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Speaker 1: On this episode of News World. Over the last fifty years,

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Speaker 1: the left has poured time, money, and creativity into developing

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Speaker 1: the institutions to support a storytelling culture, looking only at

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Speaker 1: documentaries and small independent features. By some estimates, the left

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Speaker 1: spends tens of billions of dollars annually. On the other side,

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Speaker 1: the right spends maybe tens of millions of dollars on

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Speaker 1: films and television. So over fifty years, this gap has

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Speaker 1: grown to hundreds of billions of dollars, which has underwritten

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Speaker 1: a progressive ecosystem of supportive and reinforcing institutions. In addition

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Speaker 1: to many powerful films, the left starts nurturing young filmmakers

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Speaker 1: right from the beginning of their career, and then at

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Speaker 1: every step along the way. My guests today are putting

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Speaker 1: a stake in the ground to help mentor right of

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Speaker 1: center filmmakers through a new incubator program there working. I'm

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Speaker 1: really pleased to welcome my guests, Michael Pack, producer of

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Speaker 1: over fifteen award winning documentaries and president and CEO of

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Speaker 1: Palladium Pictures, and his son Thomas Beck, director of Palladium

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Speaker 1: Pictures incubator program, which is training the next generation of

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Speaker 1: documentary filmmakers Michael and Thomas. Welcome and thank you for

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Speaker 1: joining me on Newts World.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having us on the show Nude.

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Speaker 1: Michael, have you been doing this a long time? We've

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Speaker 1: known each other, gosh, I guess thirty years now. Can

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Speaker 1: you talk about why you're launching Palladium Pictures dot com

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Speaker 1: slash incubator.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's contained a lot in your introduction,

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Speaker 2: as you say, and I have written about this in

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Speaker 2: a couple of places, including a real clear and now

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Speaker 2: I've written it in an a bad form on the

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Speaker 2: Washington Examiner. We on the right have to take into

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Speaker 2: account what you said that the left has built up

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Speaker 2: over a fifty year period, a vast ecosystem to support

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Speaker 2: storytelling media, and that has allowed them to struct the

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Speaker 2: debate on every issue. By the time things come to Congress,

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Speaker 2: the public has already made up its mind, and it's

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Speaker 2: made up its minds largely through watching films and television.

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Speaker 2: So this is perhaps a part of the well known

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Speaker 2: culture war. But I like to say it's not really

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Speaker 2: a culture war because only one side is fighting. Imagine

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Speaker 2: if you had a real war where one side put

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Speaker 2: an army in the field and the other side simply

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Speaker 2: wrote articles complaining about that army, which army would win,

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Speaker 2: And that's where we are. The left is making films

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Speaker 2: and television, some of it at a very very high quality,

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Speaker 2: and we are just complaining about the effects of that.

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Speaker 2: We have to actually stop and get serious. We are

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Speaker 2: watching this incubator and I've launched this new company playing

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Speaker 2: in Pictures to make a different but I actually think

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Speaker 2: it has to be part of a way bigger effort.

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Speaker 2: As you said, new the leftist port tens a bits

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Speaker 2: dollars a year into this at least since the sixties.

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Speaker 2: We have to be at least one tenth where they are.

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Speaker 2: We could win ten to one. We have truth on

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Speaker 2: our side, but we have to up our game. We're

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Speaker 2: doing what we can. I think you put this well,

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Speaker 2: we're putting a stake in the ground. We hope to

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Speaker 2: start this process, but we really need to be joined

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Speaker 2: by lots of other people.

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Speaker 1: Thomas, Since you're going to be in charge of this

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Speaker 1: particular project, can you describe your vision of an incubator

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Speaker 1: system as it relates to this whole concept of strengthening

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Speaker 1: the right stability to compete in the cultural zone.

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Speaker 3: Sure, I'll say quickly what the sort of incubator literally

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Speaker 3: is before I tell you how it makes it compete.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it's a very simple concept. We're going to

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Speaker 4: provide for up and.

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Speaker 3: Coming producer directors, documentary producer directors. We'll provide full funding

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Speaker 3: for a short documentary idea. They'll get up to thirty

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Speaker 3: thousand dollars to produce their film. We're going to provide

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Speaker 3: distribution for them, which and I think these are two

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Speaker 3: really useful things for young people getting started. Funding and distribution,

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Speaker 3: but also maybe even more crucially well executive produce. So

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Speaker 3: they'll get mentorship from Michael pack here, and they'll get

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Speaker 3: to be part of a network. And we're going to

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Speaker 3: do this every year and there'll be more and more

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Speaker 3: people and they'll be part as we start to build

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Speaker 3: out this infrastructure. They'll be part of like the first

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Speaker 3: break of that.

