New Streaming Doc Site Snags IndieWIRE
A beta version of a new documentary streaming site called SnagFilms was launched today by Ted Leonisis, the former vice chairman of AOL. Backed by the former head of AOL Steve Case, SnagFilms also announced its purchase of IndieWIRE, the best site around for news and reviews of independent films.
The idea to provide streaming documentaries and to allow them to be embedded on other blogs and websites came to Leonsis when he wondered “How is it that a documentary deemed successful might have 25,000 people see it, when a video some kid creates in his bedroom gets 2 million views on YouTube?”
So far, SnagFilms has a catalogue of 250 titles and each one is preceded by 90 seconds of advertisement. A quick perusal of the selections revealed a lot of TV generated stuff and things I’ve never heard of, but there was also Super Size Me and Confessions of a Superhero.
As for IndieWIRE, SnagFilms plans to expand it with “new resources,” but in a letter to readers, IW’s editor-in-chief Eugene Hernandez insisted that the indie site would remain editorially autonomous.
Many good documentaries have hit theaters this year, but few people are seeing them. Will SnagFilms be able to find new audiences? We’ll see.
Source: Variety
Filed under: Miscellaneous
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Thank you. I see Kicking It is in there, as well as Robert Greenwald/Moveon.org’s Uncovered: The War in Iraq which, next to No End in Sight and The War Tapes, is one of the better Iraq war docs out there, regardless of one’s politics.
Then there are funny little gems like this: “WE ARE THE CHILDREN is a documentary film that dives deep inside the world of a group of Michael Jackson fans during the 2004-05 trial. The story delves beyond the tabloidesque media coverage of the crazy fan to uncover the human faces of the dedicated supporter. Following a group of California fans from dance parties on Hollywood Blvd to court proceedings in Santa Maria, and vigils at Neverland, WE ARE THE CHILDREN brings some three-dimensionality to people often written off as humorous freaks.”
This is awesome if I can figure out a simple way to stream this to my TV, either from some hack involving my PS3 or somehow connecting the laptop to the LCD’s analog inputs. Otherwise, for this documentary fan it’s a mixed bag because I just have an incredibly hard time watching any TV show or movie on a laptop screen. Don’t know why, I just don’t enjoy it.
But all the same, this is very cool.
Somehow, docs or even tv shows on a monitor or laptop don’t bug me. It’s not the preferred method, but it’s not a deal breaker like it is for me with narrative features.
What’s weird is that I had to embed convoluted code to get the movie into this post, but all it seems to do is link to SnagFilms to play it….unlike YouTube that actually embeds.
“Convoluted code” sounds like the AOHell I know and hate. Not really a surprised there. At least they’re using their evil programming skills for something potentlally good this time around.
Well it’s similar code to YouTube or any embedded flash movie…it just doesn’t seem to work the same way. Shrugs.
Yeah I got an email from these guys today asking for me to include a virtual movie theater on my site. I’ll have to look into it more, but it sounds interesting.