The Film Collaborative
Non-profit organization | |
Industry | Film Distribution |
Founded | 2010 |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Products | Independent Film |
Website | http://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/ |
The Film Collaborative (TFC) is the first non-profit, full-service provider dedicated to the distribution of independent film, including narrative features and documentaries. Based in Los Angeles, The Film Collaborative services filmmakers worldwide by providing distribution guidance and support as well as theatrical, film festival and digital distribution of art house, independent and world cinema.
History
Launched in 2010, The Film Collaborative is a service-oriented, educational organization aimed at encouraging and enabling independent filmmakers to forge their own brands and directly reach audiences with their work.[1] TFC educates filmmakers about marketing and distribution options with the objective to eliminate unnecessary middlemen and break away from the restrictive contract terms that are prevalent in the film industry so that creators, rather than corporations, may profit from their own work. An ardent advocate of new media/digital distribution, TFC encourages filmmakers to use the global reach of the internet for digital marketing and forging an ongoing relationship with their audiences.
Festival Distribution
In 2010 TFC did festival distribution for films such as Eyes Wide Open, The Owls, Florent, A Small Act, The Adults in the Room, How to Start Your Own Country, An African Election and Undertow.
TFC’s 2011 slate included August, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Facing Mirrors, Hit So Hard, The Invisible War, I Want Your Love, Leave It on the Floor, Mosquita y Mari, Revenge of the Electric Car, Shut Up Little Man!, Some Guy Who Kills People, Vito, Weekend, We Were Here and The Wise Kids.
TFC’s 2012 slate included A Fierce Green Fire, Interior. Leather Bar., Jobriath A.D., The New Black, A River Changes Course, Gayby, A Portrait of James Dean: Joshua Tree, 1951, Taking a Chance on God, Trans, United in Anger and Valley of Saints.
TFC’s 2013 slate included I am Divine, Born This Way, G.B.F., Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, The Happy Sad, Kink, Pit Stop and Valentine Road.
TFC’s 2014 slate included Appropriate Behavior, Born to Fly, Boy Meets Girl, Cesar's Last Fast, Five Star, The Immortalists, Kidnapped For Christ, Out in the Night, Regarding Susan Sontag, Song From the Forest, (T)ERROR, To Be Takei and The Year We Thought About Love.
TFC’s 2015 slate included All About E, All Eyes and Ears, The Amina Profile, The Armor of Light, The Bad Kids, The Hunting Ground, I Promise You Anarchy, Landfill Harmonic, Naz & Maalik, The New Man, Out to Win, Portrait of a Serial Monogamist, Racing Extinction, The Royal Road, Salero, Seed Money, Tab Hunter Confidential, Those People, Uncle Howard and While You Weren't Looking.
TFC’s current slate includes AWOL, Boone, Cameraperson, Equal Means Equal, Forever Pure, Hooligan Sparrow, Hunky Dory, Icaros, Jewel's Catch One, The Last Laugh, Maya Angelou And Still I Rise, Out Run, A Song For You, Tower, Untouchable and Women Who Kill.
Theatrical Distribution
In late 2010, The Film Collaborative spearheaded the theatrical release of Javier Fuentes-León's ghostly love story Undertow (Contracorriente), which was Peru’s Official Selection to the Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language Film that year. In 2012, they released Jonathan Lisecki's alternative parenting romantic comedy-drama Gayby and Aurora Guerrero's coming-of-age film Mosquita y Mari.
In 2014, The Film Collaborative's theatrical releases included Switzerland’s Official Selection to the 2015 Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language Film, The Circle (Der Kreis), Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity,[2] Catherine Gund's documentary about the life and work of choreographer and action architect Elizabeth Streb, LGBT film historiographer-director Jeffrey Schwarz's I am Divine,[3] about the international drag superstar and John Waters' leading lady Divine, Darius Clark Monroe's Evolution of a Criminal[4] and The Hand that Feeds.[5]
In 2015, The Film Collaborative's theatrical releases included Jeffrey Schwarz's Tab Hunter Confidential,[6] Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe's (T)ERROR,[7] which won the Special Jury Award for Breakout First Feature at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. TFC also released Parvez Sharma's A Sinner in Mecca, Song from the Forest, and 1971, which focuses on a break-in of an FBI office that occurred that year in Media, Pennsylvania to steal over 1000 classified documents.
Requiem for the American Dream, featuring famed historian Noam Chomsky, begain its release on January 29, 2016.[8] TFC released Nanfu Wang's documentary about a Chinese activist, entitled Hooligan Sparrow, on July 22, 2016.[9] The Film Collaborative, along with Emerging Pictures, will handle theatrical distribution for Landfill Harmonic (2016).[10] The film will open theatrically in North America on September 9, 2016. TFC partnered with Gravitas Ventures to release For the Love of Spock theatrically on Sept. 9, 2016.
Sales and Business Negotiation
In 2011, The Film Collaborative helped negotiate a deal for Andrew Haigh's Weekend (2011 film).[11] In 2012, TFC launched a new foreign sales initiative for LGBT titles with Peccadillo (UK), Outplay (France), Pro-Fun (Germany), ABC/Cinemien (Benelux) to share resources and launch films simultaneously in multiple territories when possible to maximize awareness and limit piracy.[12] In 2016, The Film Collaborative was a key player in orchestrating a splits right deal for the film Landfill Harmonic involving Vimeo (Digital), HBO Latino (Television), Tugg (Educational) and FilmRise (DVD).[13][14]
Educational Services
TFC offers distribution and marketing education to independent filmmakers seeking to reach traditionally underserved audiences. Via its membership and digital distribution programs, TFC guides filmmakers through the distribution process and helps them develop a custom strategy suitable for their film. In 2012, TFC launched a Fiscal Sponsorship program, enabling filmmakers to contract with TFC to extend tax-exempt status to their specific projects, rather than attempting to secure tax-exempt status on their own.
References
- ↑ "New Non-Profit Aims to Rep & Support Indie Films". indieWIRE. January 28, 2010.
- ↑ . The Numbers http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Born-to-Fly-Elizabeth-Streb-vs-Gravity. Missing or empty
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(help) - ↑ "I am Divine website".
- ↑ "Indie Spirit Nominee 'Evolution of a Criminal' Is Provocative, Must-See Doc Debut". Indiewire.
- ↑ "The Dissolve".
- ↑ "Review Easygoing, enjoyable 'Tab Hunter Confidential' accurately reflects its star". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ "Review: '(T)error' Documentary Follows an Informant in an F.B.I. Inquiry". New York Times.
- ↑ "Film Review: 'Requiem for the American Dream'". Variety.
- ↑ "Review: In 'Hooligan Sparrow,' a Chinese Activist's Hair-Raising Defiance of the State". The New York Times.
- ↑ "'Landfill Harmonic' set for multi-platform US launch". Screen Daily. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
- ↑ "Sundance Selects Takes North American Rights and Multiple Foreign Rights to Andrew Haigh's Weekend". AMC Networks.
- ↑ "'Landfill Harmonic' set for multi-platform US launch". Screen Daily.
- ↑ "Film Collaborative launches LGBT initiative for distribution". Screen Daily.
- ↑ "LANDFILL HARMONIC THEATRICAL RELEASE". Screen Daily.