Significant Productions, founded by Whitaker and run by Nina Yang Bongiovi, has made admired films like Fruitvale Station and Sorry to Bother You (that earn over ten times what they cost) and discovered directors like Ryan Coogler (Black Panther). Yet even their latest project, Passing, was difficult. - Vulture
The Illinois legislature approved the rule this summer — almost entirely along party lines. Republicans seem to assume out-of-hand that the class will be anti-conservative; supporters say there's no political agenda other than "giving students tools to develop their own BS detectors." - Axios
When a co-founder of the Pillars Fund advocacy organization discussed this issue within the industry, he heard repeatedly that decision-makers didn't know where to find Muslim actors, writers and directors to hire. So the group created the Pillars Muslim Artist Database. - The New York Times
"Audio is hard, from both a publisher and a consumer perspective. … And if Google couldn't figure out a way to assemble the sort of audio news packages that users want, that's a decent sign that we have a lot more hard thinking left to do." - Nieman Lab
Why is Netflix facing so many defamation lawsuits? It’s at least partially because of the nonfiction fare that is booming on the streamer. Following the huge success of 2015’s Making a Murderer, Netflix has been riding the true-crime bandwagon. - The Hollywood Reporter
Legitimate news organizations need to take a stand that goes beyond disclosure. Don’t just tell me that unethical companies are or were sponsors adjacent to news stories about them. It’s wrong, and you get some of the bad vibes on you, too. - Current
"Jeopardy's longtime host, Alex Trebek, passed away a year ago today. And in the 12 months since, it's become increasingly clear just how challenging the balancing act he pulled off was." - Variety
AMC Entertainment’s most recent quarterly earnings report, which saw the world’s largest exhibitor post $755.6 million in revenue, a major increase from the $119.5 million in revenue that it reported in the same period in 2020. -Variety
To advocates of the NFT, the technology offers a revolutionary new way of selling art, and of circumventing snooty cultural gatekeepers whose resistance to a crypto future seems as square as the 19th-century Parisian art world’s disdain for impressionism. - The Guardian
The chair for the Canada Council for the Arts says, "What you’re seeing is maybe an industry that is so ravenous for stories that it’s realized it has to open the gates beyond its usual suspects." - The New York Times
That's a normal budget for an indie, but it does bring home grim realities of the industry. "The producers of the movie Rust earmarked $650,000 to pay themselves, $7,913 to pay their armorer and $350,000 as a contingency in case anything went wrong." - The Hollywood Reporter
The Netflix series revives the always-popular with Austenites tourism industry in Bath, but then there's David Attenborough's Our Planet and other productions that, said one mayor, "help put our area on the map." - BBC
Yes, of course, it's ultimately to make more money, but here's a glimpse of just how different the content is and a look at the structural reason for that difference. - Columbia Journalism Review
