If you have been reading my blog posts and are curious about how I look and sound, you can catch me on video! My friends at Media Halo (www.mediahalo.com) have posted the first of a two-part interview with me on their site, which is dedicated to bringing filmmakers, actors, musicians and other creatives together.

Due to a lighting problem, it appears in the video that my hair is thinning. Apparently, the folks at Media Halo never heard of effects!

The news from the business side of the film world is decidedly mixed this quarter, and while there are some bright spots, the outlook for documentaries going through traditional distribution pipelines is even bleaker than it had been.

THE BAD NEWS:

Indie distributors are dying– the Yari Film Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this past week and has suspended operations of its distribution practice. Meanwhile, Peace Arch, First Look and the Weinstein Companies have all announced layoffs.

THE GOOD NEWS:

People are going to see “specialty” films – this past weekend saw record attendance for independent film (depending on how one defines “indie”), with huge per-screen averages for Doubt, The Reader, Che and Wendy and Lucy, while Milk, Frost/Nixon and Slumdog Millionaire all expanded from a handful of theaters to much larger rollouts.

Blu-Ray is catching on – The Dark Knight became the first Blu-Ray title to sell 1 million units in its first week in release; Netflix reports higher-than-expected demand from subscribers for Blu-Ray rentals.

Another bright spot: Image Entertainment, a significant DVD distribution company that had been reported to be in trouble and openly shopping around for a buyer for almost two years, announced this past week that it is having its best year ever, and expects to report record profits in FY2009!

 THE FUN NEWS:

First, thanks to everyone who attended the first-ever Meet Up event hosted by Docupyx and its parent company, Pyxix. We had a good crowd for the “Connecting Artist with Audience” Meetup, and look forward to hosting more Meetups in 2009!

Speaking of Meetup events, I attended the weekly Stranger Than Fiction screening event in New York last night, and it was the best experience I have had as a fan of documentary films outside of major world film festivals. A full house with an engaged audience roughly divided between people passionate about making documentary films and people passionate about the subject matter of Tuesday’s film (The Garden, by Scott Hamilton Kennedy). Well-done post-screening Q & A with the director, and a truly fun reception two blocks away at the 99 Below bar.

This group meets and screens great documentary films every Tuesday night at the IFC Center. It is run by people with deep roots in documentary film and terrific connections throughout the industry, which brings the experience to a higher plane. Check ‘em out at www.stfdocs.com!

Attention Filmmakers, Comedians and Musicians,

You are invited to the inaugural “Connecting Artist with Audience” Meetup in New York City — featuring me!

“Connecting Artist with Audience,” sponsored by the Pyxix® Corporation, is a group dedicated to helping musicians, filmmakers and comedians network, collaborate and share ideas and experiences about both the creative and business sides of entertainment.

Our first event will take place Tuesday, December 9, from 7 to 9 pm, at the Westbeth Community Room, 55 Bethune St., New York, NY. It will consist of a presentation by Yours Truly on self-distribution opportunities and challenges for filmmakers in the digital age. I will be joined by Sara Millman, the Creative Director of Pyxix, for an audience Q & A session. There will be time to network with fellow artists before and after the discussion, and refreshments will be served.

Admission Fee : None!!!!

Click here for more info: http://www.meetup.com/Connecting-Artist-with-Audience-SM-NY-Metro-Chapter/

Well, the lawsuits started flying immediately after the software hit the market September 30, with RealNetworks filing a preemptive lawsuit against the major studios, and the studios filing for a temporary restraining order halting the software’s release until the legal issues could be resolved. The TRO was granted October 6, after 3,000 copies of the ripping software were purchased, and remains in place while the legal wrangling continues.

This year has been fairly depressing for most of the veteran buyers and sellers here, getting off to a terribly slow start due to the global financial meltdown and a glut of films that took buyers a while to sift through before finally executing some sales over the weekend. 

As a documentary filmmaker and marketer, I definitely felt like an outsider at AFM, where it seems every third film features either Michael Madsen holding a gun or a large-breasted woman on the verge of impalement by some shiny phallic instrument.

However, in talking to dozens of buyers and sales agents this past week, the anti-documentary message was particularly resounding. Of the 513 films screening at AFM, only 34 were documentaries. My unofficial inspection found fewer than a dozen of the 400-plus exhibitors even had a poster for a documentary hanging in their hotel suites.

There are markets that are stronger for docs — both Berlin and Cannes have markets that are more doc-friendly, and HotDocs in Toronto is designed to put documentary filmmakers and buyers together. But the weak market at AFM is still a disturbing omen for any “factual-content” producer who hopes for international distribution or theatrical release here in the United States. And the fact that a hoary, performance-enhanced Sylvester Stallone vehicle called The Expendibles is the hottest thing at AFM is pretty disconcerting for independent “specialty” filmmakers across all genres.

The good news? Everyone here realizes they exist in a distribution model for film that is broken and soon to completely collapse as technology allows every consumer to pick what, where and when they watch. So, the fact that docs were not welcome at AFM means little for the future of documentaries in general.

PS: You may have noticed a monthlong gap in my blog postings. I apologize, but my blog admin site got broken into and all kinds of silliness ensued.