Soy Andina: The Blog

Terrific example of indie film marketing: from fellow Penn grad/producer Ben Katz for "Johnny Was"

Haven't seen the movie yet, but told Ben I would post his email 'cause I was so impressed with it:

Dear Friends:

JOHNNY WAS, my first film as producer, released this Tuesday in North America and is now available at Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and other rental stores.

It is out widely for sale this week in many/most Wal-Mart, B&N, Borders, other big box retailers and independents in the New Release section. The film is a top-25 rental for the week ending September 24th. I want to ask for your help to keep it on this list for as long as possible:

1. Please see the trailer.

2. If you want a copy of the film, email me your address and I'll send you one (only if you're in the USA, due to rights issues)--you should have it within 10 days.

3. For the fun stuff, skip to item 9 below. Otherwise, to help me continue my path away from Wall Street...

New Day Films: A Documentary Distribution Success Story

For the past few years I've been hearing raves about New Day Films from filmmakers like Jonathan Skurnik and Kathy Leicther (A Day's Work, A Day's Pay), and Paco de Onis and Pamela Yates (State of Fear).

New Day's a distributor of quality docs to the educational market. What makes them special is that they're a collective.

I usually hear about two distribution models. One is self-distribution, where the filmmaker goes it alone, working like crazy to do marketing/distribution when they'd rather be making new movies. The other is handing your film off to a distributor, who keeps almost all the sales.

New Day seems to fill a huge void. Members do a lot of work - but support each other, and keep a serious cut of sales.

I'm not sure why I don't hear more about them in filmmaker circles. I'd like to help spread the word.

if you're an educator, check out their website for films about:

Gender & Socialization | Global Concerns | Media, Art & Culture | Multiculturalism & Diversity | Parenting & Family | Physical & Mental Health | Social & Political History | Young Adult Issues

If you're a filmmaker with a film you think qualifies after reviewing their site, contact Jonathan.

Latino Market

I don't like to label Soy Andina a "Latino film" — it will appeal to a much broader audience. But it's certainly one of our core audiences, and that's promising. Some facts that stand out for me:

- 40 million.Latinos in the USA

- More than 60 percent are U.S.-born. So English-dominant , bi-cultural Latinos are now a majority of the Latino population — and hungry for entertainment that speaks to them, tells their stories.

- More than $1.5 billion was spent by advertisers on Spanish-language TV in 2005.

The trade publication Marketing y Medios has been a good source for facts

Invite to Silverdocs/Sunny Side of the Doc Rendezvous

Good news and a potential big step on the road to distribution — an invite to one of the world's most prestigious documentary co-financing conferences, where projects with partial financing or distribution already in place are invited to pitch their projects to secure finishing funds and distribution deals:

Dear Mitch,

The SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival is very pleased to invite you to take part in the Washington Sunny Side of the Doc Rendezvous, January 27-29, 2006 with your project, SOY ANDINA. The Rendezvous will be a gathering of approximately 200 participants converging from France, Canada, Japan and the U.S. to pitch projects to one another in hopes of creating international co-productions.

Latin American Video Distributor to Close

Email today from Latin American Video Archives (LAVA). Unfortunate but somehow not surprising. I've wondered how small educational distributors stay afloat.

It is with great regret that we announce the termination of LAVA’s distribution services as of December 31, 2005. The future of LAVA’s other two services – our informational website, www.latinamericanvideo.org, and the video archive – has not yet been determined.