‘Bibi Files’ to Self-Distribute: “A Lot of the Major Outlets Just Were Nervous”
The film has opted to get released in untraditional manner in the latest example of mainstream distributors avoiding risky nonfiction.
The Bibi Files, the explosive documentary containing leaked footage of interrogations in the ongoing corruption trial of Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, is set to stream on the new platform Jolt.
The film from director Alexis Bloom (Divide and Conquer, We Steal Secrets) and producer Alex Gibney (The Inventor, Going Clear) will stream on the platform starting on Dec. 11 for 90 days.
Jolt
Streaming the film will cost $12 on Jolt, which launched earlier this year. It is currently distributing Venice Film Festival entry Hollywoodgate, with Sundance jury prize winner Gaucho Gaucho in December.
The decision comes after the film garnered distributors’ interest in international markets but not in the U.S., Gibney says. “It was clear that a lot of the major outlets just were nervous, radically nervous, I would say, about doing anything that was remotely controversial because it might offend some people even though it would interest many,” he says. “The environment’s different than it has been in the past so we wanted to go with a new mechanism that I think is a way of getting to audiences in a very innovative way, because the algorithms they employ are designed to try and find viewers and not to change the content.”
Bloom’s film details the long-running corruption case against Netanyahu, using both interrogation footage of Netanyahu, his wife Sara and son Yair as well as interviews with former Israel prime minister Ehud Olmert, former Netanyahu aide Nir Hefetz, previous head of Shin Bet Ami Ayalon and investigative journalist Raviv Drucker.
Netanyahu filed a lawsuit against the film and Drucker, attempting to block its release, before its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. An Israeli judge rejected the attempt and the screening took place as planned.
Before its streaming release, the film will complete a short Oscar-qualifying theatrical run, opening at the Laemmle theater in Santa Monica, CA on November 15.
It will also open day-and-date with the streaming release at the IFC Center in New York on Dec. 11. And the filmmakers say that they are still open to a larger U.S. distribution deal after the initial Jolt run.
Jolt CEO Tara Hein-Phillips says she’s seen an uptick in interest in her platform — which carries films across all genres and bills itself as a place for projects “that mainstream media has overlooked” — as documentary filmmakers encounter an increasingly risk-averse environment. “When we first started doing Jolt, I feel like we were still in the shock phase of films not being purchased,” she says. “And then there was almost a despondency phase, and now we’re really heartened by filmmakers changing tone about it and thinking ‘Wait a moment, this is an opportunity.’”
