Distributing a Documentary Through PBS: What I Learnt from the Unconventional Film Distribution Process

While contemplating how to distribute my documentary Cats of Malta, I had some big decisions to make regarding the most profitable way to approach the release. My partner and I figured we had two clear options — go at it alone, or hand the film over to film distributors. 

At the time we had discovered a platform called Show&Tell, run by documentarian and distribution strategist Keith Ochwat. Keith and the platform members believe that filmmakers, particularly documentary filmmakers, should be making money from their films without handing over a large sum of that profit to a distributor. 

I wholeheartedly agree because, even though not all distributors are dishonest, the work filmmakers put in to make these films is endless and filmmakers deserve to get paid, like all artists. A documentary can take many years to plan, produce, shoot, and edit. With most documentaries there can be large costs involved to obtain rights for images, music, extra footage, deliverables, marketing and so on, and Cats of Malta was no exception.  

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Are Film Festivals Worth Your Time & Money?

In 2022 we have been paying attention to an aspect of film distribution we have largely ignored for several years beforehand: film festivals.

We have had rejections of course. With many festivals receiving thousands of entries, there will always be rejections. But we have also found some success. Machination has picked up several awards at film festivals for Acting, Directing, and Sound Design. Cats of Malta has been selected for the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, New York Cat Festival, and other festivals we cannot reveal quite yet. Our latest Life Improvised film, The Dance, screened at Kinemastik International Short Film Festival in Malta last night.

But this handful of success has come at a cost of almost $1000USD so far in festival submission fees. Could this money have been better spent elsewhere? Like running Facebook ads for the release of Machination? Have we gotten enough return for our funds? In short: are film festivals worth the cost and effort?

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What I’ve Learnt from Directing my First Documentary

I've been in this indie filmmaking community for over a decade, and I’ve been directing since 2013, yet it always amazes me how there is always something more to learn in this industry as a director with each project.

This year I fell into directing my first documentary, Cats of Malta, and man did I learn a lot as I researched the topic and subjects that make up the Maltese cat community. Right now as we edit the project I'm becoming even more knowledgeable on how producing docos work, thanks to Google.

I have watched a few docos this year too, standouts being Tiger King, which showed me a lot about how to interview subjects and that true to life characters exist, you just have to find the interesting and sometimes kooky parts of their story. Another Netflix doco, High Score, was entertaining from start to finish. Even though I am not a gamer, High Score was so well put together as a series, each episode explaining a different shift in the industry, that even I as a novice on the subject was hooked.

One of the first things I learnt from the process of directing a doco is that I had to know what I could legally film. People in the background, peoples faces as they interacted with our interviewees on the street, and I will confess that I was reading about the legalities as we were filming.

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