Director Founds Own Distribution Company After Hollywood Rejection
Director Cherien Dabis established Visibility Films to self-distribute her movie "All That’s Left of You" after major Hollywood studios deemed its subject matter too risky.
Filmmaker Cherien Dabis has launched her own distribution company, Visibility Films, after major Hollywood studios declined to distribute her latest movie, "All That’s Left of You," citing its subject matter as too risky. The film chronicles the lives of one Palestinian family over 75 years.
Executive produced by Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, the drama premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It subsequently received honors at various festivals and made the shortlist for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, selected by Jordan, where parts of it were filmed.
Faced with distributors' aversion to the film's themes, Dabis opted to bypass traditional channels. She co-established Visibility Films with Watermelon Pictures, an independent distributor focused on uplifting Palestinian and Arab media representation, to release the movie unfiltered.
Dabis stated that the traditional film distribution model is failing, pushing filmmakers towards direct audience engagement. Her new venture aims to create a filmmaker-centric distribution model, offering a pathway for stories that explore themes of diaspora and immigrant experiences, which she argues are often marginalized within mainstream cinema.