The Rebirth Of Max It Magazine

Long before the headlines made hacking famous, a fast-growing indie film site — MaxItMagazine.com — came under sustained attack. Denial-of-service and brute-force assaults hammered the servers until the attackers got in: not to steal from the site, but to hijack it for their own ends. The team held it together with bailing wire, duct tape, and sheer willpower for another year before the mounting damage finally pulled the servers down with it.

But what it built in that first run still stands as proof of why it mattered. In its first year alone, Max It Magazine drew 1.2 million visitors. It helped more than 3,500 independent filmmakers get their work in front of the world. It helped filmmakers raise over a million dollars for their projects. It never once charged a filmmaker to submit a press release. It became one of the few sites IMDb accepts as confirmation of an indie production — and the only one that let films list while still in development. It walked filmmakers all the way from an idea, through crowdfunding and production, to release — and helped get several films distributed.

It did all of that because it was the only website completely dedicated to independent film. That's why we rebuilt it from top to bottom and relaunched it.

There's still a lot of work to do, and a lot of features we haven't switched on yet. You can be part of it: send us your press releases, test the site, tell us when something's broken, and share it the way you did the first time. It was that collaborative, indie attitude that made Max It a success once before — and it's that same effort that will make it bigger than it ever was.

Thank you for what you've already done, and for what you'll do next. Together, we can give indie film its voice back.

— Scott C. Brown, Founder