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Speaker 1: Describe for a second. You've now created Palladium Pictures as

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Speaker 1: an independent film coming in and you launched it this year.

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Speaker 1: How does that change what you've done in the past.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the reason I launched it, a reason

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Speaker 2: I launched it is that some of the people who've

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Speaker 2: admired our work and supported it in the past, really

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Speaker 2: thought I had to produce more films. You're right. I've

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Speaker 2: done fifteen films that have all been nationally broadcast on

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Speaker 2: PBS and award winning, but it's not enough. So I've

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Speaker 2: gotten some multi year funding to launch this new company

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Speaker 2: to produce more films, including short dot com entries. In

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Speaker 2: including this incubator up our game because people are convinced

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Speaker 2: by the argument that we are not really doing enough

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Speaker 2: in the whole storytelling area. So it's similar to what

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Speaker 2: we did with our previous company, Manifold Productions, but it

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Speaker 2: has to be more of it, and it has to

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Speaker 2: include all along the way, training a new generation of

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Speaker 2: right of center filmmakers. I have to say I had

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Speaker 2: a great career, and my wife and I are partners

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Speaker 2: in both companies, and we've had great success. But we

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Speaker 2: have largely worked with people who are on the left,

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Speaker 2: our cinematographers, our cameraman or editors or composers, and they've

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Speaker 2: gone on to do other things, and in some of

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Speaker 2: them we've helped train, but we haven't trained people on

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Speaker 2: our side, and I think there's really a dearth of

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Speaker 2: training and a dearth of knowledge. So I think what

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Speaker 2: you have over this, especially in the last five or

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Speaker 2: ten years, is a renaissance of documentary filmmaking. It's all

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Speaker 2: on the left and all these new streaming services Netflix, Amazon,

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Speaker 2: Hulu have a huge non fiction portfolio, and if you

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Speaker 2: throw in sort of historical political, independent features, it's even

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Speaker 2: more and there's very little on our side. What we

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Speaker 2: do pretty well on our side is preach to the choir.

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Speaker 2: Make documentaries, including ones by mutual friends of Avenue, that

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Speaker 2: do a very good job of kind of sharing people

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Speaker 2: on with views they already have, but they don't tell

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Speaker 2: stories that are convinced people. We want to get our

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Speaker 2: storytelling ability somewhere up there where the lefts is. My

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Speaker 2: last documentary that I did was created equal Clarence Thomas

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Speaker 2: in his own words, and it was nationally brought Guestman

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Speaker 2: PBS in twenty twenty and in one hundred and ten

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Speaker 2: movie theaters and is now streaming on Amazon and Voxination

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Speaker 2: and Zelley Wire and Salem in many other places. But

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Speaker 2: the reason it gets on PBS is it's not just

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Speaker 2: advocacy for Clarence Thomas. It purports and it is Clarence

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Speaker 2: Thomas looking right in the camera telling his story in

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Speaker 2: his own words, from his growing up in the segregated

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Speaker 2: South to his radical youth, to coming around and becoming

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Speaker 2: a conservative working for Reagan, and all the controversies that ensued,

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Speaker 2: including his controversial confirmation process. But you hear him tell

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Speaker 2: his story in his own words. So people on the

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Speaker 2: left who don't like him have said to us, I

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Speaker 2: didn't like him before i'd watched your documentary. I didn't

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Speaker 2: like him after, but I understand him now. So you

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Speaker 2: can get something from it if you're not a Clarence

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Speaker 2: Thomas fan. It lets him tell his story, and his

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Speaker 2: story is a dramatic story. You can see how his

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Speaker 2: ideas come out of his life. We need to be

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Speaker 2: way better at that on our side. I have many

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Speaker 2: many friends on the left to make documentaries and feature films,

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Speaker 2: and I think they do a great job. But it's

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Speaker 2: not that hard and we can learn to do it.

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Speaker 1: I was just noticing that you actually founded Manifold Productions

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Speaker 1: forty six years ago.

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Speaker 2: I was very young, but I did. Right out of college.

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Speaker 2: I founded it.

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Speaker 1: That must have taken a lot of courage. I mean,

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Speaker 1: did you just decide you're going to found of production company.

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Speaker 2: I think stupidity would be a better term than courage.

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Speaker 2: I had gone through some a left like Clarence Thomas,

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Speaker 2: a period of being sort of on the left growing up,

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Speaker 2: and I have been just come to reject those things.

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Speaker 2: And the people at NYU and film school and that

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Speaker 2: I knew coming out of film school all wanted to

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Speaker 2: make what I considered anti American, anti capitalist films. It

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Speaker 2: was the era of the nuclear freeze, you know. They

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Speaker 2: thought the Soviet Union in America, you know, equally good.

