Distribution

The Material journey is entering a new chapter. The most exciting chapter, but also, the most daunting.

Getting a movie out there, ie, trying to secure distribution, makes the film making seem like a Sunday picnic. It is a hyper-competitive landscape, and no one has ever heard of movies from South Africa. Come on, have you?

I am more and more convinced that the indie films that do get distributed are not because of some random acquisition. But, because of integral early buy-in and support. Sure, there are films that get made quietly, in remote parts of the globe, that turn out magical, and get acquired for world-wide distribution, but I only know a handful of films like these. The rest are carefully and skillfully nurtured, with the "right fit" distributor being on board from the outset.

I think making a film that is totally vulnerable is very naive. And yes, we are naive. We do have a chance to find a distributor, but it is going to be a hard journey. At least we have a magical film, but it is a tough market, and very hard times, and in short, we just don't have any credibility, so for someone to even take a call from us is a small miracle.

I am not one to ever give up, so we are going to give this all we can. We have to ... we have come this far. We are not stopping now.

But, for our next project, we are already talking to distributors now. The same distributors we are trying to tie up something with for Material. Perhaps Material was a stepping stone for the next project. Everyone is inspired by the film and they are keen to talk about future projects. 

So, yes, perhaps we will get the Material movie out there. We are not leaving a stone unturned. We will know in the next 4 to 6 months.

What a journey!

Posted by Ronnie Apteker