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Truly Free Film

The Really Good Things In FilmBiz 2014

Let's look at the bright side!
Let’s look at the bright side!

Some rituals help keep us focused throughout the year. This marks the 4th time I have looked back at all the good things that occurred in the film biz and listed them out for all of us. Tracking them through year, keeps me from abandoning hope. Sometimes they may just be the silver lining in the storm cloud, but nonetheless they keep me going, keep me convinced that in fact we truly are: building it better together. I hope they do something close to that for you. It’s been a good year, and I have thirty two morsels to tempt you with. And of course the year’s not through yet, so perhaps you have some to add to this too. 

If you’ve encountered elements of this list earlier on my postings in Film Comment and on Keyframe, pay careful attention as I have weaved some new points into all for your reading pleasure. And if you like a little of the bitter to wash down the sweet, don’t forget the list of 30 Bad Things In 2014’s Film Biz here.

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Truly Free Film

Get Drunk Together And Other Recommendations For Building A Good Collaboration

Film Independent had me pull together some of our top indie producers and probe the secrets to collaborating well with directors. This panel reinforced what became clear writing my book: There is no template for a successful collaboration. There are certainly best practices to be observed but each film and each director requires a custom fit. Albert Berger, Lisa Cortes, and Lynette Howell rocked the stage with me at the Filmmaker Forum.  Check it out some video highlights here:

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Truly Free Film

Hope For Film Speaking Tour

There is a lot to say
There is a lot to say

I have a lot to share with you.  I also have a lot of hope for film — and I am not just talking about copies of my book for you to pick up.  Anyway, you can hear it all directly from me as I will be on the road a lot over these next few months. Hopefully I will be coming to your town. If you happen to teach at a college, and I am coming through already, let me know, and maybe I can make an additional stop. If I am not passing through, and you’d like me to, let me know. Here’s a sampling of where I will be headed as well as the dates:

Categories
Issues and Actions

The Orphan Works Problem

IDA and Film Independent are working on your behalf to solve a big problem hurting filmmakers everywhere.  They deserve a big THANK YOU from us all.

Read this:

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Truly Free Film

Say Goodbye To Bizarro World: Time To Make Business Of Art

This is my recent FERA Keynote speech (London, UK  BFI South Bank,September 27, 2013 145PM):

Our strength is now our weakness

Children love playing “The Opposite Game” where “yes” means “no”, and “no” means “yes”.  Politicians seem to love to play that game too…

This backwards world has infected many of our cultural fields,taking hold as an everyday concept reflected in our every action.  In comics, it is known as the “Bizarro” World, a common plot scenario where our strength becomes our weakness.  That is of course a fictional conceit, but in the world of cinema, we all now too truly inhabit a similar land of opposites, where what we say we love to do is not what we do at all.

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Truly Free Film

Five Years Left To Determine If The Phoenix WILL Rise Or Did The Sky In Fact Fall

Today marks the fifth year anniversary of the talk I did for Film Independent that got me blogging and spreading the Truly Free Film gospel.

Do you know where we are headed?  The following speech is not so much the road map I had five years ago, but my plea to build the team that can then build the highways.  It remains a public works project.  Thanks to all those who are part of the road gang; you know who you are.  

Today (09.27.13) I am delivering a keynote in London for FERA, the EU Directors’ Federation.  It has a similar tone and mission as this one did five years ago. I look forward to sharing it with you soon.  We have made progress, but there still is a long way to go.  We have to understand the past though if we want to see the future.

I can’t talk about the “crisis” of the indie film industry. There is no crisis. The country is in crisis. The economy is in crisis. We, the filmmakers, aren’t in crisis.

The business is changing, but for us –us who are called Indie Filmmakers — that’s good that the business is changing. Filmmaking is an incredible privilege and we need to accept it as such – and accept the full responsibility that comes with that privilege.

The proclamations of Indie Film’s demise are grossly exaggerated. How can there be a “Death Of Indie” when Indie — real Indie, True Indie — has yet to even live?

Yes, there’s a profound paradigm shift, and that shift is the coming of true independence. The hope of this new independence is

Categories
Truly Free Film

SF Film Society (& 5 Others) Partner With Sundance #Artist Services

Sundance Institute Artist Services Program Expands Self-Distribution Opportunities
to Filmmakers Supported by Six Additional Organizations

The Bertha Foundation │ BRITDOC │ Cinereach │ Film Independent Independent Filmmaker Project │ San Francisco Film Society

Artist Services Announces Collaboration with REELHOUSE, VHX, VIMEO and TUGG, Offering Filmmakers Additional Platforms and Tools

Los Angeles, CA — Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, today announced that the Institute’s Artist Services program – which provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work – has expanded to include selected films supported by one foundation and five nonprofit organizations. Additionally, these organizations will join with Sundance Institute in continuing to shape the program and the services it offers.