Frank V. Ross’ Hohokam belongs to a small subgenre of films that I’ve seen at festivals over the past few years: Movies That I’d Love To Reccomend … If There Was Any Possible Way For You To See Them. Ray Carney booked Hohokam at his series at the Harvard Film Archive in 2007, and later that summer it screened at the New Talkies event in New York, but it otherwise had a limited life on the festival circuit, and for most of 2008 has gone unseen. But now, thanks to Indiepix, you can download Hohokam or buy the film on DVD. Blatant Self Promotion Alert: I wrote some notes for the release, which you can read on the movie’s Indiepix page. The trailer is embedded above.

Before the Hamptons Film Festival this weekend, I wrote a post about The End of America, a documentary based on Naomi Wolf’s book of the same name, which I was interested in not least because of its unusual distribution strategy: it will premiere on SnagFilms tomorrow, before debuting theatrically in New York in December before becoming available on DVD in January. I’ll have a more review-y take on the film tomorrow. In the meantime, an anonymous (but angry!) SpoutBlog reader commented on his/her experience at the film’s first screening in the Hamptons:

First, the film was late to arrive and so we sat for an hour listening to live commentary from Alec Baldwin and Naomi “Preach to You” Watts [sic]. Then the film played and we had to hear it all over again. Naomi is out for one thing… to sell books.

I can’t speak to the motives of Naomi Wolf *or* Naomi Watts, but I can confirm that some aspect of this comment is accurate: the screening did start late, because there was an accident on the highway between Manhattan and East Hampton, and the master tape was stuck in traffic with co-director Annie Sundberg. But most of those in attendance seemed to get some value out the improvised program which preceded the movie, in which Alec Baldwin moderated a conversation about The End of America’s themes with Wolf, co-director Ricki Stern, and ACLU rep Jameel Jaffer. I was there, and I recorded the bulk of the conversation and had it transcribed. That transcript, edited for clarity, can be found after the jump.

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The End of America, a new documentary based on a book by Naomi Wolf and directed by Ricky Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback), will premiere tomorrow night at the Hamptons Film Festival. And then, it’s going to be available … everywhere. It’s the first production of IndiePix Studios, and the company has developed a unique plan to get the movie out there via a ton of different means. After its festival premiere it’s going straight to streamability via Snag Films, and then, according to a press release, the doc will “flood venues around the country, from special screenings to theatrical exhibitions, from book stores and merchants that sell DVDs to internet sources for renting, streaming and downloading the film.”

As far as I know, it’s the first film to go to Snag directly from its festival premiere. Presumably, the goal is to enable the film, which “addresses issues of freedom, dictatorship, civil liberties and democracy - and warns that the United States’ claims on constitutional civil liberties are fast eroding,” to “go viral” in the days leading up to the election. It’ll be an interesting experiment; so far, most of the films on Snag have been titles that had been available in other forms for awhile, and this may be a test of whether or not, when given the oportunity to embed and discuss a brand-new political documentary, bloggers will pounce. I’m seeing the film tomorrow in the Hamptons and will have more thoughts after that.

Last night, I started getting emails regarding Netflix’s decision to shutter their Red Envelope Entertainment division, which invested in co-productions, partnered with larger distributors such as Magnolia and IFC to give their acquisitions a boost, and acquired indie films for theatrical distribution on their own. Over 100 films were released under Rev Envelope since it sprung up in 2005, including a number of press darlings and minor hits such as 2 Days in Paris and The Puffy Chair. Hacking Netflix reported last night that Netflix would only be letting 4 employees go in the course of Red Envelope’s dissolution; this morning, indieWIRE pegged the number at 5, which was the entire division, including executive Liesl Copeland.

The problem seems to be that Red Envelope forced Netflix to essentially compete against the Hollywood studios, indie arms and legit indies who supply the bulk of their content. Netflix will now focus its energy on moving content from those sources into digital distribution pipelines. Which will be awesome, once they finally broker a deal with Apple so that you and I can watch their G-D movies on our MacBooks and iPhones…

Meanwhile, a related (if inverse) story broke at roughly the same time, concerning IndiePix. …Read more

