Blog Post #250: Filmmaker Gabriel Rhenals' 95 Theses!
- Gabriel Rhenals
- Jul 6
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 22
Dear friends and followers,
I submit the following list of statements reflecting my deepest beliefs and tallest aspirations about society, art and humanity among other facets of our world. However, they are intended as a starting point for a discourse about a more ideal existence and not a final word about such ambitions or the respective topics addressed (capitalized at the outset of each set of list items). I am compelled to express myself in this form by precedence of someone who was outraged by a broader system out of control and possessed by rank greed and abuse.
Here are my 95 theses or "Disputation on the Power and Folly of the Establishment" firmly nailed to my humble corner of the internet:
CREATIVITY is infinite fictive real estate available to every able person on this planet.
The reservoir of creativity is inexhaustible.
Life-long purpose is found in the creative process, study of creative works and development of creative forms.
Preoccupation with creativity is an antidote to war, feuding and self-destructive impulses.
The creative tradition is one of our species’ most ancient features.
INDIVIDUALISM is a lifestyle of cultivating unique ideas and images with great speed and intensity.
Individual achievement must be studied, encouraged and celebrated.
A personal canon of creative work is every person’s right.
Solitude is a foundational feature of individualism.
Steel will and autonomy are critical aspirations of individualism.
THE FILM INDUSTRY tends to be overly preoccupied with business, promotion and monopolizing creativity.
Specialization has overtaken the virtues of generalist and self-sufficient practice.
Unquestioned cultural imperialism at the expense of local sovereignty is the result of the film industry’s unchecked power.
Films produced by the film industry follow assembly line logic rather than that of individual craftsmanship.
Protection of the wealth and status associated with the film industry produces an arrogance toward independent practitioners.
FILM FESTIVALS require filmmakers to travel an absurdly long route to share their work with their own communities.
Local filmmaking is relegated to yearly or bi-yearly interest rather than in a necessary continual capacity.
Filmmakers are compelled to operate seasonally based on the limits of film festival schedules and reception.
The oligarchic gatekeeping of the festival system favors the fashion of taste over the democratic inclusivity of a more just system.
Film festivals treat local filmmaking as a frivolous novelty rather than as a parallel constant to life and culture.
BUDGET is a negligible concern owing to the ubiquity of the means of production.
Microbudgets are the only way to maintain integrity among practitioners and protect against market-driven focus and stagnation.
A sufficiently motivated individual with necessary talent and skill is the one right tool.
Practical and formal innovation is spurred by limitations of budget and means.
Present film industry budgets dissuade practitioners from benefitting from the opportunities frugality and thriftiness afford.
TECHNOLOGY is intractable from humankind.
We must accept our species’ necessary binding to technology.
Humankind can form an intimate, emotional and productive bond with technology.
We must see technology as a potent amplifier of our natural creativity and expressive capabilities.
Wielding technology skillfully is dignifying and nourishing.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION defines the value of any cultural artifact.
Subjectivity is inherent in any evaluation of a work of art.
The cultural establishment is never beyond reproach.
There is no assessable rule to a work of art becoming successful once a baseline standard of quality is met (see Salganick, Dodds and Watts’ “Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market”).
Cultural institutions are constantly tempted by oligarchic impulses of selectivity and exclusion.
QUANTITY gives rise to quality.
Numbering works in a canon of work builds confidence and encourages content and formal development.
Development of any art accompanies continual practice and individualistic ambition.
An interest in increasing the quantity and quality of a personal canon is a basic motivation behind any art production.
Relentless continuity of practice produces fulfillment and satisfaction.
MAJOR FILM STUDIOS exploit a lack of local autonomy.
The output, practice and history of Hollywood are ripe for scavenging.
Large institutions engender apathy and a superiority complex toward outsider practice.
Success rather than excellence is the prime interest of the broader film industry.
The ability to captivate an audience on a relatively infinitesimal budget instantly decimates more moneyed institutions’ claims of legitimacy and necessity.
COMMUNITY is preferable to a confederacy of strangers.
Practicing filmmaking locally allows neighborly proximity to the creative process.
Integration between personal, local, commercial and municipal interests enriches any creative industry.
At a reduced scale, filmmaking opportunities are possible in any community.
Solidarity between filmmakers is engendered through an egalitarian and decentralized cultural network.
GRINDING lends itself to nihilism and self-defeat.
Repetition is a symptom of stagnation.
Filmmaking without advancement purpose and self-actualization is a hollow endeavor.
Delegation is dereliction more often than not.
Lack of rotation in empowered delegates produces decadence and decrepitude.
CIVILIZATION is maintained by the study, practice and continuity of cultural institutions.
Mythological or mimetic constructs are necessary for a new stage of human development.
Practice and theory in filmmaking are equally important.
Shamanism satisfies a necessity for the initiation of youths into active involvement with a culture.
Gestalt is the essence of any elaborate creative work.
THE FILM MEDIUM is principally visual and kinetic.
Musical, theatrical and literary influences in cinema should be regarded with caution.
The formation and inculcation of young people is the principal purpose of cinema.
Art is constantly evolving and can never reach a pinnacle.
Belief in the finality of film form is arrogance.
THEORY is a hypothetical or substantiated system of logic that governs thought about a film or its production.
Theory is personal to every practitioner.
Dissemination of personal theory should be encouraged of every filmmaker.
Transparent accounting and cataloguing is the basis of a democratic system.
Educational institutions are essential.
ART is an ancient tradition.
Sublimation provides for the conversion of negative feelings and instincts into constructive activity.
Production of art must return to the population at every level.
Occasioning local art and its creative process facilitate civic involvement and cohesion.
Art is largely for its own sake as a sublimating activity.
GENERATIVITY is a critical instinct to nurture in every person.
Formation requires an intellectually rich and stimulating environment.
Future talent is always dormant.
Innocence and purity must be preserved at all costs but welcomed if it returns after loss.
Guidance of youth is facilitated by the wisdom and values imbued in art.
POLITICS is a necessary burden for every citizen in a democratic society.
Oppression easily pairs with exclusion, atomization and hierarchy.
Slavery is symptomatic of antidemocratic and principally economic forces.
Self-possession is every person’s right.
Joy is assured through self-determination, community and meaningful labor.
AESTHETICS is as important as functionality.
An inordinate regard for beauty is akin to blindness and sleep.
Artists must harness aesthetic as much as design principles.
Engineering has as much to do with art as beauty.
Immense discipline toward the control of imagery is required of every artist.
THE FUTURE belongs to cinema.
We are a proud, creative species.
We make a film with the rigor of an architect or scientist.
We will transcend the seeming limitations of our lowly origins.
We aspire to an immaculate order of mind, mission and action.
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