Producer/Director Bert Marcus drops by to talk about the dark side of social media! Bert gives us the scoop on his hit Netflix documentary The American Meme which takes an intimate look at and sheds light on the ups and downs of social media influencers including Paris Hilton, The Fat Jewish, and others! Plus we get the back story on how Mario met Bert, the boxing doc they produced together, and more!
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Mario Lopez. Thank you for joining me for a
new episode to listen to. Mario love doing this podcast
because well, I got to sit down and have fun,
in depth conversations with all kinds of fascinating people from
all walks of life. And this week I'm gonna be
chatting with a dude that I've known for a really
long time. Bert Marcus. Bird is the guy behind this
new Netflix doc called The American Meme. It's all about
(00:22):
the dark side of social media. I've known Burt since
he used to sleep on my cousin's couch way back
in the day. Fast forward, he's now probably one of
the hottest documentary filmmakers, Uh in the game and doing
quite well and actually getting into feature films. Really proud
of him, actually, and uh, I want to hear all
about this new duck, So let's get into it. Bert Marcus,
(00:48):
welcome to the show. You look honored. Not only am
I honored, I am incredibly flattered that the number one
trending film in America, The American Meme, the director himself,
Bert Marcus is here in studio with me. So thank
you for taking the time. Now with your newfound popularity
(01:09):
and success. Trying to say that with a straight face.
How long I know you? Dude? Do you mean America
or do you mean a hundred countries? Oh? Excuse me,
Actually you're incorrect, a hundred ninety two countries. We'll get
back to the success you're film in a second. Chill out.
Mario's huge in Malaysia. How how more on Malaysia later?
How How long am I knowing you? I was trying
to figure that out if we carry the one that's
(01:31):
been like fifteen years? Has it? And when I met
you you were doing one that wasn't three or four?
Does it sound like that? I can't remember initially when
we first met, but you were. Were you an intern
for a radio show at the time I worked? Yeah,
I worked at Clear Channel, the now known as I Heart.
I was an intern. I worked as a producer. Yeah,
I worked all the way up. So I think that's
(01:51):
when we first initially met. Yes, because I'd always look
at you and say, you had a face for radio.
Do you remember, says the guy with the face for radio?
No kidding, kidding, listen, So okay, because you didn't did
you go to school? I know you grew up here,
and I want to get to that in a second.
But did you study UM to to for this particular
(02:12):
industry in any capacity or was it just literally being
a product of living here in l A. Honestly, I
I did study some film courses, but I went to
usc UM but I was a business I was a
business major. Did you finish, Yeah, and I finished you
have a degree, yes, So I went to I went
to uh, you know, studied undergrad business at Marshall and
(02:33):
then I actually went to UM. You know, I always
had a passion for film. I was at a passion
for music. So that's kind of how I got initially
involved in radio. And uh, it's kind of funny because
now with a lot of the films that we do,
obviously music played such an integral role in like films.
You know, you're a film buff and they can make
or break films, and I think, uh, you know, just
(02:53):
merging the two. It's kind of interesting how everything kind
of came to a head. And is you know, so
relevant in my life now? So you so okay, So
when we were always a fan of entertainment, but you
didn't necessarily grow up wanting to do it, not just
actually just a fan. Yeah, I was never. I think
growing up in l A, you kind of are around
so many people who want to be famous or their
parents were famous or well in your situation because the
(03:16):
rewind even further, it's not like you grew up, um,
you know in h named that suburb. You grew up
like in the heart of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, amongst the elite,
if you will. I went to a school with a
lot of entertainment kids. I was about some player and
I was some of the kids drop some names. Uh,
I think a couple of Mario's kids eventually, the ones
(03:38):
that you don't know of. I'm pretty sure I was
brought up with. Seriously, I think Paris actually and I
went to grew up together Paris Hilton, Okay, so I
knew Paris for a very long time. To Cole Ritchie, okay, um,
pretty much like the who's whose kids were a lot
in our school. I went to a school called Buckley,
right private school here in l A. Uh. Not cheap well,
actually nowadays it's insane. It was actually so different. I
(04:01):
mean I'm in my early to mid thirties now, so
it's nowadays, I think it's like fifty grand a year.
For these private schools. It's it's unreal. It's very different
than I mean, in the last fifteen years. Obviously, I
graduated fifteen years ago, so it's night and day difference.
But yeah, I think growing up in this way, in
that school, you can go from like first grade all
the way to kindergarten through twelve shut up through twelve,
and we call that, we call us lifers. That's like
(04:24):
at the end of school there. Yeah, how do you
like that, dude? You know, it's interesting. It's like being uh,
you know, it's like I tried to be like the
ferre Spieler in my school, so it was fun for me.
I was like a big fish in a small pond.
So you know, it was always fun for us. I
grew up with a lot of the same kids, and
we were all we all like loved it and loved
playing sports there, and you know, always ripped on each
(04:44):
other since we were young. So imagine you gave very
close to those people since Well, it's weird when we're
about to graduate and you're like, wow, I'm actually about
to enter the real world. That's a little shocking. So
like I think I had to countdown. Most kids are
like extremely pumped to go to college and just get
let loose and go crazy. And my parents were always
super chill with me and you know, trusted me. So
I didn't really have that need to just break out
(05:04):
and just go nuts when I went to college. So
for me, I I and I already had a job,
and I was working through high school as well. So
what are you doing in high school? I was working radio.
That's when I started who I actually just started with
an internship, Yeah, clear channel. That's how I started in
high school. So and your parents are not in the
entertainment and not at all. What is your dad? My
(05:26):
dad works in biotechnology and so he builds kind of
state of the art real estate facilities to do some
of the most important research work in the world for
every disease known to man. And my mom was a teacher,
you know, very involved in the charity world. So you know,
my dad helps run the Navy Seal Foundation and raises
a lot of money from them. Nothing in the entertainment. Nothing.
(05:50):
So that's why it was weird in my school. I
was one of the very few that had like no
ties or connection to the entertainment at all. So but
you but you we're right in the mix, and you know,
knowing you as long as I have. One of my
favorite things about you is you don't you don't come
across affected like you don't obviously fortunate enough to be
(06:11):
privileged with with with a nice, stable, close family, but
you do. You don't come across it conceded or arrogant
or never never show off you anything like that, which
is really you know, which is refreshing. I wish I
could say the same for you. Yeah, I know I'm
working on it, but I appreciate that coming from you.
That means a lot. And you've always been I mean
for for everybody else, I mean, like Mario has always been,
like I'm a big brother to me. So I do
(06:32):
appreciate that and keep me in check and in line.
Maybe break a rib every now and then. Right, Oh wait,
do we sparl with my buddy Totty? Who broke your rib?
Wasn't it was? I'm pretty sure you did. When when
when you when you when you punched me in a
in a parking lot or something. Oh you're so stupid.
I didn't punch them, Tony was there? We're getting you're
jumping my time, like Bert let's stay. Let's stay, Let's stay.
When flushed start looking like the bachelor, You're so stupid
(06:57):
looking like this. So I'm trying to tell I'm trying
to tell your story right here. I'm trying to tell
your story because I think it's I think it's pretty fascinating. Uh,
she growing up And if I grew up in l A, well,
I mean I I didn't really grow up in because
it was a big, big, different world of difference, only
been a couple of hours south, and say, but growing
up in this, how did you manage not to get
involved in uh, the drug scene, the party's scene, to
(07:19):
keep it pretty pretty clean cut? I mean, it's that's
not what I'm aware of. But where did you have
about It's it's definitely different. I mean, like, listen, the
first time I had seen drugs was probably like fifth
grade and you know nine, I don't know kids kids
fifth and sixth grade, Like it was a very popular time,
and I think it is even now where you know
a lot of people's parents and stuff were involved, and
you know, I had access to you know, different types
(07:41):
of substances and pills and stuff like that, and a
lot of kids would come around and I think a
lot of it just comes how you're raised, you know,
being a father and you're you're a great father, which
I respect immensely, and I think that's something that's so
crucial because like in the world we live in, it's
so it's insane. And I think the biggest thing for
me was I was always grounded by my family's and
no matter what, and we didn't come from like like
(08:03):
this upper class family when we were growing up. We
didn't come from that. You know, my dad was a
hard working lawyer and worked really hard, but you know,
he didn't really take it to the next level in
his career until we were, you know, in college, and
so it's very it was different. And I think for me,
my life was sports, and it was being with my
close friends and being with my family. And I loved
music and I loved watching films. But I think for me,
(08:24):
I was pretty opposed to actually being in the entertainment
industry because when you see so many people just that's
all they want to do, and that's all they talk about,
they become obsessed. Yeah, and I thought, Okay, what can
I do? That's different? What what can I and And
it's so It's very ironic that I would end up
doing this because if you ask me this as a
high school or saying, hey, what do you what do
you see yourself in ten years or what do you
(08:46):
you know? Where do you see yourself on a career path,
I wouldn't have never guessed us. So you graduated college
of the business degree, and did you do anything with
it or along those lines of work or did you
automatically decide at that point you wanted to I always
wanted to have a business background, and then I was
trying to figure out, Okay, how do I use you know,
the backgrounds that I have with my skill set, and
my skill set was always being very creative. I always
(09:08):
wrote a lot of material. I wrote a lot of skits,
even in radio. That's how I kind of got promoted,
so to speak, in that world because I was answering
phones the first day, and I literally went from my
answering phones to producing shows. But I would write skits
and I would do whatever I could as a teenager
too be creative and let my um creative kind of
whatever you want to say, get out there. And I
(09:30):
was pretty pumped about being able to be exposed to
different artists in different music, but radio only has a
certain amount of like creativity that you can have. Unfortunately, right,
so because there's so many there's a program director, there's
music director, there's so much structure, as you guys know,
and so there's only so much you can do. So
I was always like, how can I you know, I
have so many great stories. Yeah, I want to tell stories,
and I wanted to also share stories that I that
(09:53):
were also true. Well, that's one of the things that
um I love about the films is I love documentaries.
