The success-based bonuses of life (and other poetry)

Links & Ponders 9/30

Yeah, I am getting old. Today’s my birthday. Guess what? I think we do birthdays backwards.  I think we do a lot of things backwards, right? 

On birthdays we should show how appreciative we are to be here with everyone else. In this same boat. Walking up the hill. Pushing the same boulders. We don’t have to go full on potlatch and give it all away, but we should shed some of what we value most. Yeah, so today you can have a yearlong paid subscription to HopeForFilm for 50% off.  Crazy! But it is only for a year’s worth of such hope. Or even better, if you show a donation to Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, ACLU, or NPR made for $100 or more within 7 days of my birthday, I will give you three free “paid” subscriptions for the year. How’s that? You can then give it away too. Nuts! https://tedhope.substack.com/Birthday  Hurry as it expires 10/4.

Perhaps the best way to have a birthday is to screen the work that our life’s been centered around for such a significant amount of time. And in front of an appreciative audience no less. Wow.  We got to do that yesterday. INVISIBLE NATION screened at the Woodstock Film Festival yesterday. As the video above captures, a whole busload of folks came up from NYC to see it despite the flooding armageddon that besieged the region. 11A and you have almost a 100 people in a room to see a film – it doesn’t get much better than that. It is so hard to have the fortitude to stay with any project until you find its best form. It is a testament of faith. We are all hit with so many challenges to getting it done along the way. I am amazed that any movie gets done, yet alone at a level of excellence. I was over the moon. And we get to do it again this evening.

Working on something that is outside the realm of current corporate preferences and styles, exposes how broken our entertainment ecosystem is. Remember when you encountered the unexpected? When you stumbled into the film that reminded you of your hopes and dreams? That made you feel seen and heard? That’s why you started doing what you do, right? Cinema is such a transformative experience – or at least it can be. Our system has generally programmed itself out of that field. It can return though.

I do a lot of public speaking, but I think my favorite sort is the small group roundtable. 20 people or so. I did that yesterday at Woodstock for an hour. I try to share with an open heart and be truly honest. My eyes well up.  Others do the same. Some break down and break through. We need to know we are heard and not alone. We need to know folks have our backs. We need to know we can get it done.  I look forward to capturing the sort of conversation I got to have yesterday morning on the page. I am getting there.

We can see how this moment is so different from all that has come before. We can see how the system we are in shapes the work we make, even determining it on a corporate or festival level. We can see how we can develop a creative practice that both recognizes that yet empowers us to disrupt the status quo and return the sort of transformative work that inspired us in the first place. So many have lost their way, but we can walk out of this swamp and into a new zone. It can be sustainable. It can be compassionate. It can be wonderful. We are going to get there. The inspirations are many, but we have to revise the way we see things.

Because INVISIBLE NATION is playing at Woodstock, I got to speak to Addie Morfoot at Variety (and you can see a clip of our film at the link). I truly do believe “I think that the savior of the doc space and ultimately indie film, and then I would take it as far to say democracy in general, is going to be regional everything. The regional film festivals in particular, but also advocates, publicists, influencers in communities. Global streaming and the world of ad-based platforms is the equivalent of fast food. We need a slow food movement for film in America. That is going to look like community-based theaters, community-based festivals and community-based screenings with folks who prioritize truthful and passion-driven content.” We are going to build it better together.

Come see INVISIBLE NATION at a film festival near you!

What else do I have today for you to ponder, you ask? How about the labor uprising that is sweeping both our industry and country? How about the anti-competitive monopolistic practices that is destroying opportunity in the FKATheFilmBusiness? How about how it will all be defeated? What is going to be like now that the first strike is resolved? Ponder and wonder shall we?