DEDZA Founder Kate Gondwe discusses the specialized distribution strategy behind Neptune Frost

Overview

Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival before going on to play Sundance, Neptune Frost, directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, is a nearly indescribable Afro-futurist science fiction musical in which exuberant joy comingles with revolutionary politics and a bracing techno-colonialist critique. Kino Lorber partnered on the release with the new distribution imprint DEDZA Films. In a conversation with Filmmaker Editor Scott Macaulay, DEDZA founder Kate Gondwe, one of Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of 2022, discusses the specifics of this innovative release and speaks to the challenges facing radical work in today’s theatrical and home marketplace.

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Panelists

Kate Gwonde

DEDZA - Founder

Kate Gondwe is a recent graduate of Emerson College, a Sundance Catalyst Fellow, and the founder and president of DEDZA Films, a boutique film distributor & hybrid consulting agency dedicated to bringing nuanced films by underrepresented filmmakers to new audiences. The company's first release WHO WILL START ANOTHER FIRE, an anthology film featuring nine works by emerging filmmakers of color released in partnership with Kino Lorber, is now available on Criterion Channel. Other recent releases include the award-winning and Oscar Shortlisted film FAYA DAYI and the Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s visionary film NEPTUNE FROST which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and screened at TIFF, NYFF, Berline and Sundance Film Festivals. Additionally, Kate is also a campaign manager at NEON working on films released through the boutique distribution label SUPER. Kate dedicates her career to amplifying and creatively supporting exciting, diverse storytellers with a focus on the global south from early development to distribution in independent cinema. Kate was named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine.

Moderators

Scott Macaulay

Filmmaker Magazine - Editor

Scott Macaulay is the co-founder and Editor-in Chief of Filmmaker, the print magazine and website devoted to independent film published by the Gotham Institution for Film & Media. He is also an active New York-based producer. With Forensic Films, the company he co-founded with Robin O’Hara, he has produced and co-produced many independent features and international co-productions. Among his producing credits are Kitty Green’s The Assistant and Casting JonBenet; Peter Sollett’s Raising Victor Vargas; Elisabeth Subrin’s A Woman, A Part; Alice Wu’s Saving Face; Harmony Korine’s Gummo and julien donkey-boy; and Tom Noonan’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning What Happened Was…. In 1998 he and O’Hara received a Spirit Award for Independent producing and in 2018 he was awarded the Cinereach Producing Fellowship.