Day: March 8, 2010

Categories
Truly Free Film

Thoughts On Last Night’s Oscars

The opening  number felt so inappropriate that I first hoped that the show would keep up a feel of a high school spoof of the Spirit Awards.  Shouldn’t such a celebration of art & entertainment aim to contextualize all that is great about this Dream Factory?  Okay, if they can’t figure out how to do that, I would be fine with several hours of pure crass classless puns like the song & dance intro promised too, but no.  We get 4 hours of dullness instead.  The fun of the show becomes critiquing all the mistakes.

Continue reading “Thoughts On Last Night’s Oscars”
Categories
The Next Good Idea Truly Free Film

Invest in Artists, Not Art; in Individuals, Not Projects

MCN tipped me to this article in Barrons on Creative Capital’s practice of investing in the artist, and not the project.

BRENT GREEN WAS 25 AND ABOUT to relinquish his dream of becoming a filmmaker when he discovered Creative Capital.

Green had been looking high and low for a $14,000 grant to finish an animated film. Creative Capital, a nonprofit based in New York, sized him up and offered something entirely different: $43,000 to help support his career over the next three years. It would go toward everything from equipment to transportation to the cost of a publicist. In return, Green would give Creative Capital a small cut of any profits.

In the five years since then, Green’s work has been shown at the Sundance Festival and a number of museums and film festivals in North America and Europe. He has even found himself turning down galleries eager to represent his work.

Continue reading “Invest in Artists, Not Art; in Individuals, Not Projects”