If We Addressed The Problems In The Cinema Ecosystem, Would It Better This World?

Another installment (#9) of the BAD things in our cinema ecosystem, 2024

Check out the map before you support regimes, okay?

We have almost come to the end. Oops. Hold that thought; we still have a ways to go.

Yeah, there’s a lot more that’s wrong with our world and industry, but I fear I may have wounded more than one of you for good. I am still hoping you use this list to turn things around. And to sharpen your own goals and tactics. May we all avoid these things for ourselves, and continue to reach for a higher bar.

I almost didn’t publish this post today. The devastation in Los Angeles is colossal. Lives and livelihoods have been harmed immensely. Recovery currently feels far more a question than an inevitability. There are many resources and tremendous sense of community dedicated to rebuilding and easing the misery. It is what we do both as an industry and a people. As this multi-part series demonstrates our industry has many challenges before us, but we won’t let that get us down. We can build it back better.

Problems With The FKATheFilmBiz, 2024, #151- 175 (P-S)

151. Panels: be they be at festivals or elsewhere, I find them antiquated and all but useless. First, I can’t see how they are allowed to happen without the panelists being representative of the community at large (as after all how else do we all know we belong), but the format of them is not conversational but self-promotional. The need for each participant to have equal time prohibits them from getting deep. Rarely have they been designed to deliver new information. Let’s bring back the curated conversation, or even better: debates!

152. Parasite Culture: that’s what we’ve become. The platforms rip off the creators. End of story.

153. Participation / It is a problem for many of us to even show up.

154. Political Films / The fear and cowardice around them: All the major distributors and GSP’s in America have made it clear they won’t touch a political film. It’s pathetic. All films are political frankly, whether overtly or not. We experienced the cowardice and ostracism directly by making a film in support of Taiwan’s right to self-determination. And for what it is worth, I really enjoyed The Apprentice. Tom Ortenberg of Briarcliff is now a hero of mine for distributing it.

155. Political Power: No one but the Studios and the Global Streaming Platforms truly have it. Sure, the DGA, SAG/Aftra, and WGA spend money on lobbying ($300K in ‘23 for WGA) but that pales in comparison. As we face both monopoly power and oligarchial control, who is going to fight for the rights of artists, citizens, and public media.