Benten Films is fairly new on the DVD distribution scene -- so far, they've released only a few DVDs, starting with Joe Swanberg's film LOL last year. Earlier this month, I reviewed their latest DVD set, the Aaron Katz films Quiet City and Dance Party, USA, which was beautifully put together. Benten was founded by two film critics: Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis, whom James Rocchi interviewed last year about their new endeavor.

Now Benten Films is venturing into foreign films with their latest acquisition for American DVD distribution: The Free Will (aka Der Freie Wille). The German film premiered in 2006 at Berlinale, where it won the Silver Bear award for outstanding artistic contribution. In addition, actor Jurgen Vogel won awards at Tribeca and the Chicago International Film Festival for his performance as Theo, who is released from a psychiatric detention unit nine years after committing sexual assault crimes, and who has to get reacquainted with the world around him. The drama is a whopping 163 minutes long, but at least on DVD you can make your own intermission. I haven't yet had the chance to see The Free Will, and look forward to the DVD's release date on June 24.

If you've had your fill of the formulaic Hollywood films that populate theaters in January and February, listen up. Benten Films, the distribution company run by film writers, has released a double-DVD set of Aaron Katz films for you: Quiet City and Dance Party, USA. Quiet City, which premiered at SXSW last year and helped trigger the whole "mumblecore" dialogue, is the standout film of the two, but Dance Party, USA also has some lovely moments.

Quiet City is an exquisitely filmed fairytale of New York, centering around a pair of twentysomethings. Jamie (Erin Fisher) arrives in NYC from Atlanta to spend the weekend with a flaky friend who never shows up to meet her. She asks directions from a stranger on the street, Charlie (Cris Lankenau), and they end up having dinner together, discovering they get along very well. They spend a day having fun around the city. You can't watch a man and woman who become fast friends like this without wondering whether they'll hook up, which provides a small amount of suspense. But you get so caught up watching these people and their friends that the romantic potential hardly seems to matter most of the time.

A couple of film critics decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own DVD distribution company -- that's the way to promote indie films you think need to be seen! Aaron Hillis, who writes at Cinephiliac and who himself is a filmmaker (Fish Kill Flea) and Andrew Grant, who writes at Like Anna Karina's Sweater, have founded Benten Films, which will distribute indie films and world cinema in North America. James Rocchi interviewed Grant and Hillis earlier this month about the new company as part of his Rocchi Review podcast. Benten Films is part of Ryko Distribution, which is able to distribute DVDs nationally in big stores (and through Amazon) so these films will be widely available.

The first DVD being released by Benten Films is LOL, Joe Swanberg's second feature. You might recall that his latest film, Hannah Takes the Stairs, is being released by IFC next month. Karina Longworth reviewed LOL at SXSW last year (we flipped a coin for the review and I lost, sadly) and called it "most remarkable for the way it shackles the sex drives of its protagonists to their digital toys." If you haven't seen any of Swanberg's films, check out Eat My Shorts: The Mumblecore Crowd where I linked to Thanks for the ADD along with some similar shorts. I'm looking forward to seeing LOL on DVD when it hits the streets August 28 -- and the extras look good too, including commentary tracks and another short called Hissy Fits. Keep an eye out for future Benten Films DVDs, which currently include The Guatemalan Handshake, Quiet City and Dance Party, USA.

Where's the line between reviewer and distributor? What's it like to literally put your money where your mouth is? And have new platfroms of distribution actually made it harder to get films in front of audiences? And what is 'Mumblecore," anyway? This edition of The Rocchi Review features a duo uniquely qualified to answer those questions and others, Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis of Benten Films; Andrew Grant is also the filmblogger behind Like Anna Karina's Sweater, while Aaron reviews films for publications from The Village Voice to Premiere. You can download the entire podcast right here -- and we hope you enjoy.