How Outfest is offering global representation for LGBTQIA+ communities

It’s a universal fact of filmmaking: audiences want stories that feel real. We all deserve to see people who look, live, and love like us on screen, regardless of our background. Historically, though, it’s been hard to count on Hollywood to deliver new stories and new perspectives that meet those needs. Enter Outfest, a nonprofit LGBTQIA+ arts, media, and entertainment organization on a mission to host and highlight underrepresented narratives. Since 1982, the Los Angeles-based organization has utilized the power of film and video to build empathy and drive meaningful social change. In 2020, Outfest launched their Vimeo OTT channel, Outfest Now, to extend new and powerful stories to eager audiences across the globe. Here’s what they learned.

Telling new stories with new tech

After four decades in arts and media, Outfest is keenly aware of the power of representation. “Outfest’s initial mission, ‘increase the visibility of stories for ourselves,’ has evolved into a focus on building visibility and opportunity,” says Executive Director Damien Navarro. “We protect our legacy through a series of both film festival programs and non-festival programs.” Even before the pandemic hit, Outfest knew surviving and thriving for the next 40 years would require taking advantage of technological advances in storytelling. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020 made online programming imperative. Outfest knew pursuing OTT was the logical way forward.

We were really, really excited about the turnkey platform that Vimeo offered.”

Outfest Executive Director Damien Navarro

Channeling powerful stories

But before building out its full slate of OTT offerings, Outfest opted to create a pilot program. “In the spring and summer of 2020, we knew we were going to have to come up with an initial unique format to represent and support that year’s film festivals,” says Damien. “So we decided we would do a Pride film festival.” They selected Vimeo as their partner to build their OTT experience. “We were really, really excited about the turnkey platform that Vimeo offered. We learned more about the product and the solution, and also the teams there,” Damien notes. “As a community-based organization, Vimeo’s culture and mission were equally important to us as we were building out this partnership. Of course, we also focused on the tools, the usability, and everything else that comes along with it.” The success of the online United in Pride film festival gave Outfest more insights into the content their audiences were seeking and how they wanted to engage with it. “We realized early on that many of the live Q&As are really popular,” Damien explains. Using those learnings, the Outfest team built out their pilot into their fully-realized Outfest Now OTT channel.

Becoming globally inclusive

Outfest Now offers subscription access to full-length films, shorts, series, and live Q&As focused on LGBTQIA+ communities, issues, and cultural celebrations. It extends Outfest’s highly-successful festival programming to a global audience, and will continue to grow and evolve based on audience behavior and feedback. “We’ve been in this SVOD space for a while. As a result, we’ve learned more about who our potential audience could be,” notes Damien. “Most festivals stick to particular regions. One of the eye-opening experiences was the stories from the national audience who discovered this festival for the first time.” Online video will remain a key part of Outfests’s long-term strategy to expand its reach and impact. “OTT is not going to go away,” Damien assures. “We made a big decision to put our film festivals on the platform. We wanted to create a place where people could understand that there’s a new behavior here. They can come back not only for amazing, first-run festival content, but to experience an ever-changing gamut of a rainbow of stories.”

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