Around the Block: Doug Block's Doc Blog

51 Birch Street Named One Of N.Y. Times Top Ten Films of The Year

I´m out of the country for the holidays with almost no email access, but did get to read this happy news today:  A.O. Scott of the N.Y. Times has named 51 Birch Street one of his top ten films of the year.  If that´s not enough, he´ll be hosting the Ebert and Roeper show on Dec. 30th and go over his top ten list (with film clips) before a nationwide audience.

And it that´s not enough, Gerald Peary of the Boston Phoenix named 51 Birch the top doc of the year.

Nice end of the year news, indeedy.

Join Lance Weiler For A Week-Long Online Discussion On DIY Distribution

There's an excellent discussion going on all this week at The D-Word Forum on the always topical subject of DIY Distribution.  Special guest Lance Weiler is dropping by a couple of times a day to answer questions and give examples from his latest DIY success, Head Trauma.

Here's an excerpt from Lance on how he released Head Trauma on 17 screens around the country with no seed money:

Travel, lodging and some food was offset with speaking 
engagements at various universities and film societies. 
This also provided free transportation and free meals. 
I ended up making about $4,500 in speaking fees.

I took $1,200 from a pre-theatrical speaking engagement 
and applied it towards making 27 x 40 posters. I knew from 
past experience that posters provide a great profit margin. 
I got them made for a $1.40 each and then sold them for 10 
to 15 dollars. To date I've sold about 300 posters and pulled 
in about $3,500.

When it came to the screenings I found sponsors for a number 
of weekly city paper ads for the cities that I felt need some 
extra promotion.  And the rest of the promotion was done via 
social networking sites and my mailing list/fan base from my 
first film. I targeted independent theaters and cold called 
BUT I had a pitch ready - one that explained who my audience 
was and how I intended to reach them. I struck a favored 
nations deal with all the theaters - a 50/50 split because I
didn't have the cash to four wall. And I did all my own press 
for the release.

For more, join us at The D-Word Forum...

51 Birch Street Held Over For 8th Week In NY City

I promised myself I wouldn't do this again but, really, there just aren't that many films out there, much less docs, that hang in theaters for 8 weeks, so forgive me for being shameless. 51 Birch Street is a bona fide word-of-mouth success, and the list of theaters booking the film keeps on growing.  It seems clear we're gonna keep working this sucker in theaters around the country (and now Canada and possibly the UK) right up until it's broadcast on Cinemax sometime next spring or summer.

Right now I'm in Washington, DC, about to head off for a one-off screening at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.   Arrived yesterday to find a nice Washington Post article on the film by Ann Hornaday, which will hopefully lead to a DC theatrical booking.  That's the way it's been working, it all feeds on itself.

As for NY City, we're down to one showing a day at the Cinema Village, but it's scheduled to show at both Symphony Space and Makor in the coming weeks.  So it's actually guaranteed to be running here for at least 11 weeks, in the end.  And all without a lick of advertising money in the past few weeks.  Not too shabby.

51 BIRCH STREET Gets A Nod From The NBR

Just learned a short while ago that 51 Birch Street has been named one of the 5 top documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review.  It's in pretty fast company, too - An Inconvenient Truth (the winner), Wordplay, Shut Up and Sing, and Iraq in Fragments, my own favorite doc of the year. 

It's hard to argue with the winning choice.  Having recently survived serving on my first festival  jury (at IDFA), where I learned first-hand how much weight some of my fellow jurists gave to timeliness and urgency of the issue involved, it's hardly surprising that the NBR voters found global warming to be a tad more important than my mom and dad. 

Just glad I apparently get invited to the awards dinner at fancy shmancy Cipriani's (I say apparently because I still haven't actually heard from the NBR - I only found out when friends emailed to congratulate me).

At IDFA, we saw 18 films in a little over 4 days, which isn't quite the fairest or most ideal way to judge other docs.  And certainly makes me somewhat suspicious of all awards.  Our hands-down winner was "We Are Together," a very moving story of a family in AIDS-ravaged South Africa.  The others went by like one big, fascinating, exhausting blur.  I got a priviledged look at amazing worlds I never would have visited otherwise.  And we offered some much-needed encouragement to some promising first and second-time filmmakers.  But, Lordy, it was work, and a week later my body is still in recovery.

As great as it is for the winners (and I'm feeling awful proud, thank you), I'd be happy to do away with all the doc awards.  Comparing a personal doc to a pressing social issue doc makes about as much sense as comparing film noir to musical comedy.   The real reward in making docs is simply finishing it and getting it seen.  Trust me, that's quite an achievement in and of itself.