We may have only started distributing video in 2008, but that doesn’t diminish the influence that the films we’ve worked on have had on us.
In honor of our 15th anniversary, our video team’s Brendan Nunn and Danielle DiGiacomo have put together a selection of 15 films that have shocked us with their beauty, truth or extremes. And oh, have we seen some extremes!
From documentaries to dramas, action sports to music… we’ve covered a wide array of genres and styles that have helped us widen our horizons and contribute to our growth.
The Idiots [1998]
Lars Von Trier – controversial? Can’t be! The man who was banned from the Cannes Film Festival for professing to sympathize with Nazis directed The Idiots, his first film made in line with his Dogme 95 manifesto, in 1998. In the film, a group of middle class adults “rebel” against a safe, bourgeois lifestyle by taking up in a house together and acting as if they are developmentally disabled, purportedly for the sake of liberation. A film that polarized critics — many of whom were offended by a salacious group sex scene — this is Von Trier at his best, or worst, depending on your taste for the Danish provocateur.
Jandek on Corwood [2008]
Jandek, a Houston-based recluse, has made 51 records on a label called Corwood Industries. With music that is best described as “free-form experimental,” Jandek has become a cult figure by trying to be the opposite, invisible. Missouri filmmaker Chad Friedrich’s film about Jandek pieces together his subject’s life and art, using an aesthetic that reflects the man and his music, that of a stark and decaying, but eerily beautiful Middle America.
Off The Grid: Life on the Mesa [2008]
Randy and Jeremy Stulberg, a New York-based brother and sister team, proved themselves as filmmaking forces with their first nonfiction feature. Off The Grid, which aired on the Sundance Channel, examines a group of individual outcasts who chose to live outside of government control, haphazardly forming a community in the Mesa, 5 miles from the Rio Grande river. Alcoholic war veterans, teenage runaways and even a pig farmer form a motley crue form bonds and friendships but, at times, erupt in violent conflict. The documentary is currently being adapted into a fiction feature starring Patricia Arquette.
Special When Lit [2009]
Hear the buzzes and bells; see the light o’flashing; play by sense and smell with this groovy look back at the silver ball amusement. Before Xbox, before Pac-Man… there was pinball.
Welcome To Nollywood [2009]
In this film from IndiePix, Director Jamie Meltzer explores the world of self-styled auteurs and producers working in funky Lagos. Home to the third-largest film industry in the world, Nigeria — dubbed “Nollywood” by its inhabitants — has developed into a hot bed of DIY, amateur, shoot-from-the-hip filmmaking. Produced straight to video and sold in markets across the region, these films offer a unique perspective of the political, social and historic life of post-colonial Africa not usually depicted in Western media.
The Nine Lives of Marion Barry [2010]
Few politicians stand in greater opposition to the oft used, and misunderstood, quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald “there are no second acts in American lives” than former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. From student activist to civil rights leader, mayor to criminal, Barry’s life and acts don’t seem to fit the traditional narrative arc of any other political figure. “He May Not Be Perfect, But He’s Perfect for D.C.”
As spring has sprung, The Orchard has proven to be a truly ripe ground for growing the digital life of a wide array of film and video content. In the past two months, our releases have ranged from an award-winning documentary about the worst industrial disaster in history, Bhopali, to the adrenaline-fuelled wakeboarding extravaganza, Lipsmack.
From jam band lovers to Scandinavian-loving cinephiles, we released something for everyone. Our Orchard Sports team pushed out films for racecar aficionados: British Rally Championship Review 2011; snowmobilers: Slednecks 14; extreme skiiers: Action Jackson; off-road moto riders: What !s; mountain bikers: Trailnotes; and of course, those always enthusastic BMX-ers: Props BMX: Owned and Props BMX: Best of 2010, among many others.
For the cinephiles favoring fiction films, our releases were international — the dark Swedish thriller The Ape; the Danish-U.S. romantic comedy Love at First Hiccup; and U.S. festival darling Strings, a thought-provoking, twist-heavy thriller with echoes of Christopher Nolan’s early films.
