The final installment of Anthony Wolch’s discussion with acclaimed director Jeff Feuerzeig explores his thoughts on social media, the impact of digital on the film industry, his favorite places and the quote from director Francis Ford Coppola that inspires him.

Anthony Wolch:  How are you interacting with social-media?

JF: It’s a very complicated answer.  Here’s the deal. In my opinion, if we use the analogy of indie publishing versus mass corporate publishing, the web and blogs are a relatively new form of sharing, much like the late 70’s-80’s fanzine movement that allowed small groups of like minded folks to communicate.  It fascinates me that someone can have a forum, voice or blog and not be associated with a respected publisher.  That’s wonderful. I have major issues with being corralled by the big guys out there; the powerhouses that are using digital to control or even infiltrate personal information to turn it against the individual. I reluctantly have a Facebook account that I will shut down as soon as I find a viable alternative. I do not follow Twitter; in fact, I have no idea what Twitter really is.  The consolidation of corporate power seriously concerns me.

Anthony Wolch:  How is the Internet affecting your business?

JF: It remains to be seen if the FCC and Obama are going to side with the Googles of the world. I am definitely concerned with how it is affecting independent filmmaking. Obviously, as file sharing wrecked the music industry in the old sense, it has also done much of the same to film. Theft of copyright and piracy is clearly widespread and that piracy is already happening in film, and will bring down the giant movie system as well, obviously. The positive side of that is why do we want to protect it at all? My first film, Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King is completely up on YouTube, which is just another network or channel, but every other network or channels has clearing departments for rights, intellectual copyrights attached, etc.  Showtime can’t show my film without buying the rights, however, somehow this channel called YouTube is doing exactly what no one else is legally allowed to do. Why can they be allowed to do this? Simply because someone else put it up on their site? How about paying me for every click and pay me retroactively for every click that’s been recorded?

Anthony Wolch:  What is the most interesting aspect of the digital world for you?

JF: I do like the web. I have a web page.  It’s cool, but it’s great to harness blistering fast access to information. People find me all the time, which I find interesting. I am an avid newsreader, sometimes spending hours a day reading political news, which I love. I use the information I access in my writing, filtering it into my projects. As a research tool nothing can touch it, nothing even comes close. Whether it’s a Wiki or going much deeper, it is simply invaluable for research, beyond revolutionary. That’s what I mostly use it for. I am also addicted to Last.fm where I have discovered music from artists like Magik Markers, Sic Alps, Sandy Bull, No Age, Japandroids  and many others that I would never have heard. I then make the old school run to Amoeba Records and buy the CD’s.

Anthony Wolch:  What are your top 3 favorite cities and why?

JF: Barcelona, Toronto, San Francisco. However, Berlin has been very good to me. Barcelona is magical, walking around the old city, the gothic quarter, it’s just the most incredible place.  As a European city, it boggles my mind.

Anthony Wolch:  Any favorite quotes?

“Suddenly, one day some little fat girl in Ohio is going to be the new Mozart and make a beautiful film with her father’s little cam-corder, and for once this whole professionalism about movies will be destroyed forever and it will become an art form.”

– Francis Ford Coppola

 For more information on Jeff Feuerzeig and his work, go to www.jefffeuerzeig.com.

 Anthony Wolch, Executive Creative Director, Organic, Inc.