Hundreds of filmmakers report that their independent films have been deleted by Amazon Prime Video Direct, and with no defined explanation nor warning. What is the reason for that?

Call for action against Amazon

Today I stumbled upon a special post created by an ARRI Alexa and Amira User Group. The post was a call for action to sign a petition against Amazon for their decision to eliminate thousands of indie films: “Prime Video Direct has just arbitrarily purged tons of indie films w/o warning, denying any appeals, & ignoring ALL e-mails. They purged highly rated films & marginalized content creators. To teach Amazon.com that discrimination & censorship is unacceptable, sign this petition. The post is linked to TheNextWeb article that reports that recently conducted a mysterious purge affecting thousands of films and hundreds of filmmakers.”

Prime Video Direct has just arbitrarily purged tons of indie films w/o warning, denying any appeals, & ignoring ALL e-mails

Mass of indie films was deleted by Prime Video Direct service

It appears that Amazon has decided, out of the blue, to delete tons of indie films, without any warning to creators. Filmmakers who worked very hard and poured their hearts and souls into their labor of love passion projects, discovered surprisingly that their masterpiece has gone from the service.

Filmmaker Henrique Couto told TNW (TheNextWeb): “Last night many of my films, including two that had just passed a review by them were taken down, but this time they were taken down with no option to attempt to republish or appeal. I was also never informed about them being taken down, Prime Video Direct never informs you when your films are down, they are just down until you notice it.”

Amazon’s foggy response

Henrique has contacted Amazon Video Direct for an explanation and got this answer:” We are always listening to customer feedback and iterating on their behalf. During a quality assurance review, we found that your titles contain content that does not meet our customer content quality expectations. This means a regular multi-factor review of the content we make available as Included with Prime and this may mean the removal of content which does not meet that bar from time to time. As a result, all offers for your titles that have been removed will not be made available as “Included with Prime” or to Buy/Rent on Amazon. Thanks for using Prime Video Direct.”

Last night many of my films, including two that had just passed a review by them were taken down, but this time they were taken down with no option to attempt to republish or appeal Filmmaker Henrique Couto

Elimination of approved content

From Amazon’s answer, we can assume that the service is purging its pool of films. But why? The excuse quoted above is absurd since Henrique’s films were filtered and underwent a lengthy cross-examination process before they have been approved by Amazon. Furthermore, let’s suppose that after reexamination Amazon decides to remove the film. In that case, why haven’t they notified the creators?

During a quality assurance review, we found that your titles contain content that does not meet our customer content quality expectations Amazon Prime Video Direct

Why is Amazon breaking its oath?

Amazon contributes and encourages independent cinema, contrary to Hulu and Netflix, as quoted on Amazon Video Direct website: ”Helping studios, distributors, and independent filmmakers reach audiences worldwide.” so why is Amazon breaking its oath? There is no straight answer for that nor formal and authentic response from Amazon.

Petition against Prime Video Direct

The independent filmmaking community has created a petition to “Stop the Death March Of Independent Film brought on by Amazon.com! “. The petition was created two weeks ago and now it needs your help, so get in and sign.

Services like Amazon Video Direct are crucial to the filmmaking community since it allows us the appropriate stage to show our works, gather an audience and make some income so we can continue to do what we love the most – to make films to our audience.

Press here to sign the petition.

What do you think the reason for Amazon’s purge? Enlighten us!