DOC NYC PRO Day: New Realities in Distribution & Audience Engagement

In session one, we’re joined by EVP of Magnolia Pictures Dori Begley; NEON’s EVP of Nonfiction Dan O’Meara; Chris Lane, the Director of Sales and Distribution at Participant; and Variance Films’s founder and president Dylan Marchetti. Moderated by Fork Films COO Jess Kwan, panelists describe their success and challenges releasing films through virtual cinema since the COVID-19 crisis began, the rise of hybrid release models to account for different levels of openings in various US regions, and what they see shifting in the theatrical distribution landscape as we contemplate what a new “normal” might look like.

In our second session, the Director of Industry and Festival Outreach at the Columbia University School of the Arts, Alece Oxendine, moderates a conversation with Orly Ravid, founder of The Film Collaborative; Nick Savva, Director of Content Distribution at Giant Interactive; and Robin Smith, CEO of Canada’s Blue Ice Docs. While digging into the current and future of streaming sales for docs, our panelists will also discuss strategies for releasing films digitally that have been tested over the last five months, and the prognosis for digital distribution in the year to come.

In session three, we’re joined by Participant’s SVP of Social Impact Melinda Arons; Frontline’s Impact Producer Erika Howard; POV’s Director of Community Engagement Asad Muhammad; and Shontina Vernon, Creative Director of the Visionary Justice StoryLab, an interdisciplinary arts “collaboratory” that creates new works to address inequities in representation through narrative. Panelists will assess the current landscape of community and audience engagement from myriad perspectives, including from the vantage point of two public television series; a multiplatform content and distribution company, and a collective, filmmaker-centered production hub.

In a final bonus session, we’ll dig deep into a case study of the music doc Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, a multi-partner Canadian production that represents an international collaboration between LA-based Imagine Documentaries, Toronto’s White Pine Pictures, Bell Media Studios and Universal Music Canada’s Shed Creative, released internationally and in the United States by Magnolia Pictures. Panelists include film director Daniel Roher; Magnolia Pictures President Eamonn Bowles; Neal Block, Head of Marketing and Distribution at Magnolia Pictures; Justin Wilkes, President of Imagine Documentaries; and Peter Raymont, president of White Pine Pictures.