True Independence?

Producer Ted Hope opened Saturday’s Film Independent’s Filmmaker Forum, and a complete transcript of his thought-provoking speech is available here.

Hope argues that the indie film community needs to be less focused on possible fame and intense individual productivity and more focused on creating a community that has the ability to transform the system into one where every filmmaker has to find an audience, nurture that audience, run an ad campaign online, etc.

And while the speech is inspiring for its celebration of a can-do, DIY attitude, it doesn’t answer a number of fundamental questions, like where will the resources immediately come from? If the answer is not making more movies, but instead to join forcesto redefine what indie cinema is, what is the first step to making this happen? What is a good model to follow? Is there a model?

Hope’s view of filmmaking puts a lot of responsibility on the filmmaker; he’s asking the filmmaking community to come together and do all the things studios now do. He also puts a lot of faith in the audience - “we will reach out to audiences that are hungry for something new, for something truthful, for something about the world they experience, for something that is as complex as the emotions they feel.” That’s a lot of responsibility to ask of the average movie-goer.

Regardless, the speech is a great read, and the latest contribution to a dialogue about redefining indie film that has been swirling around the blogosphere.