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Speaker 2: They were radical environmentalists and my first partner and I thought,

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Speaker 2: we will counter these films in a few years, will

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Speaker 2: defeat these people, and then I'll go on to Hollywood

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Speaker 2: and make you entertainment films. But it was a harder

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Speaker 2: process than I thought, and as you say, more than

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Speaker 2: forty years later, I'm still at it. So I'm not

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Speaker 2: sure I would have done it if I had understood

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Speaker 2: its difficulty.

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Speaker 1: What was your first film?

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Speaker 2: My first major PBS film, I had done a short

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Speaker 2: half hour drama right out of film school. Clued hard

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Speaker 2: Bargain that on Awards, it was on some PBS stations,

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Speaker 2: it was on Showtime, played at the Museum of Modern Art,

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Speaker 2: and that sort of launched my career. But my first documentary,

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Speaker 2: which came out in nineteen eighty seven, was called Hollywood's

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Speaker 2: Favorite Heavy and it was how business and businessmen are

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Speaker 2: portrayed on nighttime TV. And this was the era of

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Speaker 2: Dallas and Dynasty, and businessmen were always the villains. So

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Speaker 2: we went to Hollywood to ask the people who made

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Speaker 2: these shows what their ideas of business were and why

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Speaker 2: they made the villains. And it was a very revealing show.

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Speaker 2: I mean, their knowledge of business was based almost exclusively

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Speaker 2: on the entertainment business, so their idea of what business

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Speaker 2: is like was limited to that, and they had a

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Speaker 2: very interesting and entertaining views of how they came up

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Speaker 2: with these ideas. And it featured lots of people. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it had Norman Lear in it. It had the producers

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Speaker 2: of Miami Vice and of Dallas and Dynasty, and it

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Speaker 2: was an interesting show and it showed, I think, this

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Speaker 2: superficiality of Hollywood's efforts to understand America and where it

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Speaker 2: came from. These people were all smart, charming people and

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Speaker 2: really bright and really creative, but they could not grasp

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Speaker 2: the essence of America. And the movie tried to dramatize

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Speaker 2: that still a good film in my opinion, you did take.

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Speaker 1: A break from making movies when you became. From June

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Speaker 1: of twenty to January twenty one, you were the first

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Speaker 1: Senate confirmed CEO of the US Agency for Global Media,

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Speaker 1: which sort of supervises the government's five international broadcasting networks.

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Speaker 1: What was that like?

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Speaker 2: Wow, Well, that was an amazing experience. I have taken

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Speaker 2: a few breaks from filmmaking. My wife likes to say,

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Speaker 2: if you're working for yourself as a filmmaker, it's good

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Speaker 2: to get a job every ten years or so, and

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Speaker 2: I have done that. I worked at the Corporation for

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Speaker 2: Public Broadcasting for a few years. I ran the Claremont

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Speaker 2: Institute for a few years, but in the George HW.

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Speaker 2: Bush administration, I ran the TV but is now the

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Speaker 2: TV part of the Voice of America. So I had

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Speaker 2: international broadcasting experience. So when the Trump administration began, they

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Speaker 2: approached me because there were just not that many Conservatives

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Speaker 2: that had any international broadcasting experience anyway, and it seemed

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Speaker 2: like a great opportunity. I think I underestimated, once again

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Speaker 2: it's difficulty, and the Trump administration approached me in March

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Speaker 2: of twenty seventeen, just after they were inaugurated, and it

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Speaker 2: took three years and three months for me to be confirmed.

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Speaker 2: Democrats strongly opposed me, particularly Senator Menendez in the Center

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Speaker 2: for Relations Committee. It took the personal intervention of the

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Speaker 2: President of the United States to get me confirmed, which

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Speaker 2: it should not do. The time I got in there,

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Speaker 2: the opposition was very strong to Donald Trump. There was

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Speaker 2: a feeling on the part the US Agency for Global

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Speaker 2: Media had about four thousand people at it, and I

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Speaker 2: was able to bring in, you know, maybe ten politicals,

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Speaker 2: and the four thousand people there, I like to say

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Speaker 2: the bottom half, the bottom two thousand that are editors, cameraman,

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Speaker 2: sound record as they probably were less political and reflected

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Speaker 2: somewhat closer to America. But the top of that, the

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Speaker 2: top fifty percent, you know, those middle managers and above,

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Speaker 2: were extremely progressive and had lots of free time in

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Speaker 2: which to pursue their political goals. And they were all

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Speaker 2: staunchly opposed to Trump and had no intention of following

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Speaker 2: the guidelines of the President or his chosen appointee, meaning me.

