It's been nearly a year since "On the Ice" -- Barrow filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's tale of two teens who must deal with the consequences of a tragic accident in a tightknit community -- premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
The movie, filmed on location in Barrow, made its way around the festival circuit, but then stalled without a distributor willing to pick up the film for a wider release. According to the filmmakers:
Despite the success we've had on the festival circuit, traditional distributors are scared of a film with no famous faces, set in a community far outside the mainstream. Awards or not, they don't want to take a chance on a small, independent film without recognizable stars to help sell it.
So director MacLean and producer Cara Marcous took to the fundraising site Kickstarter, which allows donors to contribute to creative projects from board games to movies. Using Kickstarter, more than $80,000 was raised to independently release "On the Ice." This included creating a trailer, the physical film needed for theater projection, and marketers to ensure the film would be accessible from mediums like Netflix or iTunes.
Now, the 840 backers who donated to the cause will see the result of their donations -- aside from the goodie bags they get just for being donors -- as the entertainment site Deadline New York reports that "On the Ice" secured a distribution deal with PMK*BNC films which will include an initial theatrical release on Feb. 10 in big markets like New York and Los Angeles, as well as Alaska.