22/04/2025
I get contacted from time to time—not often, but every few months—by someone who’s putting together their first feature documentary. They're excited and hopeful for big things to come from the important story they're telling. Documentaries are an immense amount of work, with little to no pay—and the story being told is always terribly important. I enjoy these interactions. I get hopeful for them too. I got a call like this a few days ago; "We would like to get it on Netflix. We don't care about money, we just want people to see it-- as many people as possible. What are the biggest film festivals we should shoot for?"
I made a call like this once. I was 25 and had just finished my first documentary, We Are Superman. And we had a public showing. People liked it. I was excited about it. One of the attendees of my screening had been in a recent Steve James documentary, The Interrupters. Steve James is an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker. And here I was, calling him on the phone. At the time I had my sights set on film festivals, big ones. "Which are the biggest I should start with? Toronto? Sundance?" I was honestly so excited to be talking to him, I can’t remember much about the call except for three little words he mentioned responding to my enthusiasm, "Festivals are tough".
As I listened to this filmmaker’s excitement on the phone, I caught myself saying what Steve James had once told me: “Festivals are tough.” But now, 13 years in, with three documentaries and two docu-series behind me, I wanted to offer this filmmaker everything I had. So here it is:
https://www.blindeyellc.com/post/how-to-release-a-documentary
