Quote of the Day (Nick Pinkerton, on ‘Dodgy’ Investing in Films)

“The [movie] business is, and has always been, a dodgy boondoggle; not for nothing were the old-money WASPs at the East Coast banks reticent to put capital behind fledgling Hollywood. When [American film director Abel] Ferrara was starting out, private investment in low-budget films was spurred by tax loopholes, a way for doctors, dentists, and racketeers to get rid of extra cash that would otherwise wind up in Uncle Sam’s grubby mitts. Fortunes could be made, even if they rarely wound up in the hands of the ‘talent,’ and were made just often enough to keep alive financiers’ delusions of having money down on what could be the next sleeper hit…a situation that can’t be said to persist today, when persuading someone to back an independent film is essentially a matter of finding a credulous dupe to give you a pile of cash to set fire to. In terms of its risk-to-reward ratio, investing in an independent film ranks somewhere in the neighborhood of accepting the hand of a Nigerian prince who has introduced himself to you via cold email. To be a successful independent filmmaker—that is, one who is even sporadically employed—is, in essence, to be a bit of a con man.”— American film critics, screenwriter, and editor Nick Pinkerton, “A Rake’s Progress” (review of Abel Ferrara’s memoir Scene), Harper’s Magazine, November 2025