SnagFilms to Expand Library’s Reach to New Platforms

Documentary distribution outlet SnagFilms—the parent company of indieWIRE—will unveil later today an expansion of the platforms for its nonfiction titles that is timed to its second anniversary, as well as deals with a range of companies for more films. Snag will bring its library of 1,500-plus films to a suite of new sources beyond the original web platform upon which it was launched. New outlets will include the creation of VOD channels with cable network Comcast and Verizon FiOS TV. Additionally, selections from SnagFilms’ library will be available for purchase on Apple’s iTunes and for rental from YouTube’s premium program. There will be both free and paid options for watching films on the new Apple iPad.

Overall, the deals being announced today will increase the size of the company’s library and also bring the titles to an array of outlets instead of relying just on the Internet. Notably, the move highlights a shift away from an entirely free model for accessing some documentary features and shorts.

Select SnagFilms titles will be available through mobile phone carriers worldwide via A3 Media Network, Snag will announce. In the fall, its library will be accessible to internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and set-top boxes. Plans are underway as well for the launch of SnagLearning, a site that will be made available next month to educators in time for the new school year, with over 100 films available to educators for grade and subject, to which supplemental study materials will be added.

Also on tap, SnagFilms will now offer films produced by indie studio Lionsgate, large documentary aggregator New Video/Docurama, select student films from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, selections from the National Film Board of Canada, a Flip Cam film from the Disney Imagineers showing their creative process, and an array of extreme adventure and music films from the production arm of Red Bull.

Currently, SnagFilms is hosting its second annual SummerFest, which began July 15th. The series offers viewers screenings for two weeks of six documentaries headed to theaters or television in the Autumn. This year’s crop includes “The Age of Stupid,” “Shooting Robert King,” “Disco and Atomic War,” “Videocracy,” “The Socalled Movie,” as well as “A Fighting Chance,” which will later be shown on ESPN.

“Our first two years were aimed at building our library and making those films widely available,” commented SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen, in a statement to be widely distributed this morning. “Our 1,500 films are available on mainstream media sites.”

“We started SnagFilms two years ago for four simple reasons,” said SnagFilms founder Ted Leonsis in a separate statement being issued today by the company. “We wanted to use the scale and interactivity of the web to bring great films to a broader audience. We wanted to create new tools and revenue opportunities for the entire indie ecosystem – filmmakers, festivals, film schools, non-profits, journalists and advertisers. We wanted to provide context and a community for film fans and the industry. And we wanted to deepen the reach of what we call filmanthropy.”

A profile in The New York Times today that broke the news of the deals said that Snag is also working on a deal to put its films on Netflix, but the Times said that the pact is still in the works. The piece, by Michael Cieply, said that Snag is aimed at, “distributing as many as 100,000 films,” quoting Ted Leonsis.

Founded by AOL Vice-Chair Emeritus Leonsis, SnagFilms has become the web’s largest home for non-fiction films, with more than 1500 documentaries streamed free to consumers on 90,000 websites and webpages. 

“Two years in, we believe we are benefiting every aspect of the indie world,” Rick Allen said in his statement, “And define our success as a ‘double bottom line’ business that does well by doing good.” - Brian Brooks

The Return of "ARAYA": Interview with Margot Benacerraf

In 1959, Venezuelan filmmaker Margot Benacerraf was one of two winners of the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her feature “Araya” – the other was Alain Resnais for “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” Benacerraf was the first Latin American filmmaker to be honored at Cannes.

However, her success was fleeting. “Araya,” a visually striking non-fiction study of the salt miners in the Araya peninsula of northeastern Venezuela, has barely been seen during the past half-century. The film didn’t play in Venezuelan cinemas until 1977, and relatively few Americans caught it when it was part of a touring 1987 retrospective of Latin American films. “Araya” is only now in U.S. theatrical release, in a beautifully restored print, through the distribution auspices of Milestone Film & Video.

"Araya" had its premiere at Cannes in 1959, but it was not theatrically released in Venezuela until 1977. What kept the film out of theaters for two decades?

“Araya,” for it’s own characteristics, has always been a difficult film to distribute even having been awarded numerous times and celebrated in so many festivals. Since the beginning, “Araya” was marked for its particularity. Inside the distributors/exhibitors pre-established categorizations, “Araya” didn’t fit in any genre and it didn’t feature any international stars.

After the enormous and unanimous critical success at Cannes and other festivals, people talked with more formally of “a cinematographic account” of “a grand composition”, of “a painting told with a poetic rhythm”, and so on, “like a poem”, but even so the distributors didn’t go for it in those moments, and later for various and differing reasons the co-producer and I didn’t put in the effort until as soon as the opportunity presented itself in 1977.

When you were shooting the film, how did the salt marsh workers react to having their daily labor captured on camera? And have you ever been contacted by the men and women in the film about the production?

The salt-makers collaborated a lot because I lived with them before filming so that they became familiar with me and the presence of the camera wouldn’t interfere too much with their actions. I should say that they accepted my requests with goodwill and patience. They had never seen a camera and didn’t know exactly what it was all about, but they trusted me. I’ve returned to “Araya” various times during all these years and we’ve always continued maintaining very warm relations.

"Araya" had several U.S. playdates in 1987. What was the reaction by audiences at that time?

Very good, but without any consequence.

Prior to Milestone's release, have you ever been contacted by a U.S. distribution for the film's theatrical release in the American market?

