Thoughts on The Most Important Thing Filmmakers Can Contribute During This Crisis

by Carole Dean

Ok, I want all filmmakers reading this to play a game called let’s pretend.

Let’s take our imaginations and pretend that something is real even though it may not be.  For the moment, we’re going to pretend it is real.

Let’s pretend that we all chose to come into this life to help humanity through the worst crisis ever imagined.  Let’s pretend that before we came into this life, we chose who our parents were and what our goals were for this life.

When I grew up in Texas, I was told I should be the woman behind the man.  That was a desired job, to be a powerful woman who supported her husband. That actually was considered a great achievement. 

Maybe you wanted to be a producer and create good stories.  Or perhaps you wanted to cut the film up and tell a story in the edit room.  Maybe you had an idea and wanted to write the script.

So, here you are, a talented, creative filmmaker in the middle of a disaster affecting all of the planet.  How best can you help?

Storytellers Wanted

What do you think we need the most right now besides love, food and medicine?

I think we need storytellers. 

This is a time to document what is happening and we can do that by telling stories.  This is a time to support others and we can do that with empowering stories. 

You are all storytellers. 

Now, go back to our game of Let’s Pretend.  You are pretending that you came into this life and chose to be here at this exact time in the history of the earth.  It is a time of great fear and economic turmoil facing our planet.  And, you are here with your brilliant filmmaking skills. 

Each of you have many talents and the most predominant amongst all of these is the ability to tell compelling stories.

Perhaps that is what you are here to do, create engaging films to help us through this terrible time.

Keep Calm and Create

You will probably spend most of your time dealing with the crisis daily maintaining your balance and health.  You will also need to keep yourself, your friends, family and other filmmakers safe. 

But what if you came into this life with your many talents to help humanity through this crisis?  If that were true, then what should you do now?  

Meditate on what your original goal was when you came to earth.  What promised did you make to yourself?  The answers are there inside you.  You want to find them and practice that old adage:

To thine own self be true.

Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-profit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcast, The Art of Film Funding, interviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film production. She is also the author of  The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts.  See IMDB for producing credits