Kentlands filmmaker releases documentary

‘The Downline’ premiered at a film festival in Utah last month

Network marketing is associated with companies such as Amway, Mary Kay Cosmetics and The Pampered Chef, Martinis said.

However, some businesses have abused the system to create lucrative pyramid schemes that focus more on recruitment than product sales, he said. These businesses have burned some investors and tarnished the industry, he said.

‘‘People froth at the mouth. ... Anytime I talk to someone and say, ‘What do you think about MLMs,’ everyone has an opinion or story about it,” Martinis said.

The idea came to Martinis, 38, while attending Brigham Young University in Utah, where he studied film and graduated in 1991. The area is a billion-dollar industry for network marketing businesses. After he discovered that no documentary covered the subject, Martinis decided to tackle it himself.

‘‘The Downline” focuses on five distributors of differing financial backgrounds, including a cameraman who works for startup network marketing company Agel, which sells nutritional supplements in flavored gel form.

Their sales pitches are tossed in places such as Israel, Japan and Russia, and the payoff varies.

Meanwhile, the film explores the industry, such as how a pyramid scheme works, through animation.

The film’s premiere at the Park City Film Music Festival had a sold out crowd that included network marketing industry leaders.

‘‘A couple came and said to me, ‘You were fair and honest and neutral. We definitely would’ve liked to see it more positive on the industry, but we understand that you wanted to make something neutral,’” Martinis said.

Several songs in the film were composed by members from the rock group ‘‘Live.” Martinis is close friends with a member of the band and initially asked him for help obtaining rights to other music he wanted to use for the film, he said. He lucked out when his friend and another band member wrote him seven original songs, he said.

Martinis said he has submitted the film to about 30 different festivals and it was accepted at the New Hampshire Film Festival. He is waiting to hear from about 20 others.

They received a rejection notice from the Washington DC Independent Film Festival, which came as a surprise to Martinis because he’s a local filmmaker.

Film festivals, in general, receive hundreds of submissions, he said. The Park City festival received 2,100 and selected 10 documentaries.

‘‘It’s tough. Independent film right now, it’s very, very competitive,” Martinis said. ‘‘It seems like everybody is out there making movies.”

Martinis said a private screening of ‘‘The Downline” was hosted in November at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring. He is considering hosting a local public screening in the near future.

On the Silver Screen

‘‘The Downline,” a documentary by Gaithersburg resident Eric Martinis, offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the ‘‘network marketing” business model by following five distributors over the course of one year.

The film premiered in January at the Park City Film Music Festival in Utah, and Martinis is considering a local public screening.

For more, visit www.thedownlinemovie.com.