Hard Rain

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Charles Lyons has delivered a sky-is-falling summation piece for the N.Y. Times about the ills plaguing the independent film sector right now, and particularly poor hard-luck ThinkFilm. It's basically covering the same ground that Film Department chief Mark Gill talked about last weekend at the L.A. Film Festival.

For me, two remarks in the piece stand out.

The first is from the presidents of two free-standing independents, Kino International and Zeitgeist Films, who say that "the key to longevity is to exercise restraint in both the amount of money allotted for purchasing completed films and in how advertising dollars are spent." Yeah, guys -- instead of dropping tens of thousands on old media buys, transfer your allegiance to relatively inexpensive, bang-for-your-buck sites like HE.

The second is from publicist Nancy Willen, who's been stiffed for services rendered by ThinkFilm and Capitol Films and is now suing both. "It pains me to do this," she says. "I’ve had a long, productive working relationship with Mark Urman since early in my career. However I now have my own business and simply can't afford this."