THE DISTRIBUTION BULLETIN ISSUE #48
By Peter Broderick
Attention Guinness World Records:
THE WISDOM OF TRAUMA was viewed over 4 million times during its 7-day global virtual premiere. The revenues in the first week were more than enough to cover the film’s entire budget and fully finance the filmmakers’ next film.
This unprecedented release was designed and executed completely independently by the filmmakers and their teammates. No distributors were needed, and none were involved.
Among the hundreds of films I’ve consulted on, this feature documentary, with its fresh and empathetic analysis of trauma, has the most timely and useful lessons for independent filmmakers trying to reach a global audience.
This Special Report reveals how this unprecedented global independent release succeeded. Things are very grim in the crumbling Old World of documentary distribution. THE WISDOM OF TRAUMA blazed a thrilling trail in the New World of documentary distribution.
The Team
The story begins with a meeting not a master plan. The dynamic husband-and-wife team of Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo met Dr. Gabor Maté in late 2017 and were inspired to make a film about him and his work.
Zaya and Maurizio were very impressed by Dr. Maté and his expertise on addiction and trauma. A charismatic speaker and best-selling author, Dr. Maté co-developed a therapeutic approach called Compassionate Inquiry, that is studied by therapists, physicians, and counselors.
Zaya and Maurizio are the leaders of Science and Nonduality (SAND), the 501(c)(3) nonprofit they co-founded to bring members together for live and virtual events with visionaries, scientists, spiritual teachers, and artists. After 15 years, SAND’s membership had grown to more than 60,000 people.
The filmmakers shot and edited the film over 3 ½ years. THE WISDOM OF TRAUMA presents Dr. Maté’s compelling understanding of trauma. He sees trauma as the invisible force that shapes the way we live, the way we love, and the way we make sense of the world.
Planning for the release began in April 2021. Zaya and Maurizio repurposed their small SAND team to support the global virtual release of the film. Their 7-member team included associates located in Argentina, Poland, Brazil, Austria, and the U.S. While each of their teammates worked part time, Zaya and Maurizio worked more than full time (as they had on the production of the film). Altogether the team had a wide range of complementary skills.
The one thing missing was professional marketing expertise. Zaya and Maurizio were determined to find a great partner. They approached Richard Taubinger, CEO of Conscious Marketer, whose clients have included Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and other conscious luminaries. While he had extensive experience marketing books, Taubinger had little or no experience marketing films. Zaya and Maurizio were sure he was the right fit and convinced him to work with them.
The Summit
The next decision Zaya and Maurizio made was also inspired. They decided to build a major online summit around their film’s premiere. They had never done this before and were unaware of any other filmmakers who had. They had previous experience organizing conferences, courses, and small summits online. They were already connected to many speakers and were only one degree of separation from many others. They had the expertise and team to handle all the logistics.
Highlighting your documentary at key conferences can be a very effective way to build awareness in core audiences (see THE DISTRIBUTION BULLETIN ISSUE #35). The goal of this strategy is to alert conference attendees (leaders and their organizations) to your film and its potential impact.
Instead of attending annual conferences put on by others, the WISDOM team organized its own Summit/conference. They were able to get an impressive roster of leading authorities on trauma from around the world to participate, as well as musicians (including Sia) and actors who had previously experienced trauma.
The Launch - June 8-14,2021
The Summit and the world premiere of the film coincided. Zaya and Maurizio had modest expectations for their film. They thought of the Summit as the main course and the film as dessert. Their initial target audience was American therapists. They had no expectation that their film would attract a large, diverse worldwide audience of nonprofessionals.
The first indication of what was to come was the exceptional response to the Facebook ads highlighting the upcoming release of the film. On June 8 the Summit began and the film premiered. It was made available worldwide directly and exclusively from the filmmakers’ website (using Vimeo for delivery). The film exploded into the world. Viewers recommended it to friends and associates, who were able to watch it immediately. It went viral on Day 1.
The demand to see the film from around the world was so great, Zaya and Maurizio had to scramble to expand their team. In the first week they received 16,000 customer service requests. By adding individuals from Singapore and the Ukraine to a team that was already spread across the globe, they were able to respond more quickly to requests from far flung time zones.
During its 7-day virtual premiere, WISDOM was viewed more than 4 million times. The number of people who watched the film was even greater, since it was often viewed by groups of 2 or more. It was watched in 236 countries and territories (out of the 252 listed by Google Ads).
Dr. Maté facilitates a therapy session
The Donation Model
The filmmakers made a third inspired decision. They created a donation model.
They were advised to make the film available for free. Standard operating procedure in the summit marketing world is a free offer followed by the upsell of related products. But Zaya and Maurizio resisted, remembering the warning from the documentary THE SOCIAL DILEMMA, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
They were unwilling to treat their viewers as products. Instead, the suggested donation to watch the film was $20. People could pay what they wished, even $0 was acceptable. Zaya and Maurizio wanted as many people as possible to see their film, so no one was turned away, even if they donated nothing. Viewers could also buy the whole package for $189, which included over 40 hours of conversations with Dr. Maté and his guests.
By creating a “by donation” model, the filmmakers were able to achieve the best of both worlds:
- historic audience numbers
- exceptional revenues
- no one who wanted to see the film was turned away (leading to good will, good word-of-mouth, and more sign-ups)
2.5% of the 4,000,000 views attracted donations for a total of 100,000 donations. 97.5% of views were without donations for a total of 3,900,000 additional views
If they had required a $20 payment, the audience for the film would have been substantially reduced, possibly by more than 80%. If the film had been free, they would not have received revenues from 100,000 viewers. The revenues received during the film’s 7-day premiere by SAND (the filmmakers’ nonprofit) were substantial, exceeding the total cost of WISDOM plus Zaya and Maurizio’s new film.
