Thank you Graham for an inspiring keynote speech at the LAIFF yesterday. Very tweet-worthy. And a welcome reminder of what matters and how to keep going. With flair and style no less. Wish I could’ve been there. You definitely made a list for folks to put up on their wall by their desk (reproduced below for easy clipping).
Graham Taylor’s Brief To-Do list To Improve Indie Film Ecosystem:
• We have to encourage young people.
• We can’t be an agist business where we cast off older filmmakers.
• It’s important to have a strong point of view.
• It’s easy to be the person who points out how nothing will ever work. It’s much harder to take a leap of faith and challenge yourself when things do blow up. We never got anywhere in life by playing it safe.
• You should take the time to tweet and blog. And for those of you who comment on Deadline, if you have something positive to say, something that offers real reflection and insight, even critical thought then we should throw you a float parade. But for all of those people who are just spreading hate, you should enjoy a large glass of go fuck yourself.
• It doesn’t hurt to have a sense of humor.
• Don’t stand for apathy and cynicism in either the creative or business communities as it is ultimately cancerous to the evolution of art.
In closing: I’m not an optimist because I’m a lunatic. It’s a learned optimism, one that’s founded upon years of experience, tenacity, and perseverance in this business. We have to be educated on the issues and challenges that face us. I have not gone into the economic issues today as they are well-documented and we are bombarded with them every day. BORING!
What’s not boring is making shit happen. We are the inmates taking over the asylum. We Build, Enable and Activate content, financing and distribution. We are in a revolution and now is our time. We finally have a bigger seat at the table.
Read Graham’s entire speech here (complete with music cues).
