In the Winter issue of Filmmaker magazine, I wrote a self-distribution manifesto in which I wrote:
The truth is that self-distribution is fun, and not only is it fun, it's empowering. Which brings me to the heart of the matter: whether an outside distributor would do a "better" or a "worse" job releasing the film is immaterial. The real question is: why are we making films in the first place? The answer for me has something to do with wanting to humanize the world. Hegel teaches us that we make the world our own by altering it, by leaving our own imprint on it, by reshaping it in our own image. This is the crux of my argument for self-distribution. It's less alienating. It's more organic. And it's more human.
Well, I still agree with what I said, but it's also true that having an established distribution company on your side is also fun, and is also arguably less alienating, more organic, and more human than doing it all yourself. Because while self-empowerment may be an asymptotic ideal (however eloquently Ralph Waldo Emerson may argue for it), we are all ultimately parts of a larger human community and the do-it-yourself ethos is ultimately a myth. No one makes a film alone, and no one distributes a film alone. And the truth of the matter is that I am thrilled to have IFC on my side, despite the inevitable frictions that any engagement with any other human being is bound to provoke. It's all part of the give-and-take of human intercourse, and that is how we truly humanize the world.
posted by Caveh Zahedi at
1:26 PM