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Speaker 2: So the opposition was intense from the very beginning. My goal,

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Speaker 2: and this is the only thing President Trump ever said

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Speaker 2: to me that I should do, And the only advice

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Speaker 2: anyone at the White House ever gave was to bring

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Speaker 2: the Voice of America, especially back to its glory day,

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Speaker 2: meaning in the Cold War, when it stood up for

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Speaker 2: freedom and democracy against Soviet communism. And that is all

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Speaker 2: I wanted to do. That is what the agency has

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Speaker 2: founded on. And it's supposed to reflect American values, not

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Speaker 2: be partisan, and promote ideas like democracy and freedom, and

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Speaker 2: it's supposed to reflect the diversity of views in America.

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Speaker 2: But the agency had not done that for many years.

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Speaker 2: It was really captured by the progressive left, and they

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Speaker 2: had no intention of giving it up. I mean. One

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Speaker 2: kind of way of looking at this, I think is

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Speaker 2: that the people who work there, their model was CNN

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Speaker 2: or MSNBC, I mean, or the New York Times. That

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Speaker 2: was the peak. And while those journalistic entities are private

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Speaker 2: and have every right to be whatever they want to be,

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Speaker 2: this was a government agency and they needed to reflect

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Speaker 2: the views of the American people, and they were under

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Speaker 2: the executive branch, and President Trump was the president and

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Speaker 2: they simply could not take that. So it was fighting

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Speaker 2: from the beginning to the end. One of the most

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Speaker 2: difficult eight months of my life.

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Speaker 1: In that context, did they promptly revert back as soon

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Speaker 1: as you left and as soon as Biden came.

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Speaker 2: In, they promptly reverted back. President Biden. I had a

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Speaker 2: three year term, but it was really not a hard

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Speaker 2: three year term, and President Biden's office called and asked

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Speaker 2: me to resign within twenty minutes of the inauguration. Politico

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Speaker 2: claimed that that was his first foreign policy move, which

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Speaker 2: I guess is a high honor. And right away, I mean,

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Speaker 2: we had a major security lapse in our agency where

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Speaker 2: twenty five percent of people had been inadequately cleared, including

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Speaker 2: a fair number that were top secret and above. And

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Speaker 2: all the people involved in that that we were trying

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Speaker 2: to get to the bottom up, they're all back. Everybody

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Speaker 2: that we got rid of for cause were all hired back.

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Speaker 2: So yes, the reversion was very complete. The person who

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Speaker 2: was VOA director under Obama is now head of the agency,

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Speaker 2: Manda Bennett, who's married to Don Graham, who used to

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Speaker 2: own the Washington Post, you know, son of Catherine Graham.

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Speaker 2: And indeed that kind of well connected us is part

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Speaker 2: of the reason why they I got a huge amount

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Speaker 2: of coverage in my time there. For instance, in the

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Speaker 2: Washington Post. I was there eight months and there were

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Speaker 2: forty articles about me, including four op ads and four editorials.

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Speaker 2: Now you may be used to that kind of coverage, Mouve,

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Speaker 2: because you actually are an important person. I was not,

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Speaker 2: and I did not expect it, and they treated it

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Speaker 2: seriously because the media thinks the media is important.

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Speaker 1: Well, and I think also the power of language is

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Speaker 1: real indeed, and that's why we need to recapture, you know,

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Speaker 1: we need to have a voice for America which is

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Speaker 1: actually pro American, which may be a bit much to

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Speaker 1: switch gears. Thomas. Did you kind of feel, growing up

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Speaker 1: surrounded by all this that it was inevitable that you

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Speaker 1: would go into some kind of media activity.

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Speaker 4: No, I didn't I actually ever feel that way.

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Speaker 2: I think, I mean, growing up.

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Speaker 3: Surrounded by this has been It really is an amazing experience.

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Speaker 3: The great thing about filmmaking is you get to kind

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Speaker 3: of dive into a new project. And as kids, I mean,

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Speaker 3: we just like were thrown into it. It was the

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Speaker 3: conversation around the dinner table was Admiral rickover for you know,

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Speaker 3: a year and a half, and then once we were

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Speaker 3: experts on that we've got to move on to the

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Speaker 3: next interesting project. Exadra Hamilton Hamilton and before he was

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Speaker 3: a rap artist, we say I wasn't sort of sure

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Speaker 3: I was going to do it. I've been working in

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Speaker 3: different educational organizations. I worked at Intercligius Studies Institute for

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Speaker 3: a while, and so I came back to the family

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Speaker 3: business to launch what is, you know, an educational initiative

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Speaker 3: More than anything else, I think with all this talk

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Speaker 3: about how much money is being spent on this issue,

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Speaker 3: the solution isn't to just spend more money. You know,

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Speaker 3: we can't solve this problem by like, you know, buying

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Speaker 3: a streaming service and just assuming that we have content

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Speaker 3: to put out, because we don't. We need to train

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Speaker 3: out the talent. We've been behind on spending for so

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Speaker 3: long that now we're also way behind on people that

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Speaker 3: know how to make great films, that understand, you know,

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Speaker 3: the art and story elements required.

