Almost eight years in the making, director Rob Cohen’s Being Canadian will make its world premiere at Hot Docs on April 25. But instead of heading out on a theatrical run following the fest, or months later, the film will head straight to VOD.

The strategy is meant to capitalize on the media buzz around the film’s festival world premiere, said Mark Slone, EVP of theatrical distribution for the film’s distributor, Entertainment One (eOne), and address the festival quandary of whether or not a wait will increase word-of-mouth, or lose it.

Building a post-Hot Docs theatrical release would mean a further 90-day wait before a VOD window could be opened and, given the limited number of screens available in Canada for films like Being Canadian, the chances of it being seen widely were minimal, Slone said. Straight-to-VOD, however, means consumers who read about the film in the press will be able to access it immediately. 

“This way we can make it available to the maximum number of consumers right when awareness is highest, rather than 90 days later when some of that awareness would dissipate,” Slone said.

The Canada/U.S. copro is produced by Toronto-based Amaze Film + Television and L.A- based GRAiNEY Pictures, and follows Cohen as he travels across Canada and interviews celebrities, Canadian and non-Canadian alike, to find out what it truly means to be Canadian.

Biding his time – eight years of it – Cohen was able to secure interviews with high-wattage celebs like Mike Myers, Seth Rogen, Alan Thick and Ben Stiller. And that, Slone said, made it an attractive investment for eOne. “You immediately see how the public would be interested to hear that question answered by such an array of talented performers,” Slone told Playback Daily.

Being Canadian will be promoted via a multi-platform strategy  and will be targeted at an over-25 year-old demo. Along with release through VOD services such as iTunes, Rogers, and Bell, and its screening at Hot Docs, eOne has also partnered with promotional sponsors, including Tim Hortons, Air Canada, Scotiabank, Roots and Molson Canadian to promote the film and extend awareness beyond Toronto.

For example, CTV’s entertainment news program eTalk bowed the film’s trailer during its broadcast while Tim Hortons debuted it on its website. The jointly released, multi-platform trailer included the hashtag #BeingCanadian.

“The strategy here is to create a lot of buzz, use the internet and other social media to spread the word and then make the film available immediately to consumers the very next day,” Slone said.

For Colin Gray and Megan Raney Aarons, producers and co-founders of California-based GRAiNEY Pictures, getting involved with Cohen’s first feature documentary was “love at first sight,” Gray said.

“Megan and I are originally from Ottawa, now based in L.A. and Rob is from Calgary and also based in L.A. So we embarked and started on this journey together,” Gray said.

In addition to providing the room to secure big-name celebrities, the production’s long lead time also allowed the producers to provide extra footage to the sponsors and VOD services like iTunes for exclusive bonus content.

A U.S. release is currently in the works for Canada Day, Gray and Aarons said. Both producers said they hope the film will attract non-Canadian audiences due to its light-hearted nature and “a little bit of information hidden within a lot of entertainment.”

“Those [kinds of documentaries] are proving to be very successful or more successful in the marketplace. Social justice docs are near and dear to our hearts but they’re often harder to find distribution for,” Gray said.