A Filmmaker's Life

Last Minute Sundance Space still available!.....

2012-01-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

Private bedroom for first half (Jan. 19th - 24th) - $800

Semi-Private loft space for first half (Jan. 19th - 24th)- $700

Unit is in nice location with great peeps.

Email me IMMEDIATELY: jacques@filmmakersalliance.com

Sunday Night Get-Together in Culver City

2012-01-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hey All!

If you're in LA Sunday night (Jan. 15th), join us for a combo celebration - a belated New Year's gathering, FA meet/greet, Sundance kick-off party and my homecoming back to LA toast at Backstage Bar and Grill at 7 p.m.

Hope to see ya there!

Still Got Space Available for Sundance....

2012-01-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

We still have a couple of spaces available for Sundance. Both are in a great location with parking, wifi, etc. And awesome condo mates.

One is a queen fold-out in the Living Room of a big condo unit at Snowcrest Condos (near Park Ave. and Deer Valley Dr.). No day rate. It's $300 for the first or second half of the fest (or any part thereof) and $500 for the whole fest.

The other unit is at Park Plaza (near Sundance HQ) and offers a private bedroom for the First or Second half. No day rate. It's $800 for the first half (19th to the 24th - or any part thereof) and $600 for the second half (24th to the 28th - or any part thereof). The second half does NOT include Saturday night.

Contact me directly - jacques@filmmakersalliance.com - if you're interested or know somebody looking. And feel free to pass this along.

See ya in Park City!!

Sundance Condo Space Available

2012-01-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hey All!

I've got a nice two-bedroom condo on Empire (near the bottom of Park, close to everything!) with two bathrooms with some space available! Main perk is that you'll be sharing the room with at least one and probably two awesome peeps who are Sundance veterans!! Here's what we got:

Private bedroom - Tues. Jan. 24th to Sun. Jan. 29th - $150 a night for the room with a two-person maximum (potentially higher if you don't book entire time)

Fold out couch in living room - Thurs. Jan. 19 to Sun. Jan 29th (entire length of Sundance) - $75 a night for the couch with a two-person maximum (potentially higher if you don't book entire time)

If it isn't right for you, please feel free to pass on to anyone you know.

Thanks!

Support What You Believe...and get a tax deduction before midnight!

2011-12-31T10:14:00.001-08:00

It's the last day of 2011! If you need a tax deduction, please support the things you believe in by making a donation before midnight to the non-profit org of your choice!!...

Of course, there's always Filmmakers Alliance: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=EENJT4KL62V7N.

Wishing you all a great 2012!!

Rules For The New Ways Of Watching

2011-12-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

Filmmakers,

Read this article and keep it in mind as we roll into 2012! Happy New Year!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/business/media/rules-for-the-new-ways-of-watching-david-carr.html?_r=1&src=dayp

2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Short Film Program

2011-12-07T09:05:00.001-08:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST!

2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, Next <=> and New Frontier

2011-12-02T09:16:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST!

2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in Competition

2011-12-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST!

Give the gift of passion @focalpress and be entered to win a Kindle Fire! bit.ly/focalholiday #focalholiday

2011-12-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Digital Hollywood NYC 2011 - Part 2

2011-12-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

reprinted from Ted Hope's Blog: Hope For Film

TED HOPE: Jacques Thelemaque returns today to complete the download of his lessons learned from Digi Hwood knowledge fest. What's the future? Does anyone know? This much I DO know: I would love to have one person cover for our HopeForFilm community all the film related seminars over the course of the year, be they in NYC or LA, and compare what can be gained from these conferences and how they vary. I wonder if we can find a sponsor... I wonder more if we could find one person who can endure -- even with the enticement of tasty sandwiches!