• “If this is confusing, let’s make the comparison to the airlines — the cost of travel is up and the cost of providing travel is way up. So the business is down. Only the best routes work. And only the best films work. Economics explains it all.” In a post on the IndiePix blog, Bob Alexander re-frames Mark Gil’s by-now-legendary LAFF “the indie film sky is falling” speech––not to mention the vigorous head-nodding that followed––as, essentially, don’t look-behind-the-curtain propaganda designed to buy time for a failing business model whilst attracting attention away from viable alternatives.
• When Netflix announced it was going to take away the ability for subscribers to keep profiles on their website, writes Lia LoBello at Radar, “Calamity followed. Petitioners petitioned. Conspiracy theories took hold. Blogs were set ablaze with the fire of DVD rental righteousness. Today, the company announced that the plans to keep, yes, keep, the feature. You did it, people!”
• Finally, a way to celebrate Bastille Day that doesn’t involve tempting the food poisoning gods with discount moules frites: Vinyl is Heavy is hosting a blogathon. Quoth Ryland Walker Knight: “if any of our beloved, if mostly silent, readers want to offer any Francophilic thoughts on July 14th, let me know, either via links in the comments or via emails. Until then, go see Wall-E on a big screen when you aren’t out and about, eating cheese or throwing cake or dancing in the woods or driving into the Mediterranean.”

• “I refused to sign the absurd online petition that was drafted to stop Uwe Boll from making more movies,” writes Alex Ross Perry at Tisch Film Review. “Not because I do not believe in the power of online petitioning to accomplish social change, but because of my genuine appreciation for the films of Uwe Boll.”
  
• The IndiePix Blog brings word of Rooftop Panorama, a three-day series of panels, screenings and parties hosted Rooftop Films and co-sponsored by IndiePix and Shooting People. It runs from June 12-14; Rooftop Films kicks off their summer screening series this Saturday with a free screening of At the Death House Door in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
• Speaking of the devil: At the Death House Door co-director Steve James has published an essay called “The Decline of the Longitudinal Doc” at IFC.com. “For me, longitudinal docs are the most deeply satisfying form. Spending years following a story is the ultimate act of filmmaking discovery, because you don’t know where the journey is leading, no matter how perceptive you think you are,” he writes. “If you spend years filming people, they will grow to be something more than just a ’subject.’”

Tonight’s the night documentary fans have been waiting for for almost exactly two months: the first ever Cinema Eye Honors for excellence in non-fiction filmmaking will be awarded tonight at the IFC Center in New York City. I will be there, and since my live-Twittering of last month’s Oscar party was such a success with my millions of fans (well, okay––maybe just with Paul), I will be reporting back from the festivities in real time via 140-character, text messaged-updates. You can subscribe to my Twitter feed to get the updates on your phone, IM or computer, or just keep refreshing this page––the badge above will update every time I do. For more info on the Cinema Eyes, check out co-organizer AJ Schnack’s blog, and IndiePix.net.

UPDATE: I’ve taken down the Twitter badge and posted a full transcript of the live blog after the jump.

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Indiepix has sent word that they’ve set up a theatrical release for Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa, a Gotham-nominated doc about The Mesa, a kind of post-apocalyptic, semi-communal community of veterans, runaways and assorted dropouts, who head deep in the desert to live “without boundaries.” Indiepix says they will open the film nationwide (although there’s no indication as to how wide), before it premieres on the Sundance Channel as part of their environmental advocacy programming block, The Green.

I saw the film at the Denver Film Festival and liked it a lot, but I’m curious as to how much success indiePix/Sundance will have selling this as a “Green” film. The film may depict an extreme green lifestyle (there is no electricity, little water and no formal commerce in the area, and many members of the community grow their own crops and rely on generators and/or solar panels for power), but I don’t think it necessarily makes that lifestyle seem attractive. Plus, it’s at least as much about post traumatic stress disorder, poverty, and anti-utopia as it is about non-industrialized agriculture and solar energy.

Anyway, it’s good stuff. See the trailer above.

At a reception here in Park City on Sunday afternoon, filmmakers AJ Schnack and Margaret Brown were joined by Indiepix’s Danielle DiGiacomo and the Toronto Film Festival’s Thom Powers to announce the nominees for a new batch of awards honoring excellence in non-fiction filmmaking: the Cinema Eyes. Schnack, who previously announced the formation of the awards on his blog, explained that the name was inspired by Dziga Vertov’s Kino Eye. The gang then announced the nominees for 8 juried awards, plus an audience award, which the public will be able to vote for at Indiepix.net. You can take a look at the full nominee list here.

Based on sheer volume of nominations, it looks like the big winners here are Manda Bala, Into Great Silence, and Zoo––all films that made a great impression at Sundance in 2006 and 2007, all of which failed to land on the Academy’s short list. This would indicate that the nominations have already succeeded in representing the point of view of the doc community, and as a corrective to the widely disappointing Academy finalists. The awards themselves will be handed out on March 18 at the IFC Center in New York.