I'm a fan of documentaries, and your focus has has
primarily so far been on on documentaries. When did when
did you take on your first film? What was that
We did my first film? Shortly after college. We started
working on a film called Teenage Paparazzo, which we took
to Sunday that Yeah, you are in it actually, and
(10:16):
I asked Mario to be in it. That's true, you
have Mario's got a little yeah, Mario, Mario definitely. Yeah.
So you actually did help me on that first one.
It was a lot of like calling friends and and
stuff like that. But we took that to the Sundance
Film Festival and just for a second. Yeah, you sold
the HBO that that got a lot of critical acclaim
and essentially it was it was started of peeling about
(10:37):
the curtain on paparazzi and their lifestyle and was a
little kid but well hence the teenage paparazzi. And that
was kind of one of my first inspirations because growing
up in l A, like we were talking about it's
almost like squirrels chasing nuts. It's like God took nuts
through them all over the city and the squirrels ran
wild and you're like, whoa, Like what is happening here?
And this was a perfect example, was that being at
you know, the nightclubs or dinners or any of the
(10:59):
hot spots in Hollywood, you would there was a huge
influx of like paparazzi at that time because it was
before the cell phone. So we're talking in two thousand
ten paparazzi. I mean, I know it's always been around,
but when did he get nuts? When when went next level?
I think it was that that era of our generation
was that two thousand I would say eight through two
thousand eleven. Yeah, I was trying to find it, like
(11:19):
a time of it. I guess it would be like
around that time, because it was before everyone started the
whole selfie craze and before we were walking around like
our own paparazzi exactly exactly, So okay, from Teenage Pops,
it highlights a twelve year old paparazzi kid who's essentially
trying to become famous by taking pictures of famous people.
It's like the ultimate paradox, you know what the game
of that kid. Yeah, actually, I still keep in touch
(11:39):
with them. He was a good kid. He's you know,
he got he got involved in nightlife for a little bit,
and now he's getting back to his like true passion
photography and uh not working on production trying to become
a cinematographer DP type style. Look at that. Yeah, he's
he's doing well and we definitely talked him every few months.
Good for him. And from Teenage Paparazzo, your next film
was How to Make Money Selling Drugs? How to Make
(12:01):
Money Selling Drugs. I love all these subjects, by the way,
they're they're all fascinating. Um, we're what was the what
was the objective in that particular film, name how to
guide from every aspect of how everybody on every flip
of the coin. Why do you want to tackle that
is affected by the drug industry? Um? At that time,
it was such a timely it was such it was
a topic that was extremely timely, that was extremely controversial.
(12:23):
It was before the legalization of marijuana anywhere. Yeah, but
but even before marijuana. I mean, it was like when
people were facing twenty years sentences for you know, marijuana possession,
and for us, it was like, how do we come
up with a very interesting, fun, entertaining, catchy way of
doing it. It's almost like a how to cliff notes
guide on how you make money from every side. So
(12:44):
it's how everyone from the d e A to the
to the users, to the dealers to the people suffering.
So it's it's pretty interesting film. It's on Amazon. You
can still check it out. Would you learn let me
rewind a little bit. Would you learn from the pop
Rozzo experience? Uh? I just you know, it's alway as
interesting as you're making films. You learn things every time
as far as like how films come together, from the
(13:06):
actual film or the making the film. I think from
the actual film it was pretty jaw dropping and eye opening.
How far people will push the limits to become famous.
And I think that's what almost led to where we
are now in society. And at that time, it was
you know, like I said, watching a twelve year old
kid home schooled just that that thought so that he
(13:28):
can go out all night long till five am to
take pictures of people and become this kind of phenomenon
is very fascinating. And to kind of see how his
parents really pushed and pushed it and tried to you know,
here's his driver, here's you know, here's his his home
tutor that's going to work with him during the day
so that he can go out till five am. And
he's twelve. It's just kind of it's pretty fascinating. And
(13:52):
what are you gonna do with that when you're older
and we've had to sell money? How to make money? Yeah,
I mean, it was a it makes to take away
from you there. I think the important thing was to eat.
Drug law had to really be you know, looked at
with some clear eyes and some fresh eyes and see, like,
look at our prison system and look at the people
(14:13):
who are suffering, and look at how addiction is is
affecting people, and what are the ways in which we
can deal with that and help people as opposed to
just growing people in jail and having them suffer and
actually making the world worse. From that movie was Champs.
Next Champs, which again I'm proud to say, I am
a producer with Uh, with Bert Marcus, and I get
(14:37):
the biggest kick of when people, not knowing that I
was involved, come up to me and said, hey, man,
I said, I know you're a fight fan, You've got
to see this movie. I saw Netflix called Champs. It's
and I let him go on and I let them run,
and I let him run. I fortunately only heard positive
reviews more to mouth and then I'll know at the
end and said, oh, I'm glad you like I never
tell him about I said, I'm glad you like it,
but you know it makes me feel good. But um,
(14:57):
Mario is like, did you scroll to the end? Titles
you make did you make it to the end? Now
talk about that one to find UH that that particular film.
I think what's interesting about Champs is to see it
through three very different fighters coming up at the same time.
It's Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Bernard Hopkins, um completely different
(15:17):
experiences and how it's almost a paradox in itself that
boxing ends up saving these guys lives and gets them
off the street, and it is the one thing that
they have to take them to the next level, but
at the same time it becomes the worst thing that
ever happened to them. And so it's this It starts
an important conversation as far as what do people do
(15:38):
is the boxing game have any anything in there for
fighters long term? Is there are we looking out for
fighter's best interest? Are there the safeties and rule regulations
that are being done. It really starts to like open
up that conversation to say, are we doing everything to
to help these guys because they represent you know, the
zero one percentile that can come out of these situations,
(15:58):
and then we don't look out for them at all,
well more than even the support itself. What I thought
I really struggle chord was just how it's a metaphor
for life too. We're all we're all fighters in some capacity,
and then you're completely vulnerable in there, You're completely alone
and and um you're you're left to your own devices essentially,
and that's pretty much how in life as well. So
(16:21):
I really like that. I thought it struck a lot
of it was had a lot of layers to it,
and I think that's why I resonated with a lot
of people. We also had a lot of cool actors
who have played fighters, from Mark Wahlberg to Denzel Washington
to a lot of who is who? I mean look
on the film. Now you've got Creed going coming from
the you know, the rock boxing has has the best stories.
(16:43):
We know that individuals and what they've gone through is
so unique. All these different fighters, whether it's a guy
like Mickey Ward or whether you know, there's so many
fascinating fighters. That's why I think fight movies are always
here to stay. Whether it's Cinderella, man, I mean, there's
just it goes on and on on on and on man.
So yeah, definitely checked that one out and scroll to
the end and wait for the Mario Lopez. Um from
(17:08):
that was it because I'm trying to get your your
your body of work is h I'm clouded now with
with all your many projects. Uh. From that was it,
we did a film called What We Started. What we Started,
That's exactly it and What we Started you can check
out on Amazon or Netflix, and it's essentially our goal.
When I looked at the electronic dance music world. With
my radio background, we had I had a lot of
(17:29):
electronic dance music friends, so who were in that world.
So I had a lot of DJ friends, producer friends,
and a lot of guys were coming up to me
being like, look, I know you're in the dock space.
I know you're in you know, trying to make films
and and and make trying to make cool projects. But
everything in this kind of genre that we love and
in our world has been very promotional or had some
sort of agenda. It was always made by somebody who
was pushing something, so it was about a particular artist
(17:51):
or festival. It always was like going to push something.
And they were like, we have never seen kind of
a film on electronic dance music that's from an outside
point of view, and it's not you know, I am
definitely a fan of some of the music and some
of those those artists and great producers and DJs, but
I'm not intricately and like involved in that world. And
(18:12):
so yeah, and I thought they thought, seeing it from
like a completely outsiders point of view, um and coming
into this world, how could we make a project that
it's kind of like the definitive film of of this
genre and really encapsulating such a rich history because a
lot of people thought electronic dance music came and burst
off the ether in the last five years when you
started hearing on every every show, but yeah, and it's gone,
(18:34):
and every major artist started using electronic dance music producers,
whether it's Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Beyonce, jay Z, Ed Sheer
and us. I mean, you name it, they all have
these kind of DJ producers and it is amazing when
you hear the success and amount of money these d
d d unbelievable, some of the biggest owners in the
(18:55):
music business. And I found that also fascinating that most
of them are all not too many Americans. They're all
like Eastern European kids, right. And what's funny is everyone
thinks the littron dance music came from Europe, but really
it originated when we're talking about thirty forty years ago,
originated in Detroit, New York. You know, why didn't it
resonate with American kids too? Why why did it take
(19:16):
the Easter eurompia kids? And I think it all goes
in phases, and it's it fuses itself in a different
in different genres. I mean, there's so many genres and
subgenres of electronic dance music. It's it's it's unbelievable. Yeah,
but all your big earners, big moneymakers have been your
absolutely and and the comin Harris Is and Tiesto and
all those guys are all they're not from here for sure.
