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Screening Across the Globe: Encouraging Others to Host a Screening of Your Film

Published on March 19, 2008

Once you have made a documentary the next goal is getting people to see it. Hosting your own screening party can be a good method, as highlighted by Kasmore Rhedrick's article Three Things Documentary Filmmakers Can Learn From the Super Bowl. Another way is to encourage others to host a screening of your film, which means that your movie can be brought to a larger audience, anywhere in the world.

The first thing you want to figure out is who your audience is. Get to know them. If your film is about a certain social issue, chances are there are already activists, educators and organizations that support the same cause. Those who can connect with the topic of your documentary are the ones who are going to want to host a screening.

Jonathan Matthews, a social studies and arts education professor, recently hosted a screening for the documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib at Carroll College in Helena, MT, where he teaches.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib poster

"I first heard about Ghosts from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, by email, and then from Amnesty International, again by email," said Matthews.

"As part of my professional concern with citizenship and arts education, I host several films a year that deal with important social issues," Matthews said.

Also, there is an interest in his community for these types of movies. Later this month he is hosting a screening of the documentary Iraq For Sale, which he first heard about from a friend who is concerned with issues involving corporations and peace.

"Our small town has a community of people who are concerned about issues of peace and war and control of our government by corporations," he said.

Iraq For Sale film poster

The Hawaiian activist group, Film and Justice, also hosts regular screenings. Next month they will be hosting the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

"We chose this film because we like to address issues that stir controversy and speak about justice. We live on the Big Island, near Hilo, and there was a huge hubbub when WalMart moved into Hilo," they said.

Help your host promote the screening

To promote his screening of Iraq For Sale, Matthews placed an advertisement in both of Helena's local papers, sent a mass email to employees of Carroll College and a community listserv targeting people in the community interested in peace and corporation issues, and made a flyer put up around the college and the town.

Matthews is particularly involved and ambitious, but there are steps you the filmmaker can take to help your host promote their screening. Many filmmakers offer tools on their website to help screening hosts make the most out of the experience.

• Have movie posters and flyers available online that the host can use to promote the screening: The Media That Matters Film Festival offers customizable flyers for hosts to print out.

• Offer web graphics for people to post on their blog, Myspace, or website: Never underestimate the power of the web. Social networks, blogs, and websites offer "word of mouth" on a much larger, faster scale.

• Offer a customizable press release for the host to send to local media: Make it easier for the host announce the screening in all possible places.

• Have a video of the trailer that hosts can embed on blogs, websites and social networks: Again, take advantage of the Internet and its infinite possibilities. You could even make a video of yourself talking about the movie and the social issue that can be posted and shared online.

• Ask the host to take photos of the screening and email them to you so you can put them online: You can post photos of the screenings on your own website as well as photo hosting sites like Flickr.

• Provide websites where they can announce their screening: Let the hosts post their screening information on your website, or let them know about other websites where they can advertise the screening. Brave New Theaters is a website that unites independent filmmakers with potential screeners. It's free, and if the filmmaker makes an account for their film on the site, hosts will be able to post screening information on the website.

Hosts can post an announcement for free on MediaRights.org, which connects screenings to issues so people interested in that particualar social issue will find out about the screening. Hosts could also put an ad on Craigslist in the community events section.

• Record audio trailers that the host can download and give to local radio stations: This is a great way to help your host advertise their screening. A community radio show could reach a lot of ears.

• Provide tools for print advertisements: On the Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price website, there are ads that have been used in newspapers to announce screenings. You could create customizable newspaper advertisements that the hosts can download and place in their local paper. This is a good way to advertise the screening to people who aren't reached by the internet.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price poster

• Create Stickers: The Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price doc's website also has images of the film that can be printed onto sticker paper.

• Encourage hosts to make their own video advertisement: The independent film Four Eyed Monsters, known for its extremely successful self-promotion campaign, offers extensive advice for their screening hosts on their website. One suggestion is for the host to make a video invitation explaining why they want to do the screening, the date and the time. The site also gives instructions on how to post and distribute the video all over the web.

Inspiring Action

If your beat is documentary films that target specific and pressing social issues, not only do you want people to see your film, you want to educate and inspire them to take action. Here are some tips to help get a conversation started about the issue in your film and to help your audience act after they watch it.

• Offer discussions to have after the movie: The Media That Matters Film Festival offers a free downloadable discussion guide for the documentaries in the festival, and a Take Action Guide, which lists affiliated organizations that coincide with the issues of the films.

The Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price website also provides ideas for discussions to have after the film created by the organization Reclaim Democracy.

It is always good to work with existing organizations to help action build around your film. Why spread your message alone when there are already groups out there rooting for the same cause?

• Make your objectives clear to potential screening hosts: You can do this in many ways. On the Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price website, director/producer Robert Greenwald has a letter to his screening hosts explaining the film and the issues surrounding it. He encourages the hosts to intertwine activism with the screening. A letter or a statement on your website is a good way to connect with the host to explain your vision for the film. It helps you help them get your message across to the audience.

• Offer fact sheets about the social issue in your film that can be printed out and handed out at the screening: The Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price website has several fact sheets written by the organization Wal-Mart Watch for the host to give to the audience. This is good because it offers bite-size facts about the issue in the movie that the audience can take home with them.

• Provide tools to take action: At his screening of Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Matthews said there was more than 100 people in attendance including students, professors, community members, and the director of ROTC and his cadets.

"There was a very stimulating hour-long discussion after the screening, which included a couple of dozen people completing letters to their congressional representatives asking them to take action against torture," Matthews said.

The Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price website has materials to take legislative action against Wal-Mart provided by MoveOn.org.

Developing easier ways for others to host, promote screenings and take action around your film will help to increase the visibility of your work. Giving people the tools to throw a successful screening will make the experience fulfilling for both the host and the audience. So get out there and connect with potential hosts because there is no limit to where your film will reach.