*A note on the wholesome manifesto:
In 2006 an experimental documentary filmmaker from Bhutan who shall not be named discovered a sacred ancient text hidden deep inside a secret temple on an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. In an entry made in her diary on that day she claimed the text had “the power to change cinema, no… the world! Forever!” Attempting to smuggle the sacred text out of the country she was detained by authorities (she remains, sadly, in a Papa New Guinean detention facility to this day) however her gaffer, a part time magician from Luxembourg, thankfully managed to escape the country with a translation of the text saved on his iPod touch. He managed to survive four assassination attempts ordered by an underground society of Hollywood’s rich and famous before vanishing in October of 2009. Two days before his disappearance he mailed four USBs containing the translation to four different continents. Only one of them made it. This is that document:
THE WHOLESOME MANIFESTO
To the public, cinema is the most accessible of art forms. The elitist nature of the art world excluded cinema for so long solely on the basis that it could be enjoyed by all. It has the power to weave complex messages within a form that can entertain the masses and in doing so is the most effective and powerful of all mediums. Ironically, for the longest time, it was the least accessible art form to participate in. The cost and labour once required to produce even the shortest of films made filmmaking an incredibly unattainable vocation. Those that were lucky enough to find themselves in the director’s chair were plagued by industry. Yet today, filmmaking is so simple. All of us have cameras at our disposal and yet the smoke and mirrors of the silver screen continue to extend into the very core of the process. Cinema is being held hostage by the elite. Even the independent film scene is shrouded in secrecy. Private financiers and production companies host expensive dinners and blind us with bells and whistles, figures and industry jargon. Did we not all begin in this industry with the same dream?
In film resides the essence of community. We can see clearly in its form a smaller and very understandable version of any sort of functioning structure. Roles work separately and together along with one another. Tasks are shared and built within, before and after others. That it’s the way it’s supposed to, in every act: the conscious need of the other.
The specificity of this form of art relies on how obvious this puzzle appears to be.
The neoliberal spirit and values have once again infiltrated the bonds and ties within a community. A wolf threatens to defile and corrupt people’s souls. The expressions of such evil entity include: gatekeeping of information, unfair competition, dehumanising hierarchical behaviour, nepotism, lack of empathy, exploitation of humans bodies, time and resources.
Film is a hole to be filled, a space. An industry where meaning is constantly generated, an industry capable of resisting intoxicating ways of behaving. Let’s let cinema enlighten us on our responsibilities, let’s feed it thoroughly and observe it closely.
I’ll go to sleep and rise differently.
In a new house.
Communal.
Decentralised.
Global.
Warm.
La meva casa es la teva casa Mi casa es tu casa.
My house is your home.
Want to be a part of Casa Fosca?
Knock on the door, we’re all home.