(19:36):
And I think what happened is a lot of this
this music kind of moved it. That's what the film
shows is the film shows what we started, really shows
the evolution of the last thirty years. But instead of
telling it like in a history lesson or if you
don't really care about that kind of genre, it's it's
told in a completely non linear way. So we took essentially, uh,
I would compare him to like almost like the Justin
Bieber of this of this genre, Martin Garricks, who at
(19:59):
the time was you know, say, ex teen years old,
downloading equipment online. His dad was, you know, he was
homeschool dad, managing him trying to just basically be the
quintessential bedroom DJ. And then we juxtapost him with a
guy like the Springsteen of of electronic toyans music. His
name is Carl Cox, and he's you know, a lot
of people in America are like, who's that? And then
you go anywhere in Europe. This guy is the king
(20:22):
of the pioneer, the o G of this genre and
probably the most well respected guy producer. And you show
a guy who, like you said, has a USB stick,
plays a prerecorded set that's two hours and he produces
the music, goes on stage and makes half a million.
And then a guy like Carl who literally never plays
the same song twice for ten hours, sometimes plays up
(20:42):
to twelve hour sets without taking a break. They takes
one bathroom break and they bring up beers, pizza, and
the guys is a legend. You go to a Betha,
you have any of these places. So we're juxtaposing too
polar opposite people in that genre who would never meet
in a millionaires they didn't meet and tell our film
and we intertwine their stories to this thirty year history
and it's pretty fascinating and completely different, different results. And
(21:05):
this guy's kind of on on, you know, his way
of retiring and kind of settling down in Martin's kind
of taking that next step to to be past the
baton in that genre. I love the You could look
at certain directors, whether it's Corsese um Spielberg, and you
see the way they shoot certain films and they have
a certain tone and and approach. I think you've done
(21:27):
a pretty good job of carding out your your the look,
the field, the music is always on point. I want
to talk about the number one trending film in hundred
ninety two countries by the dashing, the handsome six ft
four burnt Mark. I was trying to say, with straight
face to it, I'm not that good. Let's let's do
that one again. Muffle listen, listen, this is good. This
(21:51):
is but this part it's true. Uh well, actually all
that's true. Yeah, so I don't know. Um, congratulations. First
of all, uh, when you when you when you put
it on Netflix and it's on the splash, that's a
big deal, man, especially with all the content right there,
the American meme that's the name of the film. Um.
Do you like the title? Yeah, it's great. I do
(22:13):
like people have mixed feelings on the title. I like
what they what were they thinking? I don't know. I
think my own editor it was like, you cannot go
with this title, and I was like, well, what would
the other contenders, I don't remember his his, uh the
ones you want to throw in the ring. This was
what I thought since they won because to me, you
know a lot of people though maybe it would make
it not as relevant around the world because you're making
(22:34):
it the American you have a big American flag on
that America is relevant around the world. That was my feeling.
And everyone around the world wants to come to America
for the American dream. And this stream has ever so
changed the American meme. Yeah, and meme is what me me.
So we're in this meme world. So there's a lot
of plays on it that that make a lot of sense.
I know, I like the title and I like the film.
(22:55):
And for for those not familiar, tell us about so
the American was really influenced, like we were talking about earlier,
like growing up in l A was a real inspiration
for where this film came from. I don't think I
could have made a film like this, or even wanted
to make a film like this if I wasn't born
and raised there. And I think when you see how
(23:16):
everybody used to when you're growing up, a lot of kids,
I think, and you can probably relate to this. Everybody
kind of had this, these aspirations of having these careers
or you know, their future and they'd be like, oh,
what do you want to do when you're older? And
people are like, I want to be a doctor, I
want to be an astronaut, I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be a basketball player. Like it was
about and when you asked them why, it was really
there was something, There was a reason behind it. There
(23:36):
was I love this, or this is my passion, or
I want to change people's lives. I want to help
the world. I want to discover this thing. Um I
wanna I want to accomplish this for this reason because
I love this. Um you know, I want to be
a comedian because I love making people laugh. And it's
so I was gonna just keep going for ten minutes.
So we're getting so, so where's the cricket appen? We
(23:57):
needed to have that pet up it's and they don't.
Even for myself, I knew that Antony especially so so basically,
the the idea was there was a passion and people
really wanted to perfect a craft. And I think that
is something I've noticed that has gone completely missing. When
I talked to young people when I talked to you know,
(24:19):
nieces and nephews and cousins and and and anybody that's
young that I meet. Is that the Kardashian effect. I
think the Kardashian effect is a huge product of of
where we are, for sure, But it's there's a reason
the Kardashians took off. It resonated with people and it Well,
my theory is, back in the day, you used to
have to have some sort of talent, skill, skill set,
(24:43):
or substance to offer. And when you have someone like
a Kardashian who achieved this level of fame, your breakout
roles essentially a sex tape, and you're able to make
these millions of dollars and you don't necessarily have a
skill set, a talent or fill in the blank. Most
people really don't. So every kid is at home saying, well,
(25:05):
I can do that. I mean right at the end
of the day. Also, a product was achieved was exotic
looking at the time when there was nothing but Paris
Hilton sort of that and maybe at that time, so
maybe that that had its uh it's had its uh
its effect on it. But the way, but it is
impressive of the way they've been able to sustain. Chris
(25:26):
Rener is a genius. We know this, but but no.
But my point, going back to my original question, is
do you think that was just sort of part of
this generation where they're just it's more about being famous,
more about not having to develop a skill set or
nurture a talent or put in any effort. They can
all be their own stars in their own movies because
of their phone. Well, I think is democratized as social
(25:48):
media has allowed us to be and how accessible, and
it's kind of knocked down the barriers to entry on
in a lot of fronts and when you want to
do something in the entertainment world. Right, we all now
have a phone in our hands or or pocket at
all times. We have a camera. We have access through
social media to get it out to anybody and everybody
at any given time. You can contact anybody. Think about this.
(26:08):
Any human being can d M. Mario Lopez right now
in the world. Truly. It doesn't mean they're going to
necessarily read it, but they can, and it can there's
a there's a very good possibility that you could open
it or could see it, whether you want to decline
it or not. Which I've seen you do a few
times just saying uh no. But I think that's as
democratized as it is. You have to use it as
a certain type of a tool. And what I think
(26:30):
a lot of people have looked at it as is
a way in which to get their name out there,
become famous, and become and have this ever last thing
like motivation to try to become relevant and stay relevant.
So with this film The American Meme, you're essentially looking
at social media the impact on society. It's like a
(26:51):
social experiment. Um, we don't know the effect when when
I was trying to think when was like the first meme?
I can't remember seeing the first meme. It's a relatively
young right, what seven years, eight years, It's not even that,
it's probably about seven, right, it's probably about seven. And
Twitter came on the scene when maybe ten ten years ago.
(27:13):
I think it started around then. So this is pretty new.
This is all pretty new. Now. Now fast forward, just
in the last ten years, we have people that are
able to make parlay their social media accounts, pick your
platform and making you, as you point out in the film,
millions of dollars um in a very short amount of
time doing exactly what we what we uh just mentioned,
(27:36):
with no talent, no skill set, just creating a lot
of different content. Or is there a talent and skills?
I think there are some mean but because I don't
think it's black and white like that. There's definitely people
with extreme talent who get or able to share that
talent and now it's a creative out a new social
media as a tool, right because now to share the
things in which they've been working on. But sometimes not
(27:58):
to interrupt you, but a lot of the time the
person jumping off of the car running into the walling
and that person cut two will have do you consider
that a talent? That's that's I do if they can
parlay that into something that is quote unquote tangible and
something that becomes a career, because then I think that
maybe there's like a very smart thing behind it. You
look a guy like Johnny Knoxville, you look at you
(28:18):
know people like that. There are there are people who
do these extreme things Stevo, you know who turned this
into millions of dollars and are able to But that's
very few and far between, and I think the motivation
behind it too. A lot of those guys are looking
at it from a business perspective, and a lot of
people now it's not about even making the money. It's
not even about how do I turn this into a
(28:38):
business or a career. I just want to be relevant,
be talked about, and be known. And we're kind of
living in this world where everybody just wants attention, and
I think we can all relate to it to a
certain degree. I mean, I think at the core essence
of this movie, it's really about the universal need and
want to be loved. And the truth is when we
look at even like liking a picture, what's the thing
(28:59):
that comes up on a picture? It's a heart? And
I think all these there's all these subliminal small things that,
like you were saying earlier, the phone that we see
right here, and all the technology and the social media
platforms are a drug that we do not know. The
repercussions of this is so new. How our brain and
how our lives are affected by it is we're at
the beginning stages of this well, as you know too.
(29:21):
As as as lucrative as it could be for a
lot of people, there's also a lot of it could
be detrimental for with with the bullying, with the negativity.
It's a platform for hate, so which I guess. The
CDC just recently came out with an article saying that
after opioids, they see in the next ten years, the
number one addiction that's going to plague the world is
(29:43):
going to be technology and social media. I just heard
a statue to piggyback on that that texting and driving
or checking your phone and driving is has now surpassed
drinking and driving as far as debts and accidents. Can
you believe that? Is that crazy? I think how how
often our brain the world that's scary, that's sad. If
you if you're like, wow, it's surpassed that, that's that's
(30:05):
a trip. I think of the people that you were
even mentioning, who were going off these cliffs and doing
all these extreme sports trying to capture like, you know,
the shot for their social media account and die. I
mean there's thousands. Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable. In this film, you
sort of see it through the eyes of Paris Hilton,
your old school buddy, who was sort of I mean,
Paris was sort of like with the blueprint of with
(30:25):
all due respect just being famous because of the last
name and not necessarily singing or dancing, right, But she
was very very clever and recognizing herself as a brand
in being able to parlay that into huge success with
all the tons of products that she has um and
and and and able to uh sustain this brand to
(30:46):
which is still very relevant all over the world. But
you also learned that she she comes across very lonely, sad.