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Speaker 2: I think the depths of the left's infrastructure is very

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Speaker 2: important to understand. We only kind of glanced at it

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Speaker 2: at the beginning, but I think one way to look

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Speaker 2: at it is there are four thousand colleges and universities

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Speaker 2: in America. Everyone has a film school. Those film schools

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Speaker 2: usually in their brochures, are very outfront about training people

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Speaker 2: to be advocates for social justice, and they have activist

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Speaker 2: filmmakers that they create. So every year those four thousand

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Speaker 2: universities pump out, you know, tens of thousands that want

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Speaker 2: to be filmmakers. And the left, the progressive left, is

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Speaker 2: able to siphon off the talented top five or ten percent,

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Speaker 2: and we have no such shifting process. We get the rebels,

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Speaker 2: but we have to work with what we have. And

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Speaker 2: I think there are people out there that want to

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Speaker 2: make films that are now tired of woke progressivism as

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Speaker 2: it has drifted further and further to the left. So

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Speaker 2: we appeal to your listeners to actually sign up for

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Speaker 2: the incubator and apply. It's very easy to do. It's

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Speaker 2: on our website Palladium Pictures dot com. There's a huge

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Speaker 2: sign up incubator button. The process is not that hard,

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Speaker 2: but you need have some experience in making a film

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Speaker 2: of some sort and have a good idea. But we

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Speaker 2: really encourage your listeners or the children or grandchildren or

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Speaker 2: friends of your listeners to apply.

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Speaker 1: When you look at all this, you've been in the

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Speaker 1: middle of it, you've thought about it. Why do you

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Speaker 1: think people on the left are so anti American?

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Speaker 2: That is a very deep question and a very hard

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Speaker 2: one to answer. I mean, I think that part of

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Speaker 2: it is what they're getting at universities. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: thought they were pretty anti American when I began, but

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Speaker 2: it is so much worse today. I mean, as you

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Speaker 2: see these colleges erupt with anti semity, it is flat

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Speaker 2: out shocking, even to me. I mean, we are Jewish

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Speaker 2: and we are maybe particularly sensitive. I hope not. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I hope everyone's sensitive, but it's shocking. I think that

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Speaker 2: they are just feel free to express that. But I

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Speaker 2: do think it has to do with this long march

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Speaker 2: through the institutions. Do you know the story? Well, I

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Speaker 2: think in the sixties, the left, having failed to from

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Speaker 2: violent Marxist revolution, took stock of what to do next,

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Speaker 2: and they concluded that they would do a long march

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Speaker 2: with the institutions, a line of Rudy Deutschka famous German

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Speaker 2: Marxist but really deriving from cultural Marxism of Gramchy and

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Speaker 2: hicked up by the new left here. And they just

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Speaker 2: decided that they would take over the cultural institutions, beginning

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Speaker 2: at the universities where a lot of them were. They

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Speaker 2: were student radicals, but very rapidly moving to Hollywood and

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Speaker 2: media in general, because, as you said a moment ago,

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Speaker 2: they understood the power of the word and of the culture.

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Speaker 2: And I think they've succeeded in making the country less

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Speaker 2: pro American than it used to be. I think there's

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Speaker 2: still a vast pool of people who love this country,

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Speaker 2: but they are increasingly not the elites, not the ones

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Speaker 2: that are best educated, that are coming out of Harvard,

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Speaker 2: Yale and Stafford. We see that among the people who

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Speaker 2: are doing the work in America, plumbers and carpenters, and

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Speaker 2: they remain pro American, and they've avoided some of this

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Speaker 2: work ideology. I think that is a large part of it.

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Speaker 2: And it's both being miseducated and then the failure to

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Speaker 2: educate them properly. And I do believe. I mean, this

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Speaker 2: is the thing about the incubator and the media. We

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Speaker 2: have not done our part. We can't just pick on

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Speaker 2: the left. They've been advocating their views. They're allowed to

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Speaker 2: do that. This is America. They're making great films that

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Speaker 2: push for their ideas. That's what you're supposed to do

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Speaker 2: in a battle of ideas. We meet up. Our game.

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Speaker 2: Culture is much more of a free market than government.

