This is a newsletter and community for filmmakers who want to do things differently.
If you’re a filmmaker who wants to make your dreams come true without compromising your values, this is for you. Hollywood as a system has proven over and over that it’s unethical: it excludes and marginalizes people both in its industry and its productions, and it prioritizes the wealth of a few over the wellbeing of many. With the strikes in 2023, it proved that it has no intention of changing that. That means it’s up to us to start doing things differently.
This community tries to bring together the rebels who want to make original, diverse and impactful films that change the world for the positive. We want to break through the systems that have been put in place over the past century that do not serve us. We are breaking the mold of corporate greed, individualism and harmful conventions by focusing on kindness, generosity and community.
Filmmaking Unbound is written by Manon de Reeper.
New posts appear every other week.
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What can you expect?
On Filmmaking Unbound, you will find that we have a pretty holistic approach to ethical filmmaking. We talk about such things as mental health, the environment, how people are marginalized in the industry and in movies, minimalism, gratitude, kindness and generosity (yes, we are inspired by Buddhist principles), and more.
Who is writing this newsletter?
Born on September 2, 1989 in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, Manon de Reeper was never one to think much of what other people expected of her and going against the grain was instilled in her from an early age - exemplified by the fact that she wanted to be a pirate growing up.
After acquiring her graduate and postgraduate degrees in Clinical Psychology and Global Criminology in 2013, she, her husband and their cat Poh moved to Perth, Australia in 2014. There, she founded online independent film magazine Film Inquiry. She served as Editor in Chief until May 2020.
In late 2017, they packed up all their stuff and cat once more, and moved to Houston, TX, USA. At this point Manon had shifted her focus to making movies. She figured now that she had finished one feature screenplay - a period drama/psychological thriller - that script was sure to sell and be brought to life in no time.
A few years of harsh reality later during which she wrote more features and pilots, she ended up landing a few jobs as a screenwriter for hire. Still, there were no big deals, and none of her work had been produced up until that point. Meanwhile, Manon also got a good taste of what it is like to live in the United States as a biracial immigrant - and what anti-Black racism is. Ah, the American Dream. She became involved with film industry non-profit Women of Color Unite to help WOC get more fair treatment, pay and access to the film industry.
Then, the pandemic happened. She figured: if the world was going to end, the only thing left to do was to direct a short film. And so she did - together with her producer Anna Tran, they shot psychological horror short, UNCONTROL, in October 2020, the height of COVID times. No one got sick, and they made an exceptional little film. At the same time, she also helped Women of Color Unite launch their revolutionary #Startwith8 mentorship program, which she would run for the next two years.
In November 2020, she and her husband packed up once more and moved onto a sailboat in the Caribbean. Spending the next 1.5 years of the pandemic traveling the Windward Islands, Manon was reinspired and reinvigorated, reconnected to nature and people. On top of that, she kind of brought her childhood dream of being a pirate to life.
Currently, she is a full-time nomad, hopping from country to country, while working hard on bringing her first feature film DETAIN ME (a psychological horror) to life, with her partner Anna Tran under their banner of Deviant Minds Productions.
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