September 1999

Although a nebulous-sounding job, a good rep combines the promotional skills of a publicist, the deal-making ability of a lawyer, and the marketing skills of a salesperson.

The Celebration

(1998), 105 min., color
Director: Thomas Vinterberg [www.dogme95.dk]
Original Format: Mini DV (PAL)

My desk is festooned with the fruits of two previous Independent Feature Film Markets: a cupful of pens, buttons, a mousepad, a key ring. And that's not counting the baseball caps and t-shirts that are given out by filmmakers each September to promote their work.

Filmmakers are mixing and matching a wide variety of options -
in their choice of cameras,
transfer methods, and final format. For a digital round-up see sidebar.

John Sayles' Men with Guns

"We're not altruistic," says Jonathan Sehring, IFC Films president, "although somebody said at Cannes, 'Oh, you guys are the one patron saint now of financing independent films, because there's not a lot of equity out there without strings attached.' Well, we have strings, if you want to call them strings, but they're supposed to be as filmmaker friendly as possible."