaller films can often become bigger focal points.

Removing film sales from the conversation, I consider films to be really successful on the festival circuit when the filmmakers are able to meet some not-too-rigidly-defined goals in their festival travels. Often these can be as simple as building a community and network of filmmakers, programmers and industry that like your work and will continue to be supportive of it.  When you can get your film seen across the US at good festivals that know how to build an audience for it, that’s quite a reward. And even if it’s not a monetary one, it provides the building blocks for a career that may eventually pay you.

Let’s look at some case studies.  Below are six low-budget independent narrative features that premiered, and got some serious mileage, out of top-notch regional film festivals. This is an incredibly limited list, but I think it offers a diverse swatch of situations and strategies (again, this really does not cover the options for documentary films, whose festival travels would look noticeably different):

THE COLOR WHEEL, directed by Alex Ross Perry
Alex Ross Perry’s undeniably original low-budget 16mm feature debuted at the Sarasota Film Festival in April 2011, followed by an appearance the Maryland Film Festival in May and a subsequent New York Premiere at the wonderful BAMCinemaFest in Brooklyn in June. International programmers began to take notice, including Olivier Père, and the film made its international premiere in Locarno, and recently premiered on the west coast at the Los Angeles AFI Film Festival.  While I’m not sure what’s next sales- or release-wise for the film, the prestigious festival run has made THE COLOR WHEEL a big part of the conversation about American Independent cinema this year, and Alex a sure-fire “someone to watch.”

FANNY, ANNIE & DANNY, directed Chris Brown
Opening its week-long engagement at the reRun Gastropub in New York last Friday, FANNY, ANNIE & DANNY began its long and wildly successful festival run when it premiered at the Kansas City Film Festival in 2010, winning the top prize for US/International Feature. It went on to play a significant number of smaller festivals like Anchorage, Marfa and Charlotte, all the while hitting up some premiere regional spots like Mill Valley, Starz Denver, Florida and Independent Film Festival of Boston, and picking up some considerable awards, as well as positive nods from critics.

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9, directed by Robert Persons
(Note: While this film has been characterized as a documentary, it is so categorically defiant that it begs inclusion here.)
Robert Persons was pretty much a stranger to the film world when he began submitting his startlingly poetic, genre-defying feature to festivals. As he is Georgia-based, he began at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2009, and in January 2010 the film headed to Slamdance, where it won a cinematography prize.  Thus began a longer festival run: Hot Docs, Seattle, RiverRun, Indie Memphis, and many more; two years later, the film is still doing limited engagements at theaters and universities domestically and internationally.

IN THE FAMILY, directed by Patrick Wang
IN THE FAMILY was virtually ignored by the festival world, being rejected from thirty festivals before its premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival in October, where thankfully, the buzz immediately began to build. It’s been getting rave reviews since it opened, and was subsequently held over at NYC’s Quad Cinema this fall, and has recently been nominated for best first feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.

THE NEW YEAR, directed by Brett Haley
Brett confessed to being rejected by a very significant number of festivals before his ultra micro-budget film started getting some festival love. The film premiered at Sarasota in 2010 and was the dark horse of the festival, selling out screenings before picking up the festival’s narrative feature Audience Award. The film went on to play the Los Angeles Film Festival, Starz Denver, Philadelphia, and a number of other notable fests, as well as pleasing New York critics during its week-long run at Brooklyn’s reRun Theater. he New York Times noted that Haley has “a fine future before him.”

SAHKANAGA, directed by John Henry Summerour
The Independent Film Festival of Boston and the Atlanta Film Festival teamed up to present the co-world premiere of this low-budget southern fable, which ended up getting the Audience Award nod in Atlanta. The film traveled to the Woodstock Film Festival, New Orleans, Sidewalk and others before joining the Southern Circuit Traveling Film Festival, hugely expanding its regional exposure.

For your quick reference, here are some of the notable festivals mentioned that I’m characterizing as regional fest in the breakdown below:

Atlanta Film Festival, Independent Film Festival of Boston, Starz Denver Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Kansas City Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, RiverRun Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, Woodstock Film Festival.