Last night I was searching for a specific movie. I went searching for streaming services like Amazon, Mubi and so on, but there was nowhere to be found! Then I searched for a DVD and again I found nothing. Finally, I went through all the pirate sites that I already knew, and typed “Winter in Sokcho 2024”. I went on searching for about 30 minutes. A movie would come up, but the movie didn’t exist at all.

At that point, I realized that I might be the only person who wanted to watch this movie.

Then I asked myself, how many movies are lost like this? Maybe a copy exists somewhere forgotten, yet nowhere to be found. It was played in cinemas for some time though.

Have you ever come at this point? I will go with the book for now, the only thing that exits.

  • Panron@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    1 month ago

    Maybe try looking it up on IMDb first? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30519830/releaseinfo/

    It’s still playing in film festivals. The first festival showing was in September last year.

    I don’t pay much attention to film festivals (there are none near me, so not worth it), so I can’t really say how long it usually takes for a film to be made generally available, either in a wide theatrical release or streaming/home video (I’d guess about 6 months to a year for the most popular films?) but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some that have taken a couple years or more. (Hopefully someone more astute can chime in here.)

  • 58008@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 month ago

    According to IMDb, the film was released in January this year (despite being a “2024” film), but this could well have been a festival release and not a general one, which is usually how it goes. Are you sure the film just hasn’t been released commercially yet?

    • Rose56@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      That’s a good question, which I don’t know. Panron pointed out that still being played in festivals.
      The only thing I know and remember, is that was played last year. Nothing more.

  • LifeCoffeeGaming@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 month ago

    Had a similar experience a few years ago.

    There was a film that I saw as a child called Bernard and the Genie. It had Lenny Henry and Rowan Atkinson in it so figured it would be easy to find.

    Long story short it was on VHS only and never got a dvd remake so could never find it. Finally found it on a back water pirate site that seemed sketchy AF.

    I think we’re going to lose so many more movies if we haven’t already.

    • Rose56@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      I have to agree with you, we gonna lose more movies. And I believe only those who collect them or pirate them can save them.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7·
    1 month ago

    So many Canadian movies have been financed by public funds and then the distributors who owned the rights were sold or sent bankrupt or whatever and it becomes pretty much impossible to know who has distribution rights anymore and when you do they tell you there’s no public for it so it’s not worth spending money to make it available…

    Hell, a local director was saying that one of her movie which had great success when it released is currently unavailable and the only way she could find a copy was through illegal means (on a Russian website or all places…) because a company bought the rights to it and is just sitting on it.

  • 50MYT@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 month ago

    I have two of these movies - rare hard to find gems, I know they exist because I have seen them.

    1. The theatrical release of Revolver. Guy Ritchie made an epic version of this that was fantastic. Critics hated it. I saw it at the theatre and thought it was brilliant.

    The issue is the online ones are all the studio edited version. They dumbed it down and made it even worse to try get some money out of it. You know you have the right copy when the credits roll to just black with piano over the top.

    1. The theatrical release with active subtitles in English of Day Watch (2004) version. The cool subtitles change and move round the screen depending on what’s going on. It was so well done but I only saw it in the theatre on release.
  • falidorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 month ago

    The Village has been out of print since the DVD days. I also couldn’t find a couple Robin Williams movies that were recommended to me: Jakob the Liar and What Dreams May Come.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    More than most would guess I bet. Most movies have very limited release if any in theaters, and may have been part of a film festival or just someone who wants to try their hand at directing and producing and was watched once in one screening then never seen again. There’s archives to try to preserve some of it but not everything gets submitted for archival or preserved.