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Speaker 2: I had a lot of struggles when I was in

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Speaker 2: the Trump administration. It's not nearly a free market. You

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Speaker 2: can't hire and fire people. We can make films, we

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Speaker 2: have great stories to tell. We need to put in,

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Speaker 2: As you said, I think upfront the same kind of talent, energy,

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Speaker 2: and money that the left us we hope at played

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Speaker 2: in pictures that we're doing our part. Actually, I know

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Speaker 2: that you and Callista do work in this area too,

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Speaker 2: but there needs to be way more of us, and

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Speaker 2: I'm optimistic that we can win this back. I think

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Speaker 2: there's still a deep well of patriotism and a desire

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Speaker 2: to understand this country and its principles, and we need

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Speaker 2: to tap into that and use it and educate it.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that the left is better at storytelling

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Speaker 1: than we are, or just that there's so many of

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Speaker 1: them doing it that the mathematical laws of having some

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Speaker 1: of them be really good is just a practical reality.

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Speaker 2: I believe that it is the latter. There are some

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Speaker 2: people over the years that people on the left are

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Speaker 2: naturally better at the arts period, and that we are

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Speaker 2: just better at economics or law or whatever. But I

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Speaker 2: think there is no evidence for that. If you look

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Speaker 2: over the history of mankind, there have been very many,

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Speaker 2: what you have to say, right of center great artists,

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Speaker 2: you know. I mean, you can't say that Shakespeare, who's

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Speaker 2: extolling Elizabethan England is a rebel, you know, or Virgil

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Speaker 2: making the greatest epic poem ever in support of the emperor.

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Speaker 2: But more recently, I say, look back at Hollywood and

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Speaker 2: its golden age. Hollywood used to make very pro American,

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Speaker 2: pro family, pro religion movies, so that proves that it

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Speaker 2: can be done. And those movies were great movies, you know,

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Speaker 2: the films of John Ford, the Westerns with John Wayne.

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Speaker 2: These are the things that sold America to the world,

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Speaker 2: even more than the VOA and It's heyday. They made people,

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Speaker 2: especially including in the Sylvia Block, wanting to believe in

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Speaker 2: America and wanting to come to America. So it has

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Speaker 2: been done, and done recently and done well, and that

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Speaker 2: proves that we can do it too.

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Speaker 1: Part of what I can't understand, I guess is you

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Speaker 1: take somebody who is clearly a genius in Steven Spielberg.

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Speaker 1: He makes Chindler's List, and yet people on the left

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Speaker 1: are increasingly anti Semitic and anti Israel. And you would

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Speaker 1: think with those kind of powerful emotional films, it would

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Speaker 1: have sunk in that there are some core values here

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Speaker 1: that are directly threatened by terrorist organizations like AMAS. But

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Speaker 1: on the left now it's almost like you can't even

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Speaker 1: have this conversation without people becoming so emotional and so frenzied.

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Speaker 1: I don't know whether it's the changing of the generational

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Speaker 1: guard or what's going on, but people like Spielberg at

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Speaker 1: least had some sense of balance, that the world was

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Speaker 1: real and that there were things that really were bad.

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Speaker 2: I think that's right. But even Stephen Spielberg, they get

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Speaker 2: captured by the left. You know, they are sitting in

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Speaker 2: Hollywood among the groups that are just reinforcing these other views,

434
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 2: and so he ends up making these films that are

435
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:18,600
Speaker 2: left of center. And I think that that tends to

436
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:22,040
Speaker 2: be what happens. It's the rare person likes say Clint Eastwood,

437
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 2: that can sort of stand up to that. That's why,

438
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 2: really conservatives have always wanted to persuade Hollywood to be

439
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,920
Speaker 2: more open to their ideas. And I'm skeptical of that.

440
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 2: I think it's its own culture. I depicted it in

441
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven in Hollywood's Favorite Heavy and it's only

442
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 2: gotten more woke. We need to create our own team here.

443
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,879
Speaker 2: It's like imagine if we only have the Democratic Party

444
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 2: and you had to just appeal to it to be

445
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 2: open to publican ideas. You can't do it that way.

