So: Sidetrack Films, the producers of Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard’s doc Beautiful Losers (see our SXSW coverage here), have signed a deal with Nike to sponsor the film’s release in five cities, starting with its New York premiere this Friday.
Like Mark Rabinowitz, who wrote a post on indieWIRE’s new Docsider blog pondering What This All Means in relation to the state of documentary film distribution, I have mixed feelings about this.
The most obvious, knee-jerk response is, of course, something about how big bad corporations are big and bad, long live indie DIY poverty integrity, etc. But Beautiful Losers is a film about artists (Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Shepherd Fairey, etc) who started as cultural reactionaries very much in line with a DIY ethos, and then found ways to work within the system and for corporations (designing ambiguously racist sneakers for Adidas, directing Bud Light commercials starring members of the Silver Jews, etc) without losing their identities. If this kind of deal makes sense for any film, it’s probably this one.
So on one hand, it’s great to see a corporation supporting an art form in need of support. On the other hand, should we really take this as a sign that Nike cares about documentaries (or even film, or even art), or is it just a cash deal for cred? On the other hand, in a market niche that has all been abandoned by Hollywood distributors (partially because said distributors are abandoning their indie divisions, but that’s a topic for another time), and where grossing even $1 million is considered a victory, shouldn’t we keep an open mind about docs reaching a wider audience By Any Mean Necessary?
One thing that sticks in my throat a bit: the indieWIRE story mentions that Rose “has a longstanding relationship” with Nike––in 2005, he partnered with the shoe giant on “two limited ‘Beautiful Losers’-inspired Nike Blazer Hi shoes” (and, as part of the deal for the film, Rose will work with Nike to produce “22 Nike Dunk Hi shoes each telling a different part of the ‘Beautiful Losers’ story.”) This may be a groundbreaking moment in indie documentary distribution financing, but is it going to mean anything in the long run if this kind of deal is only open to indie filmmakers who happen to have existing relationships with corporations?
Questions, questions. Got any answers?
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth