For various reasons it makes the most sense to distribute these films in this fashion. I am protective of the content of the film for financial reasons and because there is sensitive material in both the films and I have discovered that the forum that I have after the film is shown is extremely important, and the audience interaction with this Q&A session is really quite imperative for these films. So far I have found that the people that have the most aggressive questioning about the film are in the US. I have shown the films in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. It makes sense to me that the most aggressive questions are in the U.S. specifically with What Is It? because the film it very much reacting specifically to US media.
BEYOND THE WAY IT IMPACTS HOW YOU GET YOUR OWN FILMS OUT INTO THE WORLD, WHAT IS THE EFFECT YOU SEE THE CORPORATE, CONSERVATIVE NATURE OF THE MOVIE BUSINESS HAVING ON THE PUBLIC, MOST OF WHOM MIGHT NEVER SEE AN ART HOUSE OR INDEPENDENT FILM? Unfortunately I see the corporately funded and distributed film industry currently as having a hugely propagandizing effect on the US population at large. It is an enormous topic. I recently read the book Propaganda written in 1925 by Edward Bernays. Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew and utilized his uncle's understanding of the subconscious and became the literal founder of the "Public Relations" industry. Bernays came up with the word combination "Public Relations" to replace the word propaganda. The book is not an expose but an instruction manual for the monied and privileged class through psychological "Public relations"/propaganda techniques to get the lower class masses to serve the privileged class with the disguise of democracy. I feel like this book should be mandatory reading for everyone in high school so people in the US would have a better understanding of how things genuinely work in the media.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE A FILMMAKER CAN WORK WITHIN THE STUDIO SYSTEM AND MAKE SUBVERSIVE OR DARING FILMS, OR DOES THE PROCESS OF MAKING AND MARKETING A BIG MOVIE INEVITABLY FILTER THAT OUT OF THE MATERIAL? Stanley Kubrick made some of the most beautiful, thoughtful and questioning cinematic films ever in the corporately funded and distributed studio films system. He is fascinating to study. The culture ebbs and flows and waxes and wanes in terms of how much questioning can happen in media. We are in a particularly restrictive time right now with what will be corporately funded and distributed. Questioning could become even more restricted or less restricted. It sort of depends on how much people become concerned about the restrictions. Most current media that is corporately funded and distributed now is designed to make people not question.
Topics:
Features
, Crispin Glover, Brattle Theatre, Big Slide Show
