Posted on: Sunday, February 9, 2003

First-run DVD club fills niche for indie-film fans

By Amy Westfeldt
Associated Press

Larry Meistrich was once a leader of the independent film movement. Now 35, he's a suburban dad who has trouble even getting to a movie theater.

So he started a DVD-of-the-month club that aims to bring thought-provoking, quality indie films to people's doorsteps. It offers only first-run films, all of them award-winners from major film festivals.

Film Movement, based in New Jersey, is the first club Hettrick knows of to offer first-run films on video. The films are offered only on DVD format.

Dozens of specialty clubs cater to fans of sci fi, animation or adult videos. Larger clubs like Columbia House mail popular selections to subscribers, and companies like Netflix let members rent out several titles at once.

Nearly half of Film Movement's roughly 3,000 subscribers so far come from areas where independent theaters are scarce, Meistrich said.

Film Movement charges either $19.95 a month or $189 a year for membership, and mailed out its first DVD before Christmas: "El Bola," a Spanish film about child abuse that won four Goya awards, the highest honors in Spain.

It's a film that would likely fail at the box office its first weekend, Meistrich said.

"You can't spend enough money" to market it in theaters, Meistrich said. "There's no product tie-in. There's nobody famous in it. What it has are incredibly good reviews."

As chief of the studio the Shooting Gallery, which folded a year ago, Meistrich released indie hits such as "You Can Count On Me" and "Sling Blade."

Now, he and a group of film-industry professionals attend dozens of festivals to find selections for the monthly club, sifting through what he estimates are thousands of features. Filmmakers earn 10 percent of the club's subscription fees and, if the movie becomes a hit, box-office profits.

Film Movement purchased eight movies before the recent Sundance festival, where Meistrich planned to make more selections. The eight so far include "Last Party 2000," a documentary narrated by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as he travels to the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and "Marion Bridge," a Canadian film about a dysfunctional family in Nova Scotia.

"They are guaranteeing us a five- to 10-city release, which is really great for a Canadian film about three women," said "Marion Bridge's" director, Wiebke von Carolsfeld. "It's funny and it's sad but it doesn't have explosions."