Ink is a 2009 American science fiction fantasy film, written and directed by Jamin Winans, starring Chris Kelly, Quinn Hunchar and Jessica Duffy. It was produced by Winans's own independent production company, Double Edge Films, with Kiowa K. Winans, and shot by cinematographer Jeff Pointer in locations around Denver. The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on January 23, 2009,[2] and has screened in Denver, the Cancun Film Festival (where it won the Best International Feature award[3]), Rams Head Onstage in Annapolis and in a number of independent movie houses in cities around the US. The film was widely circulated in Peer-to-Peer networks which led to its commercial success.
Both Jamin Winans and Kiowa Winans contributed multiple roles in making Ink, in addition to both being credited as executive producers. Jamin wrote, directed and edited, as well as composed the original soundtrack for the film, while Kiowa is credited for the Art Direction, Costume Design and Sound Design.
As no big studio picked up the film for theatrical and home distribution, Double Edge Films pitched the movie directly to independent cinemas and also saw to the DVD, Blu-ray and online distribution themselves. DVD and Blu-ray copies of the movie are sold directly via the company's website starting from October 30, 2009 and are sold at retail stores starting November 10, 2009, as well as downloads at Video on demand stores.[4] According to TorrentFreak, a file sharing news site, Ink was downloaded via BitTorrent 400,000 times in a single week and exposed the film to a large audience, leading to higher DVD and Blu-ray sales in return.[5] Jamin and Kiowa Winans wrote in their newsletter that they had embraced the piracy and are happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure. [5] Around Christmas 2009 the film was also released on Hulu for free viewing.[6][7]
The movie, released in 1994, was based on the novel of the same name by New Zealand author Alan Duff. It followed an indigenous Maori family trying to make their way in urban Auckland and various moko — traditional Maori tribal tattoos — appear throughout the film. Although the movie may have heavily influenced tattoo design, it certainly wasn’t the first time ink was significantly featured on screen.
