After the film's award-winning showing at the Sundance Film Festival, the folks behind Indie Game: The Movie have opted to turn down traditional distribution deals and take it on the road themselves. Possibly to a city near you!
The list of venues that they've announced so far is at the bottom of this post; if you'd like to request a screening in your town, you can do so here.
In a post over at the film's official blog, the film's directors Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky talk about the challenges of finding a distribution channel that felt appropriate. "It's one thing to plan your distribution as a Kickstarter-born film made by two people," they write, "but it turns into a completely different conversation when that same film becomes a Sundance award-winning movie optioned by HBO."
They describe the traditional distribution for a film like theirs—it does a festival tour for 6 months, where distributors will pick up rights, and then organize the theatrical release. It won't go to digital for a while, and will be restricted when it does.
But while Pajot and Swirsky say that this process is perfectly fine for a lot of films, they say it "never quite felt right" for IGTM. So, though they were offered deals like that, they didn't accept any of them.
Instead, they decided to to buckle down, get organized, and distribute the film themselves. To that end, they've partnered with Adobe, and will be taking the film around the country on their own. "It's funny," they write, "to think we're back to where we started, 2 people on the road. But, this time, you'll all be there, too."
Indie Game: The Movie Dates:
- Santa Cruz, CA, The Rio Theatre, Mar 2 at 7pm (Tickets here)
- San Francisco, CA, Embarcadero Centre Cinema, Mar 6th at 7pm & 9:30pm (Tickets here)
- Asheville, NC, The Fine Arts Theatre, Mar 15th at 7pm (Tickets here)
- Seattle, WA, SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, Mar 23rd at 7pm (Tickets here)
- Portland, OR, Hollywood Theatre, Mar 28th at 7pm (Tickets here)
- Chicago, IL, Music Box Theatre, Apr 17th at 7pm (Tickets here)
- Cambridge, MA, The Brattle Theatre, Apr 19th at 7pm & 9:30pm (Tickets here)
Distribution & IGTM [Official Site]