Think Independent
A wine writer's advice to film writers.
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Most of wine writing, especially independent wine writing, rarely focuses on brands that we’re all aware of, like Yellow Tail, Meiomi, Barefoot, 19 Crimes, The Prisoner, or Ace of Spades. We do it sometimes, it can be enlightening, fun, and give a certain perspective on wines that are otherwise largely a branding enterprise.
But those brands don't need us to write about them.
Readers don't look to independent wine writers to talk (too much) about mainstream big brand products that can be found everywhere and whose stories are well told by their PR companies (even if not entirely trustworthy.)
Instead, independent wine writers mostly write about smaller artisanal brands, about wine countries most consumers know little to nothing about, about whether these wines are worth the price, as they can be expensive given how little of it there is and the high overhead costs to make them. These are wineries that don't have much in the way of marketing budgets. They often have to sell DTC (direct to consumer) and rely on wine club memberships and careful relationships with small distributors for their long term wellbeing.
If these independent wineries sound a little like independent films and independent theaters - ding ding ding.
Let's Talk About Personal Taste
I have long argued that it makes no sense for mega-mainstream IP to somehow be a PERSONAL favorite of any given person.
Maybe - maybe - one or two eek through to someone’s personal “best of” list, because they hit them at just the right age and they were captivated before it became the behemoth it now is. Such franchises are culturally relevant, yes. They have an impact and may even launch an entire sub-genre. But when someone looks me square in the face and tells me with full sincerity that STAR WARS is one of the most personally meaningful movies to them, I have to full-on Dr. Strangelove use my left hand to stop my right hand from slapping them.
Think of it as a metaphor for your hometown (if you have one. Military brats need not apply.) Your hometown, as a whole, is personally meaningful to you. But you also lived your own special life there, to where there are specific nooks and crannies, places or things or events that mean more to you than to most others who lived there. You wouldn't point to the main commercial intersection and say that part was the nearest and dearest to your heart. Likewise, the films that mean the most to you shouldn't be something shared by literally every other soul on the fucking planet. How could such a thing ever be personal? In a truly meaningful way?
recently posted the thing we all should have posted long ago:
She wrote:
"Here’s the thing: I have spent 15 years reading movie rec lists and so many of them are bad! They always follows the same rhythm: A domestic drama from the 80s, a queer-coded genre movie, some random indie from the mid-2010s, a canonical Western, Barry Lyndon, Crash, Possession, The Watermelon Woman, Eternal Sunshine, A New Leaf…you get it. The films are usually good; But if you’re looking for curated suggestions from another person, it’s disappointing to find a list that’s just the Roku algorithm.
…
"I am not building your taste for you. I am not assigning you clout picks for your Top 4. This list is not meant to be your new personality. It’s not even mine! This is a Frankenstein built from my own digging, personal recommendations from friends, boutique video releases, repertory screenings, and academic bibliographies. Every inclusion on the list is underseen, but the obscurity is not the point. There is no dominant tone, region, or ethos behind my choices. These films run the gamut, from narrative to avant-garde, from 1915 to 2021, from twelve minutes to four hours. I just wanted to get a film stuck in your craw."
Now, 50 movies in one single list is a bit much. That's too long of a list for most to take action on it. (Or maybe I'm just old. But it's important to consider how to get people engaged, not just throw information at them!)
It's okay to truly LOVE Oreos. Or Pillsbury cinnamon buns. Or (getting back to wine) Barefoot Savvy B or Meiomi Pinot Noir. But how can you not have some rarer brands, discontinued items or flavors, things that you love yet only a minority love them alongside you?
The movies (and other things) that are our own, PERSONAL favorites, should at least in part stretch beyond the mainstream. Things that too few others are even aware of, let alone care strongly about. But it's these very things that independent writers should write about. Like, predominantly.
Because who the hell else will?
So Here's That Advice
This past weekend, two critically well-received independent films hit theaters on both side of the pond:
and
IN VITRO by Tom McKeith and Will Howarth
Both were released limited theatrical, but both were also available for $6.99 rental on every major streaming platform.
A search on Substack shows precisely zero write-ups about either of them.1
But a search of F1 THE MOVIE on Substack reveals an absolutely endless litany of reviews posted for that.
So what are we gaining from this kind of prioritization? As an industry, an artform, or as independent writers? Why are we prioritizing and focusing our efforts on films with so much marketing power already fueling them? (pun intended) Who do we think we're talking to, with our writing? Who even is our audience?
In the wine industry, we often ask: "Is every human being a potential wine aficionado?" And the answer to that is: "no." Only some will ever enjoy the product for what it actually is and does, and it's value to culture and craftmanship.
Likewise: "Is everybody a potential independent cinema lover?" The answer to that is also "no". Not everyone will want to engage deeply with cinema, or enjoy the experience if they do.
In the wine industry, the "bulk" wine market of grocery store wines and those of “Premium” and “Ultra Premium” small lot indie producers are not really the same market. They are rarely, if ever, on the same store shelves. Readers who want to read about the latest product from The Prisoner are only occasionally the same readers who want to read about an experimental Austrian winemaker trying their hand at a Roter Riesling rose.
Likewise, the audience for independent cinema is separate from the casual movie-goer. If the goal is to reach those who might be curious and expand their interest to support indie cinema, we have to be writing about those films. At length. As a priority. Not to merely praise them, but to have there be chatter about them.
We of course need to write something for the eyeballs, or the ears, some of the time. I’m not arguing that we should never write about big studio movies. But as FilmStack, the great independent cinema community of independent writers, take this advice from someone who is half a WineStack writer: THINK INDEPENDENT. Think this before you think mainstream.
Find a balance, as you think it’s wise; but as a community, we should be raising up the product that can't raise itself up. We need to literally talk the talk, as it were, and not just walk the walk.
I didn’t write about them, either, I know. But in my defense, I was watching another, ever-so-slightly older indepedent feature, MARSHMALLOW and putting a podcast episode together about it. Dropping Thursday ;)