Digital Hollywood NYC 2011 - Part 2

by Jacques Thelemaque

The second day of Digital Hollywood started earlier, but I was there on time, excited by the film-specific panels and those bagels, croissants, muffins and pastries with my name on them....READ MORE

Screenwriting means writing for anything with a Screen

2011-12-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

Reprinted from Sean Hood's blog: Genre Hacks

Screenwriting means writing for anything with a Screen
by Sean Hood

Lately, I've been advising screenwriters to look beyond traditional movies as their platform for storytelling....READ MORE

Digital Hollywood NYC 2011 - Part 1

2011-12-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

reprinted from Ted Hope's Blog: Hope For Film

TED HOPE: Conferences abound in the US Film Biz and sometimes seems like another example of industries that still financially prosper in a field that has regularly been headed downwards (18% drop in theatrical attendance this year anyone?). Yet, as corporate focused as they often are, they do point to a tendency to continued education. Perhaps most hopefully they point to a willingness for our industry to evolve and embrace some aspect of change. We sent Filmmakers Alliance (link) founder and past HopeForFilm contributor (link) Jacques Thelemaque to Digital Hollywood NYC to get the perspective for the truly free film community.

Digital Hollywood NYC 2011 - Part 1

by Jacques Thelemaque

I don't go to seminars and conferences as often as I used to. Mostly because getting anything beyond a sales pitch out of them is like panning for gold. I've lost patience with sitting through hours of presentations to get a single nugget of new/good information. There are exceptions, however (such as Ted and Christine Vachon's excellent master class which I will post a blog about soon), so I was genuinely excited for the opportunity to attend Digital Hollywood NYC last week. READ MORE.

New World Distribution in the Old World

2011-12-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

Reprinted from Ted Hope's Blog.

Ted Hope: Quick tell your investors! Indie Film is safe again. The big waterfall of profits is starting to mount. Haven't you heard the news? VOD is making it all good again. Simple as making a good film that people know of and want to pay for. Seriously though, the news has been coming in and now we are getting numbers about how films perform here. And they look pretty sweet...

The Film Collaborative's Orly Ravid fortunately wants us to know even more and has done some research on the prospects of EU Digi Distro. And now I am smiling. You will be too.

New World Distribution in the Old World

By Orly Ravid

As DVD sales continue to crumble (allowing us to use less petroleum), VOD is growing (now in 65.7 million US homes -- about 55.7% of TV homes, according to MagnaGlobal). Digital distribution revenues are starting to percolate and be more reliable. Worldwide revenue from video-on-demand movies and TV programs will reach $5.7 billion in 2016, up 58% from revenue of $3.6 billion in 2010, according to a new research report. The tally does not include pay-per-view sports events, adult entertainment or subscription-based VOD services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Google, among others, according to London-based Direct TV Research Ltd. It should be noted this is not all related to new film but rather making catalog or library content available digitally. According to the study, “Internet-based TV (IPTV) is projected to overtake digital terrestrial TV (DTT) in revenue nextyear to become the third largest platform globally. Indeed, VOD revenue from DTT is expected to be largely confined to Western Europe” (source.)

READ MORE HERE

Canon Hollywood Professional Center FREE Educational Event Dec 1

2011-11-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

EOS C300: On-set DIT Workflow for Post Production

Presented by: Michael Cioni, Light Iron Digital
Program: Professional Development Seminars & Workshops
Date: December 01, 2011
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Fee: Free of charge. Advanced registration required.
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/events_calendar/event_details/cll_events/20111201_hollywood_onset_workflow_pro_cll.shtml
Location:
Canon Hollywood Professional Technology & Support Center
6060 Sunset Blvd
Hollywood, California 90028
Organization:
Canon Live Learning
Questions:
CanonLiveLearning@cusa.canon.com

Get up close and personal with the EOS C300 at Canon's Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center. In this Canon Live Learning exclusive event, you'll hear from a Canon Tech rep on the powerful technology and design behind the EOS C300's success.

Guest presenter, Michael Cioni, of Light Iron Digital, will also give insights on the EOS C300 workflow that he gleaned from his experience on the short film, Sword, directed by Felix Alcalá and Larry Carroll. A Canon rep will be available for product Q&A, after which attendees are invited to a product touch and try.

The event is FREE. Limited seats are available. Pre-registration required :
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/events_calendar/event_details/cll_events/20111201_hollywood_onset_workflow_pro_cll.shtml

FREE MOFILM WORKSHOP/COMPETITION FOR LA FILMMAKERS ON NOV. 12TH!!