For those who prefer a dose of reality, our documentary content was equally rich. Aside from the aforemented Bhopali, The Orchard released For Liberty: How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Tree of Liberty, the subject of which is self-explanatory, and the award-winning look at Jamaica’s rising underground reggae stars, RiseUp, was prominently featured on Hulu, joining the ranks of other Orchard-released docs like Special When Lit: A Pinball Documentary and — perfect for an election year – The Nine Lives of Marion Barry.
And of course, we wouldn’t be The Orchard if we didn’t offer music films. Not one, but six Widespread Panic concert films are now on iTunes, beginning with Widespread Panic: Wood Tour at Atlanta, GA’s The Tabernacle on January 27, 2012. Now that’s a mouthful.
You’d think we’d take a break after all this releasing, but with the quality of films choosing The Orchard for their digital distribution partner, we just can’t stop the momentum. Over the summer, expect everything from documentaries from Cannes-winning Israeli auteurs to coming-of-age Canadian comedies.
RiseUp, a character-driven documentary following three hopeful reggae artists navigate the waters of the underground Jamaican reggae scene, made a huge splash on the film festival circuit after premiering at IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival, in 2008. Called “a compellingly drawn look at Jamaica’s rich musical terrain” by Billboard Magazine and “ a milestone piece in Jamaica’s film history” by the Jamaica Observer, the film gives a peerless look into life in Jamaica and the integral relationship between music and survival.
We got a chance to speak with the director-cinematographer, immensely talented Argentine native Luciano Blotta, about his 9 years (so far) of making RiseUp.
The Orchard: What was the genesis of this project? Why did you decide to make a film about underground reggae in Jamaica, and how did you find your characters?
Luciano Blotto: A Jamaican friend from college told me to come down to Jamaica with my camera and do a film about a small fishing village that he knew about. I hadn’t seen my friend in years and I had never been to Jamaica, so I went. It wasn’t long until I was invited to an underground sound system clash, and the rest is history, as the fish were history. The amount of undiscovered talent bubbling up from every street corner of Jamaica inspired me to do something about it and help them be seen and recognized. So RiseUp was born. Finding the characters was an organic, almost unconscious process. In short, “vibes.” In the beginning I had no knowledge of what and who I was filming, not being a reggae fan before my first trip to Jamaica, so it was a learning process. Everything came from instinctual decisions rather than intellectual ones – from the way I chose which artists to focus on, to the music that spoke to me in special ways. I just combed that island from coast to coast and let the energies of what and who I encountered guide me.
TheO: How did you get access to a scene that some might consider closed off to outsiders, or even dangerous?
LB: It was all an innocent process at first; I didn’t listen to much reggae music so I didn’t know much about it and I was like a student from the day I landed there. I needed to learn it all from scratch. I think this kept me respectful and with a great curiosity and enthusiasm that generated the right atmosphere, because I was fascinated. Also, the fact that I was a white foreigner running around with a camera helped open doors automatically. You have to keep in mind that such a person can be a synonym of opportunity for them, that somebody will get to see them in other parts of the world and something good can happen from it. That’s why I was almost always welcome in the beginning, but it was more complicated once I spent more time and I had to start asking people to sign releases, etc. That got tricky and the process could merit a whole interview by itself! Last but not least, I was fortunate to link up, thanks to Mark Hart, the Executive Producer, with a man called Carlo Less, who was an independent music producer familiar with the scene and its intricacies. It was through him that I started learning about the culture of the island, exploring everything from the music recording studios uptown to the Rasta way of life in the hills. He was a great companion and collaborator and is featured prominently on the film.
TheO: From conception to distribution, how long has the process of making this film been?
After every large film festival, critics and industry pause to take stock and ask “What does this year’s [insert festival name here] mean for the state of the independent film industry?” What they really mean is: Can filmmakers still get lots of money from distribution deals? Are the distributors doing well enough to pay filmmakers lots of money? If Sundance deals are robust – and this year was indeed a buying frenzy – it is reflected in the attitudes and unfortunately, inflated expectations of every independent filmmaker on the circuit, even the ones who should know better.
