Winner: Best Documentary Short - April 2021 Edition
BIO
MOE TAYLOR
WRITER, DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
MOE TAYLOR
Moe Taylor began his film career as a broadcast journalist in the United States Navy where he had the opportunity to film news stories in over forty countries. After that he moved on to a producer position for NBC before settling into freelance work for his husband and wife production studio BrainDagger Films.
He has always been interested in mind expanding documentaries about the secrets of the universe and is proud to add his own voice to the genre.
INTERVIEW
Thank you Moe Taylor for your amazing film. How did the inspiration for this —vast!— topic come to you?
Coronavirus lockdown was what spurred the film into existence. I was extremely bored and I wanted to make a fundraising tool to raise money for my next big production, "Message For Classification Upgrade". It went from four to thirty minutes in length over a six month period of intensive editing. I only used stock footage from the internet and we always followed precautions for our two interviews. This film was made in one room with just me and a bunch of Prozac lol. Its still just a fundraiser for the more important project though.
I released it for free because I just think it is something every person should see and try to understand.
In this current time of a pandemic, which compels us to a global reflection on human life, as scientists and researchers seem to disagree while the general public has a hard time understanding what's really going on, how do you think your film could help?
As Organism basically explains how the Universe works with the "BrainDagger theory of everything" and how having that knowledge can help people treat their fellow man a little better. Truly understanding how connected you are to ants, people, Earth, the Universe and EVERYTHING around you is extremely important as it can hopefully help your perspective on life.
Along the same line, let's quote Alan Watts, who said that "Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.” How do these words resonate with you, while there are so many different approaches and opinions to the current health crisis?
It is unfortunate that so much disinformation about the Covid crisis propagates around the world today. These bad actors who get paid to knowingly peddle inaccurate health advice should be in jail. Telling people lies that may kill them and getting away scot-free with tons of money is, Comment dit-on? Fucked up. It should be treated as assault or attempted murder. But that will never happen of course because people have the right to be assholes.
Hopefully As Organism can enlighten a few as its purpose is to convince people not to hate people before they meet them. It is my own little attempt to save the world from misinformation as that is the number one cause of death and destruction in the history of mankind.
We also face an environmental crisis. What is your take on Earth Overshoot Day? Do you think that it means anything?
Unfortunately we are far far worse off than Earth Overshoot Day makes it seem. The Earth Overshoot Day is very helpful and educational and its a good thing promoting helping the environment but we need something much more drastic to happen than a feelgood web campaign. We do not currently have the technology to fix what we have done to the planet.
People will die, wars will be fought and the Earth will dramatically reshape itself over the next century. We have two viable possibilities for making this dramatic new technology work. One, billionaires can stop wasting money on space and Mars missions and use their money to help the actual planet we are still on at this moment.
I'm all for space travel but we ain't gonna be traveling nowhere if we are extinct. Two, we release full blown AI (which we don't have ready yet) and it can hopefully solve the problem in a few seconds (or make us dead because obviously the solution is that humans are the problem and should not be here doing what we do.)
There's an emphasis, in As Organism, on the necessary co-existence of "good" and "bad", "creation" and "destruction", "positive" and "negative" etc., on our planet. What if the majority of humans suddenly "chose good", like going for non fossil renewable energies, a fair redistribution of resources for all, proactive, collective preservation of bees etc. What do you imagine could happen?
All the people with more money than others or with money involved in the industry would never agree to fair redistribution of resources for all. People are dicks and a lot of them don't want to share and want to be special in some way (more money, nicer things). I would love it if everyone on Earth would do the right thing don't get me wrong.
There are a lot of good organizations doing good work but sadly there are many many more doing the wrong thing. It is unfortunate but people's psyche defaults to needing an enemy or someone we dislike. Its okay for sports fans etc. but it creeps into our lives whether we want it to or not. I have never met a person who truly liked everything and everyone. I would like to!
Its all about competition. "If you don't have someone to dislike, you can't be someone you love." - As Organism
Let's talk shop a little: How did you proceed to make the film, how long was the whole process? Did you apply, or create, a specific methodology?
It was just me in my basement editing feverishly late into the night for about six months. The budget was under 20,000 as I did everything myself except a few minutes of animation.
The film honestly "tastes like more." Because it's intellectually stimulating, because it inspires, because it has a wonderful educational quality to it. Do you have a sequel, or a series in mind?
As I said before this is just a fundraiser for a more important film called "Message For Classification Upgrade". "As Organism" is just a warm up. I truly hope to help bring the world back from the brink of societal collapse with this film.
Want to know what it is about or invest?
Email me at: moe.taylor.director@braindaggerfilms.com
so I can send you an NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement.) Let's save the world!
Short statement describing your vision of the post-Covid cinema, do you think there will be notable changes?
I think most filmmaking will be working from a distance from now on. There is no reason to pay all the money it takes to run a feature film the way it has been done in the past.
Of course people will need to shoot in person at times.
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