How to Release a Documentary

I get contacted from time to time—not often, but every few months—by someone who’s putting together their first feature documentary. They're excited and hopeful for big things to come from the important story they're telling. Documentaries are an immense amount of work, with little to no pay—and the story being told is always terribly important. I enjoy these interactions. I get hopeful for them too. I got a call like this a few days ago; "We would like to get it on Netflix. We don't care about money, we just want people to see it-- as many people as possible. What are the biggest film festivals we should shoot for?"

I made a call like this once. I was 25 and had just finished my first documentary, We Are Superman. And we had a public showing. People liked it. I was excited about it. One of the attendees of my screening had been in a recent Steve James documentary, The Interrupters. Steve James is an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker. And here I was, calling him on the phone. At the time I had my sights set on film festivals, big ones. "Which are the biggest I should start with? Toronto? Sundance?" I was honestly so excited to be talking to him, I can’t remember much about the call except for three little words he mentioned responding to my enthusiasm, "Festivals are tough".

As I listened to this filmmaker’s excitement on the phone, I caught myself saying what Steve James had once told me: “Festivals are tough.” But now, 13 years in, with three documentaries and two docu-series behind me, I wanted to offer this filmmaker everything I had. So here it is:

Festivals are fun, but they don't matter much. What matters is generating an audience. Look at your documentary like a new band who's just finished their first album. What do they have to do? Tour. You need to take your film on the road. Who is going to be the most excited to see this movie? Start with that community. Is it a film about mental health? A marginalized community? A political issue? Whatever it's about, there is a community out there. Find them, and have them host screenings with you. Facilitate Q&A's, and gather the audience. Literally—ask for their emails when the Q&A is over. Get their socials. Have them follow your film online. Have them do it before they leave. Seriously, end the Q&A with a walk-through on where to follow you. If the film is good enough, they'll back you. Not everyone, but enough. This is where film festivals come in. If you just need that coveted little laurel on your poster (that means little to nothing without a "winner" in the middle, and even then...) then find small festivals with cheap entry fees—ideally ones close to where you live, and even better if they align with your documentary’s story. Ignore the big festivals. They're expensive, unlikely to accept you, and unlikely to offer anything more than the small festivals can; a 20 to 30-person audience. And make sure to host a Q&A and make sure to get those emails. Festivals can simply be part of your tour, and a small part at that. You can do everything you want online—with a Kickstarter, or what have you, and those things are good, but being together, in-person, talking about your movie, that's the juice. Then, once you've got hopefully (maybe) 1000's of emails, take the film online. Filmhub is a good place to start. PBS' NETA is supportive too (and you can get sponsorships for pbs, but that's another blog). Once your film is streaming, that’s when it’s time to put those emails to use. Maybe you've got an email list of 800 or 8,000 (depending on how long you could afford to go on tour) and you're film is on Tubi, PBS, and (ugh) Amazon. Ask your committed followers to click play on each platform. They don't have to watch it again, just click play. And share it on all of the socials- yes, even linkedin. You can even customize a post for them to copy and paste.

After I had spewed this spiel to my excited caller, she was less enthusiastic, but still on board. The reality is that it's hard work. Releasing your first (or second, or fourth) documentary is just as difficult as making it. And that's really saying something. And there’s little to no money at any level of this pipeline. A fee for the public screening (I don't recommend it, go with sponsorships, you want butts in seats), a fraction of an online streaming rental maybe, but that's about it. Donations and sponsorship are where you'll make a little money- to go towards making the next one.

I wish Steve had told me this on our phone call. I finally discovered this method as I was wrapping up my third documentary, Made In America. I hosted 2 local screenings in December of 2019. I had it in 6 small festivals with 3 additional screenings lined up for the spring of 2020. We know the end of that story. Made In America has been airing on PBS throughout the country for the last year, but I never generated that audience. So... does anyone even know it’s there?

So, barring a global pandemic, this method will produce results; that is, eyeballs on the movie, an audience invigorated, and people talking about it, provided it's a quality picture. But we can explore quality another time.