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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Apparition (company)

Former U.S. film distribution company

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 23, 2025
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Apparition was a New York City-based independent film distributor founded by industry veteran Bob Berney and film producer Bill Pohlad. Launched in August 2009, the company specialised in selections from the arthouse and independent film circuits. After releasing six feature films and one short, Apparition suspended its operations in May 2010 when Berney announced his resignation. It closed in late September 2010 after laying off its staff and selling the rights to its last remaining title, The Tree of Life, to Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Apparition (company)” is former U.S. film distribution company. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Apparition, company and Former, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009, 2010—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Apparition, company and Former is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “former U.S. film distribution company” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 23, 2025. The first chronological checks are 2009 and 2010.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Apparition (company)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Apparition (company) primary sources, Apparition (company) archive and Apparition research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Apparition (company)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Apparition (company)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.