446
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,199
Speaker 2: You need a second party. We need other people. And

447
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 2: that is not to downplay the genius of people like

448
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 2: Steven Spielberg. In fact, I like to say, even in

449
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,680
Speaker 2: my own area of documentaries, there are plenty of very

450
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,520
Speaker 2: talented left and center documentary filmmakers, and I don't like

451
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 2: to take anything away from them. A lot of them

452
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:08,919
Speaker 2: are extremely talented and brilliant, and some of them are

453
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,959
Speaker 2: personal friends. We just need to make similar films of

454
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,960
Speaker 2: our own, expressing our ideas and telling our stories. I

455
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 2: always give the example of the Clarence Thomas film that

456
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:21,960
Speaker 2: many people on the left chose to tell the Ruth

457
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 2: Bader Ginsburg story. There is a feature film and at

458
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,520
Speaker 2: least two documentaries, and they made her into sort of

459
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 2: a rap store. We were the only ones interested in

460
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,479
Speaker 2: telling Clarence Thomas's story. Now, I guess they're interested in

461
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 2: attacking him, as they've always been interested in that. So

462
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 2: there are plenty of stories out there that are being

463
00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:43,360
Speaker 2: left untold, that are great stories, that are not simply advocacy,

464
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 2: and we need to tell them. We can tell them.

465
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:49,159
Speaker 2: Whether we can ever get geniuses at the level of Spielberg,

466
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:51,400
Speaker 2: I hope so, and I think that we can.

467
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:53,960
Speaker 1: Frankly, I look at some of the audiences. Some of

468
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,919
Speaker 1: the most successful movies in the last few years have

469
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:01,360
Speaker 1: been either very Christian or very conservative. You have had

470
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,679
Speaker 1: surprisingly big box office.

471
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 2: That's right. The Sound of Freedom very recently is a example.

472
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 2: I think people are tired of what they're getting from Hollywood.

473
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 2: Hollywood cannot change it's self reinforcing. People get kudos and

474
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 2: credits and the best tables and everything else they want

475
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 2: from being within the sort of woke orthodoxy and the

476
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 2: few people who try to be different. I mean even

477
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,879
Speaker 2: now in Hollywood, I think Gail Gado, the actress, is

478
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 2: trying to do some pro Israel things and it's not

479
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:34,520
Speaker 2: easy and this is just to be pro Israel. So

480
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 2: I think that people are tired of it. You're right,

481
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 2: there's an audience there for an alternative. I like the

482
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 2: Sound of Freedom. I don't think it's a brilliant movie,

483
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,360
Speaker 2: but it shows you that you can make a non

484
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 2: brilliant movie, but a pretty good movie that has non

485
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 2: Hollywood values outside the Hollywood system and make two hundred

486
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:53,959
Speaker 2: million dollars. So it can be done. There is an

487
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 2: audience there. I sometimes compare it to the audience for

488
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 2: News before they launched Fox News. You know, Roger L's

489
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:07,520
Speaker 2: and Rupert Murdoch have the insight that CNN and the NBCABC, CBS,

490
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 2: we're all splitting the left of center audience that if

491
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 2: they did something that was right of center, they had

492
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 2: half the country. And that's true in both future films

493
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 2: and documentaries. There's a vast audience and we simply need

494
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 2: to tap it. But it takes time, it takes money,

495
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,959
Speaker 2: it takes resources, and we need to come up with

496
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:25,640
Speaker 2: them right.

497
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,119
Speaker 3: I think that the sort of anti americanism of the

498
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:30,440
Speaker 3: left really does play in our favor. I mean, even

499
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 3: if it were true that there was a little less

500
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 3: talent on the right, this would maybe even make up

501
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 3: for it, because I think Americans are sick of the

502
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 3: kind of Grieman's narratives and the pro American story is

503
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 3: like top Gun or something, are extremely appealing to people.

504
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 3: I mean, I really feel like despite all the bad

505
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 3: news that we're saying, they're good news for people that

506
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,439
Speaker 3: want to get into the film business. Is it's actually

507
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 3: an exciting time in documentary because the left is such.

508
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 4: A stranglehold on the media. There's a lot of good

509
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 4: stories that expose that that are ripe for the picking

510
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,640
Speaker 4: and in film in general. I think now that there's

511
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,120
Speaker 4: a sort of democratization of how distribution works and people

512
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 4: are getting tired of getting the same types of stories

513
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 4: from Hollywood and they're looking elsewhere. It's a good time

514
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 4: if you can create something great. We just need to

515
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 4: make sure that we're finding the people that can do

516
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 4: that and actually helping them, because it's a very hard

517
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:23,199
Speaker 4: business no matter what side you're on.

518
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 2: Actually that is true.

519
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: So the Pladium Pictures Incubator for Documentary Filmmaking, which you

520
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: entitled Shaping America's Future Storytellers, I assume you're looking for

521
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: funding for people who want to be documentary filmmakers, for

522
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: people who have ideas that might be the beginning of

523
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: a really interesting film. What exactly are you looking for

524
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: and how can people apply to work with you.

525
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 3: So we're looking for people that are producer directors already.

