Share the Dream: Documentary Distribution and Sales --Part III

Randal K. West
June 2006

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You found the "story" that needed to be told, you scraped together enough funding to shoot and post it and now you have an end product that you and your small circle of best friends think is great. But now what?

Festivals are one of the first places you should look to get your project noticed. Start by building lists of potential places to show your film and group these into at least two categories: festivals that are well known and often lead to distribution and festivals that are grouped by production type or topic (i.e., an all female film festival if your work was all done by females, or a film festival that celebrates stories from the South for documentary about Freedom Summer in Mississippi). Most festivals will involve some cost to enter and you need to count this as a loss even if your film doesn't make the selection cut.

Look locally. There are at least 15 film festivals each year here in Iowa that feature projects created within the state. Contact your state (or even county) Film Commission and get a list of all the local film festivals. If you can, speak with someone in the film office and tell him or her about your film. Their job is to promote films produced in state, so allow them to offer their suggestions for local distribution and attention.

Accessibility to public television will vary greatly from state to state and even regionally. Iowa, for example, has a very developed Public Television programming department that is very accommodating in terms of providing information and support for our documentaries. They even offered seed monies for one of our projects, but we decided to self-fund and maintain complete rights until the project was completed. They did, however, refer us to ITVS (Independent Television Service), which is a service that assists filmmakers and showcases independent producers.

Unfortunately, much of what you have heard about the state of Public Television is probably true. They still seek first-quality programming and though open to documentaries, they are no longer the land of "milk and money." Public Television has become quite dependent upon grant and gift monies to support project funding.

What cable outlet or Broadcast channel is the best possible match for your project? As more and more channels become available, the appeal of each channel becomes more selective and niche oriented. Many cable channels run a high level of documentary programming and much of it is tied to a very specific topic (E Entertainment, Style, The History Channel, Bravo). Some cable channels are connected to entire cable networks. The Discovery Channel is a flagship cable station connected to 14 other cable channels including Animal Planet, The Learning Channel, The Travel Channel, and FitTV. If you contact the Discovery Channel distribution office they can send you the required forms for submission and will help move your material to the proper cable outlet.