Outreach and Distribution are the constant themes throughout the year here at Arts Engine. Everything we do revolves around using film to foster social action and getting good films to new and unexpected audiences. Summertime is a season where outreach mode is at its peak. We have events, conferences, screenings and festivals to attend, coordinate, organize, co-sponsor and the list goes on…

Early June, we kicked off with our Media That Matters Film Festival and after that it has been a whirlwind of events. More than a re-count of our events calendar, I want to bring up one interesting event coordinating point: gift bags. Gift bags are a great opportunity to give visibility to a partner organization and an outreach opportunity for reaching a new constituency.

If it is a bad gift bag, you will usually dig in and find a bunch of flyers you may keep but never read. If it is a good gift bag, your fingers will slide against the hard plastic of cd’s, dvd’s, trinkets, soap bars, chocolate and discount flyers; and you will find yourself using the bag as a purse in the months to come.

Arts Engine’s partner, Docurama, has been a consistent gift goodie giver this summer. I have come across their documentaries in three gift bags for three completely different events. Something that would make any non-profit media arts organization employee ask, how does a distributor of independently produced documentary films have the resources to consistently give gift bag goodies in the hundreds?

And the answer is, this is an outreach luxury that they take to get cutting-edge documentaries to new spaces and places. For the past eight years, Docurama has been distributing the best of the documentary form. From classics like DA Pennebaker’s, Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back to Academy Award winners and nominees like Murder on a Sunday Morning, The Weather Underground, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision and more, Docurama has taken up the form and brought it to the home entertainment marketplace like no other distributor.

Their mission is documentary, they are documentary and they prove again and again that their business sense comes from getting the best of documentary film into new homes by any means necessary, even if it means giving the DVDs away continually. As the digital age takes over, however, it is becoming less and less profitable to produce, distribute and give away DVD’s. Who wants to go through all that hassle, when you can just download off of iTunes or somethiing similar? Unfortunately, for distributors like Docurama, transitioning to the digital age presents a real challenge. Not because of expertise, but because of resources.

So, while it is great that I have added three more films to my home collection this summer for free, I have also made it a point to support their mission by buying at least one. My reason for writing this is to encourage you to do the same. Co-Director of Blue Vinyl, Judith Hellfand recently wrote for MediaRights.org a touching and truthful reflection of the impact that Docurama distributed film, Blue Vinyl, has had as a mobilizing tool in the Environmental Preservation Movement and how it has deepened her vision as a social justice filmmaker.

As a way of supporting the work of both independent media makers, distributors and media arts organizations, Arts Engine and Docurama want to encourage you to go online and read “When The Personal is Environmental: The Legacy of Blue Vinyl by Judith. if you have not seen the film, support Docurama and buy it today! It is a witty, entertaining and incredibly accurate account of the threat of bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals to human life.

Not convinced? Here is a clip…

Support us in bringing documentary film and the best of documentary filmmakers to your living room, your computer, your community… And support Docurama’s efforts in bring mind-blowing documentary films to new and unexpected audiences.