When he gave the San Francisco State Of Cinema Address at the 56th SFIFF, Steven Soderbergh nailed it, several times over actually. In regards to the privilege of getting to make movies, he said that “the only way to repay that karmic debt is to make something good, is to make something ambitious, something beautiful, something memorable”.
That’s true, right? That’s the deal. That’s the deal in front of us every day. The deal on the table, day in and day out. But do people abide by it?
Most people exchange their labor for things they don’t care about and the money is supposed to make it all worth while. And we know how well that works, how far forward that structure has brought us, right? Money does not satisfy anyone — at least not those of character or substance. Science shows that the money only drives people in regards to the most mechanical tasks.
I fully agree with Steven. But…
It is so puzzling to me why everyone in the film biz isn’t driven in the same way. Is it that we get stuck on the first two true motivating pursuits — autonomy & mastery — and never get to the third: purpose? We want to make our movie and to be able to tell it as we intended. Is it that so difficult that we don’t then see that we need to make the good, the ambitious, the beautiful, or the memorable? Or is that all are striving for that and we generally fall short, having to make due with the noble failure?
Or is more of a Catch-22 where the drive for the latter, for purpose, for the memorable, and the karmic debt repayment, is so COLOSSALLY FRACKIN HUGE that we sacrifice all, giving up financial security in the process, or know that we will have to later in order to just pursue it, that we are all caught in a financial trap, unable to pursue the dream we’ve been nursing unless we are willing to risk homelessness or emotionally devastation? The indie film world often pushes themselves to financial ruin and debtors’ prison, to a place where none of us are able to extract anything close to the financial value worthy of the work that is paying off the karmic debt — all the while training our culture and industry to think they should get both the milk and the cow for free.
Filmmaking is a privilege. Doing what we love is a gift. But it is an odd one that ever when we recognize it, and do all we can to make sacrifices to the cinema gods, we also have to imprison ourselves under a mound of debt and the crushing blows of cultural indifference.
Is the equation that we have to work hard, leap into the unknown, risk it all, reach higher, give back and share our lessons, show thanks to the cinema gods, recognize our privilege and learn how to be content with rice and beans?
I think the math does not add up currently. I think there is a way to directly reward the creators and their supporters for the work they generate. I think if that goal can be achieved then the audience will be treated with a greater variety of more diverse work that is far more applicable to their wants and their desires than currently even dream about.
It starts with each of us voting for the culture we want with our dollars. It leads to us collaborating with those artists who inspire us to get their work seen and appreciated. It is not passive. It will not be smooth. It is worth fighting for.
