I’m sure I’m not the only one raising a glass to the good news that indieWIRE’s Undiscovered Gems film series is on for a second year. The New York Times and Emerging Pictures came through again with the support to make it happen.
For those who aren’t familiar with Undiscovered Gems, for ten years now indieWIRE has been making an annual list of films they love that have not been distributed in the US. This year, for the first time, critics from all over participated in the voting through indieWIRE’s online critics poll. (Here’s the resulting list of “best undistributed films.”) While the list has always created awareness of the films, in 2006 the films on the list became a film series, with one film shown per month in selected venues.
This year, as indieWIRE’s announcement says, “the series will bring one film per month from indieWIRE’s annual list to theaters in a minimum of 15 cities, including New York City; Wilmington, DE; Ft. Lauderdale, Lake Worth and Key West, FL; Martha’s Vineyard, MA; Buffalo, NY; Tulsa, and Oklahoma City, OK; Scranton, PA; Cary, NC; Ann Arbor, MI; and Washington, DC.” Audience members will vote at each venue, resulting in a winning film, which will be announced in December 2007 at an award presentation in New York City.
Steve Barron’s Choking Man will kick off the series next week. The film was awarded “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” at the 2006 IFP Gotham Awards ceremony.
The obvious thing to love about this series is that great films are getting an audience and at least some of the attention they deserve. But I also love the choice of cities for the series. Some are obvious (umm, New York and Washington?), but how great to live in Buffalo or Scranton or Tulsa and get to see these films! I realize resources are limited, but that’s what I would like to see more of in the future–more small cities in out-of-the-way places getting access to great undiscovered films. Wouldn’t it be cool is we could vote for cities next year, like Four Eyed Monsters did in its DIY distribution efforts?
