Article
How did you first hear about Passion River?
I got introduced to them through a consultant. I had not heard about them before then.
fiction, no name cast
documentary
My producer connected us to Passion River.
Two distribution consultants recommended Passion River to me.
documentary
documentary
Through a consultant.
They reached out to me I think around the time when my first feature film was selected at REDACTEDREDACTED Film Festival. And that’s when I heard from Mat. I was not aware of them before this time.
documentary
I think just searching online trying to find someone for our digital and DVD release. There were films on the Passion River website where we knew the filmmakers, too. They were pretty flexible with our rights.
hybrid
documentary
Through a consultant.
I met Mat in a bar at the international premiere of my film. He was cool. I sent him a link. He watched the link, got back to me, and was very excited. It was a very personal connection. There were other distributors in the periphery—other ways we could have gone—but I felt this person from Passion River really got my film and wanted to help it get out into the world.
documentary
What motivated you to work with them?
Their flexibility on exactly what they would do for the film. We had a phone call with Mat, who is no longer there, and it was a really good phone call. We just got a good feeling from them and there were no red flags. We trusted them and everything sounded legit. Our lawyer looked over the contracts and it was pretty smooth. Nothing made us uncomfortable. We were happy with their online presence and reputation.
hybrid
Our film fit in their niche. We liked the person we were in contact with—his belief in our film and what we were trying to do. We believe they can help us get the film out there.
documentary
documentary
It really boiled down to enthusiasm and feeling like my film was watched. This personal connection. I wanted to go with someone who really cared about my film, and I thought they might do a good job to distribute it.
They seemed really enthusiastic about the film. I had a long conversation with Mat Levy. It really seemed that they were well-positioned to take it on and I liked the rest of their recent releases and slate. Good quality, small projects.
fiction, no name cast
documentary
It was my producer’s idea. The film was non-commercial and problematic, and we didn’t have many bites.
I was intrigued by their connections in the educational circuit. Since it was a film meant to inspire and educate, I thought it would be a great platform and I had great chats with Mat.
documentary
documentary
My crew member went to an overseas film market. Passion River had a small booth there. When our films were ready and doing well at film festivals, we signed with Passion River because none of the bigger players were coming on board.
They were the best option we had. We would have preferred someone bigger. We would have preferred a studio or streamer to come directly on board. We realized that wasn’t going to happen.
documentary
I had multiple offers. Theirs was middle of the road, but they had been around for a long time. I was worried with the newer distributors—whose agreement was sexier with better terms—that they wouldn’t stick around.
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What went well?
It’s complicated because Mat left just before our film came out. Their head of theatrical distribution took over. The film was released on platforms. They’ve done a decent job promoting on their social media channels.
fiction, no name cast
[general compliments to the demeanor and work ethic of Jessica Conroy and Josh Levin.]
documentary
documentary
They have done everything they said they would. They didn’t let me settle for a pretty good offer even though I felt desperate at the time. They said to hold out and with some follow-up got the deal we wanted, which was a massive step ahead from what I was willing to settle for. They helped me be patient. I was treated at the highest level of what my film was capable of and that’s a rare experience for independent filmmaking.
documentary
It was distributed to a lot of places, libraries, and schools. Regarding payments, the last year they’ve been excellent.
Their handling of the digital launch was really good. Kind, good people who are easy to communicate with. The new guy Josh seems very much the same. All exchanges have been clear and good. There’s one broadcaster who is notoriously difficult to work with. Makes you go through a lot of paperwork and rigamarole and Passion River were great advocates with them and protected us with them. Dealt with all the pain-in-the-butt stuff.
hybrid
hybrid
A couple days ago we received another nice-sized check and a thorough report, unprompted.
What went poorly?
They’ve been fairly uncommunicative. It’s been hard to get information updates from them on where the film is going. We didn’t know where it was going to be released until a couple days before, which made promotion difficult. They made some mistakes in delivery, as well.
fiction, no name cast
documentary
The first couple of years I had to chase them down for payments.
After Mat left, their communication dropped way off. We got lost in the transition. I think we were supposed to get our first check in April, and it came [several months late]. We had to get pretty angry and threaten lawyers and stuff.
documentary
documentary
They put zero effort into putting the film out there. Their focus was libraries and educational facilities and then they just stopped. [Major technical delivery mishap that wasn’t noticed by the distributor and wasn’t fixed for a long time.]
[Delivery problems with metadata.] Communication was poor, reporting was worse.
documentary
documentary
I’m not super happy in retrospect. One thing that was really problematic is that I’ve had to follow up with them to get payments. They’ve been fairly disorganized about that. In general, I don’t think they’ve done a very good job, to be honest. I think there’s been opportunities to distribute the film. The amount of money I’ve gotten from them has been very minimal considering the expenses associated with distribution. I wouldn’t recommend working with them.
Little hiccups with communication.
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Nothing.
Their reporting is inconsistent and not formalized. I track the spending but I have to hound them for actual reports. I don’t do it much because the numbers are small. If they wanted to be serious about supporting independent film, [they could do better in this respect].
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I would say nothing. Things were a bit late around the height of the pandemic, but I feel like that’s understandable.
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Did they breach the contract?
Not so far.
fiction, no name cast
documentary
Yes. They didn’t pay us and didn’t give us our sales report, and then secured a deal for the film for rights they didn’t have.
