Building a Sustainable Future for Indie Film featuring Jon Reiss & Marjan Safinia

<p>Cameron sits down with<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718505/"> <strong>Jon Reiss</strong></a> and<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0755877/"> <strong>Marjan Safinia</strong></a> to examine the structural challenges facing independent filmmaking—and why many of the assumptions that shaped the last two decades no longer hold.</p><p><a href="https://jonreiss.substack.com/"><u>Jon</u></a> is a filmmaker, author, and media strategist whose book <a href="https://thinkoutsidetheboxoffice.com/"><em>Think Outside the Box Office</em></a> has become a key resource for independent filmmakers thinking seriously about audience building and distribution. Through his company <a href="https://8above.com/"><u>8 Above</u></a>, he creates custom audience-building strategies, theatrical experiences, and digital release campaigns for independent features and documentaries—and actively distributes films himself, most recently bringing <em>The Librarians</em> to over 200 theaters. He has consulted with hundreds of filmmakers and organizations worldwide, helped run the IFP/Gotham Filmmaker Lab for a decade, and founded the 8 Above Distribution Lab to teach filmmakers how to distribute and market their work.</p><p>Marjan is an Iranian documentary filmmaker whose work—including <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385157/"><em>Seeds</em></a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278996/"><em>But You Speak Such Good English</em></a>—has played at over 100 international festivals and been broadcast across North America, Europe, and the Arab world. She is the longest-serving president of the International Documentary Association and the only woman of color to have led the organization since its founding in 1982. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts &amp; Sciences Documentary Branch and a Sundance Catalyst Fellow, she is also a board member of Chicken &amp; Egg Pictures and co-hosts <a href="https://www.d-word.com/"><u>The D-Word</u></a>, a leading online documentary community.</p><p>Jon is also the co-founder and board president of the<a href="https://www.futurefilmcoalition.org/"> <strong>Future Film Coalition</strong></a>, formed in 2025 to unite independent film professionals and organizations in building collective power, securing visibility, and shaping public policy that ensures U.S. independent filmmaking continues to flourish. Marjan is an active member of the coalition. </p><p>In this conversation, Jon and Marjan discuss how financing, distributio