Industry Talk: Alternative distribution and exhibition
As traditional documentary distribution models falter and some formats start taking safer paths, the question is: Can we collectively shape a new kind of cinema that reimagines how films are experienced and shared?
The Industry Talk: Alternative distribution and exhibition - Reconnecting with the audiences explored this and other vital questions on November 17, bringing together Can Sungu (Sinema Transtopia), Nada Bakr (Network of Arab Alternative Screens, NAAS), and Abby Sun (Distribution Advocates/International Documentary Association, IDA). The discussion was moderated by Rohan Berry Crickmar (Lightdox/Cork International Film Festival).
Industry Talk: Alternative distribution and exhibition - Reconnecting with the audiences
Addressing the question of the audience’s “centrality,” and how it can govern the decisions we make about distributing films, Crickmar urged to look beyond the familiar production, broadcast and festival-led structures, and engage with community and audience-building practices “that lie outside the professional space we inhabit.”
In this vein, Sungu, the co-founder of Sinema Transtopia, reflected on their initiative and journey: first, as a film club in a modest space in Berlin’s Wedding district, then taking up residence in a former GDR building, before finally returning to its neighborhood, which has been long shaped by its migrant enclaves. The idea of “extending the space of cinema beyond the screen” and putting the audience “at the center” has guided their work throughout the years, as Sungu noted, and it has endured “as a space of exchange, conversation, and solidarity.” Rather than following neoliberal notions of audience development and approaching cinema through industrial logic as merely an exhibition space, he explained, they have focused on nurturing the organic relationship with its communities, which is reflected in a wealth of “collectively and collaboratively shaped” programs and projects. This includes, for example, Common Visions Berlin, which holds film screenings and discussions together with organizations and initiatives involved in the city’s civil life, or Cinema of Commoning, which gathers alternative cinemas from across the world. The team also organizes workshops, such as the ones interrogating the politics of film archiving since archives “contain neglected perspectives,” Sungu explained.
Concerned about the challenges of distribution for independent storytellers, Distribution Advocates was conceived in the early days of the COVID pandemic at a time when the problem of film distribution was barely on the radar, at least in the Western film circuit, Sun recalled at the panel. In the course of their efforts, Distribution Advocates also established a film fund, dedicated specifically to supporting films in their marketing as they traveled to in-person screenings, including theaters and community spaces (with each grant recipient expected to create a publicly available case study). Furthering the conversation about audiences, Sun then brought up Carlos A. Gutiérrez’s article on the Distribution Advocates’ Substack The Crisis Isn’t Cinema, It’s the Industry, highlighting the disconnect between filmmakers, their works, and the public. She noted some of it “is actually self-imposed,” elaborating that this in part stems from choosing “a path that’s narrowed our options, that excludes the direct connection with audiences, [such as] local, small, or niche theaters and community spaces that aren’t the international recognition that we might imagine in our auteur-filmmaking dreams.”
Meanwhile, Crickmar discussed the value of cinema networks, reflecting on his collaboration with the Cine North initiative in the UK, aimed at bringing films to communities underserved by cinema provision, geographically isolated, or classified as ‘socially deprived’ and having no cinema space in their locality. Rather than a single screen booking an individual screening license, having a number of screens spread across a wider geographic area often made reduced pricing possible. This would ease the costs for some individual community cinemas and created what he described as an “almost self-fulfilling cycle”: cheaper screenings drew more people, which generated the income that could help sustain some of the community cinemas. As Crickmar noted, this began to trickle into the festival realm, and rather than parachuting themselves in, some larger institutions started partnering with local spaces through their existing community relationships, allowing the trust that these audiences have in those spaces eventually extend to them as well.
Bakr shared insights into the practices of NAAS, which she helms. NAAS (which has moved across different locations over the years) brings together a group of cinema platforms, screening spaces, and cultural initiatives, comprising 14 members across seven countries within the Arabic-speaking region. Yet as she explained, it remains “deeply adaptive” to the needs of its members, and the local networks they each have. “What does it mean to circulate films outside the mainstream, TV, or [highly] market-driven circuits in the region?” she stressed. The work of NAAS extends beyond the idea of cinemas operating solely within their local contexts, Bakr added, noting they collaborate to maintain “the visibility of alternative screens” within the region and uphold the sustainability of practices across the geographies.
