Just what is a Benten anyway?

Did you hear the one about the film blogger who started his own DVD distribution company? In the three-plus years of this blog's existence, I've made efforts to write about smaller, neglected, lesser known, or otherwise undistributed films. One random day the idea struck – why not try to make these films available to a wider audience? In a way, I guess was inspired by Victor Kiam, the Remington CEO who in the late-70s would appear in adverts for the razor proclaiming, "I liked it so much, I bought the company." While I can't vouch for the late mogul's integrity, I can say that "we love this film" is, at the moment, the single criterion for distribution consideration. Will it work? Well, we'll soon find out. . . Benten (a colloquial variant of Benzaiten), is the Buddhist goddess of all that flows, and she is often associated with music and the arts. Benten Films, a tiny ripple in the vast ocean of DVD distribution has but one simple mission – to bring the best in international and independent cinema to the North American DVD market. Whether old or new, genre film or auteurist masterpiece, all Benten titles will be films that we'd want to have in our collection. We're hoping to appeal to both the cinephile and the casual film fan. Though originally formed in 2005, there was one critical component missing – a solid partner. I needed someone who was equally passionate about cinema, but also savvy enough to know the business, and independent enough to offer opinion, suggestion, and direction. Writer/critic/filmmaker (and friend) Aaron Hillis was the perfect match. Aaron has worn several hats in this industry, including a stint at a well-known DVD distribution company, and his experience has already proven invaluable. However, his greatest asset is his candor, and though we clashed several times during the production of this first release, his willingness to challenge, disagree, and question helped prevent a few near-disasters. As I'm sure many of you know by now, our debut release is Joe Swanberg's LOL. Though only 25 years old, Joe already has three features under his belt, and his latest film, Hannah Takes the Stairs, has been picked up by IFC First Take and will open theatrically in New York City on August 22. A key figure in the new American independent cinema scene (some call it mumblecore), Joe's films are filled with the kind of creative energy and collaborative sprit that has been missing from American independent cinema for quite some time. Though his films are about the specific world inhabited by him and his cast, the themes are universal. LOL is a look at technology's impact on human interaction, and Joe does so with a keen eye that is more observational than judgmental. The DVD is packed with bonus features, including two commentary tracks (Cast/Director), the short film Hissy Fits, video podcasts by composer/co-creator Kevin Bewersdorf, the complete "Noisehead" videos, a slide show of the artwork of LOL, extended performance footage, a casting interview with Tipper Newton, and a new essay written for this release by GreenCine's own David Hudson. We're positively over the moon with the way the entire package turned out, though the path we traveled to get there wasn't always smooth. More on that another time. . . We've already begun preparation on our next release, which will be two films by Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA and Quiet City), followed by Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake. If all goes well we'll have a couple of announcements in the near future about some foreign acquisitions, but I don't want to jump the gun. LOL is available for pre-order at Amazon (and other outlets) and will be on store shelves August 28. Benten is part of the Ryko Distribution family, which means the DVD should be available everywhere. (Hey, even Best Buy is carrying it!) To read/hear more about Benten Films, check out the Summer 2007 issue of Filmmaker magazine, where you'll find an interview with Aaron and myself (not online, sadly), or head over to Cinematical and listen to the podcast we did with James Rocchi. It is the summer jam of 07. Visit our website for more details and updates, and for the cool kids we have a MySpace page (thanks Aaron!) though I honestly still haven't figured out how it works, or what it's for.

Comments

[Daniel]

You guys are living the dream! The only thing better than good criticism alerting one to a worthwhile movie is a company willing to make it available to the public. Good luck with the first release!

[burritoboy]

Excellent, I now have 303 new friends, some of whom appear to be Simpson's characters, or young Russian models in bikinis. My avatar is Jean-Luc Godard, so he's in good company.

[Klaus]

Wow! Congratulations for your first release and getting the company started (the website looks great, but I hate Flash!). As I'm a huge fan of classical and almost forgotten (Japanese) movies myself which especially in the German-speaking market are very hard to come by, every now and then I thought "wouldn't it be great to do a DVD-release myself?"

So good luck to you guys! And keep us updated about your experiences in the business!

[Tuwa]

That's excellent; congratulations.

(Did this post already? I hit "post" and the page reloaded w/ no indication that anything happened ... trying "preview" first this time.)

[don]

This is awesome! Way to take the bull by the horns! I really love the DVD cover design for LOL and it looks like you have an impressive slate coming up with the Rohal flick and Katz's kick-ass QUIET CITY. Good luck!

[colinr]

Congratulations on your first release. And also on explaining the meaning of Benten - I had been wondering about whether the choice of that name was significant since watching the anime series Cyber City OEDO 808 more than ten years ago!

[James]

Congratulations! This is the DIY aesthetic at its best.

[HarryTuttle]

Congratulations Andrew and Aaron! May the force be with you for many DVDs.
Your website is real neat and I love the logo design. I hope you'll have more pages soon, especially about your company.
The free-to-download soundtrack is in great spirit. Though you could publish more stills from the movie, from SXSW, of the crew. And a trailer too. And a filmmaker bio/filmo. Well I guess this will be done for the released date.
Keep up the good work.

[Jimmy]

Congrats. I eagerly await my pre-ordered DVD from Amazon. (Screw movie theaters. They really don't make those seats for the, um, full-bodied human being.) But I want to know when the @#!%$ I can get a copy of Fish Kill Flea.

[Paul Doherty]

Great job Filmbrain. I will be bugging the local Best Buy the day it comes out.

[Kurt]

Wow. What a fabulous idea! Congrats on the initial offering. Looking forward to seeing what else comes down the pik -er- cortex!

[Eric]

I'm happy to see that the Guatemalan Handshake will get some distribution. I saw this film at Penn State University, as one of our film professors was the DP on this production. Todd Rohal was there too, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of this ultra-low budget 35mm production.

[armin tamzarian]

Hey, congratulations on this endeavor. Are you taking requests? If so, please release THE STACCATO PURR OF THE EXHAUST, an LA indie that has never been properly distributed. I saw it at Sundance in 1995 and was pretty moved...so much that over 12 years later I'm still babbling about it. Thanks and good luck with everything.

[Evan]

Agree completely on The Staccato Purr of the Exhaust--saw it at a screening at UCLA in 1997 or 1998, and it was great. Cinefile, the well-known video store in LA, has a film search service, and back in 2000 or so I asked if they could search for Staccato Purr, and the guy behind the counter said that they've gotten tons of requests for that, but never found a copy.