International Film Distribution

Q. I am currently editing a 80 minute movie that I've shot. I want enter New Directors/New Films 2008 and am hoping to get critic review to get recognition and land an agent/manager.

The movie is in Hindi so subtitling is needed. My plan is to make it to as many film festivals as possible and get reviews there. I've shot it on DV. How do I move ahead from here?

Sounds like you're on the right track. Get your film subtitled, which ought to be no problem on DV. Submit it to festivals, particularly those that show a lot of international films. It ought to be pretty easy to find lists of film festivals on the Net -- maybe a reader here will send us a link. Check out last year's films at that festival. If there's something from Israel and something from China and something from Afghanistan, you've got the right festival for a film in Hindi.If your film is a comedy, check out comedy film festivals. If your film is about kids, check out San Sebastiane. Etc.

New Directors / New Films is not bad because it shows films from "Hungary to Haiti, China to Angola, Mexico to Morocco, Italy to Japan." But it also shows only 22 films or so. You want to hit festivals that show 220 films.

Ganesha willing, you get accepted at some festivals and get some good write-ups or even win awards. Then you can approach international distributors -- again, check out films like yours and see who distributed them.

And you're off to the races. Good luck!

Wanna Be An Extra?

My director friend Jim writes:

We are nearing the end of this journey called 3 Saisons and we need people to join us in a few scenes that occur in public spaces. If you have any desire to come, even for a few hours, please drop me an e-mail and we'll direct you to the right place. We are looking at Sunday the 3rd of June, and Sunday the 17th of June.

This is a film made on a shoestring that has grown into a beautiful adventure. We are now working with Remstar and Alliance for distribution. So if you'd like to see yourself up on that silver screen next to Caroline Néron, Frank Schorpion, Romano Orzari, Dan Bigras and others, please come on down!

So if you're in Montreal, and you'd like to be an extra, drop him a line!

Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

I've been going through a bunch of guides to short and low-budget filmmaking. The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook is probably the most comprehensive of them. It seems to cover everything you could think of related to making a movie for little money, from organizations that can help you to storyboards to technologies to Teamsters to setting up your own corporation, etc., etc. I know some of this stuff, but I'm combing through it to make sure there's nothing I'm missing.