TED HOPE: "Utopian Ideation, Leaderless Movements, and the benefits of a NonDependent Cinema Ecosystem”

MARKET MONDAY #1: Welcome to THE SLAM and The NonDē Movement

“A non-dependent ecosystem predicated on the artists and their team accepting full responsibility for their work each step of the way, never looking for a rescue or a golden elevator, believing in collaboration over competition, mutual support over individual action, transparency over secrecy, sustainability over singular success is the promise of NonDē - and fuck if it is not time yet for you to join the movement.” – Ted Hope, NonDē instigator

Welcome to The Slam, Slamdance Film Festival’s official Substack on the future of filmmaking. Through its ecosystem of alumni and guest writers around the world, editorial coverage spans new ideas, emerging voices and sustainability in filmmaking and digital media. The Slam is guided by a cooperative spirit, non-conformity and commitment to empowering artists.

What better way then to launch The Slam than with The NonDē Way: Fun & Dangerous Ideas To Disrupt What Once Was “Indie” & To Separate From A Lame Ass Corporate Film Industry?

Working from the premise that both Hollywood and Indie are on their death rattles, what does an ecosystem that prioritizes the sustainability of the art, artist, and audience look like? In collaboration with Slamdance, NonDē presents a feast of dangerous ideas that were first delivered by its instigators at Slamdance ‘26. For the first time, The Slam is now publishing each idea as a complete series, to keep building this thing we love - cinema - better than before - and always along practical and positive lines.

-Peter Baxter

TRANSCRIPTS:

INTRO

PETER: When Slamdance started it was started by a bunch of filmmakers. Wild filmmakers who really didn’t have much of a clue on how to do anything other than to try and get through their first features. We had no idea on how to put on a film festival, and there we were. We turned up to Park City in 1995, and somehow we got it together and had the first Slamdance. It was only supposed to be one edition. And here we are, all these years later, at the DGA, presenting Slamdance 2026.

The one thing that has allowed that to happen is essentially being an artist led community. Artists themselves get to decide on what we program at Slamdance. All of the films here at the festival this year have been programmed by filmmakers who come to Slamdance before to show their work, and this is an opportunity for them in programming to pay it forward and to support filmmakers to come. And this is why, I think, what makes the day really special in combining with NonDē. So there is a tradition here, I think that we can already agree upon. One is in this fledgling stage, and Slamdance is now a mature, artist-run organization. But when it comes to supporting, launching, developing filmmakers careers, independent filmmaking communities – or non-dependent filmmaking communities – can really do it themselves. And that, I think by coming together today with NonDē, we’re stronger together. I’m so excited to hear about the ideas: how we can work forward together and support each other and build careers. And before we get going, I do want to just thank all of the NonDē speakers, because it is a collective movement. Ted is very, always very, keen to point out it is not “me” leading this. But, that said, I do want to thank Ted very much because I’ve had the honor – the pleasure – of listening to Ted. And I can let you know he’s put so much care and energy into today. I just want to thank you very much, Ted. Welcome up, Ted Hope.

TED: Okay. Now, I think that took two of my minutes. I’m going to have to be really fast. So, I hate panels. I go to film festivals all the time. I’ve always wanted to disrupt the panel culture. All right, so this is my attempt to do it. So we’re gonna follow through with a lot of, you know, strict rules, right?... So, to destabilize, disrupt, the panel culture of film festivals, this is a very strict day. Nineteen presentations. None will be over ten minutes. Right? You will hear play off music of an exclusively punk rock soundtrack at about nine-thirty will start to fade up. And at ten is going to be loud and raucous and you’re not allowed [to go over] – your mic will be shut off. And if you’re not [done], we have DEATH in the house.

Nineteen speakers across seven sections. Right? At the end of each of those sections, we have the NonDē – the conversationalist facilitators – which I’m a part of too. Franklin Leonard. Courtney Romano. And we’re going to have a fifteen minute conversation. This is not a panel. And you’ll see, you know, with the presenters of each of the seven sections, right? We’re going to be a little loose on that fifteen – it can’t go over fifteen – but, if we’re feeling generous, we’ll give some of our minutes to the audience because we’ve only allocated essentially five minutes, enough for one question per section.

Now to ask a question, there’s a few rules. And actually I want – Franklin to come up here and tell us how we ask questions.

FRANKLIN: So, your first sentence should be a question. There should not be a second sentence. And that was a warning. For those of you who’ve interacted with me on Twitter, I am capable of being an asshole. And I will be if your question does not come in that form.

