💖Values

The principles and values of The Film Cult.

It's reccommended you read through the values at least once.

• Respecting your body - We do not fall for grind or hustle culture and believe instead that through respecting our bodies we afford ourselves the health and energy to create. Furthermore, a rejection of overwork fosters accessibility.

• Individual Sovereignty - We are the exclusive controllers of our body, energy, and life. We contribute our energy to the group on our own terms.

• Supporting your fellow humans - Filmmaking needs to be accessible to a wider section of society. In essence this is just supporting your fellow humans to enable them to create regardless of their capacity.

• Mutual Aid - We pool together the resources we can offer in order to build the cult's capacity. Some may offer time, money or skills, some may give equipment or space and some may give a smile and words of encouragement.

• Distributed Power - No one has more power than anyone else. We work together on equal footing.

• Direct Action - We are creating change for filmmakers without relying on systemic or governmental intervention.

• Build for the Long Term – Projects we take on will lay the foundation for a stronger organisation and larger projects in the future, whether they are entirely successful or not.

• Love-Focused – We commit to a radical love and sympathy for our communities, our families, ourselves, and the earth.

• Collaboration – As this issue is bigger than any singular organisation, we will work with other organisations and communities when we share a common cause to create social change. We collaborate while staying focused on our core values, methods, and mission.

• Big Picture Awareness - We recognise our struggle is a symptom of larger systems and do not hide behind a ‘non-political’ stance.

• Empower Individuals – We give people the creative space to experience and experiment with their personal power, as well as their ability to impact their community.

• Inclusivity – We welcome anyone interested in the mission and values of this group.

• Responsive – We value input from the community and want to respond directly to the needs and concerns of those around us. We accept responsibility for our actions as individuals and as a group.

• Autonomy – Individual’s ideas and energies are important and encouraged. We are structured to limit any coercion or control that could interfere with a person’s rights of self direction and empowerment.

• Joyous and Humorous – We don’t take ourselves too seriously (although we are sincere) and take joy and humour into all we do.

• Assume best intentions - We are all working towards the same goals and as such we work to view the variety of individual expressions and actions through the lens of curiosity and comradery.

• Constructive feedback is welcome - We’re all learning and growing. We do this through consistent individual and group reflection, discussion, and feedback. We are open to both give and receive.

• Collective Decision Making - We look for opportunities to include everyone’s input to encourage broader investment in the process and group.

• Working Groups - We appreciate opportunities to work in small groups because they provide accountability, excitement and a diversity of ideas.

• Visionary - We believe a better world is possible, we will not let appeasements or concessions distract our focus from the larger vision of a fair world of film.

• Training and personal growth - We constantly seek opportunities to train and educate ourselves to improve our organising, our politics, and ourselves.

• Structured for growth - We use flexible structures that plan for growth and create space for new people to engage quickly and easily.

• Fight Organisational Inertia - Don’t be afraid to try something new! Continue to analyse the organisation, its processes, these principles, and creatively work to improve the organisation to be what it can be.