Experience

Anna licensed films for Spiritual Cinema Circle, Gaiam, Gaiam- Vivendi, and GaiamTV (Now Gaia) during her 16 years working as Director of Acquisitions. She has worked on the planning and programming side of four different film festivals; attended as many as ten festivals and markets per year during her time as a film buyer; has been on numerous panels and juries; and has sold three documentaries and an award-winning short film as a filmmaker. She makes it her business to stay informed about what’s new in distribution because things are changing way too fast to be complacent!

Anna taught distribution workshops in New Mexico and at UC Berkeley, taught producing at Santa Fe University of Art & Design, and lectured on distribution at state film conferences in New Mexico and Oklahoma. She has conducted webinars on contracts for Stage 32 and Desktop Documentaries, and has been on distribution panels and juries at many film festivals in Canada and the U.S. Anna wrote a chapter in the book Swimming Upstream: A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution, and she is working on Screen Sense Vol 1: Using Film and Media to Spark The Most Important Conversations with Kids at Every Age and Stage.

Online course

Check out the new online Distribution Course taught by Jilann Spitzmiller and Anna Darrah on Desktop Documentaries.