SnagFilms brings the best nonfiction films to the web audience, promotes viral web distribution through virtual movie theater widgets, and engages viewers to assist in charitable and community efforts. The IDA has since 1982 worked to promote nonfiction film and video, support the efforts of documentary film and video makers around the world, and increase public appreciation for the documentary form.
The SnagFilms –IDA alliance will include the creation of an IDA Channel on Snagfilms.com, and the embedding of SnagFilms widgets on the IDA’s website, documentary.org. Additionally, content from SnagFilms’ indieWIRE, the largest online news source on independent film, will have a branded news window on both the homepage of documentary.org and its news section. Content from IDA’s Documentary Magazine and its website will also be available, on a branded basis, on the SnagFilms’ properties.
“For more than 25 years, the IDA has been the most broadly-based and thoughtful advocate and convener for the documentary community. This alliance will advance our mutual mission of increasing distribution opportunities for non-fiction filmmakers, and by surfacing indieWIRE’s renowned coverage of the film sector throughout the IDA media vehicles, it will keep the contributions of that sector in front of the industry and the broader public. For SnagFilms, aligning ourselves with the IDA is both a natural progression and an incredible honor,” said Rick Allen.
The SnagFilms-IDA alliance will include IDA participation in the SnagFilms Advisory Committee, participation by SnagFilms and indieWIRE representatives on IDA panels and seminars, and joint promotion. Additionally, IDA and SnagFilms will explore special benefits to filmmakers who sign up to become members of the IDA.
“SnagFilms has opened doors to documentary filmmakers, and its launch and early success has been a significant development for our industry in the past decade,” IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin said in a statement. “We are very pleased to work with SnagFilms to serve the nonfiction community and our respective missions.”
In addition to announcing the alliance between SnagFilms and the IDA, earlier this week SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen announced milestones reached by SnagFilms since its launch in July 2008, including:
• SnagFilms widgets have appeared on more than 300 million web pages;
• Over 1.5 million movies have been streamed;
• More than 20,000 “affiliates” having opened “virtual theaters” with SnagFilms content embedded in widgets on their pages;
• The SnagFilms library now contains 600 documentary films.
Additionally, SnagFilms announced that it would work Hulu, the online video site, to provide content for a new documentary channel. SnagFilms also participated in the joint premiere of the documentary film The Least of These, which was shown to a theater audience at the SXSW festival, and simultaneously made available to the online audience via SnagFilms. The joint premiere marks the third instance in which a film has been introduced simultaneously at a film festival and on SnagFilms.com.
Media Contact
SnagFilms
Noah Black
202-295-8797
noah@snagfilms.com
International Documentary Association
Michael Lumpkin
213-534-3600 x7485
michael@documentary.org
About IDA
The International Documentary Association is a nonprofit, public interest organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the art of documentary film and video, founded in 1982. The organization publishes a quarterly magazine, Documentary, and online at www.documentary.org. IDA programs include the DocuWeek Theatrical Showcase, the annual IDA Documentary Awards, and the Documentary Nominees Reception for the Academy Awards.
About SnagFilms
SnagFilms features free ad-supported viewing of hundreds of award-winning titles from some of the greatest names in documentary film production and distribution, including PBS, National Geographic, Sundance Preserve, IndiePix, Peter Jennings Productions, Arts Alliance America, ITVS, Koch Lorber Films, Cactus Three, and many others. Many of the most prominent documentary filmmakers are participating not only by having their films distributed via SnagFilms, but by engaging with their audience through blogs and offering special "bonus" material, as well as suggesting nonprofit organizations that viewers motivated by these films can link to and support via charitable contributions, volunteering or spreading the word.
Since its launch in July 2008, SnagFilms virtual movie theater widgets have been embedded into over 300 million webpages, including websites for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Politico, and hundreds of blogs and thousands of social network pages like Facebook. OVGuide named SnagFilms a Top Site of 2008.
The company was founded by digital entrepreneur, documentary film producer, sports entrepreneur, and philanthropist Ted Leonsis, and is additionally backed by AOL co-founder and Revolution LLC Chairman, Steve Case, philanthropist and former digital executive Jean Case, and operating executive and philanthropic venture capitalist Miles Gilburne.