Filmmaker Tom Stern, the writer/director/co-producer of the quirky comedy ‘This Is A Business’, was recently profiled in a written podcast hosted by NY production company Renart Films. The interviewer, filmmaker Daniel Schechter, quizzed Tom on his reasons for making the film, the themes and subplots that came out during production, and his experiences as a first-time director searching for distribution. Between pithy responses, Tom took the time to deliver a gracious shout-out to the folks here at IndiePix. Please do check out the article, and then put that newfound warm and fuzzy feeling that develops to use and buy their film! It’s fantastically funny, and well worth your business.

Click here to read the full interview.

This Is A Business Now available on DVD and Download-to-Own, at http://www.indiepixfilms.com/thisisabusiness.

Not that we would expect IndieWire to make a deal about it, but today (October 5, 2007) on their front page here, four top IndiePix are featured.

First up is Billy The Kid from Director Jennifer Venditti, Produced by Jen and Chiemi Karasawa. Their film was a great success at the IFC screening earlier this week, playing to a sold out, waiting line crowd. Here they are with friend, John Tuturro. We’ll hear more about this film as we get further into the Fall. IndiePix exex’s are Executive Producers on this great title. Here is the link to that story.

Next in line is My Kid Could Paint That from Director Amir Bar-Lev. Amir has a great project, supported by A&E and picked up at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics. Amir was previously a contributor to The Katrina Experience with a compelling documentary, New Orleans Furlough. This 20-minute short film finds the intersection of drugs, war, and failed love in one National Guardsman returning from Iraq to help after Katrina. It is one of the most powerful films in the Full Frame/IndiePix collection The Katrina Experience, available for the Library and Educational markets through IndiePix. IndiePix contributed finishing funds for that project. The front page today will scroll by into history, but here is the link to the article on his new film.

Still on the IndieWire front page, just a few paragraphs down, is an interview with Alex LeMay, director of Desert Bayou. Desert Bayou is the lead title in the Full Frame/IndiePix collection The Katrina Experience, and we commented on its very successful screening at MOMA last week in another post. Alex gave IndiePix a “special thanks” in the credits for our help in funding some of the editing on this project. Desert Bayou is being distributed by Cinema Libre Studios, IndiePix’s partner for retail DVD distribution. Check out this whole interview here.

We’re very proud of our filmmakers, and very happy to be associated with them. And we’re very pleased when so many of them are up front and center (where they ought to be!).

Over at his blog, Caveh Zahedi writes about his experience in distributing his DVD. He found out that in the world of distribution, marketing wins:

The upside of going with The Weinstein Company is that the DVD will be in more stores than it would be otherwise, and in fact they have been very accomodating. But the downside is that the DVD will bear less and less resemblance to the product that I myself would have wanted to put out into the world.

But did it have to be this way? (more…)

We note with sorrow the passing of a great humanitarian whom we only knew through the documentary of his life we have been privileged to carry. Dr. Venkataswamy revolutionized the treatment of glaucoma in India, an affliction that condemns the sufferer to death due to interesting cultural issues having to do with the role of the elderly in society. Dr. “V” (as he was known) created an extraordinary process for the surgical treatment of glaucoma, and in the process contributed to saving many many thousands of lives and advancing the understanding of medical practices throughout the world. His work was remembered by his family and patients in ceremonies in Madurai, India on July 7. The proceeds from the sale of the story of his work go to support his foundation. Thank you, Pavi Mehta, for giving us the opportunity to work with you on this film.

We love Martin Scorcese