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‘If just one person objects to your film, I can lose my job.’”
Art, comedy, music and film festivals were the four pillars of the counterculture, always ready for a little round of epater la bourgeoisie. But then art became utterly incomprehensible, music became a series of autotuned copy-and-pasted pop songs by social media influencers and comedy became a struggle session.
Film festivals that once gloried in provocation just feature the same black nationalist celebrations of their racism in their programs. Edginess, once a major staple, has receded in American film festivals. And those European film festivals are dependent on American talent and recognition. The film festivals, like the rest of what’s left of liberal culture, are running scared.
Terracino, a one-name indie director with an A-list festival pedigree, has also been on the wrong side of the simmering culture wars on the circuit. In late 2021, he took a rough cut of his latest narrative feature, “Waking Up Dead,” to some of the major festivals that have shown his work in the past…