2011-10-30T15:07:00.001-07:00

On November 12th, Filmmakers Alliance will be the first film collective to host "MOFILM Live LA." A workshop/competition that will allow you to create branded entertainment in a single day!

The event will give the first 100 FA members and LA filmmakers who sign up at http://mofilm-live-la-fa.eventbrite.com a full day with MOFILM advertising experts, and a top-name brand (to be named on the day of the event). FA Members and LA filmmakers who sign up in time will then be given a project brief as well a cameras and laptops - to create/finish a spec commercial for the brand. At the end of the day, the spots will be screened for the experts and the winning team will each receive an HD camera. Judges at previous events have included the producers of Titanic and Avatar, Iron Man, and Pretty Woman.

The winning spot for all nine participating LA colleges and organizations will receive two tickets to the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival - complete with air, hotel and VIP treatment.

Sign up at http://mofilm-live-la-filmmakers-alliance.eventbrite.com now, to participate in this workshop/competition with MOFILM in Los Angeles. Remember that space is limited. The first 100 to sign up only. It's FREE, equipment provided, just bring or buy lunch.

Hope to see you there!

VISIONFEST 2011 Pictures posted!

2011-10-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here's some VisionFest 2011 pictures.

Check them out HERE and HERE!

See ya next year!!

Jeff Orgill on “Anatomy of a Prescreen Launch”

2011-10-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

Reposted from a guest post on Ted Hope's blog by Jeff Orgill

JUNKIE NURSE: Anatomy of a Prescreen Launch

We’ve all been wondering if somebody would figure out a way to successfully release films online. Shari Candler’s recent article on this site mentioned that Prescreen was taking a stab at it. I sent in our movie Junkie Nurse (Boppin’ at The Glue Factory).

Lee from Prescreen called and said they wanted JUNKIE NURSE. I was jazzed about being featured. I’d been mired in some contractual BS and this was the kick in the pants I needed to get back into the groove. I had an attorney review the contract, he gave me the thumbs up, and I got to work.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

“What One Learns About Film Financing From Film Financing Conferences”

2011-10-23T15:19:00.001-07:00

“What One Learns About Film Financing From Film Financing Conferences”

reprinted from a guest post on Ted Hope's blog by Gary Baddeley.

Part 1

Part 2

What's one thing you'd change about movies?

2011-10-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

The Black List (twitter: @blcklst) and Focal Press (@focalpress) want to know the ONE thing you’d change about movies. $500 prize pack for best answer! http://bit.ly/nm6cmk

VISIONFEST 2011 ROCKED!!

2011-10-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Just want to send a BIG THANKS to all who attended VisionFest 2011 and all others who helped create a truly amazing night. We were honored to have Semih Kaplanoglu and Christine Vachon with us and they certainly did not disappoint. All else was equally superb! The feedback has already been tremendous and it's because of the community that came out to support us and the work many of you did on the screen and off.

Pics and video to follow soon.

Cheers to you all. And deep gratitude.

See ya next year!!

VISIONFEST 2011 IS OFFICIALLY BEYOND CAPACITY!

2011-10-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

VISIONFEST 2011 IS OFFICIALLY BEYOND CAPACITY!

http://visionfest-2011.eventbrite.com/

However, that doesn't mean that seats won't be available (this is L.A., after all, so no guarantee all confirmed will indeed show up).

Nonetheless, whether you bought a ticket or are on the guest list, please make sure you get there as close to 7:00 p.m. as possible to insure a seat. Anyone arriving after 7:45 cannot be guaranteed a seat.

Beyond that, should be a fantastic night!

SEE YOU THEN!

One Week Away - VisionFest 2011: Films, Food, Drink, Fun and Christine Vachon

2011-10-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

REMINDER:

VisionFest 2011 is ONE WEEK AWAY!

Don't miss this amazing event on October 19th! Details below...

Tickets are now on sale. There are a limited amount of discounted tickets available for our FA Family. Please go here: http://visionfest-2011.eventbrite.com/. Enter the discount code: FriendsofFA

See you all there!