TED: But at the end of the question, if you think that it is a good question, I want you to acknowledge it with a loud show of support, because for every good question – provided there is not more than eight of them – I brought gifts. And we’ll see what they are. So I got a nice gift, a goodie bag takeaway from my life, from cinema, for each and every one that has a good question. As long as there’s not more than eight.

At the end of these seven sections I’ll try to give an ending summation. I want to show how you – all of you – have blossomed into my mind. So, I want to see the future. I want to have hope for film. And I want to share some of those little takeaways, and I’ll try to capture that. But afterwards, because I will fail, we will have drinks. We will have a cocktail hour. So lunch, [then] cocktail hour. Next year, hopefully, one of you will have, you know, found a gold mine and will sponsor breakfast, so it can be breakfast, lunch and cocktails, along the way.

But we’re thankful today that this can happen thanks to Francis Coppola. And just so you know, that he was, I think, the first person ever to – from the industry – to just call me unsolicited and say, “Hello, Ted this is Francis Ford Coppola.”

I said, “Fuck you. Who are you?” I hung up, and he called back, and he told James and I that he liked what we were doing, that he’ll take us to lunch. So, this man has lived that life for a long time, loving cinema, as I know you do, too.

So real quick, the sections are – just so you can keep them in your mind. Essentially, I’m going to start with my overview, second will be the “Cinema Making Mindset and Approach.”

We wanted to start in that group, because some people have time commitments of the other lives, and we just couldn’t fit so much in.

It would have gone better in the next section, but so be it, which is, “Better Approaches to Distribution.” That’s number three. Four is “New Views on Exhibition.” Because distribution is such a notty, N-O-T-T-Y, subject these days, they wanted to have a separate section on the new process of distribution. Six will be “Time to Rethink Television and All Streaming Platforms,” and seven is, “The System We Are In and How We Can Change It.” That is seven sections, nineteen speakers. No more than ten minutes each.

Utopian Ideation, Leaderless Movements, and the Benefits of a NonDependent Cinema Ecosystem

TED: This is essentially the seven tools you need to no longer be compliant and brainwashed to work in their content farms. These are the tools that will set you free. Liberate your cinematic soul. But as I went through it, you know, I realized it wasn’t a list of seven. It’s actually a list of twenty. So I’m going to have to talk really fast. So… the reason that it’s more than seven is right off the bat. One of the key things that I learned is actually the key to, I would say, the success that I’ve had. I’ve been able to be an intimate partner on a hundred and forty films as a producer or an executive. I’ve been able to build systems. I’ve had really great opportunities along the way. And it’s because of one trait, which is I always try to ask, “why does it have to be this way? How else could it be done? What is blocking me from getting this done in this way?” And I want you to ask that regarding these seven tools that I want you to put into your belt. And ultimately the reason that was one additional one, it’s also a second additional one, is that this all has become part of my creative practice. It is how I’m loving life, how I have the enthusiasm that I do. I’ve embedded it in my creative practice and it occurs to me along the way, why don’t we talk about our creative practices more often? Why don’t we talk about the things that we can build to help us do those things better? And this is all part of mine. So it’s actually already two.

So the first one that I want to talk about is I want you to dream incessantly of a better world. This is utopian ideation, right? And it’s so key. And the truth is, it’s a big assignment. When I started embracing this myself, it took me five years to get my first draft done. And, as all of you know, first drafts aren’t worth doodly. You know? So, it is long, because you have to extend it beyond what you want for your movie, beyond what you want for yourself, beyond what you want for your relationship, beyond what you want for your community, beyond what you want for your industry, beyond what you want for your country, and beyond what you want for your world. This is about how you use your life, your love, your labor. And you have to think as broadly and as detailed as it is. I have a long, long talk about this. Save it for another day. But right now I want you to just recognize that you don’t know the path you have to walk on unless you know the destination you want to go. Why don’t we think in utopian manners? Ask yourself that and I think there are some clear answers. But as I said, today, I don’t really have much time for that.

Second point is the tool of first principles, tenants and tactics. I want you again to try to determine these for your movies, for your company, for yourself, for your industry. And ideally, try to make them align with your utopian ideation. Indie film – so called, “indie film” – failed because it didn’t do this right. It basically – indie film became nothing more than a farm system for Hollywood. And that means that it covers about probably a little bit less than half a percent of all the participants. That it didn’t really determine beyond its initial principle of embracing individual voices outside of the studio system. NonDē’s first priority is the sustainability of the art: the artist, the audience and the ecosystem that is needed to support all of that. You need a first principle. You need to break it down into tenants and you have to figure out the tactics that are there to implement it. That is such an incredible tool. It is how I manage all of my life and I encourage you to embrace it.

