Fast Forward

At the Sundance Film Festival this last weekend, a forum of online film execs like Suzie Reider (CMO, YouTube) and Steve Starr (CEO, Revver) debated the role of the web as profitable distribution for short and feature films. Thanks to sites for emerging media, films are exposed to new audiences and/or revenues. CNET.com carried the story, "The Web, where filmmakers are also producers."

Some predicted Hollywood blockbusters might one day premiere online. Others see the Web primarily as place for marketing films and doubt it will ever become a viable revenue-generating distribution tool.

But on this, they all agreed: we're only in nascent stages of an unstoppable media revolution–or at least a media "evolution," as moderator Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal put it–fueled by better broadband access, emerging tools and gadgets, and sites that build communities and identity.

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Swisher suggested that it might just take someone like George Lucas distributing a film over the Internet–and making big money off it–in order take online distribution to the next level.

(c/o Mickipedia)

Part of a series of posts about active artists with the tenacity to take their project to completion.

Sir Winston Churchill once wrote that "a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Filmmakers Joshua Atesh Litle and Calum Grant didn't give up for the last six years it took to get distribution. Their post-apocalyptic documentary screens in New York City next week, January 10th thru 17th.

Ever Since the World Ended (Official Site, IMDb Listing), which was Litle's first full-length feature, was offered broadcast acquisition for cable as well as receiving theatrical and DVD distribution. The film — completed in 2001 — follows two filmmakers wandering an empty San Francisco with a camera, twelve years after a plague has emptied the world of people, making a documentary portrait of a small community that perseveres.

"Because it is a small, modest art-house film, it will be a limited engagement of one-week only (!) at the Pioneer theater (9pm at 155 East 3rd St.) in the East Vilage." Litle used his own e-mail list to keep those interested informed over the years. Consider buying advance tickets.

Update: The New York Times reviewed the film, available on their site, during the week-long run. The film's distributor, Cyan Pictures, also has a micro-site for the project.