Laura, My minor was dance history and my paper was on Dance on Film and TV so it kind of led me into the film world as well. Milestone's mandate, however, is in restoration so I've only dealt with older titles and choreographers. (Anna Sokolow last year, now I'm helping out on a filmmaker who did several dance films in the 1930s).
My guess is that like art films, that most dance films are niche and only the most popular filmmakers/choreographers make it into distribution. (Wim Wenders with Pina) For the other films, 99% of the money is from educational so a lot of distributors don't even do theatrical distribution of these films. I've seen several dance films in the past few years that could have done well but never saw distribution. The biggest reason could very well be that the major newspapers and media stopped covering most dance over a decade ago which has really hurt. The other obvious answer is that there's a huge amount live dance and aficionados probably prefer that. By the way, if you haven't seen *Angel Reapers* yet, you should come up to NYC and see it! It's one of Martha Clarke's really great works. Best regards, Dennis Doros Milestone Film & Video PO Box 128 / Harrington Park, NJ 07640 Phone: 201-767-3117 / Fax: 201-767-3035 / Email: milefi...@gmail.com JOIN OUR MAILING LIST TODAY! <http://milestonefilms.us3.list-manage1.com/subscribe/post?u=4a0b9e434a9f3e8603c29806e&id=f30d1906e2> Support us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milestone-Film/22348485426> and Twitter <https://twitter.com/#!/MilestoneFilms>! On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 9:03 AM, Laura Jenemann <ljene...@gmu.edu> wrote: > Hello, > > > > As some of you know, one of the reasons that I love being a media > librarian is because I love dance. Not only is the audiovisual medium > critical to capturing dance, but understanding how the human form moves has > been a part of cinema history since…well, a long time, from what I can tell. > > > > I’ve been researching a lot of great looking dance films lately: winners > of San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Dance on Camera, and others. What > surprises me is how few of these films seem to have distribution. While I > have seen many films on dance as a video reviewer, the films submitted for > review aren’t always the same as those winning the awards at the festivals. > > > > I’m particularly surprised that one film about a very famous choreographer > I first learned of years ago is running an Indiegogo campaign for DVD/VOD > distribution. I would think that this film would have broad interest to > those outside of the dance community, given that the choreographer has > worked with Michael Jackson. > > > > I’m simply curious and hoping to learn: > > Why do many award-winning dance films lack distribution, while others > don’t? Is it because dance is a niche interest? Or are there other > reasons? > > > > I look forward to hearing your thoughts and creative ideas. > > > > Regards, > > Laura > > > > Laura Jenemann > > Media, Film Studies, and Dance Librarian > > George Mason University > > 703-993-7593 > > ljene...@gmu.edu > > > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of > issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic > control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in > libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as > an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of > communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video > producers and distributors. > >
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
