Swimming Upstream: A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution

Introduction

Nearly every motivational book by business leaders, cultural visionaries, and other pundits stresses that to be successful you have to have to take a risk and let go of your fear. That’s much easier in theory, and much more difficult in the “real world,” if such a place even exists. Whenever you create something, there is some element of fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of criticism. Fear of failure. Filmmaking in particular is prone to the manifestations of these fears because it is such a personal and visually vulnerable endeavor.

A filmmaker spends an enormous amount of time and energy creating a short film. For many, it is their first foray into the industry. For others, it is the end product of educational training, be it in a ...