How the Noir Thriller Dark My Light and Distributor Ethos Releasing Found Each Other

Neal Dhand knew he had found the wrong potential distributor for his beach-town serial killer drama Dark My Light when the company wanted to change the film’s name.

The distributor wanted a title less poetic than Dark My Light, and more conventional — something like The Coastal Killer or The Sand Murders. But Dark My Light isn’t conventional or straightforward. Dhand, who specializes in socially aware, genre-subverting films, knew anyone drawn to a title like The Coastal Killer would be frustrated by his film’s ambition and complexity.

“They’d get 12 minutes into Dark My Light and be like, ‘This isn’t The Coastal Killer,’” Dhand laughs. “And they’d be so pissed they wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. We’d get panned.”

Dhand knows the danger of misrepresenting a film: He’s still haunted by the time a distributor tried to promote one of his movies, “a slow-paced methodical detective film” he declines to name, by putting the lead actress in a dress on the poster, and posing her in a karate stance, holding a gun. (She never wears a dress in the film.) Viewers felt, understandably, tricked. 

“And I had no say in it,” he laments.

One of the producers of Dark My Light, Sergio Uguet de Resayre, says he’s also been burned by distributors, which has given him a distaste, he says, for vague “Hollywood accounting.”

Dhand and Uguet de Resayre are into directness: They met in Warsaw when Dhand went to an art-house screening for one of the films Uguet de Resayre has produced, 2019’s experimental and absurdist Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway. They went out for whiskeys after, and soon Uguet de Resayre agreed to produce Dark My Light. 

Dhand shot the film in Florida in November 2021, making the uncompromising artistic choice to use 16mm film. (Digital might have been more convenient, but 16mm gives the film a haunting, timeless quality.) The film blends elements of horror, sci-fi and wry humor, and Uguet de Resayre began seeking a distributor during a long editing process that was filled with frustrations, but also welcome discoveries.

Early meetings with distributors didn’t pan out — because of that disagreement over the name of the film, for one thing. But soon the filmmakers would meet a new distributor who shared their view of what a distributor should and shouldn’t do.

When Dark My Light Met Ethos Releasing

“A distributor is basically the supply-chain partner for getting your film to places where people can watch it, right?” says that distributor, Noah Lang. “But along the way, they also serve a number of purposes, whether it’s marketing and branding or strategy on how you’re making sure people see it.”

Lang recently partnered with writer-director-producer Rod Blackkurst (Netflix’s 2016 Amanda Knox, last year’s Night Swim) to launch the boutique distributor Ethos Releasing. Lang relied on his years of experience as a producer, during which his successes included sharing a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for the 2021 film This Is Not a War Story. 

Like Dhand, he has had the experience of having at least one of his films be “totally mismarketed,” he says.

To create the Ethos slate — Dark My Light is its third release — Lang scoured the schedules of genre-focused film festivals he admires, including the Chattanooga Film Festival, Kansas City’s Panic Fest, and Brazil’s Fantaspoa, where he found Dark My Light.

Also Read: 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, Including Fantaspoa

Filmmakers cruising the festival circuit, hoping someone will pick up their film for distribution, may be happy to know that distributors face rejection from filmmakers, too. It’s not just distributors dashing filmmakers’ dreams.

Lang believes some filmmakers make the mistake of holding out for major-studio money in a distribution deal, instead of getting their film in front of an audience.

“Everybody thinks that their movie is gonna be the one that sells for millions and millions, and that they’ll be tapped as the next big thing. And what I always say, when I work with filmmakers, is that you need to be happy with the potential outcome that you just made the movie and it’s available,” he says. 

“Let’s hope for the best, but you need to prepare yourself and be sober about the fact that you’re one of the fortunate few who is getting to make a movie. Most people don’t get that opportunity,” he adds. “Let’s try and do everything we can to get the greatest outcome possible. But you also need to find satisfaction in what we’re doing, which is making the movie.”

Dhand appreciated the straightforward way Lang first approached him. 

“I teach film at Temple University, and he sent me this really nice email to that address. I was pretty surprised to get it. And it wasn’t just like, ‘Hey, look, this is who Ethos is, we want your film, let’s talk.’ It was like, ‘This is why your film looks cool. I haven’t seen these ingredients.’ And maybe it’s massaging my ego, but I’m happy to have my ego massaged if it’s in a meaningful way and a true way,” Dhand laughs.

The email led to more talks with Dhand, Uguet de Resayre and Ethos, and the filmmakers ultimately signed with the new company. Uguet de Resayre wanted a clear contract, which Lang was happy to provide. Dhand wanted to make sure Uguet de Resayre was happy on the business side, but he also wanted a human touch. 

“I want the person to understand the film, to care about the film. I want to like the person. I want the person to have good energy. I want the person to be able to, like, chat about some random stuff,” he says. 

They worked out a unique deal in which Ethos is distributing the film primarily via Amazon, Apple and a variety of AVOD (Advertiser-Based Video on Demand) platforms, while Dhand and his team will retain the film’s theatrical rights. 

They hope for a dramatic transformation of the industry back to a more exhibitor-centric model that might present them with more opportunities to screen the film in theaters. 

Lang says a lot of distributors who are just trying to fit films into a very specifically sized funnel are exiting the business as it gets harder to connect audiences with films. He created Ethos to make sure the distributor adjusts to the film, not the other way around.

“I’m in this for the long haul,” he says. “With the current duress of the industry, all the bloodletting, there’s a lot of people who were very quick to bail, and I wonder to the extent that they ever cared all that much about the industry at all.”

Dark My Light is now available on Amazon, Apple and AVOD platforms, from Ethos Distribution. We are proud to support the film through MovieMaker Production Services.

Main image: Keesha Sharp and Albert Jones in Dark My Light. Ethos Releasing