She looks like she longs for more. She stuck. She
said something that resonated with me, said she she feels
like she's stuck as a twenty one year old party
girls for two decades. Yeah. That that that's like, Wow,
that's that's uh, that's a trip. You also focus on
(31:09):
very famous guy on Instagram, the fat Jewish who Josh Astrovsky,
whom I like how you you highlighted him because uh,
he was the first big Instagram star that I was
aware of. But then later you show how there was
a lot of controversy because of this plagiarism and Comedy
Central took a deal away and he sort of owned
(31:29):
up to it but didn't have any shame about it.
And now he's sort of still plugging away and he's
got interns working for himself, um, along with some great models.
But the guy I found fascinating was happy to say,
the guy I introduced you to and hooked you up
with my boy kill who I met as a photographer,
and he calls himself the slut Whisperer after changing many handles,
(31:50):
but he's found this this particular niche where he's partying
with these girls, giving them champagne patials, as he says.
And he's got very biting commentary, cutting edge, and he's
a very funny guy, and they're smart guy you can tell,
but again also very lonely, depressed, longs for more. You
see the bond with the family. You can tell he's
a child of immigrants like myself. He comes from a
(32:11):
very strong family. The dude pound that I've never seen
anyone down a whole bottle of patron in like three
seconds like it was water. That I don't know if
it was impressive or scary, probably both, but to see
him because I don't know that our insurance covers that. Yo,
that was wow. That was crazy. So like I was
gonna turn home, he was gonna die at one point
(32:31):
having this allowed Yeah, so exactly and then the other
one Brittany Furlan, who that was fascinating. She was a girl,
uh who came out here, nice Italian girl from Philly,
first star Vine, came out here, be an actress. Was struggling,
couldn't like thousands of people. Um, I was having a
(32:52):
hard time with auditions. She heard about Vine. She started
creating content on her own. She blew up. She was
doing really well. They took away Vine. It's like she
had to start all over and then she couldn't be
taken serious because she wasn't quick enough. And she would
be the first one to say this. I mean, like
you were asking or some of these people talented. Brittany's
extremely talent. That's the case, that is. But she was coming.
But she was an actress already, she was. She just
couldn't catch the break. She couldn't. She was struggling like
(33:14):
so many people do. The opportunity hadn't present itself yet.
And like a Tina Fey or Amy Poehler, you know,
Brittany creates all her own content and characters. So she
has all these different characters that she would put on
this Vine platform. And like I said, a lot of
these platforms can provide great opportunity. There's there's there's pros
and cons of all this, right, we just don't know
that the long term effects of the cons unfortunately at
(33:36):
this point. But the pros are she had no buried entry.
She didn't have to like go through an agent, go
through a manager. She was able to share her content
with the world, create a create traction, create a following,
creates some sort of brand recognition for herself, and start creating,
you know, a career path for herself. Now, the issue
is when the technology change, it went then to okay,
the next big thing was Instagram, right, and she wasn't
(33:59):
that quick to jump to Instagram. She was still on
on Vine and because Vine was eventually going to get
bought out and eventually just morph into what is now
Instagram and what you know, they're all owned um by
huge companies now. And when she lost that, she was
not like she mentions guys like King Batch and late
Le Ponds and like the people that she kind of
brought onto the Vine scene, they were able to transcend.
(34:21):
They were able to transcend and actually get gained that
traction of of the initial following, which is what really
you know, plateaued them to that next level. And so
for someone like her, it's been very hard to transition
then because then she's known as kind of like this
vine star. So she's even though she's extremely talented, she's
able to make good money. As the vine store, she
was making good money. But I think it was fleeting
(34:42):
because it's it's short term and well that's the thing,
and that that's the one How can you create this
into something that's long term, intangible. Well that's the one
thing that Fat Jewish said. I thought that was probably
the most compelling. He's like, look, I know this is
only here for a short amount of time because after me,
he's gonna be someone crazy someone after me, and this
is a short window for all. It's hard. You don't
see Regius Fillman's in this social media or Dick Clark's
(35:04):
type of careers in these sort of plants different way.
But if you can strike while that iron is hot
and be lucrative, I mean you can start without it's
hard and be lucrative and be smart with that money,
you know, then God bless you. And someone like Josh
created a liquor brand. And so whether whether this platform
comes and goes and whether he becomes you know, okay,
this was yesterday's news. What makes him so smart and
(35:25):
brilliant was he had the foresight to see, hey, I'm
going to create this, put this niche, and put this
character into a product that should stand the test of
time and be extremely lucid while he has the platform
to do it. Yeah, sure, exactly. Um. I also, by
the way, before with Brittany, she she got engaged to
Tommy Lee. Yeah, they're getting married next month. So I
(35:45):
was just about to ask you, are they still They're
still together? There together, And I will be honest with you.
A lot of people found it to be saying, yes,
it's such an odd pairing. There's no doubt about it.
And I think in the film you see that you're like, Wow,
this is come out of nowhere. It came out of nowhere.
I think some people even worried for her. They were like,
oh my gosh, this she talks about that. It's crazy
are getting married next month. But it is true love.
(36:06):
And I swear to God, I actually do believe. I'm
not just saying that they are genuinely like in love
and it was probably the best thing to happen or
and it's it's hard to believe because at first, even
Eye as a friend was like whoa, because I didn't
know Tommy. And I think after seeing them together and
seeing how her life's changed and her outlex changed, I mean,
it's it's pretty remarkable. So if we ever do a
sequel to this, it will be interesting to see, uh,
(36:28):
see what happens next. It's uh, it's also fascinating to
see the big business that it's become from just the
when you achieve a certain number and have the following,
the money you can make from certain posts. Oh, absolutely,
it was. It was insane and a lot of people
like who are these people that are making one dollars
for a post? But I mean companies were you know,
you're hitting that certain demo. Yeah. Now, I think that
(36:50):
that world has become extremely oversaturated and the life like
how Josh mentions is becoming Uh it's trying to mellow
out to exactly you know what. I want to ask
you how many? How many of those are for? For
most of these big accounts are like fake followers or
fake again. I think there's tons of that there is, right,
So do you find there is a tons of it?
I don't our characters, actually, we how to think, did
(37:10):
not actually have that. And I'm not just saying that
because they're in our film. We actually like checked and said, hey,
is this. I think everyone has bots and there's all
these things that happened automatically, but you know, our characters.
The reason I was drawn to these four for American
Meme was they all got involved in social media for
completely different reasons. They all use it for completely different reasons,
and the outcome is completely different. So someone like Paris,
(37:30):
like you were saying, who's going to feel bad for
Paras Sulton. She's the last name Hilton, She's beautiful, she's privileged.
She you know, is able to do whatever she wants.
If Instagram were to die tomorrow, guess what, she'd be fine.
But the idea of how you feel for her is,
like you said, I think it's this idea what we're
as connected as ever on our phones, and we're as
connected to how we think, to every to so many
different people, but unfortunately we're more isolated and more lonely
(37:53):
than ever. And I think the way in which we
view ourselves, like on a macro level, two point five
billion people right now are using social media think about
that two point five billion people. We can be more.
We're more connected than ever, but yet lonelier and on
a micro Yes, we judge ourselves so harshly. We look
at every time you look at your phone, I could say,
oh my god, look at Mario. He's on the red carpet.
(38:15):
Look at this person there. You know he he gets
to sit with the who's who, and he's really making
something of himself. He has his own show, he's hanging
out with his friends. He's you know, in the field
of the Chargers game. You can go on and on
about like watching your friends, because it's you. We're picking
out what we want right for people to see, so
that the fiction and reality have become a completely blurred
and so we don't know what's what. It's how we
(38:35):
want people to see us and view us. And I
think we're very harsh on ourselves. So one of the
goals of the film, too, was to have people take
a step back, especially this younger generation, and hopefully view
their lives a little bit differently, in the sense that listen,
this is not necessarily real what you're looking at, and
I'm not going to judge and criticize myself so harshly,
and I'm not going to compare myself to other people.
I'm gonna do my own thing, like make sure that i'm,
(38:57):
you know, doing what makes me happy and understanding that
this is what it is and it's not necessarily real.
I think that came across and uh yeah, proud of
man Um And for for parents out there who may
not really be familiar how all the platforms and social
media platforms work or what is this and what's a meme?
And this I think it's a it's um. It's a
(39:19):
great way to educate yourself. It's on Netflix. It's called
The American Meme. Bert Marcus is the director. Bert. I
know you're getting into the live action player. I love
I love that you focused on documentary. I hope you continue.
But real quick before we go, you're working um with
actual real actors, right, so yeah, yeah, we have uh
(39:39):
So we have two different funds, ones for docs and
the the other one uh and unscripted the other one,
the other fun that we put together last year was
for narrative future films and give us a teaser on
the what to expect on the on the My first
feature will be premiering at can Film Festival hasn't been announced,
but you'll hear it here. Um I won't say the
name of it so we don't get in trouble. But
my first feature will be Marrying at the Can Film
(40:00):
Festival in May, which I'm really pumped about. Can you
talk about who's in it? Or? The only thing I'll
tell you about it's it's about a It's about kind
of the African American rodeo in Texas, and I'll leave
it at that. That sounds documentary esque, but it's not
exact scripted exactly, and it does exist, so it's a
great segue into into what we're doing. So it's a
(40:21):
world that a lot of people might have heard about
but have no clue about, and it's pretty original and
fas setting. So for me as a filmmaker, all I
care about is making original content that hopefully you know,
there's so much material, Like you said, you go on Netflix,
you go on to Amazon, You're going all these platforms.
There's endless content. How do you know what to pick
or watch? And for me, I just try to attempt to, hopefully,
(40:42):
you know, make work that resonates with people in a
way where they can think about their life differently and
do it in a way that's extremely original and entertaining
hopefully so, I mean that's the goal. Congratulations. Maybe I'll
ask Mario to be in the next one. Right, Hey,
if you have time, but we got to talk. If
you can get away from like making over Pool, maybe
we'll talk. See now you're giving teases that I haven't given.
