The Making of a Canceled Film
Paul Escandon, director of a new short documentary about Nick Fuentes, on the creative process he used to make the film.
I am the director of a short film, ‘The Most Canceled Man in America’, that was accepted into the libertarian Anthem Film Festival at FreedomFest. After accepting the film and expressing excitement at the thought of hosting Nick Fuentes at a festival panel, the FreedomFest organizers quickly changed course and bowed to outside pressure to pull the film. They participated in an act of censorship and cancel culture. My production partner, Jason Rink, has written in depth about this situation in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
I would like to present my story on how this short film came to be to give some insight on how and why I created this piece of work.
I identified that there were likely to be 4 principle types of audiences coming into a film like this about a nationally divisive figure - a man who has allies in congress, haters on the left and the right and extremely loyal fans and followers:
1) People who have had an experience of Nick Fuentes online and come away with a negative view about him (of which there are many).
2) People who have had an experience of Nick Fuentes online and come away with a positive view about him (of which there are many).
3) People who have heard the name Nick Fuentes but do not really know what he is about.
4) People who have never heard of Nick Fuentes.
Depending on what group one is in, they will bring a different context into this film. Jason writes about this idea of context here. Context influences how one experiences a story and I am very mindful of contextual considerations around audience experience.
Because divisive people like Nick tend to create an audience with strongly formed opinions (e.g. Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton), I thought it was important to create a work that allowed Nick to speak principally in his own voice. Some view this as ‘platforming a terrible person’. I view this as an exercise in granting a viewer space to receive a direct account without context first getting in the way for them. This is a departure from the way Nick gets treated in nearly all other forms of media. The viewer is free to then go on and take a deeper dive into who Nick is after they view the film if they choose to. There is no shortage of counter-balancing narratives out there about him.
Nothing presented in the film is a lie.
Nothing presented in the film is untrue.
Nothing presented in the film is exaggerated, obscured, or nonfactual.
When I first came into contact with Nick Fuentes in real life I was in the third group. I had heard his name, knew he was somebody on the right with a reputation, but didn’t know much else beyond that. I wasn’t colored by any of the negative things one could read about him online. I also wasn’t influenced by any of his fans or followers, called ‘Groypers’. I simply experienced a man who, in the limited scope of what was happening around the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies in November 2020, was doing something interesting and significant.
During the post-production on our film ‘The Steal’, I started to dive deeper into who the key players of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement were. I consumed the content from them as they opined on the 2020 election and the rallies of which they were a part. Nick broadcasts for 10-15 hours a week, and has done so for over 5 years. So there was a lot of content to consume and pull from.
When I found out that Nick was added to the no fly list I did not think it was receiving the type of exposure that a story of that nature should get. I was well-equipped to tell a story about it, being that I had access to Nick because of my proximity to the movement he was a part of the year prior, while he experienced me as an honest storyteller. That’s the reason this film happened at all.
I had a single day to interview him in Chicago in May 2021. It was always a project with a very specific scope: to tell a story around a guy who was added to the no fly list without committing a crime. During the discovery process I learned that the government seized a half-million dollars from his bank account. I decided to expand the scope to include that story as well.
This film is an authentic telling of that story from my perspective and is 100% in line with how I have experienced Nick Fuentes as a person. That is to say, the film gives as much time to the topics surrounding him, his background, his story, and the current events as I find relevant and pertinent. This isn’t enough for some people.
Sean Malone, a judge at the Anthem Film Festival, has appeared as a vocal critic of the film and apologist for FreedomFest canceling it. He has written at length about it on his public Facebook. Sean details his experience with encountering Nick online and what he thinks would be an adequate amount of time for the film to spend on those experiences. This person would have me give more time to the parts of Nick’s story that he finds pertinent and important. We differ greatly on that. I know Nick personally. He knows Nick through news articles, many of which have been described as ‘hit pieces’. I’ve watched hundreds of hours of Nick’s live content. He’s watched… well, I’m not sure. I have insight that allows me to produce a much different piece of work because of this. And that’s what I did.
I intentionally present Nick the way I have. It produces a far different result in the viewer than if I started with a content warning, a list of media talking heads explaining his free speech sins, stating “the 19th Amendment is important to me and please don’t mistake my inclusion of this guy as suggesting it isn’t”, or showing some offensive jokes out of context. I could have done that. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to make that film. That film has no interest to me and I wouldn’t be proud to put my name on it and share it with others.
The reasoning we have been given as to why our film was canceled occurs for me as incredibly weak and lacking the courage I would hope a festival dedicating a day to highlighting cancel culture would have. I also realize that it’s within their right to make that decision.
When making a film about Nick Fuentes, I expected some people to hate it. I predicted that the better that I made it, the more hate it would receive. This reaction is completely expected and I, as a filmmaker, feel more excited about it than I did before this controversy started. I am proud to have created a piece of content that can be both loved and despised, and challenging to the viewer. I welcome the discussion that the cancelation of my film from a free-speech oriented, libertarian film festival has produced and I hope it will be received with an open mind.
Note: ‘The Most Canceled Man in America’ will premiere on Thursday, July 14th during a private screening in Las Vegas, Nevada, not far from where the Anthem Film Festival is screening films. It will be available to view online shortly afterward.
Good idea to premier it next door to the cowardly hypocrites who cancelled it.