During the Summit, there were three or four conversations every day, almost all included Dr. Maté. They were free to watch the day they were live. If you missed them on the free day, you needed to purchase access to the full Summit for $189. The film was still available 24/7 by donation.
Ads and Affiliates
The success of the film’s premiere was driven by 3 key factors:
- Facebook ads which accounted for 20-25% of views
- Affiliates which accounted for 20-25% of views
- Word-of-mouth which accounted for 50-60% of views
Facebook ads played a critical role in marketing the film. They started 6 weeks before the Summit/film premiere. They were used to test and refine marketing and to make targeting more precise.
Zaya and Maurizio devoted a lot of energy to building and maximizing their relationships with affiliates. They developed some of these relationships before they made the film. Some were formed around the Summit. Many were developed once the film was launched and took off. Altogether they worked with 20-30 major affiliates, plus another 70-80 smaller organizations and networks.
Affiliate marketing has been a key component of many of the most successful independent documentary releases, including FOOD MATTERS and HUNGRY FOR CHANGE.
The ideal affiliate is an organization or network with many members or an influential individual with many followers. The arrangement is win-win. The affiliate recommends the film to its members or followers and shares a customized link to the film’s website, where the film can be purchased (or receive a donation). In return, the filmmakers give the affiliate a substantial share (often as high as 50%) of all revenues generated by the affiliate’s customized link.
Zaya and Maurizio made the process of becoming an affiliate very simple. There was no cost to sign up. Organizations were incentivized to become affiliates by the potential to earn substantial revenues by recommending the film. The more persuasive and frequent their recommendations, the more their members or followers donated, the greater the revenues they shared.
Inmates gather for the Compassion Trauma Circle
Release Timing
Instead of a continuing release, the filmmakers limited the initial availability of WISDOM to three special event windows spread over 4 months.
Following the premiere/Summit week June 8-14, 2021, the film went dark. There was no way to watch it for another 6 weeks. The second release window was July 28 – August 1, 2021. It included a special rebroadcast of the “Talks on Trauma” Teaching Series from the Summit.
The third and final release window was October 4-10, 2021. This included a new series of conversations, Part 2 of the “Talks on Trauma” series.
Alternating shorter special event periods when the film was widely available with longer periods when it was completely unavailable made the limited opportunities to see WISDOM more urgent.
Following the third window, the film went dark again. Later that year, the film was finally made available from the WISDOM website for:
- organizations to rent the film for screenings
- individuals to stream the film. It is now available in over 30 languages (all of the translations were donated by native speakers around the world). There are also 14 websites totally translated into different languages so viewers who don’t speak English are easily able to reach the page and view the film (donating if they wish) without the barrier of the English language.
In May 2022, Zaya and Maurizio took their film and Dr. Maté on a very successful European tour, which included Prague, Berlin, Sofia, and Istanbul.
Direct Distribution
Before the launch, the filmmakers had watched more brands use the internet and social media to go directly to consumers. Instead of relying on third parties to sell their products, these brands were able to connect with individuals and turn many of them into regular customers.
Zaya and Maurizio have kept tight control of their distribution. Starting with the premiere, the film has been exclusively available to viewers to stream (not purchase) from the WISDOM website. This has enabled them to:
- build an audience around the film that will be supportive of their future work
- dramatically expand the membership of SAND, their organization
- directly receive 100% of donations and other revenues
So far, they have only made a few exceptions to this approach. They licensed the film to The Video Project for educational sales.
To maintain overall control of their distribution, they have had to fight an ongoing battle with pirates. While piracy is little or no problem for most documentary filmmakers, the spectacular success of WISDOM quickly attracted pirates around the world. Maurizio was determined to fight them off and has succeeded after too many hours of tedious efforts. He has already had it taken down from YouTube over 600 times and remains vigilant.
14 Take Aways
WISDOM is succeeding beyond the filmmakers’ wildest dreams.
It has reached a larger, wider virtual audience faster than any documentary that I know of.
It has been and continues to be very financially successful.
It has enabled the filmmakers to build a global audience for their work.
It has deepened the world’s understanding of trauma and provided comfort and inspiration to countless individuals.
Zaya and Maurizio designed and implemented a distribution strategy customized to their film, their audiences, and their goals. It included many cutting-edge elements.
I recommend that documentary filmmakers designing proactive distribution strategies review this checklist and consider which elements will be the best fit.
Zaya and Maurizio tested a range of new approaches that worked for them and will work for many other filmmakers.
Zaya Benazzo and Maurizio Benazzo,
co-producers and co-directors of THE WISDOM OF TRAUMA
The Future
So far, WISDOM has been viewed over 7 million times. If an average of 1.5 viewers have watched it each time, that would mean over 10 million people have seen it.
The WISDOM website is the only place to watch the movie online. 50,000 to 100,000 people are visiting the website every month. Many are streaming the film for a suggested donation of $7.99 or more or less. Many are buying THE WISDOM OF TRAUMA All Access Pass, which includes the film, a course, and many talks, for a suggested price of $197.
The SAND mailing list grew from 60,000 names before WISDOM to 900,000 after WISDOM. The filmmakers have removed inactive subscribers, so it is now down to 600,000.
Zaya and Maurizio are already in production on their new fully financed film. Their global audience awaits!
- Peter Broderick
© 2023 Peter Broderick