SOURCING: Finding It
Sourcing means discovering who holds the rights to the film you want to show and finding out where you can actually get a usable print. In many cases these are the same entity but sometimes they are not - just to keep you on your toes! And just to complicate your search a bit more, the work you want may not have the same title commercially as it did at the festival where you learned about it, nor the one it started off with in its country of origin.
For example Une Liaison Pornographique in France became A Pornographic Affair in English Canada, and An Affair of Love in the USA. A Matter of Life and Death in England became Stairway to Heaven in North America. This means you have to do some sleuthing. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you've chosen the right career. As a programmer there will be a lot of opportunity for you to put on your detective's hat, take a long satisfying draw on your pipe...and look for clues.
Let's suppose you have heard about a film that should be perfect. Your best friend has told you they saw it while visiting their mother's cousin in Melbourne, Australia and it is "absolutely on topic" and "the very thing" for you. Unfortunately, your friend is hazy about the country of origin, the director, lead actors - and the title, Moonbeams at Midnight, may not be exactly accurate either. At this distance in time, they are somewhat unclear about the plot beyond its "perfectness" for your event. It is fairly certain that it was in English...but then it didn't have much dialogue, so perhaps there was the occasional subtitle...hmmm...that leaves pretty much the whole movie-making world to search. What are you going to do?
