On November 21, the Walker welcomes Strand Releasing co-founder Marcus Hu and filmmaker Gregg Araki (The Living End, Mysterious Skin, Totally F—ed Up, The Doom Generation) for a special unveiling of the indie distributor’s 30th-anniversary gift to the world, a filmmaking collaboration made by world-renowned filmmaker friends who responded to the invitation (and challenge) of making short videos speaking to film culture today on an iPhone. In advance of the event, Hu shares behind-the-scenes stories and a few of the secrets of Strand Releasing’s 30-year success.
The idea to start Strand Releasing began when I had just moved back home to San Francisco from Los Angeles and took a job working for Mike Thomas at the Strand Theater on Market Street. Previously, I worked for Vestron Pictures, which collapsed due to mismanagement when the company went bankrupt following a series of hits including Dirty Dancing and John Huston’s The Dead. Strand Theater was showing repertory bookings of double bills; it was an amazing experience to work with Mike during that period. We programmed an eclectic set of daily changes of double bills that might include Pasolini one day and a George Romero triple bill the next. I had the opportunity to program a William Castle series with all the gimmicks, including rigging seats for The Tingler and screenings of 13 Ghosts and Mr. Sardonicus. We also presented an AIP (American International Pictures) retrospective with Samuel Z. Arkoff, who ran the company and brought Julien Temple in to present his work. For that program, we screened I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Runaway Daughters, etc., and to this day, Mr. Arkoff is a role model.
One day Mike and I read a Variety review for Lino Brocka’s Macho Dancer, and I decided to call him in the Philippines to book the film. We negotiated to play the film for a weeklong run, which broke records there, and when we told 
“Their first theatrical release was Lino Brocka’s Macho Dancer, and in the three decades since Strand has released over 400 films, making it one of the longest-running independent distributors in the US.”
—Filmmaker Magazine
I can’t say there was ever a mission. Jon, Mike, and I simply worked on films we responded to. Definitely, we picked up some of the best foreign films by André Téchiné, Fatih Akin, Pablo Trapero, Catherine Breillat, and others. I guess it’s been an eclectic mix. We got behind some of the most important LGBTQ films during the New Queer Cinema period.
Strand Releasing has remained faithful in one aspect: our dedication to serving filmmakers and getting their vision out into the world in a collaborative way.
Jon and I have been dealing with the twists and turns in the marketplace. We’ve seen the rise and fall of VHS and DVD. We’ve seen theaters disappear and the rise of Netflix and iTunes. Every day it changes. We try to stay ahead of the curve to survive in the marketplace, and it has humbled us that we’ve been able to do so. The quality of the films and filmmakers is what keeps our brand going. The relationships that we founded with artists, producers, and all the talent involved in a project make it a wonderful experience that we cherish. After 30 years and releasing such acclaimed auteur films from Gregg Araki, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, André Téchiné, Catherine Breillat, Faith Akin, and Lucrecia Martel has firmly established Strand Releasing as one of the formidable distributors in the US for independent films.
Strand has a longstanding reputation for its collaborative efforts with filmmakers in the distribution process, including them in every aspect of the process. Today, Strand Releasing is run by Jon and I in Culver City, California.
The anniversary project came to be over a lunch with Raj Roy, Chief Film Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Previously, MoMA hosted our 10-year retrospective and our 20-year celebration entitled Carte Blanche. Raj thought of the idea that we get 30 of our filmmakers and friends to create one-minute films to celebrate the company. I ran the idea by Karen Rhee, who handles creative projects at Apple, and she helped us begin the process of contacting our friends and filmmakers to create this project.
I worked with filmmaker Connor Jessup on a project he did documenting our filmmaker, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is also a contributor to this project, to serve as the producer. I’m so thrilled to be presenting this collection of films by our filmmaker friends at the Walker, the Wexner, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. It’s an amazing tribute to the company, but it’s about the friendship and friends who all have come up with a creative way to celebrate a collaboration.
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