by Luke Popadics
This is my working script for my video essay. Obviously right now it’s just a blog post. I think I’d want to interview max again, and I’ve got an interview planned with Michael T. Workman, the director of the recent documentary, the Encampments. I’m also going to be interviewing James Rehwald, who’s more of a media maker and comedian, and less of a capitol D documentary filmmaker.
Google, Facebook, Apple, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Over the Top (OTT) Media services, data brokers, credit card companies, and the spy agencies that sit above them all — have a god’s eye view of the world. They see where we go, who we talk to, what we’re interested in. They watch us and manage us from afar. We’re more or less transparent to them.
MeansTV, the first worker owned OTT service, is one of many burgeoning ways to crank up the opacity on this looming threat. I’m a budding mediakmaker here at the IMA and I owe my success in large part to the lessons in non-hierarchical collaboration, production, and I will rely on broader institutional strength in distribution that MeansTV has, namely, I hope to have my thesis film be a Means exclusive.
Since its inception in late 2019-early 2020, means has been a reaction against the strict hierarchies media makers face, whether they were leftist podcasters & “bread-tube” vloggers facing demonetization, or documentary filmmakers seeking grants and funding, there was never a coherent way to effectively produce and get amply paid for genuine left wing content.
I spoke with max Epstein, one of the creators of MeansTV, who has more information on its inception and where they are going. Below is part of a transcript of my phone call with him:
“…a lot of these creators, wether they be YouTube creators or filmmakers (on various platforms), they come to MeansTV because of a disillusionment, or maybe that’s even an understatement, with traditional mainstream capitalist media, and I think that’s more of our connection to third cinema. The (mainstream platforms) are capitalist and fascist institutions. We’re more of a reaction against that.
I then ask Max in a convoluted way about the current budget cuts to NEA grants, and the impact on our industry moving forward:
“One thing that Michael and I have talked about in the past is, not only in this new trump administration, but in the world of independent documentary cinema, it was never really an option anyways. That your chances of getting an NEA grant, nevermind left wing, but center left piece of film, its one in like, a million, its really hard to get those grants, and the people that do are the Michael Moores of the world. Established filmmakers with ties to the capitalist media class. I don’t even know if the drying up of NEA grants is a new thing really. It’s a carrot and stick.”
Now I’ll introduce Michael T Workman the current president of MeansTV, and director of the 2025 Documentary “The Encampments”. I still have yet to speak with him, but I’ve laid out my questions for him here on this blog post, leading up to our conversation:
(Questions)
I want to return to max in this part of the video. Means was founded right before covid and the team is very scattered. It’s interesting to contrast means to meerkat media, who has a physical space attached to it.
“So that is something that we try to do more of with means. I guess you can think of it as a gear cage/gear rental. We loan out a lot of our equipment. We’re currently working with a filmmaker from Puerto Rico whose short film was released today on the platform, and he’s currently working on a feature we’re loaning gear for. It’s basically about a resort that’s being constructed down there that’s catered to white ex-pats, and it’s taking over a lot of sensitive land with environmental concerns in its construction.
He had an ambitious idea for a documentary, and didn’t have the means to make it happen. We weren’t able to offer as much financially as a traditional company, But we were able able to give him the tools necessary to see his vision through, and a good amount of post production assistance as well. We also have a legal team, to ensure all the releases are drafted and in place, and insurance for filmmakers, actors and the like.
All this was really inspiring to hear, coming from my perspective in this class, and I really hope that whoever is reading this can reach out to means for their future works, and get in on the co-op’s help. This is the video I made when I was still trying to produce a stranger video essay about kneecap, irish cinema, and it’s ties to what we watched in class. Eventually I’ll re-upload all my interviews on this link directly.