Is it Art if it's Not Seen?

     As an artist, I believe that art is art even it remains private. However, when it comes to documentaries, the purpose of the art is informative. In other words, it's meant to be seen. 
     Today in class I am focusing on distribution. I have several roads I can travel that all ultimately lead to the same final destination: streaming services. Documentaries do not garner viewers via cinema releases unless they're about a popular figure like Amy Winehouse with "Amy" (Follows, 2015), therefore I aim to distribute my production through streaming services. 
     There are several ways to be featured on streaming services. The more obvious one is to develop an "original" documentary with a service such as Netflix. While this guarantees distribution and viewership as well as access to award shows, film festivals, and limited cinema releases, it limits the documentary to that single streaming service. Although releasing a docu-series through cinemas isn't a reasonable way to distribute, film festivals and award submissions are something I would like my production to have access to. The Netflix documentary "13th," for example, opened the New York Film Festival, was screened in some movie theaters, and also received an Oscar nomination (Kenny, 2017). Nonetheless, the documentary is only available on Netflix. I would ideally like to stream on several platforms, therefore I ruled out this option. 
     There are also other ways I've discovered you can land deals with streaming services that are fairly similar. There is the option to pitch my docu-series to streaming services directly after earning recognition at film festivals and award shows as well as gaining online exposure and there is an option to seek out a distributor to have them be the main negotiator between streaming services and myself. Moreover, I have the option to do both! That is why I'd hypothetically be working with https://www.quiverdigital.com/ to make distributing my docu-series more practical. I'd want to submit my docu-series in its entirety to film festivals such as the Seattle International Film Fest, since the 4 episodes would be short enough (15 minutes each) to be featured alltogether. As the documentary gains recognition through the film festival circuit, the chances of it being picked up by several streaming servcies will increase and because I have a distributor, my docu-series will most definitely be considered. 
     In conclusion, I have decided against physical copy distribution and any cinematic releases due the production being a docu-series rather than a full-length feature. I have opted for the most practical and far-reaching distribution option available for documentarians: online streaming services. Additionally, I wouldn't be opposed to make the docu-series available for free to academic institutions in the same way "13th" did (Kenny, 2017). 


Sources: 
https://stephenfollows.com/how-successful-are-uk-documentaries-in-cinemas/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/movies/netflix-casts-a-wider-net-for-original-documentaries.html