Beyond Zero had its world premiere in 2020. So why did it take so darn long to get to streaming in 2025? Well, my friends, that is a long story – But here is a short version of it:
Beyond Zero premiered at the Boston Film Festival in 2020. The world had recently shut down for COVID and the movie industry was at a standstill. Movie theaters were closed so film releases had to be pushed back further and further. Streaming was not yet the juggernaut it is today and the entire industry was struggling to figure out what needed to happen. In short, it was not the best timing for an independent documentary, made by no one anyone had ever heard of, to find its way in the world.
On the plus side though, there were a lot of people in Hollywood with some time on their hands and we were able to get a good number of them to watch Beyond Zero. They reported being deeply moved by the story and they tried to introduce us to people who could help lift the film into the mainstream, but there was a problem. Beyond Zero is a positive story about one company, and despite the fact that Interface did not fund the production, nor did they have any editorial control, in the world of Hollywood, they call that a commercial.
We got lots of advice to dramatically change the film: We should add a celebrity voiceover, we should broaden the story to include lots of other companies, we should shorten it to 30 minutes etc etc. But we felt that all of those things would destroy the story – so we politely declined and tried to find our own way.
For several years, the film was embraced by educators and visionary business leaders (including you, dear reader) as a tool to show current and aspiring business people the roadmap for achieving sustainability, profitably. By word of mouth, the film spread around the world and earned subtitles in 15 languages (and counting) – but still there was no interest from mainstream distributors. But then, in 2023, three seemingly disconnected things intersected to change our fortunes.
In the Netherlands, a Beyond Zero partner had been using the film with the Dutch Airline, KLM while in Atlanta, Interface was using the film with Delta. After experiencing the movie, some people at both airlines mentioned it to their in-flight content people (the people who decide what is available for you to watch on your seat back when you are flying.)
Separately, I had made one final effort with a contact of mine at the now shuttered impact film company, Participant Media, to see if we could get Beyond Zero out there more. She suggested I reach out to the good folks at Roco Films. I did, and they told me they could get it to the agent that handles all of the airlines. When they did, they learned that there were already requests for Beyond Zero (likely from Delta and KLM) and were enthusiastic about adding it to the catalogue.
So, a few months later, Beyond Zero was a featured new release on Delta, United, KLM, Emirates, and more. It turns out, that if you are trying to reach business people, there is no better place to do it than on airplanes. Ironically.
Suddenly Beyond Zero had a credential that was enough to get the streaming services to take a real look at it. And thanks to our friends at Brink, they were finally ready to add it to their libraries. What happens next depends on how it performs there. So please, share the film, and leave reviews.