Oscars boost
documentary
firm's prestige

LOS ANGELES - When “Born Into Brothels” won the best documentary Oscar on Sunday night, it was the culmination of specialty film distributor ThinkFilm’s three-year love affair with nonfiction movies.

From its first 2003 documentary release, the Oscar-nominated sleeper hit “Spellbound,” which grossed $6 million, to last year’s Mongolian-language “The Story of the Weeping Camel” ($2 million gross), also Oscar-nominated, to its first Oscar win with “Born Into Brothels,” ThinkFilm has clearly earned the moniker “Docus ’R’ Us.”

Not one to mess with a winning formula, ThinkFilm theatrical distribution chief Mark Urman admits to chasing the documentary brand identification: “We don’t want to do documentaries exclusively. But we do want to be thought of as the go-to company for all important documentaries. We’re now getting our pick of the strongest docus. It’s feeding itself.”

Also jumping on the documentary bandwagon is lawyer John Sloss of Cinetic Media, who sold “Spellbound” to ThinkFilm. “We consider them to be as good as anyone out there at maximizing docus,” he says, “at a time when docus have shown themselves to be considerably more valuable than anyone thought was possible.”

As a stand-alone indie, ThinkFilm has more flexibility in acquiring nonfiction features -- many of which are financed by cable outlets like HBO -- than its studio competitors, who usually want to buy all rights. ThinkFilm released nine documentaries last year, and will release 10 in the next year, including the wine industry expose “Mondovino.” It also has scheduled two high-profile summer counterprogrammers, the self-financed Sundance-winning sports documentary “Murderball” and the profanely hilarious Sundance acquisition, “The Aristocrats.” The company has slotted only two fiction features on its 2005 release schedule.

Urman, who is based in New York, discovered “Born Into Brothels” at Sundance last year. The account of how a group of children of Calcutta, India, prostitutes were aided by learning photography won the Documentary Audience Award. Urman had assumed that “Born Into Brothels” would immediately air on HBO, one of its financiers, but when he contacted the filmmakers, he discovered that they had retained a theatrical release window.

After failing to land several distributors, including Miramax Films and New Line Cinema, “Born Into Brothels” filmmakers Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski finally turned to ThinkFilm, even though they were afraid that the distributor had too many nonfiction features on its plate. “Being able to give the movie the attention it would need was a big concern,” Kauffman says.

Urman watched in amazement as the film scarfed up one festival award after another. Seattle. Atlanta. Cleveland. Full Frame. Sydney. Festivals became the main release strategy behind the film. “It kept winning either the jury or audience prize,” he recalls. “It was not a hot and sexy docu like ’Super Size Me,’ but it was both a critical success and a crowd pleaser. We needed both to do what we wanted to do -- land an Oscar nomination.”

It was a bold decision to hold the opening of “Born Into Brothels” until Dec. 8, almost a year after its world premiere. “It was during the single most competitive quarter,” Urman says, “against all the most important, serious, prestigious, awards-caliber films.”

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