#teammargaret

I want to see Margaret, which was stuck, for literally, years in the editing room. The studio insisted that the director Kenneth Lonergan cut the whopping 180+ minute duration to something more commercially viable, but Longergan refused. Lawyers got involved. The film sat on the shelf for years unreleased. It was messy.

Eventually, Martin Scorsese and his longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker finished a final cut of the film, which Lonergan approved.

In 2011, the film appeared in a handful of cinemas in the US and only ONE cinema in London, in what must have been the most limited release of all time.

Anna Paquin | Margaret

A funny thing happened around about the time critics formed an online petition begging the company, who released the film, to give it a push in the awards race, the #teammargaret hashtag also exploded on Twitter among movie bloggers. The goal was to get as many people as possible to seek out and see the film. The phenomenon was reported on in TIME and The New Yorker magazines resulting in over 600 signatures on the online petition.

Look, I'm writing about this, like, six weeks too late, but I would love to see more of this grass roots support online for films that desperately need to be seen, but don't have the financial support they need to find their audience.