Host a Screening

A Step-by-Step Guide to Hosting a Successful Community Screening

If you’ve heard the ‘call of the forest’ and want to bring the film home to share with your community, we can help! Take a look at our checklist and FAQs below, and once you’re ready to proceed with a booking, send us an email. We’ve recently updated our guidelines to facilitate virtual screenings.

Plan Your Event

Consider the purpose of your event when deciding on a venue and time. Possible venues include:
- Screening at a theatre, community centre, church, library, etc.
- Screening at a workshop or conference
- Screening in a classroom or office
- Screening online via stream or download link
You may also want to consider opportunities to add value to screenings, such as:
- Panel discussion
- Speaker
- Filmmaker attendance with Q&A (additional fees will apply; please contact us)
Consider partnering with a community organization or non-profit who can help with promotion, or a local business who can sponsor the event.
Determine the best screener format for your event:
- Does the venue have the capacity for DVD or Blu Ray? (We typically recommend using a Blu Ray when possible, as the picture quality is significantly higher)

Book with Us

Once you’re ready to proceed with booking the film for your event, please contact our office at treespeak@meritmotionpictures.com to book a date for your event and the confirm availability of the screener.
Please include:
- Location/Venue
- Date and time of your event
- Type of screener required (Blu Ray, DVD, DCP, Stream/Download link)
***Be sure to give us at least a month’s advance notice to account for shipping time.***
After receiving confirmation of availability, you will be directed to pay for a community screening license through our Shopify.
Our license fee schedule is as follows:

Promote the Event

Our media kit (available here) contains the film’s synopses, as well as posters and stills which may be used in your promotion of the event
Once we have received all of the event details, we will list it on our website, and share it with our followers on social media
Social media is a fast, effective and free way to reach an audience! We’ve had a lot of success with the following:
- Posting regularly on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, 1-2 weeks before the event (be sure to include eye-catching media in posts, such as photos or the film’s trailer)
- Creating a Facebook event to which you can invite your network of friends
- Contacting local influencers and asking them to post on social media on your behalf, or tagging them in posts
Share your posts with us using these tags:
- @DBKTrees (Twitter)
- Call of the Forest (Facebook)

Pull of a Perfect Screening

Provide a sign-in sheet for guests’ names and email addresses, so you can follow-up with a thank you and additional resources after the screening
Run a test of the screener prior to the event, with enough time to troubleshoot any technical problems that may arise
Tweet and post during the event, and perhaps even consider live-streaming the discussion or lecture portion on Facebook for those who couldn’t attend in person
After the event:
- Send a thank you note to attendees, and link them to our website for more resources
- Share the best photos from the event on social media, write a post – keep the conversation going!

FAQs

How do I purchase a streaming link/download if I’m hosting a virtual screening?
You can purchase a license for virtual screenings on the same page for community screenings. When choosing the type of screener in the drop-down menu, select ‘None’. After you’ve purchased the license, we will supply you with a download of the film or a link to the stream.

Why is there a cost to screen the film publicly?
When Call of the Forest is screened in any group setting, we charge a Public Performance License fee. Thousands of hours of hard work were poured into the documentary by our creative team, and the license fee is one of the few opportunities we have to recoup those costs. We appreciate your integrity in collaborating with us on your event, and are happy to offer our time and promotional efforts to help make the screening a success.

Do you offer any discounts or rate exceptions?
Our license fee is based on the size of audience and we offer a discounted rate when no admittance fee is charged in order to support non-profit’s who wish to screen for the public. We based our fee structure on what we determined to represent a standard industry rate that is still affordable to the public. We are willing to negotiate in exceptional circumstances, however, so please contact us with the details of your event and budget if you are concerned about the cost.