Nicholas Nick Goso Emmet Walsh Luciano Pomella Eric Wobma Skin Horse Planet Directe King Kahn and the Shrines Road to Khan I'm Henry flicks movies best music videos in Canada. Independence is an over-worn expression in the world of cinema, brought into high relief since being co-opted by the industry, further corrupting and invalidating whatever real meaning the word once had. The independent movie all to often is treated as a means to an end by emerging fillmmakers, synonymous with low-budget, B-movie or crappy "calling-card" films, created solely as a device to thrust themselves into the Hollywood system where greater corporate, career or financial profits can be made. As we are all aware, the commodification of art sets up a closed circle of blind consumption, acting to divide, conquer and falsify social participation by way of its formulaic, group-tested, hermetically-sealed cycle of marketed product. In response to this we say that an independent cinema is one in which the artists control the creation and the productions absolutely, as much as possible without commercial preoccupations - one which seeks to break free of the powerful corporate studios while still ethically ensuring financial regeneration for future work; the demonstration of a unique vision, subjective and personal, based on the expression of individual and collective ideas, sentiments and sensations with the potential to create harmony between the creators and the society in which they strive. Creation is also the driving force behind Patron Saint Pictures, and this creation, we feel must be Independent in a larger sense, where the political and cultural profit from film is the primary concern. We are Independent filmmakers not by circumstance, but by choice! The capitalist system of exchange is at a certain level inescapable, and it would certainly be hypocritical to suggest we don't benefit from our position within it - as it takes money to make movies; money to see them and increasingly to have them seen - but the worst traits and tendencies of this system - as should the worst in any system - be resisted, not just in spirit, but also in practice. We understand our position as independent cineastes as an ongoing attempt to define and enact such a practice. However successful or unsuccessful our movies are, they will always remain a tribute to the DIY approach; the hands-on craftsmanship and ingenuity of fiercely independent production - made not with the hope of turning corporate heads or as means to break into the industry, but rather standing in opposition to artistic commodification and the homogenizing forces of commercialism -- a cinema that in-and-of itself confirms Independence (with a capital 'I') can still bring about evocative, inspiring and entertaining work with increasingly marginal means. Together with the creative people who help us realize the projects, we work to rekindle a critical Independent cinema mindful of economics and social conditions; to reflect these concerns both cinematically and practically by building self-sufficient grassroots structures for performing, producing and distributing work; to hold fast to the beautiful promise of independent cinema as a perpetually nascent artistic form capable of re-invention, questioning, destabilizing and enlightening. In awareness of the wasteful and financially inflated nature of cinema production, we have been diligent in discovering alternatives to traditional production and laboratory procedures and make every effort to keep a human hand in each step of the production process, including hand processing and manipulations to the filmstock when possible, yet never sacrificing quality nor aesthetics to simply make a formal point. We willfully avoid standardised packaging for our video and DVD releases, opting instead to incorporate package design into the overall art direction of every project. Inspired by those around us, we can't resist broadening the film canvas to involve artists from other disciplines, craftspeople and small businesses in our work. Our aim is for each release to resonate as an integrated art object, where the sensibility of the media is reflected in the process that went into making it and reinforced by the package that contains it. Movie-producing as vocation and craft, as far removed from the traditional movie "product" as we can get. With these methods we have uncovered a possible model for the resuscitation of an Independent movie ethic, hoping to confer some real significance to the 'indie film', in spite of its reduction to a branded slogan, an Independence that is to us the affirmation of real community, real communication, and the real exchange of artistic ideas. Of course, it's good to keep things in perspective. In a world wrought with innumerable humanitarian tragedies, we continue mucking about with hand-processing, emulsion scratching, props, projections and play-acting in ways that we hope will avoid, or at least minimise, corruption of the work, all the while knowing our freedom to do so comes at an increasingly expensive human cost. Perhaps cinema means little in light of all this. We feel however, that by producing cinematic work that either in theme or in practice maintains a confrontational attitude, rejecting all forms and systems of domination and discrimination, advocating forms of resistance which maximize respect for life and human rights, as well as the formation of grassroots alternatives to global consumerism, in essence through reclaiming our Independence with clenched fists, might we embrace the full dignity of all human beings in the process of filmmaking.