526
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,719
Speaker 3: So they have to have some experience making a film

527
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 3: that they can use in their application that demonstrates that

528
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 3: they have I mean that can mean that their early

529
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 3: career with starting their own film studio, or it can

530
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 3: mean that they're maybe they're doing something else in video,

531
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 3: they want to pivot into documentary, they are working for

532
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 3: somebody else, they want to.

533
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 2: Make their film their way.

534
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 3: But we're looking for people that are conservative in the

535
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 3: sense at least that they're willing to question the mainstream

536
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 3: orthodoxy coming out of the left and documentary film, and

537
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,719
Speaker 3: that they want to be documentary filmmakers and work with

538
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:27,680
Speaker 3: Palladium Pictures.

539
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 4: So that's who should do it.

540
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 3: The process is very simple on our website, and what

541
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 3: they get out of it after they apply is then

542
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 3: they're in this program for a year and so we're

543
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 3: executive producing this film with them, we're distributing it, we're

544
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,479
Speaker 3: funding it, and they can learn with us. But at

545
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 3: the end of it they'll have something that can serve

546
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 3: as the career springboard. It's very useful and it's tough

547
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 3: to make it to short docs. Sometimes it sits on

548
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 3: your website, you don't really know what.

549
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 4: To do with it.

550
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 3: It's very useful to have something that was good, that

551
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 3: it can be a proof of concept. It makes funding

552
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 3: and distribution in the future easier, and for us, it's

553
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 3: sort of the first kind of brick as we start

554
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 3: to build the infrastructure out, and hopefully it'll also kind

555
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 3: of start to turn the flywheel. We'll start to get

556
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 3: the conservative donor class aware of the fact that films

557
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 3: on the right can be good, that there can be talent,

558
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 3: and that when you cultivate talent, it's a network effect

559
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 3: and it'll just sort of snowball more and more and

560
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 3: there's you know, one person that's great that comes out

561
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 3: of the incubator that is a filmmaker for their lifetime.

562
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 4: Is a humongous win.

563
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: People who want to apply go to Palladium Pictures dot

564
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: com slash incubator Is.

565
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 3: That correct, that's right, Palladium Pictures dot com, slash incubator

566
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 3: or Poladion Pictures dot Com.

567
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 2: Click the big incubator button.

568
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 4: If there's a f a Q page, then you can

569
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 4: just hit apply.

570
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:46,200
Speaker 3: It'll ask you for things like sample of past work

571
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 3: and a chance to like picture documentary idea. And the

572
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 3: deadline is December first, so it is coming up. That

573
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 3: first round of the application is not that time intensive,

574
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 3: so you still have time to put together something great.

575
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: And then you have your opening session of the Incubator

576
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: Fellows in Washington in February of twenty twenty four, that's right,

577
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 1: which will be exciting. And after you do that, we're

578
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: going to have to ask you to come back and

579
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 1: share with us your first year's progress and what's going

580
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: on and what you're excited by, and also what you

581
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: will have learned from this great new experiment. I think

582
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: it's a terrific thing you're doing.

583
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:25,240
Speaker 3: We're bringing everybody to gather in Washington, so get to

584
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 3: meet your cohort, and there is like a fellowship element

585
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 3: of this. But this is a problem you can do

586
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 3: from anywhere in the country and stay wherever you are,

587
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 3: shoot it wherever you need to shoot.

588
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:36,120
Speaker 4: You know, we see it as a year long program.

589
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 4: We would love to come back, of course we would, yes.

590
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 1: We'd love to follow what you're learning and how you're

591
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: doing it, what others could learn from it, and how

592
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: they could participate. Michael and Thomas. I want to thank

593
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: you for joining me on newts World. I encourage our

594
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: listeners who are interested in documentary filmmaking to apply for

595
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: your new incubator program, which helps fund, mentor and empower

596
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 1: the next generation of documentary films. Anyone who's insted, I

597
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: want to remind you you can apply at Palladium Pictures

598
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 1: dot com slash Incubator and we'll have that on our

599
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: show page. The deadline to apply is December first. And

600
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: thank you both very much for joining.

601
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 4: Thanks for having thank you, thank you very much.

602
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: Thank you. To my guest Michael and Thomas pat you

603
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:24,760
Speaker 1: can get a link to apply to their new documentary

604
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: filmmaking mentorship program on our show page at newtsworld dot com.

605
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: Newsworld is produced by Gingrish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our

606
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 1: executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson.

607
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,040
Speaker 1: You art work for the show Who's created by Steve Penley.

608
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: Special thanks to the team at Gingrish three sixty. If

609
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple

610
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give

611
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: us a review so others can learn what it's all about.

612
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 1: Right now listeners of Newtsworld consigner for my three free

613
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: we columns at gingrichwe sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm

614
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 1: nute Gingrich. This is nuts World,