I was contacted by Latin American Video Archive (LAVA) in 2005, but then they ran into economic problems they had to close their doors and cancel all of its activities by the end of that year, “Araya” was referred to Milestone by LAVA’s director Roselly Torres, who was interested in its distribution.

How is "Araya" appreciated today in Venezuela?

For the past 50 years, no other Venezuelan films has had the prestige, nor obtained the prizes that “Araya” has received. With that, I am able to say that in Venezuela it is considered an icon. A little bit ago in the month of May, the 50 years of the Cannes Festival awards were celebrated with the projection in various theaters, and now there will be other projections and other various ceremonies in the country’s universities. - Phil Hall

And so passes Allan King

The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) has reported the very sad news that pioneering cinéma vérité filmmaker Allan King has passed away in Toronto after a battle with brain cancer.

"The drunks, the dying, the emotionally disturbed, the couple whose marriage is imploding – Allan King showed them respect and never judged, and in turn, they shared their stories on camera." - Lee Ferguson: CBCNews

Thank you, Allan, for all your art, work and inspiration.

On my shelf - Sigur Ros: Heima (Long overdue and well, well worth it.)

"As Sigur Ros bassist Georg speaks in the tour diary included in the second disk of the Heima DVD, up until the release of this film, Sigur Ros fans had not really been given a visual document of the bands work and spirit aside from the album artwork, which is beautiful, but does not really give fans the kind of living experience that they have always wanted. Heima is a film about Iceland, and the islands most popular band, Sigur Ros, on a short unannounced tour throughout the country. Heima means "at home," which means that the band is in their most comfortable environment, their own home country with all of it's beautiful, homely charms.



The majority of the film is presented in the form of concert footage and footage of Iceland's beautiful natural landscapes. It is divided into passages concentrated on different towns, villages, and cities, and personal concert experiences from each. The idea that this could turn into a dull, Discovery Channel documentary is immediately disproved, as the band remind us that they are among the most innovative and consistently interesting performers in a long time. In fact, Sigur Ros turn what we know about documentaries upside down. Within the first fifteen minutes, we are shown live footage of the band performing one of the better songs off of Takk while completely silhouetted by an earthen cloth that takes up the entire expanse of a stage. The entire song is performed under shadow, reminding us that the music of Sigur Ros is as much about what is not there as what is there. This may seem pretentious, but we must remember that this is a band that released an album with blank pages in the sleeve meant for fans to produce lyrics of their own, a counterpoint for the fact that Sigur Ros vocalist Jonsi almost exclusively sings in a babel that does not belong to any language.

Almost every song is performed in a unique way or in a unique place, and although some of the performances do not add anything new to their studio recordings, they all resonate with warmth. This may be partially due to the inclusion of the band's supporting strings section, the all girls band Amiina, that has served Sigur Ros very well within the past ten years and act as family both professionally and personally.

Another switch-up is employed very early on in the naturalistic segments. Footage of running water from streams and waterfalls is reversed. I could tell you that this represents Sigur Ros moving backwards in it's own footsteps in the snow, back home, to where things started, but then I would sound like I'm looking for reasons to praise the bands every move. This kind of over-analysis from fans is what has given the band their pretentious reputation. What we need to remember is, water running backwards in gorgeous high quality just looks impressive. And the ideas of Sigur Ros are not always as complex as we may think. The band keeps their music close to the human condition, and closer to the human ear.

What Sigur Ros have done are bring us into their world, into their home, and showed us what their music is about. Heima is as much a testament to Iceland as it is to Sigur Ros and their live repertoire. Throughout the span of the film, the band play songs in desolate regions such as in the middle of a forest as well in a slew of other places that I will not mention so to leave the majority of the movie a surprise. These performances are either pretentious or completely genuine, and we struggle with this question until after the performance of the final song, when Jonsi describes an interesting family tidbit which I also cannot reproduce here, in risk of it losing it's effect. We are also shown footage of the people of the different Icelandic villages living their everyday lives, as well as indulging in the concerts, which they seem only half as impressed about as we do. A local marching band accompanying Sigur Ros onstage seems to them to be completely natural, as unique as it is. Moments like these are not few, and I struggle to not reveal more of them because of how interesting they all are. But shots of the natural beauty of Iceland are just as important and moving as the happenings the people that inhabit it. This seems to be part musical documentary, and part natural documentary, both areas approached in lighthearted and honest ways.

Intricacies aside, Heima is a solid live concert experience. The songs are performed very well, although they do not differ much aurally from the original album cuts. The DVD is put together very nicely, but at times the interactive menus can get a bit confusing and tiring, despite their creativity of their presentation of an elderly map of Iceland, which are probably much more navigable to Icelandic people. The extras are quite interesting and are enough to keep fans' appetites quelled until the band's next release, whenever that may be. There are a couple different versions of Heima that you can buy, namely the standard two disk DVD as well as a deluxe edition with an art book, but both releases have the same two disks and are only cosmetically different. My complaints of the film are only in my desire to have seen some of my personal favorite songs performed, specifically Gong, Saeglopur, and Svefn-g-englar, but you can't please all of the people all of the time, and none of the song selections here are wasted efforts. I was especially impressed with the performance of Meo Blodnasir, a magical little interlude on Takk that would not normally be seen as anything more than filler. Even for casual Sigur Ros fans, Heima is essential, and it is surely the apex of Sigur Ros' career thus far. Easily the best music documentary I have seen, and a highlight of the decade in both music and film."