Find Your Community, Free Your Story, Make the Change by Roy Wol
I am a Third Culture Kid (TCK), which literally makes me a cultural chameleon depending on the context. Growing up as a TCK in Turkey, Argentina, Spain, and being born as an inter-sect Jew in Tel Aviv and then hopping between cultures/countries through the development phase of my childhood, I often had to lie about my background to protect myself. This is a standard practice in the arts of Cultural Imposter Syndrome! With hopes of being more rooted, I got inclined to repatriate to reconstruct a sense of identity and belonging in the “new world” where intersectionality is a real possibility.
First, it was to Canada for eight years and now the USA (12 years and counting.) In my artistic endeavors, I often found myself in bridging positions; thus, I dedicated my work to bridging communities. We often forget the strength that comes out of deliberate intersectionality. Although I am not transgender, Muslim or American, I had the pleasure of making films about these communities (Americanish and The Garden Left Behind ) Why? Because I believe we are more alike than not.
Having the privilege of some type of festival and critical notoriety, I often think about programming. I always thought that instead of competing with others, we could make the kind of films our industry does not make – which happens to be untold stories – and then rise above the noise. And it did. But now, I realize this is neither what I wanted nor is it enough to REALLY rise above the noise. Because with all the TikToks, VR/AR, YouTube, and general social media content, there just aren’t enough human hours for audiences to watch every great project we work so hard making – in some cases, a decade at a time.
For instance, say a film you’ve worked so hard on for eight years gets picked up by Netflix or another large streamer. “Yay!” you say. Well, unless it’s a major algorithm breakout (note: not artistic!), chances are the film will be seen on the platform a couple of days if you’re lucky. Then, it goes into the void of the internet back catalogue.
I am not too keen to be in a world like that. The real issue here is that the audience feedback loop is just too long and that doesn’t help us. I believe as artists we need continuous feedback, because we make films for audiences and their reactions. The closer we are to this reaction, and with the least amount of algorithmic wash, the better we can become as storytellers and the more leverage we can hold within the industry. But since we don’t have such a quick feedback loop, one can argue that independent filmmakers are essentially the R&D department of Hollywood...only self-funded.
In relation to that, I think about storytelling and the evolution of storytellers. Short films used to be the only theatrically exhibited forms of content when they first appeared. Today, we binge hours of IP through the internet: the addictive episodic contents that keep on digging deeper into the character as it allows audiences to have a stronger connection with the thematic explorations of the film through them. The emergence of binging should be a bigger wake-up call…
It failed, but I think Quibi had great potential for expanding the market – not competing in it. There is something to learn from their failure for sure. Don’t be fooled; it’s no coincidence that giant corporations funded QB with $2 billion. As festivals like Sundance, Cannes, Venice, SXSW, and Tribeca start focusing on future forms of storytelling like holo, XR, AR, VR, gaming(!), I ask myself the following two questions every day: Will the 100-minute film as a form become what the genre of Classical is for the music industry: small market, but loyal customer? And for a creator, if telling a story is the most important part of the storytelling experience, do storytellers have an abundance of opportunities in alternative forms out there? Can we free our stories from an oversaturated formatted marketplace? I just don’t know.
Undoubtedly my TCK experience gives me an immense amount of privilege – but with a burden. I wake up daily feeling like Jason from Doug Liman’s The Bourne Identity, flipping through identities when survival mode kicks in. As the world shifts into new storytelling paradigms, I look forward to freeing my story and finding my story in new forms of contents.
Roy Wol - Entrepreneur & Filmmaker
The two-time IFP fellow, PGA mark-holding entrepreneur/filmmaker, Roy Wol is a third culture kid (TCK) and a serial immigrant. Roy grew up/lived in Turkey, Argentina, Spain, Israel, Canada, the USA and is currently based in New York City running the critically acclaimed audience-driven intellectual property startup Studio Autonomous.
Roy's company’s international think-tank has given birth to other entities including a new fundraising network called eBayMyFilm; the digital real estate agency RAKOOM PR; the media consulting company RW_CONSULTING; and a multidisciplinary film/tech startup FREE YOUR STORY that strives to expand the storytelling market by creating new values in Augmented Reality narrative ecosystems.
Roy is an intersectionality advocate and has dedicated his life into elevating underrepresented communities. His latest projects have employed 48 people from the transgender community, 29 people with disabilities and many more from the 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities.
Roy made history twice in the USA by producing groundbreaking films like the SXSW-winning, largest transgender film ever made THE GARDEN LEFT BEHIND staring trans Latina Carlie Guevara; and the 44th Asian-American International Film Festival-winning film, the first American-Muslim romcom ever made by diverse American-Muslim women AMERICANISH starring Palestinian comedian Mo Amer.
IG: @lobo_bandido, @autonomouspictures
Twitter: @rgwol, @autonomouspix
Facebook: StudioAutonomous