Daniel Bekerman on the Challenges of Producing ‘The Apprentice’ and His New Sundance Movies ‘Endless Cookie’ and ‘The Wedding Banquet’

variety.com:

Brent Lang Executive Editor David Lynch, the maverick avant-garde filmmaker who died last month, is an inspiration for Daniel Bekerman, the plucky producer behind challenging indie films like “The Witch” and “The Apprentice,” that somehow bucked the odds to get made. “I can’t deny that I’m here for the art, and I want it to be as pure and true as possible,” Bekerman said in an interview shortly before this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “And I want to support bold visions from the directors I work with.” But Bekerman, who co-founded and leads Scythia Films, also can’t deny that the business part of the entertainment industry often threatens to silence its boldest voices.

That was certainly the case with “The Apprentice,” an incisive look at Donald Trump’s early years as a media-hungry developer which scared off studios and streamers who were worried about getting on the wrong side of the president if they bought the movie.

And that was despite the glowing reviews that the film received. “We’re living in a moment where we are just seeing a mass capitulation to power by even the richest and most influential people and companies,” says Bekerman. “In corporate culture, there’s this mad dash to do anything people need to do in order to protect their bottom line.

It’s profoundly disappointing.” “The Apprentice” ultimately got a token release from Briarcliff Entertainment, a low-profile distributor, and had to endure a complicated sale after one of the film’s backers, Kinematics, which has ties to billionaire Daniel Snyder, opted to off-load its stake after reportedly being upset over the movie’s scathing portrait.