Resources: Artist-Run Collectives and Cooperatives

Part 1 of a brief history of Cinema's DISTRIBUTION INNOVATIONS (with a focus on those outside of the Studio Industrial Complex).

And so it begins…

Yesterday I set the table. Are you ready to dig in?

JIC, you missed the opening service, let me give you the short version (and those that made it can skip now to the break labeled “1”)

I’ve told you how I think building and sharing resources is a key part of what we are building on FilmStack and launching the NonDē Cinema Movement. For far too long we have failed to capture institutional knowledge or make it available for all those could use it.

I find it a critical part of the process to capture the big picture as to what has brought us to this moment. I find examining the steps ofter sparks new ideas for me.

Ava DuVernay gets credit for suggesting the subject of this series of posts.

The list is now over one hundred things to consider. I will publish the full chronological list after I publish the various categories. I think the innovations generally fall into sixteen categories.

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Cinema Distribution’s Innovation Categories

1. Artist-Led Cooperatives & Collectives

2. Community-Based & Faith-Based Distribution

3. Touring & Regional Circuits

4. DIY, Grassroots & Guerrilla Releasing

5. Public Television, Government-Funded & NonProfit Platforms

6. Home Video Format & Feature Innovations

7. Windowing Strategies, Regional Rollouts & Unconventional Theatrical Models

8. Digital & Streaming Infrastructure

9. Microcinema & Underground Circuits

10. Restoration & Preservation Models

11. Immersive, Eventized & Site-Specific Exhibition

12. Crowdfunded & Community-Financed Cinema

13. Direct-to-Fan / Direct-to-Consumer Platforms

14. Innovations in Ticketing & Theatrical Access

15. Viral Circulation

16. Alternative Circulation Networks / Grey Market Distribution

17. Web3, Blockchain, and/or NFT Enabled Distribution

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I share the categories so if you have suggestions to add, you know where to wait to recommend them for.

This is organized around function and strategic purpose: starting with community-led initiatives, moving through distribution mechanics, both analogue and then moving into digital and web-based, and then ultimately ending with nontraditional or grey-market channels.

1. Filmmaker-Led Collectives and Community-Based Distribution form the ideological and historical foundation of non-industrial distribution.

2. Touring, Home Entertainment, and Public Television represent early scaling and alternative venue exploration.

3. Digital Platforms, Crowdfunding, and Faith-Based/Identity-Based reflect shifts in technology and audience segmentation.

4. Windowing, Torrent, Immersive, Submission Systems, Preservation, and Viral/Grey Market: These final categories track experiments and reactions to both digital change and market exclusion.

I like it. The order flows both historically and tactically, moving from the grassroots to digital disruption and fringe circulation. If you have a better way to organize it or feel there are better names for the categories, please let me know.

I considered grouping it by who the innovation empowers: Filmmakers, Audience (access), and Institutional Gateways / Public Infrastructure. In looking at it that way, I think you can see the power shift away from corporate systems toward filmmakers, fans, and communities. But I think the initial order is more accurate. But mostly, what ever way you look at it, I hope you are inspired.

People change the system all the time. When you stare at your computer screen, it may feel like you will never get the support you need, but change is happening right now as you read this. You can be part of it, just like each of these entries were part of change in their day, and are still part of change today.

As I said earlier, but JICYMI, I will publish the full chronological list after I publish the various categories.

Let’s dig in, shall we?!

We will start with a very important category. Artist-Run Collectives are entities whose innovations were primarily infrastructural and cooperative (versus “Community, Identity, and Faith-Based Distribution” which is based more around community access and identity-led curation— and will follow next week). We have 10 great entries in this category. It may be time for an eleventh? If you have started one, please let us know in the comments, and maybe start a FilmStack charting your progress and challenges?

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1

Artist-Run Collectives and Cooperatives

1. Canyon Cinema (1961) – Founded by Bruce Baillie and others

   A filmmaker-run, nonprofit distributor for avant-garde and experimental film, built outside commercial and theatrical structures. CC allowed artists to retain rights and earn revenue from non-theatrical bookings—serving schools, art centers, museums, and cine clubs. It is still active today with 3,400+ works from 300+ artists— a cornerstone of artist-controlled distribution.

2. The Film-Makers’ Cooperative (1962) – Founded by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Lionel Rogosin, Stan Brakhage, and over 20 others.

   The world’s first artist-run, nonprofit film distribution organization, offering an alternative to commercial and studio-controlled film circulation. They created a collectively owned rental catalog where films were distributed directly to cinemas, schools, festivals, and museums without commercial intermediaries, and operated as a non-curated, open-access cooperative, where anyone could deposit their films and receive rental income from bookings. Prefigured non-commercial and cooperative distribution infrastructures later seen in feminist, activist, queer, and community-driven cinema (e.g., New Day Films, Third World Newsreel, Women Make Movies). It remains active today, with over 5,000 titles by more than 1,000 artists in its archive.

3. Third World Newsreel (TWN) – Founded by the Newsreel Collective in 1967; renamed in 1973

   This filmmaker-led, nonprofit distribution collective focused on radical and independent media by and about marginalized communities—especially BIPOC, working-class, anti-imperialist, and feminist voices — sending 16mm prints directly to community groups and activist movements, bypassing theaters entirely, and making it one of the earliest and most enduring non-commercial distribution infrastructures for socially conscious cinema.