Written by Nic Wistreich | 19 May 2009 | in news - Distribution

Finally some exciting news out of the Croisette - Britain's fifth largest retailer, the UK's biggest farmer and the world's biggest seller of fair trade, non-animal tested and ethically sourced products and services, the Co-Op, is moving into film distribution, starting with the hotly awaited docs Burma VJ and The Vanishing of the Bees.

We often lament in my flat the march to sell out that has seen the loss of once exclusively Fair Trade Green and Blacks to Cadburys, Pret a Manger to McDonalds, BodyShop to L'Oreal and Innocent to Coke, but often forget a Manchester-founded stalwart whose principles have neither diminished or been bought out. Continuing to expand in the UK, and my local 24-hour corner shop, the news of the Co-Op's involvment in the social documentary area of the film business, especially given its huge marketing and retail space across its 2,500 stores and its ethical bank, is the best film news I've heard all year. Forget the Auto Workers Union owning 45% of Chrysler - the Co-Op is entirely member and worker owned, and with 3 million members is the UK's largest membership organisation. Best of all, with a film like The Vanishing of the Bees, the co-op is in the rare position of being able to effect a part of the change called in the films, through its farming, investment and trading practices.

(and I don't think ScreenDaily have written this up yet ;-) Press release clippings follow:

This unique two-way partnership will see Dogwoof and The Co-operative jointly financing the marketing and distribution costs associated with campaigning films on important issues, starting with BURMA VJ and THE VANISHING OF THE BEES.

Both films, which will be premiered in the UK later this year, reflect two of The Co-operative’s hard hitting campaigns – to support the oppressed people of Burma and to help reverse the decline in the honeybee population.

Paul Monaghan, Head of Social Goals and Sustainability at The Co-operative, said:

“We recognise the power of film to motivate people to take action and drive change, and hope that these films will help mobilise our members and the general public.

“The Co-operative, the UK’s largest member-owned business, has three million members and a unique 165 year history of campaigning for change. With support from our customer-members, we have been campaigning for democracy in Burma for years and are leading the fight to save the honeybee. “

Written by Sarah Cameron | 24 February 2009 | in news - Distribution

Following a very busy European Film Market in Berlin, Content Republic is continuing to build its digital release slate for 2009 in a deal with The Works International. Content Republic has today announced that it has signed up to distribute Deepa Mehta’s THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE online for The Works in multiple European territories including Benelux, Germany, Italy and France.

Written by James Rocarols | 13 January 2009 | in news - Distribution

The ever excellent BBC Film Network (when will it join iPlayer fullscreen flashness?!) has recommendations (republished below) of some of the British films to look out for this year, including Lone Sherfig's Sundance buzzed An Education, Richard Curtis' Radio Caroline biopic The Boat that Rocked, Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes and Armando Ianucci's first feature In The Loop - a film version of hilarious Westminster expose, The Thick of It.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 28 May 2008 | in news - Distribution

According to discussion on the Film-Tech projectionist forum, reported on BoingBoing  and now covered in The Telegraph, the new Indiana Jones film is peppered with CAP codes - brief periods where the digital soundtrack shifts to analogue, which, depending on the setup of the cinema, can cause the sound to cut out, dip in volume, or make a loud click. The reason? A new piracy locating tool which gives each cinema their own uniquely corrupted version of the film and would allow Paramount to locate the source of any pirate copies that appeared online, provided of course the pirate hadn't cut together two soundtracks.

It's the ultimate in double think. Penalise people who aren't breaking the law, and degrade the one last piracy-proof area of film - the live experience - in the process. The online backlash has been significantl: one poster to BoingBoing pointed out that the only place to now experience the new Indiana Jones without interfering would be at home with a downloaded cleaned-up torrent. 

One wonders if anyone in the studios has read Cluetrain? The idea that by treating your customers as criminals or idiots will alienate them further and drive them away, while being honest and human-sounding ('if you stop paying for our films, you will kill off mid-budget independent film production, like these great films we know you like') may actually bring the audience onside. Cluetrain's ethos, summed up in the 95 Thesis, proves itself again and again online, and is something which the music industry has only just got to grips with.

Cluetrain thesis nos 36-39:

36 - Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end.

37 - If their cultures end before the community begins, they will have no market.

38 - Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about human concerns.

39 - The community of discourse is the market.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 04 April 2008 | in news - Distribution

A critically acclaimed Pakistani film exploring the relationship between liberal and fundamentalist Muslims has been released across cinemas in India. It is the first Pakistani film to get a wide commercial release in India in over four decades. Khuda Kay Liye (In the Name of God) focuses on the lives of Muslims after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

Officially, India and Pakistan have banned each other's films since going to war in 1965. But in recent years, the two countries have made exceptions. In 2003, Pakistani film Khamosh Paani (Silent Waters) had a limited release in India. In 2006, Pakistan allowed three Indian films to be shown.