As Bloomington’s center for coworking and entrepreneurship, The Mill is teeming with inspiring people, projects, startups, and innovation. Our community helps realize potential, and you better believe we celebrate our wins. In fact, every quarter, our members gather to share their successes and learn from each other. We’re excited to share these success stories in this blog series! “Entrepreneurs & Innovators of The Mill” profiles local entrepreneurs and innovators who leverage The Mill as a launchpad for their ideas. Thomas DeCarlo is one of those local innovators. He’s an entrepreneurial filmmaker who realized a need within the local filmmaking scene: a way for filmmakers to connect with each other. He founded Hoosier Films to do just that. Thomas is on a mission to help build a strong, local filmmaking community and support Indiana-made films. And he’s made great strides in a short amount of time. But that’s enough from us. It’s time to hear from Thomas himself! Read on to hear his story behind Hoosier Films.
Hoosier Films: The Local Film Movement
by Thomas DeCarlo
I recently shared the exciting news that we officially launched a regional film distribution company called Hoosier Films. Exclusive to Indiana-based filmmakers, we are focused on community-building: growing awareness of the extensive and diverse local film scene, and fostering the relationship between audiences and filmmakers. We’ve been rolling out new features each month. In September, we launched our streaming platform with both an annual subscription (just $12) and a marketplace for purchasing digital downloads of individual films. In October, we launched the Hoosier Mobile Cinema: a small theater built into a beautiful tiny home, in which we screen half-hour blocks of Indiana-made short films. In November, we announced that our first annual film festival is coming to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater this spring, March 19-22, 2020, and will be the largest screening of Indiana-made films!