Filmmakers Alliance Presents

VISIONFEST 2011

2011 will be our 14th Year of VisionFest, Filmmakers Alliance annual screening and celebration bringing together the best of LA’s independent film community and regularly attended by overflowing audiences and press.

The evening begins with the presentation of the NILSSON AWARD, curated and presented by the award’s namesake and inaugural recipient, ROB NILSSON. The award acknowledges and celebrates bold, direct, honest and aesthetically challenging filmmaking that is often unrecognized by the mainstream independent film community. This year's Nilsson Award recipient is Turkish filmmaker Semih Kaplanoğlu.

Next is the presentation of the VISION AWARD to an established filmmaker whose artistic ambition and consistent filmmaking excellence provides artistic inspiration to emerging filmmakers all around the world. Past recipients include MIke Figgis, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Allison Anders, Alexander Payne, David O. Russell, Werner Herzog, Mark and Michael Polish, Kevin Smith, Ted Hope and last year’s recipient, Nicolas Winding Refn.

2011 Vision Award Recipient

CHRISTINE VACHON

Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner Christine Vachon co-founded indie powerhouse Killer Films in 1995 with producing partner Pamela Koffler. Based out of New York, Killer has produced more than 45 acclaimed independent films including Todd Haynes' Venice Film Festival Award-winning I'M NOT THERE and last year's Best Canadian Feature at TIFF, CAIRO TIME. Over the past decade and a half the two have produced some of the most celebrated American indie features including Academy Award-winning films FAR FROM HEAVEN, BOYS DON'T CRY, ONE HOUR PHOTO, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, HAPPINESS and SAFE. In television, Vachon executive produced the Emmy-winning program, This American Life, for Showtime and more recently the two have collaborated on the upcoming miniseries Mildred Pierce for HBO. Killer Films was honored with a 10 year retrospective at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2005.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE: http://visionfest-2011.eventbrite.com/

The presentation of awards will be followed by a program of some of the best short films produced in the previous year. We are pleased to announce the following films:

Inside This World of Mine (3:59) by Sean Morris

The Wanderer (14:30) by Aaron Garcia

The Director (1:30) by Destri Martino

Debutante Hunters (12:42) by Maria White

White Knuckles (3:46) - 3D Director Eric Kurland

Abigale (16:00) by Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck

All Is Not Lost (3:24) - 3D Director Eric Kurland

The Legend of Beaver Dam (12:00) by Jerome Sable, Produced by Michael Blaha

Total program length: 68 mins.

And we will have a special Public Service spotlight on Tamika Lamison's Make A Film Foundation with a screening of the org's new film Deep Blue Breath directed by Patricia Cardoso.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE: http://visionfest-2011.eventbrite.com/

The evening finishes with a high-energy party on the rooftop of the Downtown Independent Theater catered by some of Los Angeles' best restaurants. Lots of delicious food and drink until late into the night.

VISIONFEST 2011 SPONSORS INCLUDE:

HBO

Focal Press

SAGIndie

Kodak

Zooppa

International Film and Television Alliance

WGA

Singha Beer

Tres Sietes Tequila

Genre Hacks: Amazon Studios: An Interview with Roy Price

2011-10-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

Read my friend/collaborator Sean Hood's post about Amazon Studios.

In 2010 Amazon.com launched Amazon Studios and promised to "develop movies in a new way." They had strange new ideas about mass collaboration, a focus on original content from unknown filmmakers, and lots and lots of money to spend on prizes, test movies, and eventual script purchases. So how's that working out for 'em? Read here:

Genre Hacks: Amazon Studios: An Interview with Roy Price

“WE ARE ALL SCABS”: Some Contradictions in U.S. Independent Film Culture

2011-10-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

Thought-provoking article from my buddy Donal Foreman...

“WE ARE ALL SCABS”: Some Contradictions in U.S. Independent Film Culture

by Donal Foreman

(reposted from The Brooklyn Rail)

Attending the five-day Filmmaker Conference at this year’s Independent Film Week, organized by the Independent Film Project and held at Lincoln Center, I was reminded of the synopsis for an Abel Ferrara film that has yet to be made. It’s a film that playfully pivots on the mythologies and contradictions of the American independent filmmaker:

In a parallel universe, where independent filmmakers literally wage battle against the studios in a war-torn Hollywood, a 24-year-old former indie actress-cum-underground war hero decides to join the studios to direct her first film.