(41:04):
We'll talk about Stay tuned, Bert Marcus, thank you for
having
It's Mario Lopez. Thank you for joining me for a
new episode to listen to. Mario love doing this podcast
because well, I got to sit down and have fun,
in depth conversations with all kinds of fascinating people from
all walks of life. And this week I'm gonna be
chatting with a dude that I've known for a really
long time. Bert Marcus. Bird is the guy behind this
new Netflix doc called The American Meme. It's all about
(00:22):
the dark side of social media. I've known Burt since
he used to sleep on my cousin's couch way back
in the day. Fast forward, he's now probably one of
the hottest documentary filmmakers, Uh in the game and doing
quite well and actually getting into feature films. Really proud
of him, actually, and uh, I want to hear all
about this new duck, So let's get into it. Bert Marcus,
(00:48):
welcome to the show. You look honored. Not only am
I honored, I am incredibly flattered that the number one
trending film in America, The American Meme, the director himself,
Bert Marcus is here in studio with me. So thank
you for taking the time. Now with your newfound popularity
(01:09):
and success. Trying to say that with a straight face.
How long I know you? Dude? Do you mean America
or do you mean a hundred countries? Oh? Excuse me,
Actually you're incorrect, a hundred ninety two countries. We'll get
back to the success you're film in a second. Chill out.
Mario's huge in Malaysia. How how more on Malaysia later?
How How long am I knowing you? I was trying
to figure that out if we carry the one that's
(01:31):
been like fifteen years? Has it? And when I met
you you were doing one that wasn't three or four?
Does it sound like that? I can't remember initially when
we first met, but you were. Were you an intern
for a radio show at the time I worked? Yeah,
I worked at Clear Channel, the now known as I Heart.
I was an intern. I worked as a producer. Yeah,
I worked all the way up. So I think that's
(01:51):
when we first initially met. Yes, because I'd always look
at you and say, you had a face for radio.
Do you remember, says the guy with the face for radio?
No kidding, kidding, listen, So okay, because you didn't did
you go to school? I know you grew up here,
and I want to get to that in a second.
But did you study UM to to for this particular
(02:12):
industry in any capacity or was it just literally being
a product of living here in l A. Honestly, I
I did study some film courses, but I went to
usc UM but I was a business I was a
business major. Did you finish, Yeah, and I finished you
have a degree, yes, So I went to I went
to uh, you know, studied undergrad business at Marshall and
(02:33):
then I actually went to UM. You know, I always
had a passion for film. I was at a passion
for music. So that's kind of how I got initially
involved in radio. And uh, it's kind of funny because
now with a lot of the films that we do,
obviously music played such an integral role in like films.
You know, you're a film buff and they can make
or break films, and I think, uh, you know, just
(02:53):
merging the two. It's kind of interesting how everything kind
of came to a head. And is you know, so
relevant in my life now? So you so okay, So
when we were always a fan of entertainment, but you
didn't necessarily grow up wanting to do it, not just
actually just a fan. Yeah, I was never. I think
growing up in l A, you kind of are around
so many people who want to be famous or their
parents were famous or well in your situation because the
(03:16):
rewind even further, it's not like you grew up, um,
you know in h named that suburb. You grew up
like in the heart of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, amongst the elite,
if you will. I went to a school with a
lot of entertainment kids. I was about some player and
I was some of the kids drop some names. Uh,
I think a couple of Mario's kids eventually, the ones
(03:38):
that you don't know of. I'm pretty sure I was
brought up with. Seriously, I think Paris actually and I
went to grew up together Paris Hilton, Okay, so I
knew Paris for a very long time. To Cole Ritchie, okay, um,
pretty much like the who's whose kids were a lot
in our school. I went to a school called Buckley,
right private school here in l A. Uh. Not cheap well,
actually nowadays it's insane. It was actually so different. I
(04:01):
mean I'm in my early to mid thirties now, so
it's nowadays, I think it's like fifty grand a year.
For these private schools. It's it's unreal. It's very different
than I mean, in the last fifteen years. Obviously, I
graduated fifteen years ago, so it's night and day difference.
But yeah, I think growing up in this way, in
that school, you can go from like first grade all
the way to kindergarten through twelve shut up through twelve,
and we call that, we call us lifers. That's like
(04:24):
at the end of school there. Yeah, how do you
like that, dude? You know, it's interesting. It's like being uh,
you know, it's like I tried to be like the
ferre Spieler in my school, so it was fun for me.
I was like a big fish in a small pond.
So you know, it was always fun for us. I
grew up with a lot of the same kids, and
we were all we all like loved it and loved
playing sports there, and you know, always ripped on each
(04:44):
other since we were young. So imagine you gave very
close to those people since Well, it's weird when we're
about to graduate and you're like, wow, I'm actually about
to enter the real world. That's a little shocking. So
like I think I had to countdown. Most kids are
like extremely pumped to go to college and just get
let loose and go crazy. And my parents were always
super chill with me and you know, trusted me. So
I didn't really have that need to just break out
(05:04):
and just go nuts when I went to college. So
for me, I I and I already had a job,
and I was working through high school as well. So
what are you doing in high school? I was working radio.
That's when I started who I actually just started with
an internship, Yeah, clear channel. That's how I started in
high school. So and your parents are not in the
entertainment and not at all. What is your dad? My
(05:26):
dad works in biotechnology and so he builds kind of
state of the art real estate facilities to do some
of the most important research work in the world for
every disease known to man. And my mom was a teacher,
you know, very involved in the charity world. So you know,
my dad helps run the Navy Seal Foundation and raises
a lot of money from them. Nothing in the entertainment. Nothing.
(05:50):
So that's why it was weird in my school. I
was one of the very few that had like no
ties or connection to the entertainment at all. So but
you but you we're right in the mix, and you know,
knowing you as long as I have. One of my
favorite things about you is you don't you don't come
across affected like you don't obviously fortunate enough to be
(06:11):
privileged with with with a nice, stable, close family, but
you do. You don't come across it conceded or arrogant
or never never show off you anything like that, which
is really you know, which is refreshing. I wish I
could say the same for you. Yeah, I know I'm
working on it, but I appreciate that coming from you.
That means a lot. And you've always been I mean
for for everybody else, I mean, like Mario has always been,
like I'm a big brother to me. So I do
(06:32):
appreciate that and keep me in check and in line.
Maybe break a rib every now and then. Right, Oh wait,
do we sparl with my buddy Totty? Who broke your rib?
Wasn't it was? I'm pretty sure you did. When when
when you when you when you punched me in a
in a parking lot or something. Oh you're so stupid.
I didn't punch them, Tony was there? We're getting you're
jumping my time, like Bert let's stay. Let's stay, Let's stay.
When flushed start looking like the bachelor, You're so stupid
(06:57):
looking like this. So I'm trying to tell I'm trying
to tell your story right here. I'm trying to tell
your story because I think it's I think it's pretty fascinating. Uh,
she growing up And if I grew up in l A, well,
I mean I I didn't really grow up in because
it was a big, big, different world of difference, only
been a couple of hours south, and say, but growing
up in this, how did you manage not to get
involved in uh, the drug scene, the party's scene, to
(07:19):
keep it pretty pretty clean cut? I mean, it's that's
not what I'm aware of. But where did you have
about It's it's definitely different. I mean, like, listen, the
first time I had seen drugs was probably like fifth
grade and you know nine, I don't know kids kids
fifth and sixth grade, Like it was a very popular time,
and I think it is even now where you know
a lot of people's parents and stuff were involved, and
you know, I had access to you know, different types
(07:41):
of substances and pills and stuff like that, and a
lot of kids would come around and I think a
lot of it just comes how you're raised, you know,
being a father and you're you're a great father, which
I respect immensely, and I think that's something that's so
crucial because like in the world we live in, it's
so it's insane. And I think the biggest thing for
me was I was always grounded by my family's and
no matter what, and we didn't come from like like
(08:03):
this upper class family when we were growing up. We
didn't come from that. You know, my dad was a
hard working lawyer and worked really hard, but you know,
he didn't really take it to the next level in
his career until we were, you know, in college, and
so it's very it was different. And I think for me,
my life was sports, and it was being with my
close friends and being with my family. And I loved
music and I loved watching films. But I think for me,
(08:24):
I was pretty opposed to actually being in the entertainment
industry because when you see so many people just that's
all they want to do, and that's all they talk about,
they become obsessed. Yeah, and I thought, Okay, what can
I do? That's different? What what can I and And
it's so It's very ironic that I would end up
doing this because if you ask me this as a
high school or saying, hey, what do you what do
you see yourself in ten years or what do you
(08:46):
you know? Where do you see yourself on a career path,
I wouldn't have never guessed us. So you graduated college
of the business degree, and did you do anything with
it or along those lines of work or did you
automatically decide at that point you wanted to I always
wanted to have a business background, and then I was
trying to figure out, Okay, how do I use you know,
the backgrounds that I have with my skill set, and
my skill set was always being very creative. I always
(09:08):
wrote a lot of material. I wrote a lot of skits,
even in radio. That's how I kind of got promoted,
so to speak, in that world because I was answering
phones the first day, and I literally went from my
answering phones to producing shows. But I would write skits
and I would do whatever I could as a teenager
too be creative and let my um creative kind of
whatever you want to say, get out there. And I
(09:30):
was pretty pumped about being able to be exposed to
different artists in different music, but radio only has a
certain amount of like creativity that you can have. Unfortunately, right,
so because there's so many there's a program director, there's
music director, there's so much structure, as you guys know,
and so there's only so much you can do. So
I was always like, how can I you know, I
have so many great stories. Yeah, I want to tell stories,
and I wanted to also share stories that I that
(09:53):
were also true. Well, that's one of the things that
um I love about the films is I love documentaries.
