Category: regeneration

A new online system allows film lovers and local communities to bring special film events to theaters near them.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could reconfigure the moviegoing experience, if you go out to see a film and feel relatively confident that the people you’d be seeing it with would be were sufficiently invested in the show that they’d treat it -- and you -- with the appropriate attention, decorum and courtesy?

Heaven knows the modern multiplex experience -- a torture of in-theater advertising, unrepentant texting and telephoning, noisy snacking, and various other indicators of impending cultural collapse -- isn’t like that any more.  And that’s without even factoring in the quality and monotony of the films that you can choose from, which, as we all know, are rarely as good as the best of what’s on TV on a given night.

But now there may be another way to go to the movies, to see films with a like-spirited community, to select what you’d like to see and when you’d like to see it, and to be joined in the screening by others, known to you or not, who share a similar passion for the same sort of thing, no matter how unusual or specialized it may be.

That’s part of the idea behind TUGG,  a new service that combines crowd-funding, like Kickstarter, with the build-your-own-entertainment model of video-on-demand -- but in a movie theater. With relationships with movie theaters all across the country and a library of more than 400 feature-length films, including new independent films, classic Hollywood and foreign movies, dramas, documentaries, and genre pictures, Tugg allows film lovers or people with a common interest in a particular subject matter to create a screening at a local theater at a time and date of their choosing.  

The system was developed over the past two years in Austin, Texas, and it has been out in the world in beta format since the South by Southwest festival in March.

In mere months, Tugg has been used across the US to spread new independent films outside of the traditional channels of distribution, to showcase small films that can’t necessarily sustain an weeklong run at a theater in certain communities, and to combine social issue campaigns with nights out at the movies.  In April, an Earth Day screening of the documentary "One Day on Earth" resulted in 1800 tickets being sold through TUGG to screenings in 11 different cities; one Los Angeles theater alone had 400 attendees.

It’s a truly simple system:  You create an account on Tugg and connect it to your social networks (Facebook, Google+, or Twitter), select a movie from Tugg’s library, choose a date and time, and select from among the theaters in your area that work with Tugg (the list includes many Regal and Cinemark theaters as well as local houses such as Portland’s Living Room Theaters).  An invitation goes out to the people on your network, who can then reserve a seat for the event with a credit card.  When a minimum percentage of the seats has been reserved, the screening is guaranteed as a go and credit cards are charged for the tickets.  And then you and your friends (and friends of your friends) attend just as you would any ordinary movie screening -- with the novelty that everyone in the theater is connected by the fibers of social networks as well as by the desire to see this film at this particular time with this particular group.

Portland has already seen one successful Tugg event -- a screening of “#ReGENERATION,” a documentary about the contemporary wave of social activism among young people, held at the Living Room Theaters earlier this month.  Chris Baker, a Lake Oswego native who co-produced the film, says that he and his colleagues immediately recognized that Tugg was particularly well suited to a film like theirs about new ways of imagining society.

“We heard about Tugg through our distributors,” Baker explains, “and we decided it was a great way to promote our project.”  In Portland, Baker and company had a triple-threat of promotional tools:  a strong interest in the subject matter of the film, a community which is already very supportive of independent movies, and Baker’s own web of personal connections.  “Being born and raised in Portland,” he says, “I reached out to several people within the community to help spread the word.  And of course I had some family and friends take part in the screening.”

“#ReGENRATION” is coming back for another bite of the apple in Portland, on June 6 (details). But another screening, of the documentary “El Bulli,” about the famed chef Ferran Adrià, was due to be held at the Living Room but failed to garner enough ticket reservations in time for the film to be shown.

Tugg co-founder Nicolas Gonda explains that, so far, the system works just as well for classic or narrative films as for new and issue-driven movies.  “The films we’ve shown have really run the gamut, from classics like ‘Dr. Strangelove’ and ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly,’ to recent releases like ‘The Tree of Life’ and cult films like ‘The FP.’”

According to Gonda, “It may not make sense for a theater to program a weeklong run of a small independent film with no marketing budget attached.  But in almost every community there is potential for like-minded individuals or organizations to facilitate a one-off screening through Tugg.”

The films are principally shown in the digital DCP format, but Tugg can also work with 35mm film prints and other formats.  Currently, Tugg is in negotiations with major distributors to get even more films -- both back-catalogue and current releases -- into its system, and is seeking more theatrical venues in more communities as potential host sites.

“People nationwide are using Tugg to bring their communities together,” says Gonda. “We’ve received feedback from Tugg users who say it’s particularly rewarding to share a film with a theater packed full of your friends, family and fellow film fans.”

A new service lets you and your friends book a film in a local theater -- kind of like Kickstarter meets movies-on-demand, but on the big screen.

"#ReGeneration" is a film about the Occupy movement and, as the film's website says, "the challenges facing today’s youth and young adults as they attempt to engage on a myriad of social and political issues."  It plays tonight at the Living Room Theaters in a one-shot-only screening coinciding with similar events around the country.

That may or may not be newsy, depending on your interest in the film or the subject matter.  What is newsy, though, is the means through which the screening was arranged. By using a new service called Tugg, Portlanders who wanted to see "#ReGeneration" paid for their tickets in advance, in a Kickstarter-style model, and guaranteed sufficient interest to get the theater to promise to book the film. 

Tugg allows you, your friends, and people who share your interests to pick a movie, pick a theater, pick a date and time, and watch a movie together, on the big screen.  Currently, there's a campaign in progress on Tugg to bring the film "El Bulli," a documentary about the revolutionary Spanish restaurant, to Living Room Theaters on May 17. 

Have a look at that screening -- or at the Tugg model in general -- and share your thoughts about whether it sounds like something you can imagine pursuing.