Unlike other pieces of branded entertainment, “Bending The Light” was not conceived or concepted to be “branded.” With the goal of reaching photographers and filmmakers in an authentic and relevant way through acceptance into major film festivals, we partnered with award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Apted to tell the Canon story through a filmmaker’s eyes. The strong positive response to the documentary would not have been possible if the film overtly reflected the opinion of Canon; rather, the documentary reflects the vision of the director Michael Apted. With an independent judging panel responsible for choosing which films to admit into each festival, the documentary had to meet the guidelines and standards of authenticity required for selection. Canon did not pay for inclusion or showings at the festivals, rather the documentary had to entirely stand on its own merit to be seen and generate organic distribution.

For the premiere, there wasn’t an empty seat in the house, nor a single festival go-er who expected anything less than being entertained and moved. The connections were immediate and apparent – viewers left the theater commenting on the “human stories” delivered in Japanese by people who had never before appeared on camera. Our audience was captivated and many viewers stayed behind to learn more. We saw the same outcome, festival after festival, and at Camerimage in Poland, the film played to a standing-room-only crowd. With the same film, we connected with average consumers, amateur photographers and knowledgeable professionals alike.

Since the launch of “Bending The Light” in August 2014 at the Traverse City Film Festival, the film has been accepted into nine prestigious film festivals around the world. Each viewing has seen sold out audiences, and the festivals have singled “Bending the Light” out among the festival highlights. The film has even been selected by audiences and judges for encore showing honors. All this recognition on-the-ground helped Canon to collectively see more than 41 million press impressions.

Upon completing the “festival circuit” we made the film available to the rapidly growing video-on-demand (VOD) market, and recently closed our first deal with Vimeo to premiere “Bending the Light” on its new VOD service.

Additionally, through a new distribution partnership with Tugg, we are bringing “Bending The Light” to more audiences, initiating several theatrical screenings and 50 community screenings at non-theatrical venues such as photography groups, clubs and schools for viewings of the film in local regions across the United States.

With “Bending The Light” we demonstrated the power of Canon Optics, and earned major buzz and industry acclaim. This cemented Canon’s prowess among the photography and filmmaking communities, helping it remain the brand of choice for photographers around the world.