Doc Air Co., Ltd is the first Asian distribution company specializing in documentaries. The company is headed by producer KIM Min-chul whose expertise spans from producing films such as YI Seung-jun’s Planet of Snail and YI’s latest Wind on the Moon, to international distribution. With his in-depth knowledge of developing and pursuing an idea, and presenting the final result to an international audience, KIM Min-chul is aiming to create a new business model for Asian documentaries in the international distribution market.

 

Not too long ago, you were at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. As a fairly new distributor, what was the general response to Doc Air Co., Ltd?
Many supported Doc Air Co., Ltd’s vision. The Docs for Sale market held during the festival was the first place for us to introduce and promote our line-up. There, we met quite a number of documentary filmmakers, film festival programmers and buyers. We were able to connect with various film professionals that are not from mainstream industries such as North America and Western Europe. I guess it’s because we share the common fact that we’re on the fringes. (laughs)

 

Tell us more about Doc Air Co., Ltd. What does it mean to be the first international distribution company specializing in Asian documentaries?
I should first explain the reality of the global market. The market is where money is circulated. Ultimately everything has evolved around North America and Europe. But then Asians intending to sell their titles emerged one after the other. Sales are pretty slow, but there are some once in a while. In a word, there’s a serious imbalance between demand and supply. Frankly speaking, how many films do you think are made by Asians but do not have Asian subject matters at IDFA? Non-competition and competition sections all together, you’ll only find one or two films. In an environment like this, the role of an agent in the market is extremely important. With only a limited number of buyers who cannot directly make sales for every title, agents tend to go in between and select titles, and their filters are usually focused on the white audience. As a result, titles fitting the standards of such agents or correspond to a Western point-of-view make the final cut. This is the order of the international documentary market. Doc Air Co., Ltd was not launched to break or resist this order. This order has to be accepted. We just noticed a hole in it. Agents cannot cover all the good projects from Asia, nor do they understand them well. Even when you want to introduce a good café, there are a lot of things you need to look out for: whether their coffee is actually good, if it’s cheap, what the view is like outside, and so forth. You need to understand and have passion in order to make a good recommendation. If you cannot understand, it’s hard to like something, and this is why a number of titles get excluded. I believe this is an issue of ‘presentation and representation’ or whether the sales agent understands and can explain the film accurately. But most agents retain hundreds of titles in their catalogues. It’s difficult to be passionate about every title. And accordingly, apart from award-winning titles, and famous director’s films, the rest are just for the purpose of creating a collection. Highlighting the merits of titles that were lost due to an agent’s lack of understanding, is the mission Doc Air Co., Ltd aims for.

 

Is there any special reason why you launched Doc Air Co., Ltd?
As I mentioned before, it all started from the numerous experiences of dealing with such ‘lack’. When we were handling the overseas distribution of Planet of Snail, we contacted a number of foreign distribution companies which only France’s ‘CAT&Docs’ replied to. At the time, the company’s head who was a 20-year veteran in the industry had just left a major company to open his own business, and despite the fact the film’s director and producer were unknown, he decided to distribute our film. This started a relationship that continued with most of the films I produced. You could say we developed a mutual trust. Nonetheless, there were areas that fell short. In certain cases, a few titles were just listed in the company catalogue with no productive results. The film festival contacts I redirected to my overseas distributor often bounced back to me because they couldn’t be reached. The films I participated in were especially popular at film festivals rather than broadcasting platforms, but although festival screenings may be good for directors, it doesn’t help distributors as they cannot charge a substantial screening fee. Of course, it’s easier to make broadcasting sales with a foreign distributor. You pay a commission to a collaborative partner to make things easier, but when their service is unsatisfactory, you end up having second thoughts like ‘Is there a more efficient way to do things?’ However, what I mean by efficient is not about making more money. In the long run, it’s important to create a business model. I launched Doc Air Co., Ltd to create an efficient distribution structure to put it in business lingo, and to establish a structure where the creator can meet the final audience in the most effective and intimate manner to explain it artistically.

 

Your company’s main policy is to raise concentration for each title. Is this advisable as a business model?
I assume it’ll be difficult for us to handle over ten titles. The most important task is to select titles and package them. We’ll focus on this process of packaging. If the audience is attracted to the logline, they will naturally read the synopsis, and if they are impressed, they’ll look at the trailer. They’ll acknowledge the kind of cinematic experience they will get from the trailer and have expectations which will eventually lead them to the theater or watch the film on VOD. We’ll package each title with all details mapped out and gone through simulation. Another point is that unlike the common practice of a distributor running a company based on commission and taking a certain portion of sales profits, Doc Air Co., Ltd, in order to raise the quality of a title’s overseas version and reach a larger audience, we follow a model that starts packaging a film at an early stage with a practical budget to execute it.

 

What should foreign distributors especially pay attention to?
Spectatorship between the domestic and international audience subtlety differ. For example, in the case of The Hospice, we pushed the idea of ‘showing an up close look at the final days of people at a hospice ward’ for the domestic market. This included slightly shocking sensational scenes of capturing patients’ last moments which are omitted in the international version that focuses on how people part with loved ones rather than death itself. The idea of a beautiful departure with family and friends is a more delicate approach. The title of the domestic version is Life while the international version is The Hospice. Just with the title, one can imagine the specific space and anticipate what will happen there. If we were to use the Korean version of ‘Life’ or ‘Lifeline’, it will be less specific. The international version is more hospitable in the way it serves as a guideline to the film. As you can tell, details differ with each film. For My Barefoot Friend, we changed the foreign version’s title from the original Korean title translating as Old Rickshaw. In other words, in order to attract the audience into watching a film, we revise the English title and make a new trailer which is now common practice for foreign distributors. Why we do this work? For people who are not from the country of a particular film, they are discouraged first by the title, then by the synopsis and then the trailer. And when this process is not in order, it’s hard to pursue a film. It is Doc Air Co., Ltd’s duty to guide you through this process. You may see this as a kind of consulting which is not just verbally done, but stands out from others with our hands-on approach. To be more specific, we are a company that is deeply involved in film using a total solution angle when it comes to introducing titles to the international audience.

 

KIM Min-chul produced films such as Iron Crows (2009), Planet of Snail (2012), 9 Muses of Star Empire (2011), and executive produced Captain Kang (2012), Wind on the Moon, and Evaporated (In production).
KIM also covered international distribution for Factory Complex, The Hospice, Evaporated, A Dream of Iron and Wind on the Moon as CEO of Doc Air Co., Ltd.