The relentlessly prolific Jason Carman is making the films our culture needs: optimistic, inspiring and positioned at the frontiers of modern tech and science. In under two years, he has shipped more than 70 high-quality mini-documentaries exploring the startups shaping the future, racking up over 130,000 YouTube subscribers along the way.

His new venture, Story Company, premiered “New Space”, its 100+ minute-long exploration of the modern space industry, to a packed San Francisco theater this year. Story Company has multiple projects in the pipeline, including a full-length sci-fi feature. Ultimately, he intends to create a new generation of sci-fi films: a Star Wars for the 21st century.

I love Jason’s ambition, drive and enthusiasm (not to mention his filmmaking chops), which is why we awarded him a $100k O’Shaughnessy Fellowship last year.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

Show Notes:

How Jason fell in love with filmmaking
Laziness as an edge
How to build a good team
How to fix Hollywood
Frontier Films: a new category of movie
From science-fact to science-fiction
Finding the right infinite loops
The roots of the idea of America
A Complete Unknown: Jason’s slideshow & Bob Dylan’s anti-authoritarianism
Getting woo on Tenet’s Sator square
How do you know when a movie is finished?
The fragility of the artist
We are all co-creators
Jason as World Emperor
MORE!

Books Mentioned:

I Am a Strange Loop; by Douglas Hofstadter
The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
One Summer: America 1927; by Bill Bryson
The Hypomanic Edge: What Built America; by John D. Gartner
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams

Movies Mentioned:

New Space (directed by Jason Carman)
Flow (directed by Gints Zilbalodis)
My Dinner With Andre (directed by Louis Malle)
Star Wars (directed by George Lucas)
A Complete Unknown (directed by James Mangold)
Tenet (directed by Christopher Nolan)
Dune: Part Two (directed by Denis Villeneuve)

Jason Carman — Filmmaking at the Frontier (EP.260)

Infinite Loops