I have just published a post on our TOOLS blog about the current discussions over Mark Gill’s talk at the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Financing Conference. I am consumed with how to get from here (between past and future models, looming recession, endless noise, very little signal, embattled communities) to there (is there a there there?) I know this is all terribly obtuse but I’m figuring this stuff out too! Bottom line: I know that organizations like Shooting People are…

Mark Gill’s talk at the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Financing Conference has been causing a right old kefuffle in the independent film community. It was read nearly 100,000 times on indieWIRE in 4 days. Here’s an upbeat nugget to wet your whistle: Here’s how bad the odds are: of the 5000 films submitted to Sundance each year– generally with budgets under $10 million–maybe 100 of them got a US theatrical release three years ago. And it used to be that…

The BRITDOC festival is coming up later this month in the UK: July 23-25 at Keble College, Oxford. I should declare my allegiances straight away because I am good friends with the BRITDOC gang and have helped out at the fest since its inception but, blatant bias aside, it really is a wonderful event and does all the things a good festival should by showing great films, creating genuine community and giving filmmakers useful resources going forward (from strategic knowledge…