“Sound of Freedom” is a watchable film, but it’s not really what you’d call high art. It wouldn’t even come close to making my list of the 50 best movies of the year.
Heck, I don’t even know what backstory this movie has been getting, where do we find this QAnon guy? What website should we write to receive your crackpot theories? What the hell does that have to do with this movie? There have been a lot of theories about this, and I’ve been a bit puzzled by it because it sounds like a major rabbit hole.
Last month, I bought a ticket to “Sound of Freedom,” which was never screened in the press, and found it well-directed, but rather routine and conventional in the way it delivered its message. Artfully speaking, it’s not a game changer.
However, I have to call a spade a spade here. The media has increased the build-up to this anti-trafficking film since one of its crowdfunders, Fabian Marta, was arrested for kidnapping on Thursday.
Now, I wanted to address this story, but I haven’t had the chance until now. You see, what you’ll read everywhere is that this supposed anti-trafficking movie, which somehow, for some reason, went viral and grossed $158 million domestically, had arrested one of its founders for the same issue that the film denounces. : kidnapping
This is the problem I have with this statement. The reason this movie was even made was because of his crowdfunding campaign of 6,678 donors who invested in the movie. The credits at the end of the film show all the names.
The only person who contributed what Limit date Fabian Marta, 51, called the crowdfund “an unidentified amount of money.” He was “not a financier” of the film, as Deadline put it. In total, the film raised approximately $5 million of its $15 million budget in this crowdfunding effort.
So, wait, it gets worse, apparently Marta wasn’t even arrested for trafficking. Deadline reports he was embroiled in a custody dispute:
Marta owns a woman who was involved in a custody dispute with her aunt. The circumstance, apparently, is what led to the charges against Marta. Marta has been provided with housing for her wife and child.
“I don’t understand how he’s being charged with this,” Marta’s lawyer told Deadline, “It has nothing to do with kidnapping anybody.”
This did not prevent the media from saying that Marta was a “financier” of the film. Newsweek did exactly that. Pop Crave, then he tweeted that Marta was a “financier” of the film. All this caused the arrest to spread like wildfire and then every single media way out twisted the real story.
And, you know what? It’s a real shame that this is happening. Stripping away any of the political baggage, “Sound of Freedom” could very well represent a viable future for independent cinema in the way this film was put together and financed. I find that from the beginning people haven’t been looking at the big picture and have instead focused on the politics and it all seems strange and unproductive to do that.
Even “Dark City” director Alex Proyas, who hasn’t had much success greenlighting a film since 2016, has recognized that what the success of “Sound of Freedom” means to him is a potential opportunity to make more films:
What also fascinates me is how this movie was made. Angel studios are leading the way with the power of crowdfunding: perhaps a new model for changing times? And not much different from the model I’m currently building and will tell you more about on Patreon. It’s good to see filmmakers succeed with something like this, it gives me hope. That and legacy media struggling to keep up. Ha!
Jeff Sneider understands this too and is as baffled as I am about how Marta’s arrest has been twisted for political gain:
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