INSPIRATION
“I think, therefore I am”
- René Descartes 1637
ONE OF PHILOSOPHY'S MOST FAMOUS REVELATIONS
Sixteenth century philosopher René Descartes was struck with this historical epiphany while struggling to cope with the realization that many ideas he once felt certain to be true, were later proven false. It led him to question, what then which he currently believed might also be false? Rene decided the only way to identify real truth would be to start from scratch and question everything.
“Suppose a person had a basket full of apples and, being worried that some of the apples were rotten, wanted to take out the rotten ones to prevent the rot spreading. How would he proceed? Would he not begin by tipping the whole lot out of the basket?”
Following this notion, Rene began interrogating everything he thought he knew about the world and himself. Starting from the most basic place, how could he prove that what we experience isn’t an elaborate deception? Our senses often mislead us, and most often we don’t realize we are dreaming until the mirage is over. How do you know for certain that you are real?
“Everything we believe, every sense experience, every thought, they could have been put in our minds by [an] evil genius who created an illusory world so seamless, we’d have no way of detecting the illusion”
René realized that if he could question and doubt then in some way he must exist. It was with this foundational belief secured, the first apple placed back in the basket, that he could proceed to build back to more certainty.
WHO WE ARE
Cartesian is a short film distribution company established to allow filmmakers to take advantage of a collective audience and to be able to monetize their work.
Picking up from the ideas of Descartes, Cartesian looks to program films that question society and reality. We hope to create a filmmatic experience with each short leaving our audience with a new found perspective on what it is to be real and human. Founded by Chicago based Writer Director Matthew Brdlik the project was created in response to the unfair monetary demands placed on emerging filmmakers.
“The filmmaking landscape currently expects expensive short films to be financed and produced by filmmakers, only to then demand thousands of dollars for the chance to screen at festivals, where programmers then charge others to see your work. Year after year festivals get more expensive and infinitely harder to place in. We must knowledge we are in a different environment than the golden era of festivals which our idols before us found success in. We have to look ahead at the new technology available to us break our way into the industry” – Founder Matthew Brdlik
It's about giving back, not profiting.
Many filmmakers miss or have a haphazard approach to online distribution. This is a free, golden opportunity for their work to reach a worldwide audience. Making this worse, the established companies that do exist to distribute films often do so with a cookie cutter approach used to extract millions of dollars a year from filmmakers. Cartesian exclusively grants filmmakers 100% of any revenue earned over their license period so they can better afford to keep doing what they love.
“I started my filmmaking journey on Youtube with several successful channels. I was able to leverage my skills there to gain over half a million views on my own shorts. The moment I realized I was onto something special was when several teachers commented they were teaching my film Dissidence in classrooms around the world. I felt then what filmmaking is really about, my work in some small way was having an impact on the future of the world. I started Cartesian to help share that with other filmmakers”
The project is still in it's infancy but hopes to expand much further beyond YouTube in the future.
Ultimately on YouTube the strength of the film determines its success. With our skills in algorithm optimization, and with the leverage of the audience that we are fostering, we hope to open the flood gates to allow your work to reach its true potential. By trusting Cartesian you are taking a step forward to bend the industry from what it is to what it should be, and we think that’s pretty cool 🙂
“YouTube is an often overlooked, great opportunity for filmmakers to take advantage of. However this is only the beginning of what I can envision the future of Cartesian encompassing. There is a great potential to restructure the industry in a way which kicks the door wide open for the future opportunities of filmmakers. It’s a long road but with each step (film) we progress closer”