I recently interviewed Eric Martinis, Producer and Director of The Downline movie. The Downline is a real documentary that follows 4 people for 1 year in a start up Network Marketing company. I know there will be a lot of interest in this movie and I want to thank Eric for taking the time to speak with me. If you would like to have more from Eric, please leave a comment. We are thinking about doing an interview for a podcast.

Here is the movie teaser:

MLM Blog: I can’t imagine that you had a lifelong dream of making a movie
about Network Marketing, how did this come about?

Eric Martinis: I think you misunderstood what I was saying on the phone.  It
has been my dream…since college…to premiere a film at Sundance, any
film. This doc. about Network Marketing was just a subject that
seemed very interesting to us and thought it would be great subject
matter.  I went to film school at BYU in Provo, UT.
Spent all four years going to Sundance and volunteering as an
usher my junior and senior years.  I still go back every
year and enjoy the festival. This is why I submitted "The Downline"
to Sundance.

MLM Blog: What other films have you worked on in the
past?

Eric: Most recently, I was an Associate Producer on two films from
Halestorm Entertainment, "Single’s Ward" and "The R.M."

MLM Blog: How did you decide to feature Agel? Will the movie promote
Agel over other MLM opportunities and why Agel?

Eric: My Brother in Law introduced me to the CEO of Agel, Glen
Jensen before the company had a product or a name.  It was just an
idea that Glen had in his head.  We started talking
about the culture and business of network marketing.  I had
some peripheral knowledge about network marketing, but had no idea how
fascinating it really was.  At the time, I was on the hunt
for a documentary film idea.  One thing led to another, and
I ended up asking Glen if I could document his company as a start
up and a few of his distributors.  Glen agreed to my request
and gave us full access to himself and his Executives.  The idea
was never to promote Agel.  Agel in no way gave us any
funding for the production of the documentary. They only gave us access
to interviews and access to events.

MLM Blog: Are any other MLM
programs featured positively (besides Agel)?

Eric: We have interviews with a number of other MLM companies. Believe
it or not, most of our requests for interviews went un-answered or
declined. The four that we really tried to interview were Amway,
NuSkin, USANA and Noni, none of them would do it. We have mostly
distributor interviews and some Executive interviews with the following
companies, whether the interviews made it in the film or not is a
different story.

They are…Avon, Xango, Mary Kay, XPI, Burn Lounge,
Enrich, Rexall Showcase, Silpada, Arbonne, Modbe, Slumber Parties. I
would say that 95% of the interviews are very positive of the MLM
industry…probably as expected.

MLM Blog: What is your experience with
Network Marketing (if any)?

Eric: There were two directors on "The Downline"  Myself,
who joined Agel to be immersed into the MLM culture and receive the
distributor/marketing kit and Jason Allred who purposefully stayed out
of any MLM so that he could remain neutral.  I
have never been in an MLM before the start of full time production
on the documentary and neither has Jason. Jason still is not.

MLM Blog: How did you pick the four people featured in the movie?

Eric: I went to the Agel "pre-launch" meeting when they first started up
looking for 4 very different people.  I also attended some
other conferences in my search.  I wanted them to be just average
people making a go at a brand new upstart.  …people that other
people could relate to.  They also needed to be from
different  backgrounds.  From there, I just roamed around
looking for an interesting story by meeting and talking to as many
people I could.  I ended up finding a young,
aggressive "Rookie" from West Palm Beach…a "Mother" of four
children from Utah, a successful "Businessman" from Austin,
Texas…none of them ever involved in a network marketing company AND
the fourth distributor, a "Pro" from Philadelphia, PA.  She had
been in NM for 18 years prior to joining Agel.

MLM Blog: I understand
that the music in the film is great, who are the artists?

Eric: The
music supervision was done by two of the members from the
multi-platinum selling band LiVE, Chad Gracey (drummer) and Patrick
Dahlheimer (Bass).  They were so excited about doing the music
that they ended up recording 7 original songs for the film.

MLM Blog: Did anything surprise you during filming?

Eric: Yes, we were very surprised at how closed a lot of people are to
talking about their business on camera.  In a world where everyone
is promoting themselves, the idea of a documentary film about Network
Marketing shut them up pretty quickly. I thought most people would
jump at the chance.  And, it wasn’t limited to NM
Professionals…we found that anti-NM people were just
as camera shy!  We also really tried to interview Orrin Hatch, a
Senator from Utah.  Surprisingly, he had no comment about an
industry that brings in more than $4 Billion in revenues for the State
of Utah.

(Sadly, I was not contacted for an interview – MLM Blog)

MLM Blog: Did you have any preconceived ideas about Network
Marketing that turned about wrong? Right? What were they?

Eric: I think
more than 90% of the people out there that are not in Network Marketing
have some preconceived ideas about the business. That is just what
makes this documentary interesting.  Mine were just as generic as
anyones.  The usual, "pyramids", "bother your friends", "product
piles up", etc. etc.  Over the course of our 19 month journey, I
found that all of my notions were incorrect for the most part.  We
do a really good job of staying very neutral and exploring both sides of
the fence…both positive and negative.

MLM Blog
: Do you think that financial freedom is possible through
Network Marketing?

Eric: Absolutely, IF someone treats it like a business.  We
interviewed a great deal of very successful people.  People that
have achieved "financial freedom".  However, I really don’t think
that Network Marketing is for everyone.  Just like being a Doctor
or Lawyer is not for everyone.  The truly successful people we met
have a passion and love for this business that is quite
uncanny.

MLM Blog: How do you plan on distributing the film? When and
where can I see it?

Eric: Right now, we have submitted for
consideration to the Sundance Film Festival as a "Premiere" for
the 2007 Fest.  This means that we are unable to have any public
showings until we hear back from them by December 1, 2006.  In
parallel, we have submitted to the Slamdance Film Festival.  The
second largest festival in Utah…also as a premiere.  As you can
see, we are really trying to have our premiere in Utah.  The odds
of getting selected for either of these festivals is VERY slim.
If we do not get into either of these festivals, we have plans to
immediately submit to about 30 other festivals.  You can see "The
Downline" at any of these, starting in January of 2007.  After
that, who knows…probably buy the DVD on-line.