The do-it-yourself movement has transformed music, home improvement, political action and even comic book publishing. Now the DIY cause is starting to upend movie distribution, and is no longer a scarlet letter that filmmakers labored to hide.
Not that long ago, any movie being distributed by its director or producer was considered damaged goods: If not a single legitimate distributor wanted to release a film, it simply had to be agony to watch. But as the specialized film business has been experiencing its own tumult -- some studios shut down or downsized their art-house divisions, while others looked only for indie films that could play to the broadest audience possible -- the DIY distribution stigma quickly became immaterial.
These days, a number of new movies with recognizable stars and prestigious film festival pedigrees are being released by their makers, and while the early financial returns are easily forgotten, the trend is not as hard to dismiss.
The way the filmmakers see it, self-distribution has become a creative solution to many of the industry's woes, where countless indie films come and go in the blink of an eye. What's more, the strategy gives a film's creators not only final say over how their movie is brought to audiences but also lasting ownership of its copyright.
"It's not at all what I thought I'd be doing," says Randy Miller, who with his wife and filmmaking partner, Jody Savin, self-distributed this summer's wine competition drama "Bottle Shock" and will do the same with their Dec. 5 thriller "Nobel Son." "But the system is broken. So what else are you going to do?"
Producer Ehud Bleiberg will self-distribute "Adam Resurrected" (a Holocaust drama starring Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe) in December, while director Justin Dillon is releasing his human trafficking documentary "Call + Response" by himself.
"We always thought that grass-roots support was what was going to launch this film," says Dillon, whose activist film invites moviegoers to send text messages during showings to donate money, write to legislators and download songs from the film. "So by doing it ourselves we kind of stick with the film's story."
Among the most intriguing DIY titles is writer-director Lance Hammer's "Ballast," which arrives in Los Angeles on Nov. 7.
