"Our target audience is mainly universities and other educational institutions and organizations," says Austin filmmaker and New Day Acquisitions Co-Chair Heather Courtney (Los Trabajadores, Letters From the Other Side). "Kat was actually already doing that before she became a part of the New Day collective."
Founded in 1971 by Liane Brandon and Amalie Rothschild to be, specifically, the first film distributor created "by and for the filmmakers," New Day's business model presaged the now-fashionable DIY distro techniques seen in guerrilla street marketing teams and online via iFilm, UndergroundFilm.org, and, yes, even YouTube. Its original intent, to act as a sort of proto-feminist correction to the nominally available Hollywood distribution and exhibition channels that then as now took a seriously hands-off approach to anything remotely controversial, is still evident in its roster of 100-plus filmmakers and its mammoth library of films, as are its Sixties-era roots: Members vote on incoming films, hold rotating key positions, and "share the costs, the work, the successes, and the hard times."
More information and a complete history is available at www.newday.com.
