"Prison Valley" documentary starts on innovative website

A unique nonfiction film that its producers call "a road movie on the web" is getting attention within the indie production world, according to the Independent, a news site for media makers. Viewers interested in "Prison Valley" sign into Twitter, Facebook, or create an account on the film’s site. Then the movie, from French producers David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, begins in a car driving along Skyline Drive in Cañon City, Colo., heading toward an area that's home to 13 prisons. There are opportunities to take detours into additional interactive content, and visitors see the names of others who are watching. Some 1,000 people tuned in its first day online. A funding grant came from the committee of the New Media, Film and Television Project Development Fund awards, which filmmakers used for the website. Arte TV, one of the film’s producers, then offered a distribution deal. "In the end, `Prison Valley' was able to secure a mainstream form of distribution not in spite of but because of its pioneering usage of the web as an arena for marketing and community-building," the Independent's Courtney Sheehan writes. "Combine that with impeccable journalism and a beautifully-shot film, and you’ve got a multimedia model that offers filmmakers new insights into telling a story in many different mediums at once."