The question that everyone is asking is “What is Blockchain”? The technology behind cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, is now finding its way into different sectors, including media and entertainment. In essence, the blockchain is a programmable, distributed, cryptographically secure trusted ledger in which no single user controls and which can be inspected by anyone.
How does this affect the filmmaker? Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt and decentralize the film production process and the management of content where all artists and owners can control their intellectual property (IP).
Kim Jackson, Co-Founder and President of Entertainment at SingularDTV and Daniel Hyman, Vice President of Entertainment Finance & Development will present how the company’s suite of powerful applications built on blockchain tech can empower creators to build a sustainable career free of gatekeepers. They will share how independent filmmakers can leverage the ecosystems to bring projects from development through distribution with never before seen economic transparency, creative control, and artist/audience collaboration. They will be joined by filmmaker Khushnuda Shukurova.
Kim Jackson is the Co-Founder and President of Entertainment at SingularDTV. Prior to creating SingularDTV, she served as a Producer and President of Evotion Media (formerly Streetwise Pictures), where she spearheaded the NYC-based film production company investor relations and award-winning production services for feature films. An accomplished producer, she began her career in Los Angeles at Disney/Touchstone, and has been intimately involved in numerous productions, including Munich directed by Steven Spielberg, Click directed by Frank Coraci and Inside Man directed by Spike Lee. Jackson studied Biochemistry and Environmental Science at Simmons College in Boston, and is an adjunct professor at the The New School University in Manhattan teaching “The Producers Craft”, when she is not involved in a production. Jackson is honored to serve as a judge for the Student Academy Awards, Daytime Emmys and as a jury member for numerous student film festivals in New York.
Daniel Hyman is the Vice President of Entertainment Finance & Development at SingularDTV. Hyman brings several years as an independent producer and sales-agent at Preferred Content to spearhead the development of a new model of digital distribution at SingularDTV. He has negotiated the worldwide and North American sales for dozens of independent films to distributors ranging from Netflix and Amazon Prime to Gravitas and IFC. Prior to entertainment, Hyman spent years as a consultant to financial institution clients including Barclays and BNP Paribas, developing new finance and accounting models for derivative securities.
Khushnuda Shukurova is an award-winning filmmaker from Tajikistan based in New York City. A recipient of the Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, she was included in many feature-length and short documentary films that were aired on PBS Montana. Her work as a documentary and narrative filmmaker focuses mostly on human rights-driven stories. Shukurova’s previous short documentary film Nadira aired on BBC Persia. In order to raise funds for her short film Detained, Shukurova tokenized her intellectual property last year by creating one million KHUSH tokens on Tokit, a blockchain-based decentralized application by SingularDTV. She raised 167 ETH, which at the time equaled $50,000 USD. She has completed filming for Detained, and the project is currently in post-production.
S. Casper Wong is an award-winning New York-based filmmaker, technology lawyer, social entrepreneur, activist and Founder of OO Media. Her documentary feature debut, The LuLu Sessions, has won 10 international awards and nominations in every major category, including Audience Award, Best Feature Documentary and Best Director. Its US broadcast premiered on PBS’s World Channel as part of the America ReFramed documentary series. She received a Humanitarian Award from the SASS Foundation for Medical Research along with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in recognition for her film’s social impact on the emotional complexities of breast cancer. She is the Founder and Creator of the Peace Pod Project, a multi-media, multi-platform VR/AR/MR dedicated space for facilitating peace and reconciliation between 2 people. She has directed and produced co-productions in China since 2005 and most recently, serving as the studio executive for Roger Corman’s first co-productions with China, culminating in a China-wide release of the Palace of the Damned in November 2017. She is the Founder and Chair of Asian American Women Media Makers, and is currently on the Board of Directors at New York Women in Film and Television, leading its Innovation and Tech Initiative.
Produced by S. Casper Wong and Rosalind Murphy
Special Thanks to Infor for hosting this event.
SingularDTV is an EnTech (entertainment technology) company utilizing blockchain technology to create tokenized entertainment economies that empowers both content creators and consumers. Built on Ethereum, these applications provide filmmakers and artists the tools to capitalize on its proprietary blockchain-based technology in order to fund, distribute and market their content, in a peer-to-peer ecosystem, eliminating trading platforms funding obstacles and distribution intermediaries.
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NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
