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• Ebertfest - Movie making & distribution in times of turmoil

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Movie distribution in a time of economic crisis was the subject of the first Ebertfest panel discussion today, with panelists including Warner Brothers Home Video vice president of publicity and promotion Ronnee Sass, directors Nina Paley, Tia Lessin, Carl Deal, Michael Wadleigh, Guy Madden, and artist/director Karen Gehres. The discussion was moderated by Nate Kohn.

Many of the filmmakers on the panel were representing their first features, and they all expressed frustration at the current system of distribution. The general consensus was that if a filmmaker is even able to make a second feature then they have greatly succeeded. Moderator Kohn chimed in, explaining how just a few short years ago films like Little Miss Sunshine were purchased by independent distributors for $9-11 million dollars, and now if a filmmaker is offered $50,000 for their work they have succeeded. The problem is that many independent distributors are going out of business in our current state of economic crisis.

Paley presented some sunshine on a dark topic, however, when she spoke of her faith in audiences. In her opinion, the audience is who contributes to the value of a film. The more demand a film gets from audiences, the more distribution it will receive. Paley put her film, Sita Sings the Blues, online for free, and thus internet audiences responded positively and now she has two different distributors. Wadleigh also weighed in on audience reception by explaining, “It’s the content, stupid, that really makes a film work.” Wadleigh talked of how it is up to filmmaker to put enough effort into their work so that audiences will want to watch their films a second and third time. “The means to make a film are so affordable,” said Paley, but the problem is that if a distributor won’t pick a film up it will never see the light of day, as advertising is way too expensive for filmmakers to finance themselves.

It was inspiring to see filmmakers and artists able to find audiences through their inclusion in Ebertfest, yet the economy continues to take a toll on the independent film distribution business.