Independent film makers win online stage
Glenn Chapman

SAN MATEO(United States)—Indie filmmakers from around the world are gaining a new Internet platform for their movies as US website Jaman bets on a global appetite for films made without the help of Hollywood.
“There is definitely a revolution taking place on the Internet in regard to rich media,” Jaman founder Gaurav Dhillon told reporters at the firm’s headquarters in San Mateo, California. “We emphasize the international, independent nature of it because that is the least served. I figured I could do well by doing good.”
Less than one percent of all the films made get any US distribution, according to industry statistics. “That is just wrong,” Dhillon said. “I thought it was an urban legend, but it’s true.” So Jaman, an online art house for international films, was born and, it seems, people love them. While Hollywood blockbuster films open on thousands of US screens, foreign or independent films typically debut in fewer than a dozen US cinemas.
“If people want ‘Spiderman’ or ‘Shrek,’ there are a hundred places to get that,” Dhillon said. “This is where people come for stuff that is a little more edgy.” A top 25 List based on feedback from Jaman members features 11 films from India along with works from France, Denmark and Britain. Favorites include “Chokher Bali” and “Chameli” from India and “A Monk’s Awakening” from France.
Independent film makers upload their works to Jaman, giving the website distribution rights. Jaman has more than 2,000 independent films in its inventory and expects that number to double in coming months. “I think if folks start uploading their works on Jaman we’ll be taken more seriously as a group,” a user identified as “Jim” writes in a “Latino Upload Revolution” discussion group at the website.
“We can make it a place where industry executives go to look for new talent. YouTube is too random and our individual postings on websites are too hard to find.” Membership on the website is free and Jaman gets revenues from renting and selling films online.
Jaman films rent for 1.99 dollars and sell for 4.99 dollars, and makers can share in the money if their films draw big audiences. “People uploading are typically professional,” Dhillon said. “You are not going to get someone ripping off a ‘Saturday Night Live’ scene and posting it.”
This month Jaman improved the website’s search features, adding member movie review forums and providing a Movie Finder tool. Movie Finder lets people set film preferences using the ranges tears to bullets; mellow to charged; serious to funny, and deep to shallow.
It also shows picks made by visitors with similar tastes in films. “I’m sort of partial to movies involving food or drink,” Jaman member “Lillian” said in her Jaman profile. “Also, since I’m hoping to someday be fluent in French I’m always looking for films in French.” Although Jaman has yet to turn a profit, it says the number of visitors to its site is growing exponentially. “I think I worry more about apathy in the younger set,” Dhillon said. “Will they care about a beautiful film like ‘Death to the Tinman’ or will they be watching someone put a Mentos in a coke bottle on YouTube?”
More than eight million dollars (US) has been invested in Jaman since it was founded in 2005. And this is not Dhillon’s first foray into technology startups. In 1992, he co-founded Informatica, which grew into a publicly traded international firm.