We Must Wage Cultural Campaigns
A few nights ago, a phrase popped into my head as I was drifting to sleep—‘cultural campaign’. Everything suddenly clicked as far as the path I have been on—perfect phrases can do that, can help you understand your role better and help you explain it to others. Here is what a cultural campaign is, and can be.
A cultural campaign is much like a political campaign in that the intention, ideally, is to change things for the better. It’s free from the rigamarole of politics though—you are not looking for votes, you are not looking to become entrenched in any sort of beltway. You are also not looking to change anything that should not be up to you—you are not looking to control people’s lives, for one thing.
I have no desire to be a politician—never have, never will. To me, it is very clear what humans need in order to survive, and it should not be in constant debate—it is only kept as such to make government seem more necessary than it actually is. Basic human rights have been understood for thousands of years—the only proper purpose of government should be to uphold and protect these inalienable rights. That it focuses so much on anything and everything besides that should tell you everything.
I see my place as a cultural leader, both as an artist and thinker—no one has put more thought or work into the burgeoning art form of cinema than I have. So many other people make the erroneous assumption that 100 years of gatekeeper-ridden cinema tell you everything you need to know about what movies are and can be. I say that film has only just begun, and I will not rest until every free human understands that they can pick up a camera and make honest-to-God good art themselves, much like they can pick up a pen and paper, or a guitar. Film now belongs to the people—but the people still feel chained, even though the chains are gone.
Kill The Lion Films is more than just a film studio, more than just the over ten feature-length films I’ve made across the last decade, truly independently, and continue to make. It is a new way for a film studio to be funded—my goal is for 12,782 to each contribute $2 per month, affording me a quarter of a million dollars a year to make films with. Millions of people spend way more than $2 on streaming subscriptions per month—the $12 someone spends on Netflix each month could be used to fund six film studios just like my own. The ability is there for thriving, truly independent film studios—the people just need to be educated to it. Both artists and audiences must understand the power that they have—and have together. Their minds mean something, their dollars mean something. I can think of no greater way to heal culture than through that expansion of consciousness.
I want every young person to see a world where becoming a filmmaker is a viable and brilliant option—a world where they know that, if they put the time in and develop their talent, they can live a comfortable life and make any films they could ever want to make, completely independent from an oppressive and corrupt industrial machine. I want this for artists of all kinds, not just film—film just happens to be my personal focus. If you want better fine art, music, books, movies, this is the way that it happens. A successful and well thought out cultural campaign in any one direction benefits all directions, expands each and every creative mind.
I cannot do this alone—though I can do a lot, I can’t do everything. I need other people who understand that these mountains can, should, and will be moved. Spread the word and spread it wide, and contribute what you can to my cultural campaign of Kill The Lion Films. Thank you all for reading, and thank you in advance for your advancement of this very important cause.