Three: we have to embrace a practice of capturing institutional knowledge. This is another failure of so-called “independent film.” When you start to try to examine the process of change, along the way you start to see how key this fits – that generally when people ask, “why is change so slow?”, we have kind of a broad answer. That is: change won’t occur until the pain of the present exceeds the fear of the future. How do we recognize that we can’t, we can’t afford to wait that long? We need to embrace a practice of both production and overall sustainability that has the tactics of looking at recommended best practices for every aspect of cinema. Indie film had one tactic that served that one principle, which was to demystify the development and production process of our work. One thing! There are so many other aspects of it. A lot of this day’s focus is demystifying distribution and exhibition, but there are many others, across all perspectives and all ways that we engage. To do this, we each – and this is where my list starts to build, these are the tools – [we] need to take it upon ourselves to develop the resources that we can share with others. So if you read my newsletter, you’ve already got a list of over two-hundred film financers that are out there. You already had the list of the over a hundred theatrical distributors that work in the United States. You have a list of all the podcasts that deal with the film industry. You have a template to help you and your distribution planning. You have these things being mapped out by Filmstack right now. We need to create resources. And the key piece of this, the practice that we have to embrace with it – hence the list growing – is transparency. Transparency in all things. Drop your shame about anything. To embrace transparency means that we all have to start to recognize the beauty in becoming. The fact that we are all in process in one way or the other. Don’t look just to the end state, that final product, to say that that’s where the vessel for beauty delivery is. To do that, you know, we have to also recognize that a key part of the process is always going to be failure. And that means that all of us have to stop being so damn judgy. Like, let it go! Get over it! We all make mistakes all the time. We learn. Franklin’s called me out several times. Courtney evaluates what I’m saying. They help me get better at what I do, and I appreciate it. We’re moving to a better process of recommended best practices.

This one, number four, sounds a little boring, but it is the gasoline on the match. This is where it all explodes. And the key tool is just a simple thing of what I like to call “Op-Imps”, which is operational improvements. Little changes lead to big results. Little changes show that we actually do make a difference. The reason – you’ve been asking yourself, I know because I can see it in your face all the time when I put one of these out – you say, “Why is it that way? What are the barriers? How do we get through it?” This one actually has a really clear indication. Why don’t we embrace operational improvements in any closed ecosystem? In any closed ecosystem where the dominant power or capital or customer feels that it is good enough will never invest the necessary capital, labor, brainpower in the operational improvements to the product or the process. This is what has happened over forty years in independent film. This is why I consider independent film ultimately a failure. We have been like frogs in that warm bath, not knowing that we were served for dinner. And along the way, we’ve allowed every single aspect, except the demystifying of production development to, to rust, to wither, to decay. That’s how we got into this situation.

Five, we have to embrace a completely new set of metrics for success. Our entire society values essentially two things: wealth and status. Our industry has embraced this. We are in a system, and that system is in us, right? It’s not an aberrant result that we have leaders and people like Trump and Epstein. We have the same thing. We’ve seen many of our leaders in the film industry and the evil and, that they’re capable of enstuing. Is that a word? I like it, and just look at where all of this has gotten us.

About SLAMDANCE

Slamdance is an artist-led organization, founded in 1995, dedicated to championing independent voices in film and digital media. Its mantra - by filmmakers, for filmmakers - guides year-round programming including the Slamdance Film Festival, Screenplay Competition, Slamdance Unstoppable, DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), and Polytechnic, an accessible education initiative.

Slamdance celebrated its 32nd Film Festival February 19–25, 2026, in Los Angeles - its second year in the city - as well as online via the Slamdance Channel.

Notable Slamdance alumni include Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Lynn Shelton (Little Fires Everywhere), Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), the Safdie Brothers (Uncut Gems), Marina Zenovich (LANCE), Lena Dunham (Girls), Sean Baker (Anora), Rian Johnson (Knives Out), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Merawi Gerima (Residue), Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night), Natasha Ofili (Creed III), and Julio Palacio (Makayla’s Voice: A Letter To The World).

Slamdance’s mission is to serve as an agent of change in filmmaking and digital media, making the creative work of artists with divergent voices accessible to everyone.

Slamdance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

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