We live in a world fraught with tension, violence and destruction, where our 'Trust in God' has been sacrificed for the vain hope that there is, 'honor among thieves.' For the past 7 years, we have faithfully worked diligently to produce and promote the truth through our best efforts, only to be put upon by liars and cheats, told time after time by those supposedly, "in the know," that while our film "Collar" was 'epic in its scope,' it would not be of interest to the general public because of what it depicts. We were then discarded because of a prevailing industry proclamation that, "American audiences would not be interested in our core content."
Of course not, even though having screened it before hundreds (almost 3,000), who verified in our exit polls an 85% approval rate (8.5/10), thus asserting that the "experts" were wrong. This affirmation aside, we were still mired in their conversation that the economic risk was all theirs, that was all that mattered and if we wanted, "Collar" to be distributed we would have to pay dearly for it (not at all uncommon in the new Hollywood distribution model)!.
After all, why would anyone in 21st century America be interested in a film about a cop who shoots a young black man, causing a huge uprising in the community that he served with distinction for 30 years, threatening to undo All of his 'honest efforts' to change the social landscape and thereby bury himself, his family and his peers in the morass of "Racism," forever??
Fast forward to Ferguson and make a brief stop at Trevon Martin on the way. All of a sudden, what we had hoped to offer as a warning shot =, fired across the bow of America's ship of state, becomes an all too familiar living nightmare.
Be that as it may, ours is only a fiction based on truth and no where nearly as horrifying as some of the other unimportant content adrift in the fractious, fictional, "EnMisphere," things like, ISIL, Syria and "Super Bugs". Why should anyone want to be entertained by such horrible 'truths,' when they can, so easily, dive into the matrix of Marvel, Disney and Pixar and let comic book 'superheroes' and gooey cartoon characters handle the "icky?" Not that such flights of fantasy are not important to relieve the stresses of every day American life. How else could one stand to even get a 'mani-pedi' or 'take a lunch' at Cyril's?
But there must be a balance struck somewhere. Those comic book 'heroes' with their '3D stuffies' are not REALITY by any stretch of the imagination. Not even, "Survivor" represents anything 'real' in this world. It's all smoke and mirrors. If we are not willing to embrace, 'nouveau cinema verite,' as at least a facsimile of what is so in the world, then we are surely staring into the abyss at the certain demise of our pop culture and our imminent death by self-inflicted ignorance. God help us All... soon.
