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Over the past year, I’ve spoken to numerous filmmakers, locally and nationally, who have started to take distribution of their films into their own hands.
You have the creative team behind the restaurant industry horror film “We’re So Dead” encouraging people to rent the film through their website. Izzy Roland’s film “D(e)ad” had a non-traditional theatrical run without help from film festivals or a traditional distributor. On a slightly larger scale, YouTuber Mark Fischbach (better known by his username, Markiplier) self-financed his adaptation of the video game “Iron Lung” and then encouraged his fanbase to request that the film screen at their local theater.
Independent cinema has always skirted the norm. But rejection of the traditional distribution model – where film distributors buy movies out of film festivals or elsewhere and release them via streaming or theatrical – has become a prevalent option for smaller filmmakers looking to get their work seen. And, in local filmmaker Aaron Strand’s case, to prove there is a market for these types of movies.
Strand’s film “Withdrawal,” about two lovers trying to make it through a night of heroine withdrawal so they can start their lives fresh in the morning, premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival last year and continued on a successful festival run throughout 2025. Then, earlier this year, Strand announced that “Withdrawal” would play for a week-long run at the Plaza Theatre on Jan. 30, followed by another week-long stint at Ciné Athens (in the city where Strand grew up and where the film takes place) beginning on Feb. 6. The screenings were co-hosted by community partners, and included things like Q&As and short films from local filmmakers in addition to the main event.
Strand wanted to do a week-long run for a few reasons. One, it would allow the film to track on Comscore, which tracks movie theater data nationally. But, the idea also came out of recognizing the limitations of a festival run for a film like “Withdrawal.”
“I think we are in many ways a perfect microcosm of the benefits, but also the structural problems of film festivals in general,” Strand said.
“Withdrawal” has played at many festivals, from the Rome International Film Festival just up the road to the Kanazawa Film Festival in Japan. But, while Strand was happy with the festivals the film was getting into, it wasn’t making its way into some of the more prestigious, name brand events. What’s more, Strand kept receiving notes from festival programmers telling him how much they liked the film, while still ultimately not deciding to program it.
Read in full at RoughDraft Atlanta
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