Lee Bennett Sobel, President

Lo-Fi Entertainment, Ltd. was formed in 1996 by filmmaker/music promoter Lee Bennett Sobel. A graduate of New York University's film school where he directed numerous short films, Sobel worked for major television and feature film producers in New York and Hollywood before writing and directing his first feature-length movie, ROCKABILLY VAMPIRE, which was released in 2001 by Troma Entertainment.

Sobel's love of retro music led him to spearhead the swing music revival in New York City. He has promoted hundreds of events at the most prestigious nightclubs, managed, booked and produced bands, worked as a DJ, planned parties and weddings, released several CDs on his own music label, published the magazines "Lo-Fi" and "Cool Culture," and hosted and produced his own cable television series, "Retro TV."

Knowing something about taking niche ideas and making them successful, Lo-Fi Entertainment launched a home video division to release its own movies and those of other creative independent filmmakers. The company's first releases include "UFO FEVER," a comedy feature about a trailer park family trying to capture a UFO on video and win a million dollars; "TERRORMARKETERS," a comedy feature that asks the question "Do all telemarketers deserve to die?"; and LUVRGRL, a searing dramatic feature about a young woman whose sexual addiction is spiraling out of control.

Lo-Fi Entertainment stands by its guarantee to deliver product that is fresh and unique, and always entertaining and fun.

Interview with Lee Bennett Sobel, President of Lo-Fi Entertainment.

Q: You've been a filmmaker for some time. Why start your own distribution company?

Sobel: There are a number of reasons why I chose to launch Lo-Fi Entertainment Home Video. As the creator of my own movies, I feel that I have yet to meet anyone who understands how to sell my movies better than I do. As much as I am a creative filmmaker, I have a background in sales and have successfully run my own business for going on ten years. I feel that my experience has led me to the point where I can control every aspect of creating full-length motion pictures that offer something fresh and unique, while remaining very cost-effective. The fact that our overhead is considerably less than most studios means we will be able to release our product with very competitive sell-through prices.

Q: What is your company's philosophy?

Sobel: A great story well told does not depend on budget. I am interested in producing movies in the tradition of films like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Clerks" that proved that films can be phenomenally successful without having to follow any of the rules of big budget Hollywood studio films. At the same time, I like to think I have taste and I know there are many people out there who think low budget is synonymous with crap. So I won't put out anything that I do not feel has some kind of originality and quality to it.

Q: What kind of material are you looking to acquire?

Sobel: For acquisition we are completely open-minded. I'm especially interested in genre filmmaking because I am a huge fan of comedy, science fiction, horror, thrillers, etc., but I know that there is and always will be an audience for these genres. I would like all of the movies we release to be filtered through some unique sensibility so it doesn't feel like material we've seen worked and reworked a million times before. As a filmmaker myself, I feel that I understand filmmakers' concerns and can work with them to get their movies seen, no matter how small their budget.

Q: What are your long-term goals?

Sobel: Lo-Fi Entertainment is a micro studio. We run the business the same way any major studio does except that we do not have the huge expenditures. We are taking full-length feature films from idea to production into completion and then releasing them ourselves on DVD. We're doing it all on an extremely tight budget and deadline and in the next year we are looking to release 10-20 titles.