Hollywood cinema has always explored scenarios of individual struggle against systems of power and control, and there has been a romantic discourse of independent film using this archetype to describe its struggle against Hollywood. But in the decision “to join the studios to direct her first film,” Ferrara intimates the more pragmatic instincts of many filmmakers: to make their film at any cost, even if it means collaborating with forces that are politically and culturally destructive. As producer and social media powerhouse Ted Hope put it on one conference panel this year: “We are all scabs. We’re all willing to undercut each other [to get our film made].”

Acquiring studio financing for a first feature is an extremely rare privilege. But in the past decade, even the once-prevalent model of independent film financing—a mixture of private investment, foreign pre-sales, and, at the other end, depending on the endorsement of A-list festivals and critics, an all-rights buyout by an established distributor—has become both a rarity and oftentimes a financial loss-maker. In its place there has been a flurry of experimentation in fundraising and distribution, for which the internet has been pivotal: if you’ve already come across terms like D.I.Y. distribution, crowdfunding, and transmedia, then you know the terrain. These new models have become home to the kind of contradictions Ferrara plays with above. The mini-industry of talks and panels which has emerged alongside this experimentation is perhaps the best place to observe these contradictions in action—and IFP’s Filmmaker Conference, which exists alongside the market and workshop stands of Independent Film Week, is one of its foremost iterations.

Among these emerging models, “cutting out the middlemen” is an enduring theme. In a key polemic on his blog three years ago, Hope wrote that we were on the verge of a “truly free film culture” which would bypass the influence and interference of “those that control the apparatus and the supply.” Hope’s implication was that film had not been truly free or independent up until this point: despite the “demystification of production” since the ’90s, most films still needed to be filtered through corporate distribution outfits in order to be seen widely. Peter Broderick, a D.I.Y. distribution guru and consultant presenting at the conference this year, speaks of a shift from distributor control to filmmaker control and from “anonymous consumers” to “true fans.” Both Hope and Broderick use mythic language—Hope calls for us to “fight for our independence,” and Broderick speaks of emigrating to the “New World of Distribution”—to suggest a vision of a radically democratized film culture in which autonomous creators and audiences engage with and support each other directly.

They were joined at the conference by another key theorist, Jon Reiss, who launched a book, co-written with the Film Collaborative and marketing strategist Sheri Candler, entitled Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul. Their conception of soul-selling seems to be epitomized in the all-rights distribution deal, in which filmmakers relinquish control in exchange for a flat fee that often barely covers their costs and a percentage of revenues that rarely materializes. Instead, they cite filmmakers who customized and managed their own distribution and marketing, mobilizing social media-generated fanbases to earn revenue through a mixture of theatrical screenings, direct and third-partner DVD and VOD sales, and crowdfunding.

This discourse has not gone unquestioned in the filmmaking community. One rebuttal came in the form of last year’s “Take-Back Manifesto,” posted by filmmaker Michael Tully on his indieWire blog. The manifesto repudiates the fashion for pre-production marketing, asserting that “the final product is all that matters,” and “all of this talking about ‘finances’ and ‘connecting’ and ‘publicity’ is the insidious language of a corporate, numbers-before-content mindset.” Around the same time, producer Mike Ryan, another of this year’s panelists, wrote a piece for IFP’s own Filmmaker Magazine, warning that “in the rush to embrace new methods of promotion and distribution…worthy yet seemingly unpromotable films will be completely ignored.” Ryan even went so far as to say that the reason that many great films are “having a hard time finding an audience” is because of the influence of the “corporate consumer-entertainment machine” on audience tastes, not poorly devised social media campaigns.

