We are happy to announce some very exciting news …
Today we signed a contract with Documentary Educational Resources (DER) to distribute two of our films: Acting Like A Thief, and Mahasweta Devi: Witness, Advocate, Writer. It was Shashwati’s film about Mahasweta Devi that got us involved with these issues, and because of Mahasweta Devi’s long time commitment to DNT rights, the two films make an excellent package for schools. DER is one of the foremost educational and anthropological film distributors in the world, and we are thrilled to have them promoting our work!
One of our biggest concerns in signing this contract was that Acting Like A Thief continue to be available as a free internet download for individuals and activist organizations, especially within India where people are unlikely to be able to pay for the DVD. I argued that there have recently been a number of examples of books and films being offered for free over the net, where such free distribution actually boosted sales rather than hurt them. I was very worried that a well established institution like DER would not be willing to experiment with such new distribution models, but we were very lucky. They assured us that the film would continue to remain a freely available internet download for individual users. We couldn’t imagine finding a better company to distribute our work!
