THE OBENSON REPORT

Covering Cinema From All Across The African Diaspora
Showing posts with label distribution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label distribution. Show all posts

Michael Moore Releasing Next Film Online For FREE!

Posted on 8:12 PM No Comments
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The latest documentary effort from the infamous Michael Moore will be released exclusively online beginning September 23, for FREE! That's right... FREE!

The 97-minute doc is called Slacker Uprising, about Moore's 62-city tour during the 2004 presidential election, as he attempted to encourage those young "slacker" voters to head to the poles.

Moore said that "Slacker Uprising" cost about $2 million to make and that he will end up paying about $1 million out of his pocket. Neither he nor the distributor, Brave New Films, plan to profit from the release.

It will be available for three weeks as a free download to North American residents, beginning Sept. 23, and will be high-resolution and far better than "YouTube quality."

To receive the download, interested folks should sign up at SlackerUprising.com. Obviously, it means someone will have your email address, and will likely reach out to you again in the future for one thing or another, so do what I do - set up a separate email account for these kinds of things.

A DVD will be released Oct. 7.

No theatrical obviously... I'll be watching this closely.

Here's the trailer:



SOURCE

It's Hard Out There For Indies - Dude, Where's My Distribution?

Posted on 10:58 PM comments (5)
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I'm working on a piece on the nature of film distribution, specifically in consideration of black cinema. Below is a very recent article from The Hollywood Reporter that I think makes for a telling companion piece. As you will see in the article, times are indeed tough for independent film distribution overall; and, as I'm sure we all know, when things are difficult for the "majority," they tend to be exponentially worse for those in the "minority."

January 2007

In a congested market, indies struggled to rise above the crowd.

These are sobering times for the independent film industry. Boxoffice revenue for films from indie distributors and specialty divisions dropped 11.9% from $1.32 billion in 2006 to $1.16 billion in 2007, while the number of indies in theaters increased from 501 to 530.

Even more disturbing, only 16 of the films grossed more than $20 million (nearly half of them by a slim margin), down from 20 in 2006.

The biggest story of 2007 might be that 350 indie films -- two-thirds of the list -- failed to reach even $250,000 in ticket sales, an increase from 313 in 2006. All this at a time when overall 2007 domestic boxoffice hit a record high of $9.62 billion, a 5% increase from 2006, according to Nielsen EDI.

"Films with big stars and great directors and reviews once could've been counted on to reach the low-seven figures," ThinkFilm head of U.S. theatrical Mark Urman said. "Today, they're routinely not making their opening advertising budgets."

"In the past, when there was a downturn in the marketplace, people would say 'It's cyclical,' " said IFC Entertainment chairman Jonathan Sehring, who heads the day-and-date First Take program, which offers films as Video On Demand offerings on cable. "But now I don't see it changing. The public is barraged by so many new entertainment options, and there are so many films in theaters, they can't help but cannibalize each other."

Read the rest of it HERE.

Episode 24 - The Obenson Report on Black Film / Cinema

Posted on 11:21 PM No Comments
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Episode 24 - The Obenson Report on Black Film / Cinema
Sponsored in part by ActNow Foundation

Recorded Monday, November 12, 2007, 9PM
TRT 60 Minutes

TOPICS DISCUSSED:
- Movie club selection for the week BROTHER TO BROTHER - listen to find out the rules.
- An extensive review of the Malian film masterpiece YEELEN.
- Creating alternate channels of film distribution for black cinema.
- Revisiting "collective/movement power," and the "capable tenth" funded black film studio.

Email me you comments at talk@obensonreport.com; or go to http://www.obensonreport.com/ and leave your comments.

FILMS MENTIONED

TAO

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