Saskia Wilson-Brown

I’ve agreed to join forces with OpenIndie, Arin Crumley and Kieran Masterson’s awesome, open website tool for independent filmmakers. I’ll be joining the team as a consultant in the role of filmmaker outreach- something I know all about thanks to my time at Current TV.

As you may or may not know, I’m a big fan of searching for ways to help independent creators find new audiences for their work. I do this because in a world of corporate news, branded content and sponsored everything, I want (and need) independent art & media to thrive.

In the past, my focus has largely been on trying to help filmmakers make sense of the digital distribution landscape- I’ve long been a big fan of VODO.net, for instance, as the only logical way to harness P2P sites when releasing your film digitally; also of the ‘filmmaker first’ Indieflix.com for their open approach to rights, their DVD sales, and online film streaming systems. Oh, and of course I feckin’ LOVE IndieGoGo, & Kickstarter for totally revolutionizing the way a project gets funded.

With that all said, as time has gone by (and the carpal tunnel has set in), I’ve found myself leaning more and more towards a desire to develop the tangible — the ‘meatspace’ as online gamers used to call it. Simply put: I love the feeling of being in a room with other smart, creative people- all experiencing something together. Although this is by no means the only way to watch a film, I think that we will increasingly need this human interaction when faced with a progressively more digitized world. In short: human interaction has become a big priority.

To that end, I’ve engaged in some efforts of my own (launching a screening series Cinema Speakeasy in Los Angeles). I’ve also closely followed efforts like the brilliant Brian Chirls’ Crowd Controls, the b-side distribution lab — albeit from the sidelines. Efforts like these are crucial because they aim to support the arts in new, intelligent, actionable ways.

So… Why OpenIndie?

I like OpenIndie because it’s open. Making it easy to track your film’s progress, it lets filmmakers set up their own independent theatrical distribution strategies- complete with utterly self-sufficient revenue share systems set by the filmmaker and the venue/screening host. In other words, it’s setting up a support system for those working outside of The System. And for that, it deserves our applause.

I’ll keep you all posted, and in the meantime check out their blog post, and of course, their site.