Everything Is A Question About Life, Isn't It?
Or at least a ponder or link to something else...
Before we begin, have you seen our film INVISIBLE NATION yet? I’d love it if you would. I am very proud of it. It could be the most important film I’ve done. If you are in LA this coming Tuesday, we are screening at UTA, and you can come as our guest by signing up here. Thanks. Invite your friends too. Seriously. The more the merrier. We are getting close to capacity, so don’t delay.
1
What is a tool of suppression, oppression, and control?
Limit access, understanding, and consideration of views not conducive to yours. Is that now happening here, not just in America, but throughout the world? Yup. Does such practice hurt democracy? Yup. Have we found a way to deliver audiences a consistent supply of in-depth explorations of a variety of tales that dare speak truth to power? Nope. Have such films consistently found audiences and won awards? Yup. Do the people deserve a system that offers access to these movies? Yup. Docs with one drop of politics in them are being discriminated against, under the guise of "business". What ever happened to culture? To society? To democratic values?.
2
Is it human nature or just bad behavior?
Producers get written out of the story, time and time again. I can’t even begin to count the times that despite all the work we do getting the script right, the cast right, the financing right, the cut right, the marketing right, the release right, and the everything else right, when the directors or journalists tell the tale they seem to drop the part about us producers. Sometimes all we are left with is not feeling good about all we did.
Similarly, we do so much more; we contain multitudes, but so many just want us to raise money. Can you find financing, Ted? Can you get us more money, Ted? Help me get funding, Ted? It is dispiriting. We all do more but they just want to talk money. It makes me want to stop raising money, finding money, enticing money. It feels reductive. So reductive.
But I get it. We need money to make our films. But why is it that that is all they can see sometimes?
3
How do you think we could generate cultural course correctors?
In prepping the next post, I was compelled to ask this question in the HFF Chat group. This is a process I enjoy, particularly when readers respond. It helps me flesh out my writing.
On this one I pointed out how Indie film used to do this -- show Hollywood the aesthetic, structure, tone, attitude, and audience they neglected. It used to show the world this.
College radio did too. Likewise street fashion.
But now, due to platform domination, and the push to conformity, much has been lost.
What can we in the creative economy do to bring it back?
The conversation continues:
4
Are we doomed to just have it get worse and worse?
Ted Gioia laid it out well this week. Those platforms don’t make; they take. And scrape. They are parasites and they will suck all the blood out of us if we don’t do something soon.
He pushes for a Creators Bill Of Rights, which I do strongly suggest as a campaign for all of us who actually generate art, culture, and entertainment.
Obviously I agree with his plea for a “Creators’ Bill Of Rights” and, yeah maybe I should change the name of my similar suggestion from last year..
At the very least I need to update it. Thanks, Ted! ALWAYS more work to do.
5
Do you know the difference between your distribution tactics and goals?
Sounds like a simple question but about this time last year, Vanessa and I shared our distribution strategy with Jon Reiss and he did us a serious solid. He pointed out our goals were actually tactics and we needed to get sharper on what we were trying to achieve on our film INVISIBLE NATION. Luck for you, you don’t have to wait until you are about to launch your festival campaign to be better recognize the difference. His post this week spells it out well — and he promises this is just the start of a total update to his book/manifesto “Think Outside The Box Office”; he will be publishing Distribution 101 updates over on his newsletter. Check it out:
And if you like what you see there, Jon has gracously offered a 90 day free trial to HFF subscribers. You can activate yours here: https://jonreiss.substack.com/hopeforfilm
But hurry! It expires in a week.
6
Do you prefer it longer or shorter?
I had been doing these links and ponders as posts of 10. It is a number that helps me limit them to once a week. But some have mentioned that perhaps they are too long. So today’s an experiment in that. A bite instead of a meal. If I keep them to 5 or 6 such thoughts, I could publish them possibly twice a week. Would you like that? More or less? How can I make HFF work better for you?
Thanks for the shoutout Ted and to be in such good company with Ted G.
Amen to all these questions, Ted. We experienced firsthand how Google was censoring our stories about trans and LGBTQ kids and labeling it as “shocking content.” The cultural anesthesia that is being injected into our society by these companies is staggering and without precedent. Holy moly, where’s it all going?
Link to our video about Google’s censorship:
https://youtu.be/Uc2nw4teg_s?feature=shared