Indie Institutions: Milestone Films
Milestone was started in 1990 by Amy Heller and Dennis Doros out of their one-room apartment in New York City. It has since gained an international reputation for releasing classic cinema masterpieces, groundbreaking documentaries, and American independent features. Since 2007, Milestone has concentrated on the restoration and worldwide distribution of films outside the Hollywood mainstream featuring “lost” films by and about African Americans, Native Americans, LGBTQ, and women. Milestone’s motto (in polite company) is “We like to mess with the canon.”
Thanks to the company’s work in rediscovering and releasing important films such as George Nierenberg’s No Maps on My Taps (AIFF2018), Alfred Hitchcock’s Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, Lionel Rogosin’s On the Bowery, Marcel Ophuls’s The Sorrow and the Pity, Billy Woodberry’s Bless Their Little Hearts, Lois Weber’s Shoes, and Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason, Milestone has long occupied a position as one of the country’s most influential independent distributors.
Joby Talbot’s diverse catalog includes the ballets Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, both collaborations with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and the choral Path of Miracles, a 60-minute a cappella journey along the Camino de Santiago. Joby has scored the feature films The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the animated Sing. He was commissioned by the British Film Institute to rescore the silent film The Dying Swan.