I honestly don’t know but thought it was a level of incompetence which made me not want to work with them. They’re barely a distributor.
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documentary
Yes, the reporting was past the deadline.
No.
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documentary
No. [But the filmmaker did mention having to chase down payments.]
Filmmaker Friendliness?
Both Mat and Josh returned emails, answered questions. Having to repeat information—there’s no dismissiveness, there’s a level of patience. These guys take the time to make sure you understand what’s going on and what you’re fighting for.
documentary
documentary
They have a new payment system now. It seems like they’re updating things to be running smoother. The fact that Josh replies pretty quickly on my emails—I really appreciate that. He’s always very excited.
It’s difficult to answer this because Mat was fantastic. Felt really comfortable with him. Only talked to his replacement twice. Atmosphere was stressed. They were clearly not expecting Mat to leave and were thrown. It wasn’t the most comfortable process. We had one conversation with the guy who took over and he seemed kind of rushed and a little gruff. It wasn’t a particularly nurturing experience for a team that was new to this whole thing.
fiction, no name cast
documentary
They’re cool. They’re definitely…they are respectful and fine when we speak with them.
Before and after. Night and day. 8/10 when Mat was there. Now, we’re not getting emails answered. Now, we’re lucky to hear back. If we threaten legal action, we hear back.
documentary
hybrid
100% great.
Mat was always helpful and responsive. I remember the first time I had to follow up [regarding reporting and payments], he was shocked. I don’t attribute this to him at all. It felt sincere. It felt like there were bigger organizational problems in terms of communication. Reporting is just as disorganized since Josh took over. Still on me to follow up to request things. My sense is with them if I didn’t reach out, I’d never hear from them and never get paid.
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What would you have done differently?
I wish we had known that Mat would leave. I don’t think we would have gone with a different distributor based on the offers we had. I think we handled that about as well as we could. I wouldn’t do a lot differently, but I would have been a little bit more demanding.
fiction, no name cast
documentary
We would not have signed with Passion River. We’ve made a little bit of money, nowhere near worth it for all the headaches and the work that we have to do.
We would not work with them again. No, no, no, no, no. Even though they’ve tried to fix things.
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I trust them and feel confident in how they rep our film to so many territories.
I don’t know. As a human being, I don’t have regrets. I’m glad it happened to me on this film because it’s a smaller film—there’s not so much at stake. I’ll be a lot more savvy for the next one.
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I would go back in time to make a more exciting film so they could sell it for more money. I would make more commercially viable products. I prefer to take on any hesitancy where the film ended up on myself.
We would [work with them again]. We’re very happy working with them and feel like they’ve gone out of their way to do right by us and our film.
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Any Final Thoughts?
They’re a great company for documentaries. I think they’re getting up to speed on narrative.
fiction, indie, no name cast
documentary
I would encourage [filmmakers working with Passion River or whomever] to be on top of everything going out there. Demand information, demand to know where your film is showing, what platforms, and make sure every version is QC’d.
As long as filmmakers have realistic expectations about how incredibly crowded the marketplace is and how little money is on the table in 99% of these deals, I think you’ll be happy with Passion River because unlike a lot of other sales agents and reps, these guys do what they said they’re going to do. There’s just so much material right now that as long as you go in with eyes open about what you’re competing against, Passion River provides the best-case scenario.
documentary, older title
hybrid
Thank goodness we went with Passion River.
They’re trying their best. My explanation of what would have been done differently lands on the producer and my shoulders. It does not land on Passion River. I believe that they’re pitching it. Because of them, we’re on charts and people are watching the movies. They’ve gotten the movie out there. I only have bad stuff to say about the independent movie process.
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I’m in the process of moving forward with someone else. I think it’s hard as an independent filmmaker with a passion project. There are ways to distribute your film directly but it’s going to take you so much time and you’ve already put in years of your life into making your film. The mistake I made looking back was not trying to be more of a self-distributor. My thought process was like I’ve already spent so many years on this film I need to move on. In retrospect, I would have self-distributed [via a distribution collective]. I felt like with Passion River, Mat seemed excited about the film—the reason I did it—but beyond that, it felt like the film fell into a sort of a void. I felt like if I had done it myself it probably would have been better.
Takeaways
- There were a lot of complaints about a lack of timely reports and/or payments with regard to Passion River
- Recent reports from Passion River reflect that they are open to taking on unexploited rights from a client who may have released their film elsewhere (e.g. taking on digital rights for a film that did a broadcast deal with PBS). This is something a lot of distributors lean away from and is truly an asset in today’s inflexible distribution landscape.
- Since we needed to interview those who had a longer history with the company (for data on revenue reporting), many who participated had strong relationships with Mat Levy (former head of Sales/Acquisitions) who recently left to go to Deskpop. This transition certainly made an imprint on a lot of the filmmakers who work with Passion River.
- Many of the newer filmmakers interviewed could have negative impressions of the company because they were being onboarded right as Mat Levy was leaving. That should be taken into consideration, however, regardless of staffing changes, filmmakers should be able to have a healthy relationship with their distributor.
- Passion River has a solid relationship with library sales for educational titles, which can be a great asset for filmmakers who aren’t doing separate deals with educational distributors.
