Movie download site advocates film dialogue with web users in mind

by Eric Kohn

CANNES, France -- The presence of video-on-demand and streaming video companies at the Cannes Film Festival, a place where the giants of world cinema screen their works in staggeringly immense structures, might appear somewhat incongruous. However, a place so insistent on reminding people of its ongoing role in film history should embrace the inevitability of digital distribution. For that reason, the online movie rental service Jaman , which participated in several panels and hosted a party on the Croisette in Cannes this week, justifies its attendance by the very nature of its existence — and the Silicon Valley team doesn't shy away from that fact.

The Jaman team at Cannes.

"Some of the features we built into Jaman really do revolutionize cinema," said founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon at a public forum in Cannes' Short Film Corner over the weekend. Such a grandiose statement reflects Jaman's emphasis on interactivity. The site, which launched a year ago, posts high-definition films online, allowing users all over the world to buy digital "tickets" and download or stream a wide variety of titles (including, in a recently announced deal, selections from First Look Studios' catalog) that would otherwise flounder in oblivion. Additionally, Jaman fosters a fresh concept of cinematic dialogue with a remarkably unique function that allows users to comment on videos as they play. "Somebody invented cinema as an art form, and then you had silent pictures, talking pictures, black and white to color," Dhillon explained, "but nobody has really provided an amazing innovation with in-house cinema, and how to make it social."

Jaman's design directly addresses a common fear about digital distribution among members of the independent film community: There usually isn't much money in it. To remedy that problem, it lets filmmakers sign off non-exclusive internet rights, so they can utilize the site's social networking while not foreclosing alternate distribution venues. Users view the films in Jaman's customized player, heightening the communal experience (no ads interrupt the films). "When we tested that, we found that people liked that idea," Dhillon recalled. "Filmmakers want to be auteurs, but the average user just wants something they can click on. If we want to have visitors on the site, we have to find a way to make non-technical users very comfortable."

Beyond keeping audiences happy, however, Jaman successfully emphasizes its ability to function as an advocate of independent films. "This is really about the democratization of distribution," said Geetanjali Dhillon, Jaman's Executive Producer, whose background lies in civil rights law. "It's about filmmakers making something with their heart, and not being told, 'We don't think anybody's gonna like it.'"

Amu, a Jaman-released success story.

As an example, she cites the recent popularity of the 2005 English-language Indian feature called Amu, focused on a massacre that took place in New Dheli in 1994, when thousands of seiks were murdered in a major genocidal act. The movie played at major festivals in Toronto and Berlin, and won a national award in India. Still, it failed to land more than a limited theatrical release in the United States, Canada and its native country. When the film was posted on Jaman, however, it quickly rose to the number one spot, where it was viewed by hundreds of members. "I think that some of the film festivals are a little slower to use technology than some of the filmmakers," Geetanjali Dhillon said. "There is definitely a need for somebody to come out there say what the options are." She emphasized the global nature of the operation, pointing out that two-thirds of the site's traffic comes from outside of the United States. "All of a sudden, people in Poland are going to see this film," she said. "That is the coolest thing to me."

Even cooler: the idea that people in Poland and other parts of the world can engage in conversations about the movies. The in-film dialogue feature permits both filmmakers and viewers to place notes on specific scenes, which pop up when the curseor is placed on them. Geetanjali Dhillon sees it as a form of cross-cultural exchange. "Say you're based in America and have an audience that's from Sweden, Norway or Hong Kong," she said. "There might be cultural things that you don't quite get, so you're having a conversation about the film while it's playing."

As Jaman continues to experiment with new ways of attaining this global village approach, its team nimbly dances around questions of whether or not digital distribution will supplant the multiplex. "We're all in the same space trying to figure that out," Geetanjali Dhillon said, adding that Amu was distributed in the United States by the similarly forward-thinking Emerging Pictures. "We're really trying to find ways to give incentives to filmmakers to use their powers." Gaurav Dhillon put things in historical perspective. "It's just like television," he said."When it first came out, actors only wanted to be on the big screen." Suddenly, the carnivalesque routine of the celebrity-studded red carpet, just next door from where Gaurav Dhillon spoke, seemed very far away indeed.