Attending the beloved medium-sized Midwestern True/False Film Festival just over a month after attending the behemoth that is Sundance, one bears witness to the relationship between the film festival timeline and filmmakers’ hopes and expectations for the distribution of their films. At True/False, there were a handful of filmmakers who had made deals with the mini-majors and boutique indies at Sundance. These filmmakers have an air of calm and confidence about them; their film will be released in theatres, their distributors will take care of their festival runs, and they will have lovely posters, great publicists, and marketing teams working on the film’s behalf. For them, the fight is largely over.
Then, there are the filmmakers who have yet to “officially” premiere their films. (True/False has a half-dozen “Secret Screenings,” in which the names of films and any identifying details are not released to the public and are not allowed to be reviewed. Therefore, they can fly under the radar until their official World Premieres at the next big fests – South by Southwest and Tribeca.) These filmmakers carry with them a nervous energy combined with a sense of hope. They have hired sales agents, are finalizing their press kits and are hoping for that aforementioned deal.
South by Southwest, which comes less than a week after True/False, is arguably the 2nd most important U.S. film festival. However, it is not a deal-making fest in the way of Redford’s extravaganza (or is it Weinstein’s these days?). I have not yet heard of one film being bought yet, 5 days into the Festival. In fact, all acquisitions announcements over the past 3 days have regarded Sundance films. The Austin fest is a slower burn, and it takes longer for anything to gel. (Personal experience: A film that I associate produced, Billy the Kid, won the “Grand Jury Prize” for Best Documentary in 2007. The night it won, we got calls from every distributor and their mother, but it took weeks for anything to come through concretely, and a lot of it was all bark, and no bite.)
The relaxed pace of Southby means it is difficult to generalize about the “state of distribution” - did a buying-heavy Sundance mean that the industry is in good health? Do distributors have more money than last year? Is independent film on an upswing again? – until after Tribeca. However, I think this is the wrong framework in which to judge the health of the industry.
True/False Film Festival, which begins this Thursday, March 1st, takes place in Columbia, Missouri, a town smack in the middle of a state that is smack in the middle of the country. This laid back, Midwestern college town, oddly enough, is the perfect setting for one of the most dynamic and invigorating film festivals in the country.
As part of The Orchard Film Department‘s growing initiative to search for high-quality documentaries to distribute to digital platforms, we will be there (in the form of me, Danielle DiGiacomo) to see a very carefully curated line-up of nonfiction films and get our name out into the doc community. In fact, the critically Jamaican reggae documentary RiseUp, which we are rolling out on iTunes, Hulu, and other platforms starting in March, played at the fest three years ago.
Films I’m personally psyched for include Lee Hirsch’s Bully, an examination of what was once taken for granted as a natural part of childhood but now seen as a dangerous epidemic; Detropia, a film by the immensely talented duo Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing that is part city symphony and part examination of those who are pulling Detroit out of the ashes (I’ll be introducing this film as part of my duties as a True/False Ringleader); and Searching for Sugar Man, a Sundance hit about the South African-born singer-songwriter Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, whose politically conscious music briefly gained him a cult following four decades ago, and where he disappeared to.
Another reason True/False and The Orchard are a great match is because of the festival’s growing attention to musical performances by the best up-and-coming bands from around the country. Even the website says, “Maybe we should call it the T/F Busking (and Film) Festival.” Bands play before every film in the fest, as well as at nightly showcases, cocktail parties, an early morning run (!) and even on street corners, with their stylish hats turned upside down and filled with coins. One of The Orchard’s most exciting bands – we all love these guys – Pearl and the Beard – is back at True/False, and I can’t wait to catch them. Last year, they were buzzed about as one of the audience favorites. I wasn’t here yet, but Orchard-ites tell me their performance at our Stairwell Series was unforgettable!
Look out for a full recap of the fest next week…
