Filmmakers Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles with protagonist Sônia Braga at the IFC Center for a Q&A session on Sunday, March 8, 2020. Photo credit: Kino Lorber.
By Pilar Dirickson Garrett
On March 6, 2020, Brazilian directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ highly-anticipated new feature Bacurau opened at Film at Lincoln Center to eager New York audiences. The expectations where high for the Cannes’ Jury Prize winner after having already dominated the Brazilian market with a $2.5 million sweep. All signs pointed to the start of a successful national rollout in theaters across the United States: with such glowing reviews as IndieWire’s David Ehrlich calling the film “a gloriously demented (and lightly psychedelic) Western that starts in outer space and ends with Udo Kier being hunted by a ghost,” it seemed impossible that it wouldn’t be.
Directors Mendonça Filho and Dornelles and star Sonia Braga were in town for a packed slate of Q&As and appearances at venues across the city. Cinema Tropical hosted a cocktail reception on Tuesday, March 10 to celebrate the release, a mixer attended by the filmmakers, industry players, local Latin American and arthouse film buffs, and David Byrne. But already there were whispers in the corridors…should we ask our guests to refrain from hugging and giving the customary kiss on each cheek, as is the Brazilian way? Should we put up some sort of sign suggesting the then-lesser-understood concept of “social distancing”?
It all seemed rather far-fetched, and like something that might fit better in the world of the film itself — a genre-bending sci-fi thriller with obvious but loose ties to contemporary reality that nevertheless felt “just absurd enough” to not happen in real life. The novel coronavirus was by that point already snaking its way through New York City, but the surreality of the pending global situation only seemed to lend itself to the general atmosphere induced by Bacurau. And wouldn’t putting a face on something that didn’t yet feel wholly imminent, let alone real, make for a pretty somber party? We all know what happened next. Within forty-eight hours, theater after theater turned off their house lights. Broadway went dark. The streets emptied. We promised colleagues that we’d reconvene before the end of the month.
So, the new releases got pulled. And then… nothing. The buzz that surrounded Bacurau after its one short week in theaters hung in the air. The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis had called the film “an exhilarating fusion of high and low…at once ordinary and otherworldly.” The film was covered, emphatically and excitedly, in industry publications across the gamut: the usual platforms but also in Vogue, Art Forum, Interview Magazine, and the Rolling Stones, breaking down walls and provoking conversation in all directions. The release simply couldn’t disappear; the energy, and the film’s politically-charged message, couldn’t just get lost in the madness and delirium we suddenly found ourselves in.
So Kino Lorber, the venerable New York-based distributor of high-quality, mostly festival circuit and arthouse titles, made a quick pivot to keep the release afloat, and in the process ended up making major strides in the industry. On March 19, the company launched Kino Marquee — a platform that would allow them to put the film online while simultaneously honoring the company’s existing relationships with arthouses across the country. Out of absolute necessity, an entirely new streaming model was born; one that has become the prototype for the virtual cinema experience that now, precisely one year later, has become industry standard during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bypassing the limitations traditionally imposed by in-person theatrical releases, Kino Marquee allowed the company to offer far more titles for far longer periods. One of their primary goals, Kino Lorber announced, was “to emulate the moviegoing experience as much as possible, enabling movie audiences to support their local theaters by paying to view films digitally.” On top of this, chairman and CEO of the company Richard Lorber added that this model was “great for films, especially independent films, that often receive rave reviews but struggle to find long-standing theatrical venues.”
The entire structure was meant to be a win-win between the distributor, the theaters, and the audience — the films stay online longer and have more chance to seep into the public imagination, the theaters stay afloat through split revenue with the distributor, and the audience has more opportunity to see the films they might not have had time to catch in person within the traditional two-week screening window. “Through Kino Marquee, films like Bacurau [are] able to enjoy an audience while still retaining an exclusivity that they’d lose on a VOD platform,” Lorber explained.
By the end of March, Kino Lorber had already partnered with upwards of 60 theaters across the country and just days later another 150 had signed on. Almost immediately, other industry players began re-formatting existing platforms or launched altogether new at-home theatrical options, many helmed by other notable independent distribution companies. While Kino Marquee kicked off to give a home to Kino Lorber’s most awaited titles, other companies followed suit in order to give their own a fighting chance in an uncertain new terrain; to get them back on the market and in front of audiences. In the case of Bacurau, the innovation has certainly paid off: the film has gone on to be included on virtually every “Best of 2020” list imaginable and is currently in the running to receive an Independent Spirit Award in the category for Best International Film, a feat that most certainly wouldn’t have been possible without the sustained public exposure afforded by its time on Kino Marquee.
One year since the launch of the platform, Kino Lorber’s Senior VP of Theatrical and Non-theatrical Distribution and Acquisition Wendy Lidell looks back at the achievements of the past twelve months: “We were all absolutely devastated when theaters shut down six days into the U.S. release of Bacurau,” she notes, “but we took inspiration from the valiant townspeople of that small Brazilian village. We too refused to be wiped off the map, and we persisted by any means necessary. We are proud of the success we made of virtual cinema, but I can sincerely say that I don’t think this would have happened if the film that launched Kino Marquee was not a film as powerful as Bacurau.”
Although numbers do show that there’s no substitute for the physical customer — or the physical moviegoing experience, for that matter — they also indicate that combined virtual-theatrical returns could end up in the same ballpark as a full, in-person theatrical release. But for now, and thanks to the Brazilian wild Western that just couldn’t be kept down, theaters are keeping their figurative doors open and the movies have found homes in our homes. The new normal of high-quality, cinematic streaming has swept the industry, and it probably won’t be leaving us anytime soon.