Tully raises a key point about the pervasiveness of corporate marketing strategies within models that are supposedly radical because of their evasion of corporate mediation—and in fact there are several filmmakers, such as Hunter Weeks, one of the subjects of Reiss and Candler’s book, who use their self-built fanbase as leverage in making deals with corporate brands. Ryan is also acute in recognizing audience taste as a contingent, social construction rather than a reality to be catered to. But Tully ends with the plea, “Can we get back to talking about movies, please?” And while he’s right that, in the rush to discuss these new models, questions of formal innovation in cinema seem to end up all but ignored—retreating into cinephilia doesn’t address the central problem.

Jon Jost, a brilliant and long-suffering stalwart of U.S. cinema, is probably the grouchiest detractor of the D.I.Y. marketing discourse. Commenting on a post by Hope listing 20 things “we must all try to do before shooting,” Jost lists a ream of great auteurs who he doubts “ever gave 10 seconds of thought to the above. This is not about filmmaking, it is about marketing. This is 100 percent bought and sold into the Great Market Economy mentality, and there isn’t a milligram of ‘truly free’ about it at all.”

The mentality Jost identifies isn’t going to just disappear by ignoring it—and for any filmmaker who wants to create his or her work full-time and find a way for people to see that work, it’s very difficult to escape it entirely. Any attempt at sustainability or distribution inevitably involves building and trading various forms of social and symbolic capital. But that doesn’t mean these processes need to be acquiesced too unquestioningly either.

In a presentation entitled “How to Design a Winning Distribution Strategy,” Broderick spoke of changing the world as one of the primary goals of most filmmakers he meets. He argues that persuading corporations is the most effective way to do so because of the great difficulty of achieving anything through legislative, electoral, or grassroots campaigns. Instead, he says, “if you can persuade corporate decision-makers that the change you are seeking is in their interest, hundreds of thousands of consumers can be affected.” The unexamined assumptions here are too numerous to mention, but let’s at least point out the treatment of consumer identity and corporate power as a priori universalities, which apparently can be harnessed for change but are in themselves immovable. The apparent ubiquity of these views in the media world (look at most TED Talks for further evidence) may go some way towards explaining why the rhetoric of democratization and filmmaker control has so easily obscured the ways in which capitalism is extracting value from these new experiments.

The middlemen haven’t gone away. Out of over 100 panelists speaking at the Filmmaker Conference, it was striking how few were filmmakers and how many were agents, publicists, distributors, and festival programmers—reminding me of the quip that the most lucrative consumer base in the indie film world is indie filmmakers. The impression was that the New World hadn’t made these roles redundant so much as forced their renegotiation. Several of this year’s distributor-panelists stated that they weren’t interested in acquiring a film unless its makers had already “built” their audience and achieved a powerful social media presence, effectively offloading a layer of their marketing duties as a positive externality.

Whereas in previous times films were offered up to the distribution circuit to be either rejected or accepted as viable commodities, their makers are now being asked to lead that process of commodification themselves, to integrate it into their art and sometimes package themselves along with it. In a way, this “democratization” of the commodification process creates an opportunity for filmmakers to think more critically about how their work functions in, and serves, current social and economic arrangements—and ask how they might be able to interrupt and challenge these arrangements rather than feed them.

Simultaneous to the opening of Independent Film Week, Occupy Wall Street began its intervention in downtown Manhattan. Strangely enough, some of the same questions posed at Lincoln Center have been posed in this ongoing occupation. Questions like, “How can we spend more of our time doing what we love to do?” But while downtown the emphasis was how to free ourselves from monetized work, uptown it was how to turn our love into monetized work. And yet we all know that independent cinema wouldn’t exist without networks and affinities of cooperation, friendship, and trust—and new models of distribution do create new possibilities in this regard.

There are old possibilities, too. Director-producer Antonio Campos talked on a panel entitled “Paying the Bills” about how, for the past 10 years, he and his collaborators have split every paycheck three ways, rotating work-for-hire duties so that at least one of them could be dedicated to creative work at all times. Another panelist interjected, “Are you saying we should all become communists?” To which Campos replied, “Yeah, well, essentially that’s how it works: you’re a communist until you’re a capitalist.” I wonder about the inevitably of that “until.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DONAL FOREMAN is an Irish filmmaker, critic, and programmer living in Brooklyn.