Fanlight Productions has produced and distributed independent film and video since 1980, specializing in health, mental health, disability and family issues, which it traditionally sold to universities and health and medical institutions. The Home Video Experiment—Introduction Case Study #1: Fanlight Productions Case Study #2: California Newsreel Case Study #3: Direct Cinema Limited Case Study #4: Women Make Movies Case Study #5: Northeast Historic Film In 1995, Fanlight acquired When Billy Broke His Head... and Other Tales of Wonder, a 56-min. ITVS-funded documentary produced by Billy Golfus
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California Newsreel, a media arts center and nonprofit distributor of films on African-American themes, created the Library of African Cinema in 1991 to bring feature films by Africans to American audiences. Beginning with 8 titles, Newsreel expanded the collection over several years to 40 titles, which they market to public and academic libraries. Although the films are not well known in this country, and often require contextualization for audiences. Newsreel has been able to sell an average of 400 to 500 copies of each title to the educational market. The Home Video Experiment—Introduction
Direct Cinema Limited, founded in 1974 as an educational media distributor, has been selling home videos since the mid-1980s. In the past five years, they have expanded their home video collection to more than 200 titles; and the company's sales ratio is now 55% to the educational market and 45% to the consumer market. The Home Video Experiment—Introduction Case Study #1: Fanlight Productions Case Study #2: California Newsreel Case Study #3: Direct Cinema Limited Case Study #4: Women Make Movies Case Study #5: Northeast Historic Film In the past, Direct Cinema would look for titles that could
Women Make Movies (WMM) is a nonprofit media arts organization that facilitates the production, dissemination and exhibition of independent films by and about women. Founded in 1972, it established a solid nontheatrical distribution niche by the mid-1990s for many of its documentaries and shorts at colleges and universities, as well as with women's and health organizations. WMM also handles the theatrical distribution of a number of American and European independent features directed by women. The Home Video Experiment—Introduction Case Study #1: Fanlight Productions Case Study #2: California
The aftermath of the American Civil War was the backdrop for a mythic American movie character, Scarlett O'Hara, who found herself adrift amidst sweeping changes in her world too recent to comprehend fully. Her struggle to survive in a suddenly altered society has affected generations of moviegoers. Though the political issues are not the same, the recent drastic political and economic upheavals in Central and Eastern Europe have likewise made for remarkable human drama. Documentaries from Russia, Poland, Germany and elsewhere have been on the scene capturing the transition from communist to
The co-founders of Northeast Historic Film (NHF) became video distributors by accident. In 1986, David Weiss and Karan Sheldon had completed a 30-min. film for the University of Maine on traditional New England logging. The 1930s archival footage they used had no sound track, so the producers asked a local performer to read the original script that had accompanied the silent footage as narration. The film was titled From Stump to Ship because it illustrated the process of long-logging, from cutting down the trees to getting them to market by schooner. The producers expected to exhibit the
MIPDOC, held in Cannes on April 1 and 2, 1998, was the first ever "Reed Midem Organization event" dedicated exclusively to nonfiction television. Reed Midem is the company that "organizes 12 other international trade shows dedicated to music, multimedia, television and property throughout the world," including the MIPs and MIDEMs. The organization for these events is monumental, involving thousands of companies, tens of thousands of individuals, and hundreds of thousands of product hours. The spirit is that of the marketplace fully embraced; one MIP ad reads, "Buy, sell, make contacts, co
There are few things more gratifying for an IDA President than welcoming new members, friends and especially new trustees. In the first few months of 1998, three organizations have joined our dedicated board of trustees. New IDA trustee Broadcast News Network, a New York-based production company, includes among its many credits the verite series I Witness for CBS Eye on People, the CNN Perspectives documentaries Teens and Dark Religion and Border Battles, and the A&E series Inside Stories. Representing CNN on our board of trustees will be BNN founder/president Steve Rosenbaum. Discovery
When the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival closed its 1997 edition with the documentary Off the Menu: Last Night At Chasen's, doc fans went home happy that this wasn't just a Cinderella kinda year. In addition, Sick: The Life and Times of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist won the Audience Award for Best Feature; and Michele Ohayon's Colors Straight Up later received an Academy Award® nomination. The momentum continued at Sundance '98, when docu-giants Ken Burns, Barbara Kopple, Penelope Spheeris and Michael Moore weighed in with their latest, and such films as The Farm, Frat House, Divine Trash
There's just no getting around it... Austin, Texas, is a hip place to be. And when South By Southwest takes the stage as the cultural event of choice in a city that prides itself on diverse and alternative offerings, many filmmakers can't think of a better place to spend a few days in March. This time of year, the famous Texas bluebonnets are beginning to sprout up along the highways, the warm southern wind is beginning to blow, the Tex-Mex food is once again being served on outdoor patios overlooking the hills along the Colorado River. SXSW was first established as a music festival and this