The Rebirth of Revolutionary Filmmaking

Peter Biskind’s landmark history of  70’s filmmaking Easy Riders to Raging Bulls details the rise and fall of America’s golden era of revolutionary filmmaking.  The contemporary cinema of the 60’s was not reflecting the exploding underground protest movement and the huge cultural and political changes that were rocking the country.  A small group of Hollywood rebels changed all that.  The surprise success of Easy Rider shocked the Hollywood establishment and ushered in a series of challenging, provocative films that questioned our government and society and pushed the boundaries of cinematic expression.  Films like Harold and Maude, Apocalypse Now, Medium Cool, Taxi Driver and Shampoo changed the way we thought about the movies.  They were no longer just an escape and diversion; they were a unique and powerful way of exploring the pressing issues of the day and opening minds and hearts to other points of view.

With the blockbuster success of Star Wars and Jaws, Hollywood again found its footing in safe mainstream entertainments and the movies returned to their position as a harmless way of entertaining the masses.  Since then, some films have strived to challenge audiences and a few have succeeded.  But for the most part, politics and social change have been relegated to the documentary world and fictional treatments that lull us into a false distance from the subject being covered.  Most fiction films that attempt to deal with important issues are sanitized by the very expensive process of development and production into glossy reenactments of the dangerous and lively spark that ignited them.  There are some exceptions, such as the brilliant German film The Edukators.

With Bold Native we sought to work in the spirit of the great revolutionary films of the 70’s, films like Easy Rider that were both inspirational and challenging, films that didn’t let the audience off the hook and didn’t pull their punches.  We looked at the subject of animal liberation and saw a story that was filled with all the cruelty and barbarism of which our species is capable, as well as all the compassion and hunger for justice and freedom which makes us so proud to be human.  We wanted to provoke thought and discussion and celebrate that thing within us that makes us take extraordinary risks in order to save another’s life.

We sought not just to expose those who knew nothing about animal rights to the ideology and actions of activists, but also to create a dialogue within the movement about tactics and philosophy.  We attempted to present the existing tension between welfarists and abolitionists, as well as imagine what would happen if the movement chose to abandon its long-held rejection of violence against animal exploiters.  These are provocative questions and we expect they will lead to provocative discussion.  We hope people will leave the film with something to say and that they will be encouraged to consider their own choices in a more compassionate manner.

This is a film born of love about those who love life.  It is a film about breaking cages, not only the physical cages that imprison animals but also the emotional cages into which we put ourselves.  We don’t know how successful we have been in creating the kind of film we set out to make.  But we know that we tried and that the final test of our effort will be the ripples the film creates in the hearts and minds of those who experience it.  The revolutionary films we admire created ripples in us that allowed us to challenge conventional thinking and grow as human beings towards a more loving and conscious life.  We’re forever thankful to the artists who poured their energy into creating those works and are proud to have attempted our own version of their great tradition.

And we hope we’re not the only ones.  Filmmaking technology has reached a point where it is now possible to make great movies with less money.  The revolution has taken root in an explosion of deeply personal DIY films.  With Bold Native, we also sought to make a film that was deeply political.  Ideas don’t raise the budget level.  There’s no reason these ultra-low-budget films can’t be filled with them.

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