Tex Montana Will Survive available to watch online for free
David Farnor | On 12, Mar 2016
The creators of The Battery have released their new film online around the world for free.
Directed by Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella, Tex Montana Will Survive is a spoof on TV survival shows. It follows the world’s most famous and trusted TV survival host in the world, whose reputation is tarnished following allegations that his show is staged. And so Tex attempts to clear his name by documenting himself surviving in the remote wilderness for 30 days, completely alone.
The movie follows O. hannah Films’ work on indie zom-com-dram horror The Battery, which was made for $6,000 and went on to play at over 50 festivals, winning more than a dozen jury and audience awards, and has won a cult following among horror fans. It was released in 20-odd countries around the world – but the creators found the whole process “very sobering and demoralising”. And so they launched a Kickstarter, not to fund the production of Tex Montana, but to support its release.
“It is incredibly difficult to make a living as an independent filmmaker,” they wrote on the campaign’s page, having already made the film. “A dramatic influx of films on the market—coupled with the rise of peer-to-peer sharing through torrent sites—has resulted in a drastic decrease in compensation for filmmakers across the board. Minimum Guarantees (MGs) are small and residuals trickle in over the course of years.”
“This campaign is in part an effort to address the countless messages we received from amazing film fans across the globe, who were understandably frustrated with how long it took for our previous film, The Battery, to be made available in their countries,” they added.
The plan? To bypass conventional distribution and release the movie worldwide, via Creative Commons (you can read the licence here), which means that the film is available to download and stream everywhere on the planet, with people “able to do just about anything they want with the movie”.
“Contributors will receive an immediate return on their generosity; and by cutting out the middlemen, we will see a higher return on our film in a much shorter time frame,” added the Kickstarter page.
The innovative crowdfunding plan was a resounding success, raising $53,889 from 759 backers – passing the project’s $50,000 goal – although the overall process has not always been plain sailing: Gardner got frostbite during the film’s production, while Stella’s health apparently worsened to the point where he was “coughing up blood”, according to EW.
Now, you can watch the final result on YouTube below, for free. Vimeo streaming and downloads are being rolled out in the coming 48 hours, plus torrents including blu-ray and DVD disc images that anyone can burn themselves and even printable disc artwork.
“Sharing the movie will be highly encouraged,” insist the filmmakers. “The internet will essentially own the film.”
