The biggest challenge for independent filmmakers is to find their audience and reach out to it.
We're constantly told about the wonders of social networks and the miracles they perform in helping us to deliver our message to the thirsty auduence, while at the same time cutting off the middlemen (distributors, programming editors, festivals curators etc.).

 While all of the above is true, the reality is more complex: many filmmakers deal with niche topics. Sometimes our films are difficult to absorb, being either too artistic or depressing.
In addition, not all of us are good at Internet Marketing. It's a skill, gift or profession not everyone masters.
[offhand remark: we use "we" while writing about filmmakers since Movie Discovery was founded by active documentary filmmakers] 

  The Good News

Our audience exists. It might reside down the graph of the  Long Tail, but it's there. And as thin as the tail gets, there are still millions of people who are interested in our films.
How do we get to them?

Movie Discovery's Recommendation Engine

 We developed an engine which helps lecturers, teachers, researchers or anyone preparing for a presentation and wants to combine a video in it, to find the best fitting film (or video) for his or her lecture or presentation.
Users of the engine simply paste in a text which describes their topic of presentation and get a list of matching films from Movie Discovery's catalog (we also work with other VOD providers).

Which text can be pasted in the engine?
Anything which describes best the presentation. It can be an abstract of an academic acrticle or a paragraph copied from Wikipedia, as long as it describes the topic in a sufficient and exhaustive manner.

Look at the engine on the right. Isn't it elegant?! And it's Ozone friendly too. 
Note the complex algorithm in red thin lines.

 

What Else

Besides that, we're a VOD platform, working on a revenue share basis.

We offer website visitors subscriptions or the options to rent or buy the movie files (Download to Own). 

We take care of all the technical details including page layout and editing and can handle or assist in movie encoding if needed, so filmmakers don't have to deal with technicalities.

We do not require exclusive distribution rights.