[imc-oxford-features] Press Release: Revolutionary 'Indie Screenings' film distribution model launches with climate blockbuster 'The Age of Stupid'

[Lizzie Gillett]

PRESS RELEASE: 6 May 2009
Revolutionary 'Indie Screenings' film distribution model launches 
with climate blockbuster 'The Age of Stupid'

Spanner Films announces the launch of a pioneering film distribution 
model, "Indie Screenings", which allows anyone to buy a license to 
screen selected independent films whenever and wherever they like - 
and, crucially, to charge for tickets and keep the profits. The new 
software, which was developed by Torchbox, calculates a bespoke 
license fee, depending on various factors including who/where/when 
the user intends to screen. For example, a local campaign group will 
pay about £60 to screen in their church hall, whereas a multinational 
oil company screening to 5,000 staff would pay around £10,000. 
Speakers can also be booked through the system. Indie Screenings 
launches with Franny Armstrong's climate blockbuster, The Age of 
Stupid. Other films will join the roster later in the year.

The website opened on May 1st and an impressive 48 UK screenings have 
already been booked, totalling £5,234.85. Many of these bookings came 
through local sections of The Age of Stupid's supporter groups, 
including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and Stop Climate 
Chaos (the climate coalition representing 11 million people). Outside 
the UK, more than 700 screening requests have already been received 
for The Age of Stupid, from Tuvalu to Tennessee and from Antarctica 
to Alaska. Global Indie Screenings will launch later in the year.

"Indie Screenings is a win-win-win-win-win" says Age of Stupid 
director Franny Armstrong, whose earlier film McLibel (2005) reached 
more than 25 million viewers worldwide, through a variety of 
innovative distribution methods, and who now hopes to reach 250 
million with Stupid. "Millions more people see the film, the cash 
goes direct to the filmmakers rather than the middle men, it 
encourages collective watching as opposed to sitting at home with a 
lonely DVD, we're reaching sections of our communities who wouldn't 
go to the cinema and it allows anyone to fundraise for their 
campaigns on the back of our films.Viva la revolution."

The first date for which screenings can be booked is Friday May 22nd, 
when the new system will be launched with 50+ screenings around the 
UK, including at some very high profile locations.

High Profile Screenings.There will be screenings on May 22nd at the 
MET office, the GLA, the BBC, the NHS and in several Government 
departments. The Age of Stupid has already screened at the EU, 
British, Scottish, Welsh, Swedish and Dutch parliaments, as well as 
at the UN's climate summit in Poznan in December 2008. Officials from 
the Foreign Office, DECC, DFID, DIUS, BERR, DCLG, DCSF, DFT, COI and 
Defra have already attended screenings. Obama's think tank, the 
Center for American Progress, screened in Washington on 29 April 2009 
and there are screenings booked at the World Bank, EPA (Environmental 
Protection Agency) and at the Global Humanitarian Forum (hosted by 
Kofi Annan).

Live Webcast Event The RSA (Royal Society of Arts) will host an 
interactive debate on May 22nd at 9pm at their London HQ. Indie 
screenings around the country will be able to log on to the live 
webstream from the RSA and ask questions of director Franny 
Armstrong, climate writer George Monbiot and Richard Betts, Head of 
Climate Impacts at the MET office. There will also be an exclusive 
video report from the Vice President of the Maldives, the first 
country to commit to going carbon neutral in ten years (an 
announcement they made at the premiere of The Age of Stupid in March 
- see below).


CONTACTS & LINKS
Press Queries. Daniel Vockins: 02073886688 or 07761290176 
or <mailto:daniel at ageofstupid.net>daniel at ageofstupid.net
Hold Your Own 
Screening. <http://www.indiescreenings.net/>www.indiescreenings.net
The Age of Stupid. <http://www.ageofstupid.net/>www.ageofstupid.net
High Res 
Photos. <http://www.ageofstupid.net/pr_resources>www.ageofstupid.net/pr_resources
Torchbox (software 
developers). <http://www.torchbox.com/>www.torchbox.com, Olly 
Willans: 01608811870


NOTES TO EDITORS

The Age of Stupid
- launched at the biggest simultaneous film premiere in history on 
March 15th, with a solar-powered cinema tent in Leicester Square 
broadcasting the green carpet shenanigans live to 64 cinemas round 
the 
country: <http://www.ageofstupid.net/premiere>www.ageofstupid.net/premiere. 
Attendees included Gillian Anderson, Pete Postlethwaite, Ed Miliband, 
Ken Livingstone
- had the highest screen average in its opening week, beating Julia's 
Roberts' Duplicity, the Lesbian Vampire Killers and Slumdog 
Millionaire
- was funded by a unique "crowd-funding" scheme whereby 228 people 
and groups (including a hockey team and a women's health centre) 
invested between £500 and £35,000 (total budget £450,000). They each 
own a % of the profits, as do the 104 crew members who all worked at 
massively reduced wages. This scheme meant that Spanner Films owns 
all the rights and is able to set up Indie Screenings
- Stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living 
alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 
2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the 
chance?
- Was Directed by Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out), 37, and 
exec-produced by John Battsek (Oscar-winning One Day In September, In 
The Shadow of the Moon, LIve Forever)
- Received stunning reviews from the UK press. Including:

"I hate this film. I felt as if I was watching all my own excuses for 
not doing anything about climate change being stripped away from me. 
And it's tender and funny and wise as well.Can I just pretend I never 
saw it?"
William Nicholson, Oscar-nominated writer of Shadowlands and Gladiator

"I defy anyone to come out and not feel like they've got to make a difference."
Caroline Lucas, Leader of the UK Green Party

"It is not a film to make you happy. It's a film to make you sit back 
and think 'What is my role on this planet?'"
Ashok Sinha, Director of Stop Climate Chaos coalition

"Every single person in the country should be forcibly made to watch 
this film".
Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London


Not Stupid
- is the action campaign of The Age of Stupid, supported by 
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Stop Climate Chaos, WWF and all the 
major climate campaigns. The aim is to reach 250 million viewers and 
inspire them all to become active citizens, pressurising the world's 
politicans to make the right deal at the UN climate summit in 
Copenhagen in December 2009, where the successor to the Kyoto Treaty 
will be finalised and the future of our species decided.

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