“There is no template,” says Ted Hope. “The reality is each film, each story has different dictates. You don’t want to force a round peg into a square hole. It’s a hand-crafted, hand-picked, artisan medium, when you talk about truly free film.”
Hope’s comfortable talking about truly free film; he made a career of making landmark independents—some idiosyncratic, others game-changing, many with first-time filmmakers whose names we’d all later know well: Ang Lee, Todd Solondz, Hal Hartley.
“Diamonds shine brighter,” says Hope in our conversation (below), “you don’t find them in ‘cut’ form.” Someone needs to champion them.”
I got the chance to speak with Hope about history, collaboration and the independent film revolutions he’s witnessed and helped build while he talked shop with fans and industry folks at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting the new book, Hope for Film, that he wrote with Anthony Kaufman.
“As producers,” says Hope, “we have to look beyond our projects toward the overall ecosystem and what we can do there.”
Listen to Filmwax Radio: Hope for Film