I'm a fan of documentaries, and your focus has has
primarily so far been on on documentaries. When did when
did you take on your first film? What was that
We did my first film? Shortly after college. We started
working on a film called Teenage Paparazzo, which we took
to Sunday that Yeah, you are in it actually, and
(10:16):
I asked Mario to be in it. That's true, you
have Mario's got a little yeah, Mario, Mario definitely. Yeah.
So you actually did help me on that first one.
It was a lot of like calling friends and and
stuff like that. But we took that to the Sundance
Film Festival and just for a second. Yeah, you sold
the HBO that that got a lot of critical acclaim
and essentially it was it was started of peeling about
(10:37):
the curtain on paparazzi and their lifestyle and was a
little kid but well hence the teenage paparazzi. And that
was kind of one of my first inspirations because growing
up in l A, like we were talking about it's
almost like squirrels chasing nuts. It's like God took nuts
through them all over the city and the squirrels ran
wild and you're like, whoa, Like what is happening here?
And this was a perfect example, was that being at
you know, the nightclubs or dinners or any of the
(10:59):
hot spots in Hollywood, you would there was a huge
influx of like paparazzi at that time because it was
before the cell phone. So we're talking in two thousand
ten paparazzi. I mean, I know it's always been around,
but when did he get nuts? When when went next level?
I think it was that that era of our generation
was that two thousand I would say eight through two
thousand eleven. Yeah, I was trying to find it, like
(11:19):
a time of it. I guess it would be like
around that time, because it was before everyone started the
whole selfie craze and before we were walking around like
our own paparazzi exactly exactly, So okay, from Teenage Pops,
it highlights a twelve year old paparazzi kid who's essentially
trying to become famous by taking pictures of famous people.
It's like the ultimate paradox, you know what the game
of that kid. Yeah, actually, I still keep in touch
(11:39):
with them. He was a good kid. He's you know,
he got he got involved in nightlife for a little bit,
and now he's getting back to his like true passion
photography and uh not working on production trying to become
a cinematographer DP type style. Look at that. Yeah, he's
he's doing well and we definitely talked him every few months.
Good for him. And from Teenage Paparazzo, your next film
was How to Make Money Selling Drugs? How to Make
(12:01):
Money Selling Drugs. I love all these subjects, by the way,
they're they're all fascinating. Um, we're what was the what
was the objective in that particular film, name how to
guide from every aspect of how everybody on every flip
of the coin. Why do you want to tackle that
is affected by the drug industry? Um? At that time,
it was such a timely it was such it was
a topic that was extremely timely, that was extremely controversial.
(12:23):
It was before the legalization of marijuana anywhere. Yeah, but
but even before marijuana. I mean, it was like when
people were facing twenty years sentences for you know, marijuana possession,
and for us, it was like, how do we come
up with a very interesting, fun, entertaining, catchy way of
doing it. It's almost like a how to cliff notes
guide on how you make money from every side. So
(12:44):
it's how everyone from the d e A to the
to the users, to the dealers to the people suffering.
So it's it's pretty interesting film. It's on Amazon. You
can still check it out. Would you learn let me
rewind a little bit. Would you learn from the pop
Rozzo experience? Uh? I just you know, it's alway as
interesting as you're making films. You learn things every time
as far as like how films come together, from the
(13:06):
actual film or the making the film. I think from
the actual film it was pretty jaw dropping and eye opening.
How far people will push the limits to become famous.
And I think that's what almost led to where we
are now in society. And at that time, it was
you know, like I said, watching a twelve year old
kid home schooled just that that thought so that he
(13:28):
can go out all night long till five am to
take pictures of people and become this kind of phenomenon
is very fascinating. And to kind of see how his
parents really pushed and pushed it and tried to you know,
here's his driver, here's you know, here's his his home
tutor that's going to work with him during the day
so that he can go out till five am. And
he's twelve. It's just kind of it's pretty fascinating. And
(13:52):
what are you gonna do with that when you're older
and we've had to sell money? How to make money? Yeah,
I mean, it was a it makes to take away
from you there. I think the important thing was to eat.
Drug law had to really be you know, looked at
with some clear eyes and some fresh eyes and see, like,
look at our prison system and look at the people
(14:13):
who are suffering, and look at how addiction is is
affecting people, and what are the ways in which we
can deal with that and help people as opposed to
just growing people in jail and having them suffer and
actually making the world worse. From that movie was Champs.
Next Champs, which again I'm proud to say, I am
a producer with Uh, with Bert Marcus, and I get
(14:37):
the biggest kick of when people, not knowing that I
was involved, come up to me and said, hey, man,
I said, I know you're a fight fan, You've got
to see this movie. I saw Netflix called Champs. It's
and I let him go on and I let them run,
and I let him run. I fortunately only heard positive
reviews more to mouth and then I'll know at the
end and said, oh, I'm glad you like I never
tell him about I said, I'm glad you like it,
but you know it makes me feel good. But um,
(14:57):
Mario is like, did you scroll to the end? Titles
you make did you make it to the end? Now
talk about that one to find UH that that particular film.
I think what's interesting about Champs is to see it
through three very different fighters coming up at the same time.
It's Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Bernard Hopkins, um completely different
(15:17):
experiences and how it's almost a paradox in itself that
boxing ends up saving these guys lives and gets them
off the street, and it is the one thing that
they have to take them to the next level, but
at the same time it becomes the worst thing that
ever happened to them. And so it's this It starts
an important conversation as far as what do people do
(15:38):
is the boxing game have any anything in there for
fighters long term? Is there are we looking out for
fighter's best interest? Are there the safeties and rule regulations
that are being done. It really starts to like open
up that conversation to say, are we doing everything to
to help these guys because they represent you know, the
zero one percentile that can come out of these situations,
(15:58):
and then we don't look out for them at all,
well more than even the support itself. What I thought
I really struggle chord was just how it's a metaphor
for life too. We're all we're all fighters in some capacity,
and then you're completely vulnerable in there, You're completely alone
and and um you're you're left to your own devices essentially,
and that's pretty much how in life as well. So
(16:21):
I really like that. I thought it struck a lot
of it was had a lot of layers to it,
and I think that's why I resonated with a lot
of people. We also had a lot of cool actors
who have played fighters, from Mark Wahlberg to Denzel Washington
to a lot of who is who? I mean look
on the film. Now you've got Creed going coming from
the you know, the rock boxing has has the best stories.
(16:43):
We know that individuals and what they've gone through is
so unique. All these different fighters, whether it's a guy
like Mickey Ward or whether you know, there's so many
fascinating fighters. That's why I think fight movies are always
here to stay. Whether it's Cinderella, man, I mean, there's
just it goes on and on on on and on man.
So yeah, definitely checked that one out and scroll to
the end and wait for the Mario Lopez. Um from
(17:08):
that was it because I'm trying to get your your
your body of work is h I'm clouded now with
with all your many projects. Uh. From that was it,
we did a film called What We Started. What we Started,
That's exactly it and What we Started you can check
out on Amazon or Netflix, and it's essentially our goal.
When I looked at the electronic dance music world. With
my radio background, we had I had a lot of
(17:29):
electronic dance music friends, so who were in that world.
So I had a lot of DJ friends, producer friends,
and a lot of guys were coming up to me
being like, look, I know you're in the dock space.
I know you're in you know, trying to make films
and and and make trying to make cool projects. But
everything in this kind of genre that we love and
in our world has been very promotional or had some
sort of agenda. It was always made by somebody who
was pushing something, so it was about a particular artist
(17:51):
or festival. It always was like going to push something.
And they were like, we have never seen kind of
a film on electronic dance music that's from an outside
point of view, and it's not you know, I am
definitely a fan of some of the music and some
of those those artists and great producers and DJs, but
I'm not intricately and like involved in that world. And
(18:12):
so yeah, and I thought they thought, seeing it from
like a completely outsiders point of view, um and coming
into this world, how could we make a project that
it's kind of like the definitive film of of this
genre and really encapsulating such a rich history because a
lot of people thought electronic dance music came and burst
off the ether in the last five years when you
started hearing on every every show, but yeah, and it's gone,
(18:34):
and every major artist started using electronic dance music producers,
whether it's Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Beyonce, jay Z, Ed Sheer
and us. I mean, you name it, they all have
these kind of DJ producers and it is amazing when
you hear the success and amount of money these d
d d unbelievable, some of the biggest owners in the
(18:55):
music business. And I found that also fascinating that most
of them are all not too many Americans. They're all
like Eastern European kids, right. And what's funny is everyone
thinks the littron dance music came from Europe, but really
it originated when we're talking about thirty forty years ago,
originated in Detroit, New York. You know, why didn't it
resonate with American kids too? Why why did it take
(19:16):
the Easter eurompia kids? And I think it all goes
in phases, and it's it fuses itself in a different
in different genres. I mean, there's so many genres and
subgenres of electronic dance music. It's it's it's unbelievable. Yeah,
but all your big earners, big moneymakers have been your
absolutely and and the comin Harris Is and Tiesto and
all those guys are all they're not from here for sure.
(19:36):
And I think what happened is a lot of this
this music kind of moved it. That's what the film
shows is the film shows what we started, really shows
the evolution of the last thirty years. But instead of
telling it like in a history lesson or if you
don't really care about that kind of genre, it's it's
told in a completely non linear way. So we took essentially, uh,
I would compare him to like almost like the Justin
Bieber of this of this genre, Martin Garricks, who at
(19:59):
the time was you know, say, ex teen years old,
downloading equipment online. His dad was, you know, he was
homeschool dad, managing him trying to just basically be the
quintessential bedroom DJ. And then we juxtapost him with a
guy like the Springsteen of of electronic toyans music. His
name is Carl Cox, and he's you know, a lot
of people in America are like, who's that? And then
you go anywhere in Europe. This guy is the king
(20:22):
of the pioneer, the o G of this genre and
probably the most well respected guy producer. And you show
a guy who, like you said, has a USB stick,
plays a prerecorded set that's two hours and he produces
the music, goes on stage and makes half a million.
