Gore had his charts and graphs and methodically he made his case.
I had first seen the presentation a few weeks earlier and I was shocked by it.
I felt the weight of his message and the urgency behind it.
(L-R) Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim with their Oscar for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’Everett
I wanted to help share it with the world but I was dubious about how.
I think we all were.
How the hell could you turn a slideshow into a documentary let alone a piece of entertainment?
(L-R) Jeff Skoll and Al Gore at the ‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’ premiere at Sundance in 2017Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for Participant Media and Paramount Pictures
We cant waste any more time.
Dont wait for lawyers or contracts.
Six months later the film,An Inconvenient Truth, was at Sundance.
After seeing the the movie, the head of a major studio said, Dont fool yourselves.
No ones gonna pay for a babysitter to go watch this in a movie theater.
He expressed a common wisdom.
But he was wrong.
That a film couldland.
That the right film at the right moment could make an impact.
So Jeff, like so many of the characters in the films he loved, made a bold choice.
He changed the conversation around climate change.
He changed the field of documentary.
And he changed the movie business.
Theres also been the inevitable postmortem commentary about whether Jeff Skolls 20-year venture was worth it.
Look at the ledger, the critics say.
Participant never made a dime.
The implication is that Jeff was just another sucker, swindled by Hollywood charlatans.
But anyone who worked with Jeff will tell you that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Would the cynics have been happier if Jeff had parked his money somewhere to silently accumulate?
Those who look only at Participants bottom line miss the bigger picture.
Jeff made this investment with his eyes wide open.
And those who look only at Participants bottom line miss the bigger picture.
Sometimes when you consider only what you’re able to measure, you miss what actually matters.
At the time, I was an aspiring director and I was floundering.
Id pitched PBS only months before on another project and never even received a reply.
It was the kiss of death.
There was PBS and there was HBO and that was about it for documentary work.
Look at documentaries now.
Look at all the films premiering every year at Sundance, Telluride and Toronto.
Look at the range of documentaries available on all the streaming platforms.
This is the industry that Participant cultivated.
This is the world Jeff helped create.
He didnt do it alone, of course.
Participant made films about womens rights, workers rights, public education, journalism and racial injustice.
They won every award you could name, not just in docs but on the fiction side, too.
Some of the movies didnt work.
Some were great but never found a home in the marketplace.
Jeff was okay with that.
He accepted financial loss in pursuit of something more elusive but in my mind more important.
Who will make the nextGood Night, and Good Luck, the nextRGB, the nextCitizenfourorRoma?
And what will Hollywood look like if no one does?
