Boxoffice Pro - February 2020

INDIE INFLUENCERS
VERY VALIDATING
“While Zeitgeist
Films has gotten
some nice attention
over the years in
the press and anniversary
retrospectives,
including one
at MoMA for our
20th anniversary,
we, as co-founders
and co-presidents,
personally have
really not received
this type of recognition.
It feels
very validating and
deserved—to celebrate
our passing
a true endurance
test of staying
the course in this
business for over
31 years.”
at the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York, which
opened my eyes to every sort of film. I met a group
of cinephiles, most of whom worked at the Bleecker
and some of whom are in significant positions in
the industry now. After the Bleecker (and its sister
theater, the Carnegie Hall Cinema, both out of
business) I moved to the West Coast and worked in
the San Francisco office of Landmark Theatres with
Gary Meyer and Jan Klingelhofer. If there were any
holes still to be filled in my film knowledge (and
there were plenty) Gary and Jan did their best to
fill them, and I felt that Landmark was the best
film school I ever could have attended. After a few
years I returned to New York and met a person who
was going to be very important to me, Don Krim
at Kino, who Dennis Doros so movingly evoked
last year. I didn’t work for Don but I did meet him
when I first came to New York, after I had applied
to and not heard from dozens of distribution
companies, and he encouraged me and remained
a fast friend until he died far too young in 2011.
Another person who was a huge influence on me
was Fran Spielman, with whom I worked for three
years as her assistant booker at First Run Features.
Fran was a character, to say the least. I can still hear
her froggy voice, her cigarette dangling (she stopped
smoking eventually); and her deal-making prowess
and complete and utter honesty were an inspiration
to me. I left First Run in 1987, and Emily and I
started Zeitgeist in 1988.
How did you meet each other, and what
was behind the decision to create Zeitgeist in
1988?
Emily & Nancy: We met each other through
our jobs in the late-ish 1980s and we got to be
closer friends when we attended the Telluride Film
Festival together in 1987. We had been working
as an independent film booker (Emily) and
independently working with art houses and media
centers on their programming (Nancy) and it just
so happened that someone offered some office
space in Jersey City which we could share. We
went to visit the space, which we didn’t take, but
over lunch in Jersey City we ended up deciding
to start a distribution company together. We are
both very independent people and chafed against
working for others, so that was the first catalyst for
wanting to be on our own. We also felt that at the
time, in 1988, most independent films were not
being served particularly well, that there were not
many companies that could take a limited number
of films and give laser-like attention to creating
the best materials, getting the best playdates, and
working closely with the filmmakers for their and
our mutual satisfaction. We had relationships
with a few filmmakers we thought were brilliant
and wanted to take a very hands-on approach to
releasing their movies. We each pooled the lowest
five-figure amount you can imagine and through
a friend found a tiny office in a Village apartment
house. Another friend custom made us a desk that
had a hole on the side to fit around the contour of
the steam pipe along the wall. We sat across that
desk from each other and started distributing a
film from Tony Buba called Lightning over Braddock.
Zeitgeist Films was born.
What were the lessons you took from those
early years in the business as you were launching
Zeitgeist?
Emily & Nancy: We decided from the
beginning to only take five or six films a year, so
we could really give care and attention to each
project and filmmaker. We were always scrupulously
honest and developed a reputation that
has certainly sustained us over 31 years in a very
tough business. Because we never had huge financial
resources, in fact most of our first films were
“service deals,” we had to be very creative and
economical with our campaigns and we learned
to spend appropriately. We tried very hard not to
lose money on a film, which is really another way
of saying “don’t overpay and don’t overspend.”
We also never took a film we didn’t love in
some way. This of course led us to sometimes lose
a film that could have made us money, although
who could really know how things would pan out?
But it helped us to keep our eye on what really
mattered, working with filmmakers and projects
we selected, releasing films that meant something
to us. If there is any secret sauce to how we ran
our business, this is probably a prime ingredient.
What have been your most notable professional
highlights at Zeitgeist?
Emily & Nancy: The most notable of many
highlights was our Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Nowhere in Africa in 2003.
That wonderful movie went on to make $6 million
at the box office (the highest-grossing foreign
film that year). We had another great success
with the Canadian documentary The Corporation,
which grossed $2 million in the U.S. In 2010 we
released Bill Cunningham New York and broke
some house records at Film Forum for opening
weekend. That film went on to make $1.5 million.
There are many other notable highlights that in-
20 / FEBRUARY 2020