And then a guy like Carl who literally never plays
the same song twice for ten hours, sometimes plays up
(20:42):
to twelve hour sets without taking a break. They takes
one bathroom break and they bring up beers, pizza, and
the guys is a legend. You go to a Betha,
you have any of these places. So we're juxtaposing too
polar opposite people in that genre who would never meet
in a millionaires they didn't meet and tell our film
and we intertwine their stories to this thirty year history
and it's pretty fascinating and completely different, different results. And
(21:05):
this guy's kind of on on, you know, his way
of retiring and kind of settling down in Martin's kind
of taking that next step to to be past the
baton in that genre. I love the You could look
at certain directors, whether it's Corsese um Spielberg, and you
see the way they shoot certain films and they have
a certain tone and and approach. I think you've done
(21:27):
a pretty good job of carding out your your the look,
the field, the music is always on point. I want
to talk about the number one trending film in hundred
ninety two countries by the dashing, the handsome six ft
four burnt Mark. I was trying to say, with straight
face to it, I'm not that good. Let's let's do
that one again. Muffle listen, listen, this is good. This
(21:51):
is but this part it's true. Uh well, actually all
that's true. Yeah, so I don't know. Um, congratulations. First
of all, uh, when you when you when you put
it on Netflix and it's on the splash, that's a
big deal, man, especially with all the content right there,
the American meme that's the name of the film. Um.
Do you like the title? Yeah, it's great. I do
(22:13):
like people have mixed feelings on the title. I like
what they what were they thinking? I don't know. I
think my own editor it was like, you cannot go
with this title, and I was like, well, what would
the other contenders, I don't remember his his, uh the
ones you want to throw in the ring. This was
what I thought since they won because to me, you
know a lot of people though maybe it would make
it not as relevant around the world because you're making
(22:34):
it the American you have a big American flag on
that America is relevant around the world. That was my feeling.
And everyone around the world wants to come to America
for the American dream. And this stream has ever so
changed the American meme. Yeah, and meme is what me me.
So we're in this meme world. So there's a lot
of plays on it that that make a lot of sense.
I know, I like the title and I like the film.
(22:55):
And for for those not familiar, tell us about so
the American was really influenced, like we were talking about earlier,
like growing up in l A was a real inspiration
for where this film came from. I don't think I
could have made a film like this, or even wanted
to make a film like this if I wasn't born
and raised there. And I think when you see how
(23:16):
everybody used to when you're growing up, a lot of kids,
I think, and you can probably relate to this. Everybody
kind of had this, these aspirations of having these careers
or you know, their future and they'd be like, oh,
what do you want to do when you're older? And
people are like, I want to be a doctor, I
want to be an astronaut, I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be a basketball player. Like it was
about and when you asked them why, it was really
there was something, There was a reason behind it. There
(23:36):
was I love this, or this is my passion, or
I want to change people's lives. I want to help
the world. I want to discover this thing. Um I
wanna I want to accomplish this for this reason because
I love this. Um you know, I want to be
a comedian because I love making people laugh. And it's
so I was gonna just keep going for ten minutes.
So we're getting so, so where's the cricket appen? We
(23:57):
needed to have that pet up it's and they don't.
Even for myself, I knew that Antony especially so so basically,
the the idea was there was a passion and people
really wanted to perfect a craft. And I think that
is something I've noticed that has gone completely missing. When
I talked to young people when I talked to you know,
(24:19):
nieces and nephews and cousins and and and anybody that's
young that I meet. Is that the Kardashian effect. I
think the Kardashian effect is a huge product of of
where we are, for sure, But it's there's a reason
the Kardashians took off. It resonated with people and it Well,
my theory is, back in the day, you used to
have to have some sort of talent, skill, skill set,
(24:43):
or substance to offer. And when you have someone like
a Kardashian who achieved this level of fame, your breakout
roles essentially a sex tape, and you're able to make
these millions of dollars and you don't necessarily have a
skill set, a talent or fill in the blank. Most
people really don't. So every kid is at home saying, well,
(25:05):
I can do that. I mean right at the end
of the day. Also, a product was achieved was exotic
looking at the time when there was nothing but Paris
Hilton sort of that and maybe at that time, so
maybe that that had its uh it's had its uh
its effect on it. But the way, but it is
impressive of the way they've been able to sustain. Chris
(25:26):
Rener is a genius. We know this, but but no.
But my point, going back to my original question, is
do you think that was just sort of part of
this generation where they're just it's more about being famous,
more about not having to develop a skill set or
nurture a talent or put in any effort. They can
all be their own stars in their own movies because
of their phone. Well, I think is democratized as social
(25:48):
media has allowed us to be and how accessible, and
it's kind of knocked down the barriers to entry on
in a lot of fronts and when you want to
do something in the entertainment world. Right, we all now
have a phone in our hands or or pocket at
all times. We have a camera. We have access through
social media to get it out to anybody and everybody
at any given time. You can contact anybody. Think about this.
(26:08):
Any human being can d M. Mario Lopez right now
in the world. Truly. It doesn't mean they're going to
necessarily read it, but they can, and it can there's
a there's a very good possibility that you could open
it or could see it, whether you want to decline
it or not. Which I've seen you do a few
times just saying uh no. But I think that's as
democratized as it is. You have to use it as
a certain type of a tool. And what I think
(26:30):
a lot of people have looked at it as is
a way in which to get their name out there,
become famous, and become and have this ever last thing
like motivation to try to become relevant and stay relevant.
So with this film The American Meme, you're essentially looking
at social media the impact on society. It's like a
(26:51):
social experiment. Um, we don't know the effect when when
I was trying to think when was like the first meme?
I can't remember seeing the first meme. It's a relatively
young right, what seven years, eight years, It's not even that,
it's probably about seven, right, it's probably about seven. And
Twitter came on the scene when maybe ten ten years ago.
(27:13):
I think it started around then. So this is pretty new.
This is all pretty new. Now. Now fast forward, just
in the last ten years, we have people that are
able to make parlay their social media accounts, pick your
platform and making you, as you point out in the film,
millions of dollars um in a very short amount of
time doing exactly what we what we uh just mentioned,
(27:36):
with no talent, no skill set, just creating a lot
of different content. Or is there a talent and skills?
I think there are some mean but because I don't
think it's black and white like that. There's definitely people
with extreme talent who get or able to share that
talent and now it's a creative out a new social
media as a tool, right because now to share the
things in which they've been working on. But sometimes not
(27:58):
to interrupt you, but a lot of the time the
person jumping off of the car running into the walling
and that person cut two will have do you consider
that a talent? That's that's I do if they can
parlay that into something that is quote unquote tangible and
something that becomes a career, because then I think that
maybe there's like a very smart thing behind it. You
look a guy like Johnny Knoxville, you look at you
(28:18):
know people like that. There are there are people who
do these extreme things Stevo, you know who turned this
into millions of dollars and are able to But that's
very few and far between, and I think the motivation
behind it too. A lot of those guys are looking
at it from a business perspective, and a lot of
people now it's not about even making the money. It's
not even about how do I turn this into a
(28:38):
business or a career. I just want to be relevant,
be talked about, and be known. And we're kind of
living in this world where everybody just wants attention, and
I think we can all relate to it to a
certain degree. I mean, I think at the core essence
of this movie, it's really about the universal need and
want to be loved. And the truth is when we
look at even like liking a picture, what's the thing
(28:59):
that comes up on a picture? It's a heart? And
I think all these there's all these subliminal small things that,
like you were saying earlier, the phone that we see
right here, and all the technology and the social media
platforms are a drug that we do not know. The
repercussions of this is so new. How our brain and
how our lives are affected by it is we're at
the beginning stages of this well, as you know too.
(29:21):
As as as lucrative as it could be for a
lot of people, there's also a lot of it could
be detrimental for with with the bullying, with the negativity.
It's a platform for hate, so which I guess. The
CDC just recently came out with an article saying that
after opioids, they see in the next ten years, the
number one addiction that's going to plague the world is
(29:43):
going to be technology and social media. I just heard
a statue to piggyback on that that texting and driving
or checking your phone and driving is has now surpassed
drinking and driving as far as debts and accidents. Can
you believe that? Is that crazy? I think how how
often our brain the world that's scary, that's sad. If
you if you're like, wow, it's surpassed that, that's that's
(30:05):
a trip. I think of the people that you were
even mentioning, who were going off these cliffs and doing
all these extreme sports trying to capture like, you know,
the shot for their social media account and die. I
mean there's thousands. Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable. In this film, you
sort of see it through the eyes of Paris Hilton,
your old school buddy, who was sort of I mean,
Paris was sort of like with the blueprint of with
(30:25):
all due respect just being famous because of the last
name and not necessarily singing or dancing, right, But she
was very very clever and recognizing herself as a brand
in being able to parlay that into huge success with
all the tons of products that she has um and
and and and able to uh sustain this brand to
(30:46):
which is still very relevant all over the world. But
you also learned that she she comes across very lonely, sad.
She looks like she longs for more. She stuck. She
said something that resonated with me, said she she feels
like she's stuck as a twenty one year old party
girls for two decades. Yeah. That that that's like, Wow,
that's that's uh, that's a trip. You also focus on
(31:09):
very famous guy on Instagram, the fat Jewish who Josh Astrovsky,
whom I like how you you highlighted him because uh,
he was the first big Instagram star that I was
aware of. But then later you show how there was
a lot of controversy because of this plagiarism and Comedy
Central took a deal away and he sort of owned
(31:29):
up to it but didn't have any shame about it.
