On the distribution tip
Joe
Brewster
The
Keeper
The
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(c)Black
Filmmaker Publications 1999:
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“black culture makes money, it makes a lot of money...”
New York 2000. I`m hanging out with Joe Brewster, film director and co-founder of Delta Entertainment Distribution, and he is ready to give me the lowdown on black filmmaking in the US.
“We need to get one thing straight - black culture makes money it makes a lot of money, more in line with billions as opposed to millions of dollars and somebody’s making this money. If somebody tells you we don’t sell they are misguided. The reality for most black filmmakers is you make your film, you leave it to someone else to sell it and you will not earn your return on the dollar spent, somebody else will. Look at what people are wearing in London and Africa, listen to what they are listening to in Indonesia, look at sculpture, paintings and films and you’ll see influences of black culture,” states Joe Brewster.
Based in New York, Joe Brewster trained in psychiatry at Stanford University and Harvard Medical School before moving into film. In 1991 Joe shot his first short film Aibobo which won several awards, including selection as Best of the Festival Shorts at the Seattle Film Festival. He went on to direct his first feature The Keeper in 1996 which was screened at last year’s bfm International Film Festival. The Jackson/McHenry Company (producers of Jason’s Lyric and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate) has recently bought his first screenplay of This Poet Lies. Joe is a very busy man but manages to balance his career as a psychiatrist with his film projects. He is about to embark on his second feature and has also started a video distribution company.
“Black filmmakers may be getting more credit but we are not making the money. We don’t know the details of how the money is earned. Go to any black film conference and talk to twenty black filmmakers and they are going to talk to you about Waiting to Exhale. Waiting to Exhale is not a model. The question is, ‘how are they making money?’ Who has their rent paid by these films? By the time the money is split, thirty different ways, there’s nothing left for the filmmaker.”
AE: You are a filmmaker why have you entered into video distribution?
JB: One of the reasons behind starting a video distribution company is to take films that have trouble getting into the theatre market place, package them because we know what packaging is required, package them in a way we know the buyers, and ultimately the renters, would appreciate. So you have to fight the system and work from within, and that is what we are attempting to do. We are not just making films, we are putting product in the market place and we are having great success. Filmmakers will get a higher return on their dollar for their hard work as a filmmaker than they would normally because we have taken the time to understand the market.
AE: Why video and not theatrical distribution?
JB: Video distribution is very different from theatrical distribution and for every film that is seen in the theatre twenty people see it on video, so by comparison it does not match up. For every person who sees a film in the theatre, 100 times that many would see it on television. Talk to executives at HBO, Showtime, Sundance Channel etc. and they will tell you in great detail who their audience is and they will tell you why they buy the films that they buy. Thirty-five percent of the audience for HBO are black, that is why they are making films about Don King. I am trying to understand them. HBO is one of the largest cable networks in the country, if they did not make black product they would not exist. Black people watch 50 hours of television per week and they go to the movies twice as often than anyone else. So they may not see my first feature The Keeper in the theatres but if you go and put it in the video stores they will rent that film five times a week.
The question is, how do you get your video in the video stores because the people who make the decisions about what’s bought for Blockbusters, Hollywood and other major chains are 99% white males who have preconceived ideas of what we will watch, so they are the gate keepers. If you do not know those gate keepers your film does not get in the video stores unless you know how or why the decision is made.
AE: What sort of film do you aim to distribute?
JB: My goal is not to make a film that earns 30 million dollars - it is to make films about people I know, that represent life as I know it and to do anything else is not worthwhile to me. I can make a living as a doctor. I can pay the rent and put food on the table, so my goal is to make another kind of film. I’m more interested in character driven stories and a smaller audience, and those can earn a living every time. For example, in cricket it is easier to hit one run than it is to hit a six so hitting the one is where the money is at. Instead of setting all of my energy figuring how I can hit a six- how to pitch a 40 million dollar film deal, how to get the rights for that film, I can make 10 films that are ones and distribute a variety of products.
What we are essentially trying to do is to make films that make sense to black people that are not overly stereotypical and not degrading. You cannot do that unless you understand the finance.
Joe Brewster is currently negotiating a completion fund where his company will assist filmmakers to finish their projects. On the distribution front Delta Entertainment is looking for completed projects from filmmakers worldwide suitable for the US market. For details check out Delta@mtivideo.com or radafilm@aol.com
Avril Evans
