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We Like Stirring Up The Pot
We are not owned, or have any ties to large media organization. We have no desire other then to help independent filmmakers learn how to take advantage of streaming PPV distribution, get their films seen and to provide the public access to a high quality source of alternative information and entertainment.
We are opposed to centralized control over the distribution and consumption of independently produced films at the expense of the artist. We do not take any percentage when your film when sold and believe filmmakers should be paid first.
We are are a small group of independent filmmakers who share a passion for creating stories in film and
have a bit of angst about the lack of control and opportunity filmmakers have over the distribution and sale of their films.
We have banded together to create "The Filmmakers Channel" as a way of
filmmakers, helping other filmmakers
Anthony Dellaflora
former Journalist, filmmaker, Co-Founder duke city shootout film festival  Like many of you, I sort of stumbled into my career as a filmmaker. As a professional writer, I always liked to tell stories and back in 1995, I found a story that just had to be told -- as a documentary.
Working with a filmmaker friend, we managed to cobble together "High Strange New Mexico" over the course of a couple of years of filming and editing. This story about the UFO subculture in my home state hit the film festival circuit, with some success. The urge to make movies became stronger, and when I could take time from my day job as a journalist, my partner and I worked on several other doc projects.
Then in 2000, I helped launch Flicks on 66, the world's first script-to-screen competition for short films. I became an executive producer of what is now known as the Duke City Shootout, helping writers and filmmakers learn the art and craft of shooting narrative films. We shot, edited and premiered the films, in a week. I got to see the passion we unleashed in others as we helped them get their stories onto the screen, with the help of digital technology.
Finally, in 2003, the desire to devote my time to telling stories in a new medium got the best of me, and I retired from journalism after 25 years.
I've learned over the years that "independent filmmaker" is just a term for a jack of all trades. Not only do you have to know how to make movies, you have to also know something about getting them in front of other people, in other words, marketing, distribution and sales. It's hard work, even if you do it as a hobby.
When Dan Latrimurti offered to relieve me of the tedium of selling DVDs from my home office and spending countless hours in line at the post office mailing them, I gave it a chance. Dan posted "High Strange" online, using Maxcast, and sent out a few press releases online about the 10th anniversary release. Two weeks later, we had a nibble from UFO-TV in California. "High Strange" had found a home, and I now have international distribution for the film. In the meantime, I continue to sell streaming views over the Internet and build up my audience.
From that experience came the idea for The Filmmakers Channel. I knew that there were thousands of filmmakers out there, looking for the same thing I was -- getting their movie in front of lots of people, recouping some of their costs, and maybe landing that coveted distribution deal. Well, it can happen. I'm proof.
Dan Latrimurti
corporate refugee, entrepreneur, Co-Founder  After a 30 years in corporate America, traveling around the globe as a software trainer and system integrator I was told I was too expensive to keep. Suddenly I found my plans for making a graceful exit that included sitting casually from a house built on the 28 acres I own in the hills of New Mexico had evaporated.
So I followed my instincts, my heart and a native inventive desire to invent and to be the one with the stick in the pot.
The result was a meeting with Tony and the rest is somewhat history. I am not a filmmaker but with a filmmakers spirit. In the creative equation between Tony and myself I am the anarchist that rails against convention, complacency, injustice and thrives on inventing solutions that empower people and provide them greater personal freedom, liberty and prosperity.
I fervently believe The Filmmakers Channel is all these things. Since meeting Tony I have become an independent filmmaker fan and believe that all the 'real' news and stories are found within them and the day is rapidly coming where the laptop is the remote control.
Just like story telling is an obsessive passion for filmmakers, The Filmmakers Channel is my obsessive passion because it not only liberates and empowers filmmakers but can be in itself a powerful force in the democratization of media.
Dan Latrimurti
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