1) What changes do you see in the documentary marketplace? [any aspect -
theatrical, TV, DVD, VOD or other means]

California Newsreel has been a non-profit distributor of exclusively social
change oriented documentaries mostly to the academic and activist markets
for the past 40 years (and I've been here for 26 years) so my experience is
limited to only a very specific part of the documentary market. Our few
ventures into theatrical distribution have been problematic. On the other
hand, our distribution of 16mm films, vhs cassettes and now DVDs has
consistently covered not just costs of  distribution but generated a surplus
which we can use to subsidize sales and film production. Of course, since we
do not select our films for their profitability but their social utility,
some lose money while others generate it. Some titles sell as little as
$30,000 in gross revenues, other more than $1,200,000, strictly in the U.S.
educational and activist DVD market. In general, I would say that a
documentary film on an issue regularly covered in some university curriculum
or relevant to an active social movement can recover at least 25% of its
production costs strictly from this market.

Use of media in teaching and organizing, largely documentaries, is steadily
increasing and the enhanced flexibility of digital media both for delivery
and repurposing will only increase this demand. A crucial question is
whether the structure and price grid for licensing  digital rights can be
made to reflect this increased use, bringing price and use into closer
correspondence than with DVD. The home video and internet delivery market
for our documentaries are gradually increasing but they still generate less
than 10% of total revenues. Exchanging the high margin, low volume academic
market, for the low margin, but rarely high volume home market remains for
most social interest documentaries ill-advised. Experience has shown that
simultaneous release of a title in both markets effectively eliminates most
of the higher priced educational market. Obviously, we are at the beginning
of the inevitable transition from DVD to internet delivery, but a mere
change of technology does not automatically impact the size of a market,
unless there is an underlying change in the values and interests of the
larger society. Therefore we do not anticipate that this shift will increase
volume and margins sufficiently so that a separate, higher priced licensing
structure for educational as opposed to home use can be abandoned, at least
not before students pay on an individual basis for each viewing of an
educational film. A recent survey of educational media also further reveals
that for infrastructural reasons, these institutions will be shifting to
digital delivery only gradually and will not need direct delivery from
remote servers to on-campus users in the immediate future.

2) What advice can you give doc makers on navigating distribution?

The most important thing for a social change documentary maker to realize is
that planning for the exhibition and distribution of any film should
proceed, not follow planning to produce a film.. In other words, makers
should decide on what issue they think is most urgent to address, then work
with experienced organizers to define what specific attitudinal changes or
political action needs to be promoted. At the same time, they should
determine with the organizers exactly what audience can and needs to become
more involved in this particular issue and where and how they can most
effectively be engaged, in community meetings, over the internet, in
classes, in theatrical release or via national television. Then and only
then should they begin to design their production to be appropriate to the
specific organizing goal, audience and delivery platform. This process will
have already pre-determined how to distribute the film. Smaller, politically
committed "boutique" distributors focusing on specific issues over many
years will obviously have more experience and incentive to reach the
intended audience than all-purpose media super stores or internet content
aggregators, appealing to a mass market and a broad spectrum of tastes.

As practical advice, makers should find out what distributors have
experience distributing films similar to their own to audiences similar to
their targeted audience. They should always rely on the distributor's past
promotional work and experience not their promises to judge what sort of
service they will over their film. And they should ask other producer's they
represent how good a job the distributor has done for them. Above all,
makers should not think that their film is so exceptional, it will defy all
previous experience. It is more important, both financially and politically,
to reach the realistic market for your film as thoroughly as possible,
rather than pursue some untested, largely imaginary market.

What do you hope to get out of Real to Reel this year? [you can answer from
a professional or personal perspective; either referencing films you're
working on or not]

I'll be looking for documentaries driven by a strong argument rather than by
character or drama, films which can be used within existing social movements
and vigorous academic discourses around social policy issues. I'm eager to
see DARFUR NOW and THE DICTATOR HUNTER as well as to discover any new trends in documentary filmmaking.  I'll also be looking forward to connecting with colleagues in the field to compare California Newsreel's experiences with their own.