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Disrupting Sundance & Helping Filmmakers with Slamdance Co-Founder Dan Mirvish
SPECIAL SUNDANCE EDITION of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast
In our journeys through the Sundance Film Festival, we ran into the David to the Sundance Goliath, Slamdance Co-Founder Dan Mirvish. Dan has been a rebel, author, filmmaker, disruptor, festival creator, and true indie film hustler.
This interview is one of the most entertaining I’ve ever done. Dan Mirvish tells stories of how he challenged the Oscars, had Robert Redford call him “a parasite” and why the best deals are done in a hot tub. Here’s a bit on Dan Mirvish:
A co-founder of the upstart Slamdance Film Festival, Dan Mirvish is also an active director, screenwriter, and producer. Labeled a “cheerful subversive” by The New York Times, and “Hollywood’s Bad Boy” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mirvish has been named as one of Variety’s Top 50 Creatives to Watch, as well as one of Film Festival Today’s Top 25 Most Influential People in Independent Film.
Dan also has just written a new book: The Cheerful Subversive’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking: From Preproduction to Festivals and Distribution. Here’s a bit about the book.
In The Cheerful Subversive’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking, celebrated Slamdance Film Festival co-founder Dan Mirvish offers a rich exploration of the process and culture of making low-budget, independent films.
Once labeled a “cheerful subversive” by The New York Times, Mirvish shares his unfiltered pragmatic approach to scriptwriting, casting, directing, producing, managing a crew, post-production, navigating the film festival circuit, distributing your film, dealing with piracy and building a career.
Readers will learn how to game the Hollywood system to their advantage, get their films accepted by respected festivals without going broke, and utilize a broad range of media and tactics to promote and distribute their work. A companion website features behind-the-scenes interviews and footage from Dan’s films, and much more.
* Learn everything you need to know to make, promote, and distribute your independent films, with time-tested lessons and practical advice on scriptwriting, casting and directing A-list actors, financing, producing, managing a crew, editing in post, creating visual effects on a budget, and successfully navigating the film festival circuit
* Find out what it takes to become a true “cheerful subversive” and adopt new and innovative approaches to producing your films, discover hidden loopholes in the Hollywood system and festival scene, take advantage of a broad range of media formats to promote and distribute your indie films, and generally make bold moves in service of your creative work, all while staying flexible enough to pivot at a moment’s notice
* An extensive companion website features in-depth interviews with filmmakers, more than an hour of behind-the-scenes footage from Dan Mirvish’s films, festival resources, and much more
Get ready for some very entertaining knowledge bombs with Dan Mirvish.
All of these Sundance Series episodes are co-produced by Sebastian Twardosz from Circus Road Films and Media Circus.
