Doc filmmakers urged to focus early on distribution and marketing to win audiences and festival slots

Documentary filmmakers were urged to pay more attention to distribution and marketing, and were given tips on how to pitch their projects to distributors, at a Doclisboa ’Masterclass’ panel this week on promoting non-fiction films.

María Vera of Kino Rebelde - a festival distribution and sales outfit specialising in hybrid work, non-fiction and experimental film - bemoaned the lack of focus on distribution and marketing at film schools and universities.

“At university, I never learned about distribution. I learned how to make the best script, the best editing, the best photography but once you have the best film, there is no-one saying how to move it [in the marketplace] and how to internationalise your content.”

Fellow panelist Renata Sancho, a producer, editor and script supervisor, spoke of the lack of attention paid to “putting films where they should be, in theatre rooms.” Her production outfit Cedro Plátano specialises in experimental documentary although last year she directed a fictional drama and has started distributing projects.

Vera’s message was clear. “Distribution is not something that starts when the film is finished.” Filmmakers strapped for cash and struggling to complete their projects may be reluctant to think about [and invest in] marketing. “[But] you need to know which audience you are looking for,” she warned.

Distrubition ‘lethargy’

Vera talked about the lethargy of filmmakers when it comes to distribution plans. By this stage, they have already had to put together multiple treatments and synopses for potential funders. They’re “tired” and don’t always have the energy or stamina to write yet another “director’s statement.” However, this may be a necessity.

The distributor warned young filmmakers in the audience that they always need to do their “homework” first before approaching distributors - and to remember to address them by the correct name.

“I would love it if people, before sending any film to me, see the kind of films we are working with,” Vera said. “Every email I receive is important and I have to read it so please don’t make copy and paste.

Sancho spoke of managing “expectations” on both sides. The director may have unrealistic expectations of what the distributor can achieve on his or her behalf - for example, securing a berth in Cannes. The distributor may also a very different idea of how a film can travel compared to the filmmaker.

Distribution, the two panelists concluded, is never the end-point. It’s where a film begins its real journey.

One challenge is that festivals are still programming fewer films that pre-pandemic - but have more titles to choose from because of the Covid backlog.

“Most of the festivals have less windows, this is a reality,” Vera said, citing East West Index, a survey among key European documentary film festivals undertaken by Ji.hlava International Documentary Film. For example, IDFA’s 2020 edition selected 91 fewer titles in 2020 and expanded by 46 titles last year - so is still down on 2019’s number.

Pitching projects

Sancho’s advice to filmmakers pitching her projects is to keep it “structured and simple” but passionate. “The first question I ask is, ‘Why do you want to do this film?’…The second question is, ‘Why do you think we should watch your film?’”

Sancho is ready to cut filmmakers a little slack if their ideas for a creative documentary are still evolving. She prefers originality to formatted ideas that rely on clichéd formulas drawn up to please commissioning editors.

Reflecting on what it takes to get her attention as a producer and distributor, Vera said: “We really need to be touched and moved and to feel empathy [for the filmmaker].” This is because she knows that, on a typical project, she will work for up to five years with any given filmmaker. Her company is involved in around eight films a year and has a “handcrafted” approach.

“So I am going to be super-connected with the person. I am going to be communicating with the person all the time and I am going to defend these films in the market,” Vera commented. “For sure, I really need to understand [the filmmaker].”

“All the time, I really need to feel moved by the stories,” she continued.

Vera likes to board projects at a rough-cut stage when they’re “almost finished” but when there is still “room to talk about some changes.” It is better, too, to start work on the marketing strategy before the film is completed.

The Kino Rebelde boss also looks for finished films at events like Doclisboa. Although festivals and distributors prioritise new projects more intensely than ever before, she is sometimes prepared to take on titles which are already a few months old if she sees a spark in them. Among the work she represents is the complete filmography of American filmmaker and poet, Lynne Sachs and recent Jeonju and Visions du Reel selection, Herbaria by Leandro Listorti.

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