We Deserve Real Independence
When I decry faux independence, and champion true independence, in regards to art—particularly in the egregious case of ‘independent film’—it is not out of mere preference. I am fighting for what we deserve.
Imagine if you were in a relationship where love meant being smacked around and insulted. Love in name only—love with no objective meaning. Love as a lie in order to keep you complacent and obedient. That is the state that the art form of independent film is stuck in, where ‘independence’ means bureaucracy and authoritarian control.
It’s cliche to called something Orwellian these days, but that’s just because so much of life is Orwellian these days. People get sick of hearing it, of being reminded of it, more than they get sick of living it. But it doesn’t make it any less true. I don’t care if people get annoyed by, or tired of, me pointing out the difference between faux independent film and truly independent film all the time. I’m one of the very few saying it, despite it being absolutely true, and so I have to.
Truly independent filmmaking has never been more possible, and yet it is a virtually unknown ideal. No matter how valid the best works of art that come from the movement, there is radio silence from all outlets who traditionally spotlight independent film. That is because, were one of these great truly independent films to break out and reach the masses, it would raise a million questions. It would soon cause a massive awakening. ‘Wait—so what was all that which came before?’. People don’t like being lied to. ‘Independent film’, for many decades, has been at best a half-truth, and at worst a deliberate fraud perpetrated on the people.
The shackles weren’t held exclusively by authoritarians. Some of the shackles that prevented true independence in film came from simple cost-prohibitiveness. In the analog days of filmmaking, you needed a certain large amount of money to even make a film—an amount of money that I’ve never once had in my entire 24 feature-length film career thus far. And then, in the early digital days, you could make a movie cheaply—but it would by-and-large look cheaply-made. With few exceptions, only from the DSLR-era onward has truly independent filmmaking even been truly possible. (I pinpoint the exact start as from 2010 onward—circa the release of the Canon T2i, the first sub-$1000 camera to give great 1080p, 24 frames per second footage.)
What this means is that we’re talking about a very new phenomenon—and one that, in the last 14 years, has only really been championed by its key filmmakers, myself included, all of us existing in relative obscurity. So, you’ll have to forgive me for going on and on about this issue—I have to, because practically no one else is.
The tides will turn one day, as they always do—but, they will likely turn only when the powers-that-be find a way to get their hooks into us and what we do. Only when a genuine by-and-for-the-people movement has been subverted and co-opted is it allowed to be blasted to the masses. A sorrowful and unfortunate truth, but one you can set your watch to. A tale as old, and older, than Christianity.
I will continue to do the best I can to build up alternative avenues of success possible for us as truly independent filmmakers. It’s the only way to counteract losing our best and brightest to the entertainment industry. At present, I am trying to amass 50,000 people worldwide to fund Kill The Lion Films, my film studio, at $2.50 per month. That would give me a million dollars to live on and make films with per year—and would be the template which could be carbon-copied for any great truly independent filmmaker who is ready. Every great one of us should be a millionaire. I want truly independent filmmakers, present and future, to have that as something they can strive for, and achieve—and I want the funds to come from the people, not some controlling benefactor. So, I continue to do what I can to wake the masses up to reality, and to what this beautiful art form is, and what it needs. It’s not easy, but at least I’m fighting for truth.