Alex Gibney Says Distributor Failed Him And His Oscar-Winning Documentary

Alex Gibney, the director of this year's Oscar-winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," has filed for arbitration, asserting that its box office prospects were undermined by the financial troubles of the film's distributor, ThinkFilm.

The demand for binding arbitration is the latest hurdle for ThinkFilm, and its owner, David Bergstein, who also owns Capitol Films. But it also comes at a critical time for an independent-film world buffeted by an overabundance of movies and financial challenges.

In a June 19 filing with the Independent Film & Television Alliance, an industry organization, Mr. Gibney's company, X-Ray Productions, asserts that ThinkFilm defrauded him by not having the financing to distribute and promote "Taxi" properly and seeks to reclaim the film's distribution rights. The complaint says ThinkFilm's failure to pay vendors caused the film's Web site to shut down, and that the company did not advertise the post-Oscar run in major magazines. Since its release in January, the movie has made less than $250,000 in theaters.

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Comments

[TrevorAlan]

We've been spoiled by wide releases of documentaries these las few years. I think Taxi is pretty typical of what most docs do, oscar or no.

[Mauiloa]

This is bad news for documentary film fans.

I've noticed the ThinkFilm logo on more and more great little movies over the years and would be personally quite disappointed if they were to go under.

Investing in the movie industry has always been a crapshoot. There's nothing new about this. Even my own father-in-law once invested $50,000 of my wife's inheritance into some movie scheme he was talked into by a slick-sounding shyster....er....promoter. Needless to say, that particular "blockbuster" never happened.

Worse than ThinkFilms' problems, I would say, are the shuttering of the Big Studios' specialty film divisions. While it's always fun to see that latest $300 million super-spectacular, effects-filled hyper-marketed escapist movie, it's also nice to actually Think about a Film once in awhile. Just for a little balance.

[TrevorAlan]

I WORKED for a shyster like that once, a guy named Atoori. I think this guy talked someone into investing several family memeber's inheritences in a film that never happened, while the producer used most of the money on personal vacations, his family's homes and stays in Four Season hotels.

[Mauiloa]

Thanks for the info Trevor. I hope my father-in-law's shyster enjoyed OUR vacation. :-)