And now he's sort of still plugging away and he's
got interns working for himself, um, along with some great models.
But the guy I found fascinating was happy to say,
the guy I introduced you to and hooked you up
with my boy kill who I met as a photographer,
and he calls himself the slut Whisperer after changing many handles,
(31:50):
but he's found this this particular niche where he's partying
with these girls, giving them champagne patials, as he says.
And he's got very biting commentary, cutting edge, and he's
a very funny guy, and they're smart guy you can tell,
but again also very lonely, depressed, longs for more. You
see the bond with the family. You can tell he's
a child of immigrants like myself. He comes from a
(32:11):
very strong family. The dude pound that I've never seen
anyone down a whole bottle of patron in like three
seconds like it was water. That I don't know if
it was impressive or scary, probably both, but to see
him because I don't know that our insurance covers that. Yo,
that was wow. That was crazy. So like I was
gonna turn home, he was gonna die at one point
(32:31):
having this allowed Yeah, so exactly and then the other
one Brittany Furlan, who that was fascinating. She was a girl,
uh who came out here, nice Italian girl from Philly,
first star Vine, came out here, be an actress. Was struggling,
couldn't like thousands of people. Um, I was having a
(32:52):
hard time with auditions. She heard about Vine. She started
creating content on her own. She blew up. She was
doing really well. They took away Vine. It's like she
had to start all over and then she couldn't be
taken serious because she wasn't quick enough. And she would
be the first one to say this. I mean, like
you were asking or some of these people talented. Brittany's
extremely talent. That's the case, that is. But she was coming.
But she was an actress already, she was. She just
couldn't catch the break. She couldn't. She was struggling like
(33:14):
so many people do. The opportunity hadn't present itself yet.
And like a Tina Fey or Amy Poehler, you know,
Brittany creates all her own content and characters. So she
has all these different characters that she would put on
this Vine platform. And like I said, a lot of
these platforms can provide great opportunity. There's there's there's pros
and cons of all this, right, we just don't know
that the long term effects of the cons unfortunately at
(33:36):
this point. But the pros are she had no buried entry.
She didn't have to like go through an agent, go
through a manager. She was able to share her content
with the world, create a create traction, create a following,
creates some sort of brand recognition for herself, and start creating,
you know, a career path for herself. Now, the issue
is when the technology change, it went then to okay,
the next big thing was Instagram, right, and she wasn't
(33:59):
that quick to jump to Instagram. She was still on
on Vine and because Vine was eventually going to get
bought out and eventually just morph into what is now
Instagram and what you know, they're all owned um by
huge companies now. And when she lost that, she was
not like she mentions guys like King Batch and late
Le Ponds and like the people that she kind of
brought onto the Vine scene, they were able to transcend.
(34:21):
They were able to transcend and actually get gained that
traction of of the initial following, which is what really
you know, plateaued them to that next level. And so
for someone like her, it's been very hard to transition
then because then she's known as kind of like this
vine star. So she's even though she's extremely talented, she's
able to make good money. As the vine store, she
was making good money. But I think it was fleeting
(34:42):
because it's it's short term and well that's the thing,
and that that's the one How can you create this
into something that's long term, intangible. Well that's the one
thing that Fat Jewish said. I thought that was probably
the most compelling. He's like, look, I know this is
only here for a short amount of time because after me,
he's gonna be someone crazy someone after me, and this
is a short window for all. It's hard. You don't
see Regius Fillman's in this social media or Dick Clark's
(35:04):
type of careers in these sort of plants different way.
But if you can strike while that iron is hot
and be lucrative, I mean you can start without it's
hard and be lucrative and be smart with that money,
you know, then God bless you. And someone like Josh
created a liquor brand. And so whether whether this platform
comes and goes and whether he becomes you know, okay,
this was yesterday's news. What makes him so smart and
(35:25):
brilliant was he had the foresight to see, hey, I'm
going to create this, put this niche, and put this
character into a product that should stand the test of
time and be extremely lucid while he has the platform
to do it. Yeah, sure, exactly. Um. I also, by
the way, before with Brittany, she she got engaged to
Tommy Lee. Yeah, they're getting married next month. So I
(35:45):
was just about to ask you, are they still They're
still together? There together, And I will be honest with you.
A lot of people found it to be saying, yes,
it's such an odd pairing. There's no doubt about it.
And I think in the film you see that you're like, Wow,
this is come out of nowhere. It came out of nowhere.
I think some people even worried for her. They were like,
oh my gosh, this she talks about that. It's crazy
are getting married next month. But it is true love.
(36:06):
And I swear to God, I actually do believe. I'm
not just saying that they are genuinely like in love
and it was probably the best thing to happen or
and it's it's hard to believe because at first, even
Eye as a friend was like whoa, because I didn't
know Tommy. And I think after seeing them together and
seeing how her life's changed and her outlex changed, I mean,
it's it's pretty remarkable. So if we ever do a
sequel to this, it will be interesting to see, uh,
(36:28):
see what happens next. It's uh, it's also fascinating to
see the big business that it's become from just the
when you achieve a certain number and have the following,
the money you can make from certain posts. Oh, absolutely,
it was. It was insane and a lot of people
like who are these people that are making one dollars
for a post? But I mean companies were you know,
you're hitting that certain demo. Yeah. Now, I think that
(36:50):
that world has become extremely oversaturated and the life like
how Josh mentions is becoming Uh it's trying to mellow
out to exactly you know what. I want to ask
you how many? How many of those are for? For
most of these big accounts are like fake followers or
fake again. I think there's tons of that there is, right,
So do you find there is a tons of it?
I don't our characters, actually, we how to think, did
(37:10):
not actually have that. And I'm not just saying that
because they're in our film. We actually like checked and said, hey,
is this. I think everyone has bots and there's all
these things that happened automatically, but you know, our characters.
The reason I was drawn to these four for American
Meme was they all got involved in social media for
completely different reasons. They all use it for completely different reasons,
and the outcome is completely different. So someone like Paris,
(37:30):
like you were saying, who's going to feel bad for
Paras Sulton. She's the last name Hilton, She's beautiful, she's privileged.
She you know, is able to do whatever she wants.
If Instagram were to die tomorrow, guess what, she'd be fine.
But the idea of how you feel for her is,
like you said, I think it's this idea what we're
as connected as ever on our phones, and we're as
connected to how we think, to every to so many
different people, but unfortunately we're more isolated and more lonely
(37:53):
than ever. And I think the way in which we
view ourselves, like on a macro level, two point five
billion people right now are using social media think about
that two point five billion people. We can be more.
We're more connected than ever, but yet lonelier and on
a micro Yes, we judge ourselves so harshly. We look
at every time you look at your phone, I could say,
oh my god, look at Mario. He's on the red carpet.
(38:15):
Look at this person there. You know he he gets
to sit with the who's who, and he's really making
something of himself. He has his own show, he's hanging
out with his friends. He's you know, in the field
of the Chargers game. You can go on and on
about like watching your friends, because it's you. We're picking
out what we want right for people to see, so
that the fiction and reality have become a completely blurred
and so we don't know what's what. It's how we
(38:35):
want people to see us and view us. And I
think we're very harsh on ourselves. So one of the
goals of the film, too, was to have people take
a step back, especially this younger generation, and hopefully view
their lives a little bit differently, in the sense that listen,
this is not necessarily real what you're looking at, and
I'm not going to judge and criticize myself so harshly,
and I'm not going to compare myself to other people.
I'm gonna do my own thing, like make sure that i'm,
(38:57):
you know, doing what makes me happy and understanding that
this is what it is and it's not necessarily real.
I think that came across and uh yeah, proud of
man Um And for for parents out there who may
not really be familiar how all the platforms and social
media platforms work or what is this and what's a meme?
And this I think it's a it's um. It's a
(39:19):
great way to educate yourself. It's on Netflix. It's called
The American Meme. Bert Marcus is the director. Bert. I
know you're getting into the live action player. I love
I love that you focused on documentary. I hope you continue.
But real quick before we go, you're working um with
actual real actors, right, so yeah, yeah, we have uh
(39:39):
So we have two different funds, ones for docs and
the the other one uh and unscripted the other one,
the other fun that we put together last year was
for narrative future films and give us a teaser on
the what to expect on the on the My first
feature will be premiering at can Film Festival hasn't been announced,
but you'll hear it here. Um I won't say the
name of it so we don't get in trouble. But
my first feature will be Marrying at the Can Film
(40:00):
Festival in May, which I'm really pumped about. Can you
talk about who's in it? Or? The only thing I'll
tell you about it's it's about a It's about kind
of the African American rodeo in Texas, and I'll leave
it at that. That sounds documentary esque, but it's not
exact scripted exactly, and it does exist, so it's a
great segue into into what we're doing. So it's a
(40:21):
world that a lot of people might have heard about
but have no clue about, and it's pretty original and
fas setting. So for me as a filmmaker, all I
care about is making original content that hopefully you know,
there's so much material, Like you said, you go on Netflix,
you go on to Amazon, You're going all these platforms.
There's endless content. How do you know what to pick
or watch? And for me, I just try to attempt to, hopefully,
(40:42):
you know, make work that resonates with people in a
way where they can think about their life differently and
do it in a way that's extremely original and entertaining
hopefully so, I mean that's the goal. Congratulations. Maybe I'll
ask Mario to be in the next one. Right, Hey,
if you have time, but we got to talk. If
you can get away from like making over Pool, maybe
we'll talk. See now you're giving teases that I haven't given.
(41:04):
We'll talk about Stay tuned, Bert Marcus, thank you for
having
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.