Opinion: The streaming age is making it easier than ever to discover great movies
Brett Ridgeman and Anthony Lurasetti in"Dragged Across Concrete." By Sonny Bunch Sonny Bunch Bio Follow April 3 at 10:05 AM I previously explained why physical media has the edge over digital when it comes to making sure you have access to your movies for years to come. But streaming and digital certainly have a place in the film-watching, and filmmaking, ecosystem: There’s no better way for the cinematically curious to explore than via streaming and on-demand services.
“Kanopy is basically the Netflix for public libraries,” said Cara Cook Sonnier, digital services librarian for the Alexandria Library. “A lot of the content on Kanopy is not what you would find on Netflix, however. So, we wouldn’t have the latest ‘Avenger’ movie or Oscars. However, they do have Criterion Collection and the Great Courses, a lot of independent and foreign films.”
“If you have library cards at multiple libraries, you can combine your credits,” she said. “If you’re an Alexandria resident you can also get a D.C. library card, you can get a Fairfax County library card, so if you have those and you want to team them up, you can do both.” “It’s a signal to the audience member at home that this is a movie that someone believed in it enough to put it in a couple of theaters, give it a chance and also make it available to you online or in your home,” said Sonnier, the chief executive of production company Cinestate. “We’re able to charge premium VOD pricing, and be in the ‘In theaters now' folder if we are in approximately 15 to 25 theaters around the country.” That premium is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, all told.
Treat yourself to “The Standoff at Sparrow Creek,” a recent offering from the studio. Despite being made on a shoestring budget, writer/director Henry Dunham’s picture about a militia attempting to figure out which of its members engaged in a mass shooting at a police funeral is shot and lit with verve and style. The coterie of character actors Dunham and Sonnier assembled sell the drama, making “Standoff” feel larger than its setting: a couple of rooms in a lumber warehouse.
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