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Truly Free Film

Sherry B Ortner’s “Not Hollywood”: Post-Feminism?

We’ve got another excerpt from Sherry B Ortner’s new book Not Hollywood. Subtitled “Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream”, its an ethnographic look at Independent Film since the late 80s. This time Sherry looks at issues of sexism and Feminism’s current standing in the film world.

By Sherry B. OrtnerIt is a major point of the post-feminism literature that younger women find second-wave feminism irrelevant to today’s world, a world in which virtually all occupations are open to women, in which women—like the studio heads noted earlier—have been very visibly successful in many endeavors, and in which many men have been sensitized to the need for egalitarian relations between the sexes. Moreover, in this view, younger women see second-wave feminists as having more or less abandoned an interest in attractive femininity in the pursuit of gender equality; younger women reject this de-feminization and refuse to identify with the older feminist generation and often with the very term feminism.

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Truly Free Film

Why Is The Film Biz SOOOOO Slow To Change?

 

The Road To Change Is Hard To Find…

 

I know many of you recognize that the writing is on the wall.  Filmmakers have to stop planning first and foremost to bring their work to  market at film festivals or elsewhere.  The entire industry needs to get off of the single product focus and justify greater value in cinema in general.  Release patterns need to change.  We need to think of story worlds and long term relationships.  The end of the era of feature film dominance is inevitable.  The list goes on. And on. And on.

I certainly have done my share of list making, be it Best Practices for today, or what is currently wrong with the film biz.  I think such lists can save us — provided we are willing to not just behave passively but heed the call to action. And I am not alone standing on my soap box.  But if things are clearly broken why is change within the film biz not more evident?

Allow me to start with a list of what once where ten factors, and continues to grow…

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Truly Free Film

Towards A Sustainable Investor Class For Film Culture And Business

In my 38 Ways The Film Industry Is Failing Today post, I cited at #2 “The film industry has never tried to build a sustainable investor class”.  That was over two years ago.  What progress has been made?

The need for greater transparency, access, education, and community in film investment circles is only now being generally recognized in the film industry.  For over a century, the powerful kept close hold on the financial side of things, limiting access between creators and supporters.  This required always paying a visit to

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Issues and Actions

Simple Fixes: Recommend Whom To Hire

The film business is often said to be dominated by white men.  It is.  But instead of complain let’s do something about it.  

It would be great if there was a

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Truly Free Film

Alternative Finance and Distribution for Documentaries

by Andrew Einspruch

Filmmaker Andrew Einspruch recently attended the Australian International Documentary Conference and wrote a series of articles for the event, which he’s graciously allowed us to reprint here. These articles originally appeared in Screen Hub, the daily online newspaper for Australian film and television professionals.

Cathy Henkel is a producer, director, academic and researcher. She brings all of those skills to bear on her documentary projects, and recently has been looking into what it takes to navigate an independent path as a filmmaker. In a session called Riding the Freedom Streams at this year`s Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), she invited documentary makers to brave the waters of a freer path.

Starting off with her nautical theme, Henkel said that you have to decide what kind of vessel you want your business to be.

One option is to wade into the main stream, the province of vessels she called the Good Ship Enterprise. The AIDC is primarily devoted to established and wannabe Enterprise ships. These businesses get their money from three main sources: broadcast pre-sales and distribution advances, government (grants or investments), and the Producer Offset. They are larger businesses with larger staff and larger overheads, and they have worked out how to get deals with the broadcasters and distributors, whose pre-sales and advances are needed to trigger government money.

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The Next Good Idea

We Are Motivated By Expressing Purpose

Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are what drive people once they get beyond financial reward.  If we can stop worrying about money we work towards these other things.  I never liked anyone telling me what to do.  I like to feel good about the work I generate and I want people to need it.  Ultimately I want to feel that

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Truly Free Film

10 Ways To Turn That Script Into A Movie ASAP

We often wait and wait, strategizing and hoping, but for what?  Most scripts never get made. Even if they “finish” a script, many people stop less half way before they get it done.

I would argue that most scripts don’t become films because the people behind them aren’t willing to face reality and do what is necessary to get them made. The dream of the knight sweeping down and rescuing them for their beauty/wisdom/talent/genius is a toxic poison.  Wishing for privilege, wishing for good fortune, these dreams get in the way of recognizing the hard work that can often get things done.  

Okay, money, connections, talent — they all have a great deal to do with success, but it is also a state of mind that is needed to make things real. Much of that mindset is preparation.  Some of it is process.  And some is that heady cocktail where action and philosophy mix.  You want to get your movie made? Change how you are thinking, and then change your actions.

WARNING: The myth of hard work earning just rewards is equally false and debilitating, but if you want to change your outcomes, preparation is probably the key influencer.

Here’s my list for today of ten short cuts to production.

  1. The best way to raise a budget is to