Rocker Dave Matthews not to long ago ran across “Kenny.” The film was a mockumentary of a man installing portable toilets. Dave Matthews loved the movie from Australia and told his friends about it. However no one had heard of it. That’s not surprising given that the gross in domestic theaters for the 2008 film was under $70,000. In an interview Matthews said it was a real gem. It people had known about it, it would have had an audience.
Matthews has appeared in several movies and started to produce independent films like “Savage Grace” and “Choke” with his company Art Takes Over Pictures. His experience with “Kenny” helped convince him to examine and try to improve the way that non-studio movies get distributed and marketed. Matthews said, at the moment there’s a hole, in terms of smaller but commercially viable films.
ATO Pictures and Matthews announced on Wednesday that a distribution outfit was being launched that might end up releasing the next or equivalent “Kenny.” “Mao’s Last Dancer,” which will premiere on August 6, will be the new company’s first release. The drama is an Australian movie directed by Bruce Beresford.
ATO Pictures, in addition to developing and financing films, is looking to find movies to acquire as well as distribute with partner Samuel Goldwyn Films. ATO was founded in 2002. Sarah Lash, sales agent from Cinetic Media, was recently hired to head up their acquisitions arm. Currently she is searching for potential new ATO titles at the Cannes Film Festival. Industry veterans Greg Johnson, Peter Newman, Johnathan Dorfman and Temple Fennell are some of the industry veterans included on the ATO team.
Matthews said, there are lots of films with commercial potential or they might have commercial potential. However today’s distribution makes it very unlikely that these movies will get any meaningful distribution.
Instead of shooting for blockbuster art house films like “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno,” according to Matthews the ambitions of the company are more modest. We don’t need to have that success level. We are looking to fill the void for personal movies. With the closures off Paramount Vantage, ThinkFilm, Warner Independent and Miramax and other specialist film companies, these types of films have by in large been vacated. We think it’s possible to fill the gap that has grown within the movie business. We’re not alone.
Matthews and his band have been successful at communicating and cultivating relationships with thousands of their fans via an online community. It could be a model for showing how ATO could generate interest from moviegoers for their releases without having to spend millions of advertising dollars.
Matthews said, it’s a way of accessing an audience at a very personal level without having to change the moon’s color for the weekend, in reference to the expensive movie marketing TV saturation campaigns. I am very excited about this. It’s a chance to be more involved in something that I really love. Movies are modern times’ ultimate art form.
