Can I just say a few things about Iron Lung that are not spoilers that have tickled me absolutely pink for the last week?
Mark planned Jan 29/30th for the release of his movie. It was an arbitrary date for a movie that was supposed to be seen in no more than a hundred theaters. Of course he was excited to maybe see more happen, but 4000 theaters across the US and around the world...
He also didn't plan for it to release opposite other big name, highly advertised films such as "Send Help" and "Melania." (Note, I did not say these film were reputed to necessarily be good. I said they were highly advertised.)
While I know that the only reason "Melania" exists is for the bri- I mean VIBES, the fact that Amazon and Jeff Bezos invested 75million actual American dollars in a film that no one is seeing while an indie filmmaker with a dream, and a hope, and determination managed to make a film that people care about and actually want to see.
Now we want to see it because of him. To support what some of us have spent 3+ years listening to him struggle through. We have been along for this journey and we went to support the process as much as we went to see what the movie was about. We went to see it because we know the blood, sweat and tears, render farms, and water problems, and hospital trips, and injured backs, and pickup shots that went into making this film. And boy howdy did it pay off.
But think about it. We have no desire to see Melania, because of the people involved. We know it isnt a genuine production. We know its about as real as reality TV. We know every shot is propaganda... but even if it isnt, we know the whole movie was a payof- I mean vanity project. I have no desire to go hate-watch it. That will contribute nothing to this world or my life. I have no desire to further support Amazon and neither does anyone else I know. And more to the point: they could waste 75million actual American dollars on a film for which 2/3s of the crew who worked it asked to be uncredited. It contributes nothing to this world but propaganda and the perpetuation of more lies and half truths presented as worthy of our time while our country crumbles. It is as tone deaf as her rhinestone jacket so many years ago during family separation.
Markiplier, on the other hand has set up mobile blood drives at his movie because there is a shortage of blood in our Healthcare system and he made movie about and ocean of blood and: It seemed like the right thing to do. It was a way he could help.
I hope Iron Lung (a studioless, professional promotionless, indie dream) absolutely buries Melania this weekend and next weekend and the weekend after. I hope people keep going to see it again and again. I know every person i went with last night though of someone else in their lives who needs to see it.
I will go back to my regularly scheduled Doctor Who Posting and Dragon Age Art reblogging soon here. This is not a hyperfixation, but this is my heart feeling absolutely full at the triumph of a person with a story they felt needed telling, and just enough notoriety to do get it done accomplishing something these companies that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-contained film would never take the chance on. This is my heart exploding at the thought that the right dream CAN outweigh odds that seem insurmountable if you have the support behind you. This is Me and the rebel in my soul being overwhelmed by the idea that a small crew, really a handful of people, treated with respect and paid conscientiously put together a film that I will remember for years to come while all the blockbuster films ive seen in the last decade have been mostly forgotten in a couple of days, because explosions on a screen don't hold much meaning.
This is poetic in a way. Not in one that really makes sense but this is poetry in the way that it is almost proof of something we, the little guys are all brought up believing: we matter. Our voices matter. Our stories matter.
And while Markiplier hasn't been a little guy for a long time, he's never really thought of himself as a big fish, (well maybe sometimes, but comparatively). Don't get me wrong: his fame and success absolutely made this possible, but he still did it against incredible odds. There are still hurdles to come, but unconventional voices can still be heard.
