Letterboxd Community Takeover

How the Campaign to Buy Letterboxd Aims to Save Independent Cinema

In an age of media consolidation, shadow banning of content and general enshittification of tech platforms - we actually might have a chance for platform participants/consumers/audiences to take control of the means of communication. This is something that has been dreamed of/envisioned as a way for audiences and creators/journalists etc of all stripes to have the internet be what it originally proposed itself to be (or at least what I and others hoped it would be): of service to people and humanity - connecting all of us for the common good. If you are interested, join us for an important conversation about the possibility and potential for the users of Letterboxd to take a controlling share of the management of that platform/company. For the benefit for all of its users (and filmmakers) and ultimately society!

When it was reported on April 26th that 60% of Letterboxd was for sale, a public benefit corporation from Massachusetts leapt into action to launch a community-led bid to acquire the majority stake and run it cooperatively with the filmmakers and fans who built its culture. Intrinsic had spent the previous year developing a unique business model for filmmakers to create marketing collaboratives, and designing their social platform for filmmakers with Cactuslab – the team that built Letterboxd.

In this conversation, Jon will be joined by Elizabeth Joyce, Executive Director of Intrinsic; Ted Hope, prolific producer and activist; and Amy Hobby, cofounder of Distribution Advocates to answer questions and discuss:

1. Why filmmakers and film lovers should get behind this campaign

2. What is their vision for the future of Letterboxd and cooperative ownership

3. How Intrinsic’s model could apply to other businesses in the independent film ecosystem and beyond

4. And why they believe a community acquisition of a major social platform and cultural bellwether is not only possible but necessary — and how they intend to make it the largest crowdfunding campaign in history.

Bios:

Elizabeth Joyce spent 15 years researching and developing alternative business models as a social entrepreneur; human rights researcher; founder and CEO of a startup b-corp; and a stint managing the service station her dad built after he was diagnosed with dementia. When she decided to take a swing at her first love, screenwriting, she realized her twin passions of film and sustainable economics had converged and filmmakers needed new business models as much as everyone else. She founded Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative to bring Tripod Financing – a collaborative model for impact investors, artists, and workers to create marketing cooperatives – to life.

Ted Hope. A producer of over 70 films, studio executive on over 60, Ted Hope launched Amazon’s foray into feature film production, leading them to 19 Oscar nominations and 5 wins. Ted’s Substack and memoir Hope For Film are #MustReads. He coined “NonDē” and launched the “FilmStack Daily Digest”. Additionally he’s been a CEO of a start-up streamer, co-head of 3 production companies, executive director of a film society & festival, a Professor Of Practice at 2 universities, and founder of a post-production facility, 2 websites, 2 think tanks, and an app.

Amy Hobby is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy, and Peabody Award-winning producer with credits on 30+ films in distribution including scripted, documentary, and documentary limited series. Her films have screened at major festivals including Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Telluride, and more. Hobby is the former Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute, the current co-founder of Distribution Advocates, the co-host of the podcast Films Not Made and has a merch-for-films company called Cutaway.