The Research Cartel - a film.

Can you support its production? An open thread

On Friday last week, I shared with my paid subscribers an idea. I believe we’re now at the stage where this body of work needs to be put together into a film. The feedback from that idea was overwhelmingly positive, so today I’m launching two crowdfunders and I’m asking for support to get this thing moving. You can back the project here, or here.

Why now?

Two reasons. Firstly, because this subject matter has become so sprawling and impossible to navigate that the work before us is now a communication challenge rather than a scientific one. The data exists. The problem is the endless litany of obstacles and obfuscation that the research cartel forces into our collective sensemaking. Like a magician from middle history, they operate a masterclass of misdirection over a public and political class far too busy to ‘see the trick’.

The second reason is that pushback is starting to build even inside mainstream publications, so it’s time to seize the moment.

On June 23rd, Peter Doshi, a senior of the British Medical Journal, along with a number of other researchers, posted a pre-print that ought to be catching the eye of every major news outlet, but of course, it’s being ignored. The paper showed that the two mRNA vaccines on the market are creating “an excess risk of serious adverse events” which is “greater than the reduction in COVID-19 hospitalizations.” Put simply, the vaccines now appear to be doing more harm than good. Yet in Canada, bamboozled by the ongoing misdirection, health officials are doubling down; boosters will be required every nine months. How can such a glaring contradiction be reconciled?

Such sensemaking gymnastics are only possible because of a research cartel; an informal lobby, manifesting wherever required, to keep the ‘healthcare is pharma’ train from derailing. We’ve seen this pattern before with the suppression of early treatment until Paxlovid emerged, then suddenly early treatment was a good idea. Our attention is misdirected and shaped in ways that are almost impossible to detect. Even those directly involved in this informal lobby might not be aware of the role they’re playing. The net effect is that even when people like Peter Doshi sound the alarm, there’s no room in our culture for the alarm to be heard.

Independent researchers have been discussing vaccine injuries for quite some time, but ‘the independents’ are easy to discredit. Keep them on substack and off YouTube, train the public to see them as ‘anti-vaxxer fringe’, and the battle is won. But when the data starts ‘leaking’ into mainstream thought, it’s much more difficult to ignore. As promising as this may feel, it’s likely that business will continue as usual unless we seize the moment. When inconvenient papers from credible and prominent people such as Doshi are published, the research cartel goes into overdrive to sanitise the public conversation. The editor of the British Medical Journal won’t be an easy person to discredit, but you can be sure they’ll find a way to smear him. His pre-print almost certainly won’t be peer-reviewed, and our well-trained society can then comfortably ignore the findings. The data won’t be anointed into the realms of truth by the ‘Keepers of Science’, and so just like other studies that came before, his study will become another footnote cast into a fire of obscurity.

To make any headway at all, what’s needed is an expose of the non-stop misdirection of the research cartel. Until the public and policymakers see that we are being tricked by bought-off medical journals, we will collectively remain under their spell. Long-time readers of The Digger will know that even an official government report into big pharma control of our healthcare couldn’t dislodge this problem; fifteen years after identifying the issue, we are more lost than ever. So what can we do? I believe a clearly made documentary will bring the focus we need for society to make sense of this frustratingly fuzzy issue. My background is in filmmaking, and for whatever reason, here I am on Substack already telling this story. The next logical step is to make the film.

The Research Cartel, is an original feature-length documentary. Support the project at mirror.xyz or IndieGoGo

What is the film?

My aim with ‘The Research Cartel’ is to tell the story of how our sensemaking is polluted by a barely visible force inside our scientific and medical apparatus. No sensationalism, no agitpop, but an engaging, eye-opening film that takes audiences under the surface of this complicated, contradictory and confusing world.

The film needs to be universal; a globally focused exposition of the problems, because the pandemic has clearly shown us that this problem now manifests globally. One pattern we saw was low and middle-income countries mirroring policy from ‘captured’ medical agencies in the west, thus bringing home these problems via osmosis. A reminder that the problem reverberates much further than just the FDA and CDC of the United States. Of course, there were also countries that went their own way, defying norms, spending much less money, and often weathering the storm better. Again - how do we reconcile these incongruent realities? There are incredible lessons to be demonstrated here.

This is not going to be an easy documentary to make, because the subject matter is dense, it’s complicated, and there’s a lot to cover. We have to keep the film engaging, and that requires a production team to assist with research, scripting, editorial, and bookings. Keeping it engaging will be the single biggest challenge.

The film also requires ‘a thorn in its side’; the influence of a person critical of all this material, so the production stays sharp and on track. The film absolutely requires contribution from people with a broad range of views too. The production value has to be high enough that, should a miracle happen, a broadcaster or perhaps Netflix could pick it up and push it to a mainstream audience.

In terms of distribution, the model would be a decentralised global premiere followed by continued decentralised screenings. Those that contribute to the film’s production can run screening events to recoup their costs. After recouping, ticket sales would be split 50/50, which will help to keep the momentum moving should a follow-up film be required. There would also be a place to purchase the film online so that screenings can go easily. It’s important to have some idea of how distribution would work, but perhaps it puts the cart before the horse.

After getting the nod from my paid subscribers, today, I’m starting two fundraisers for the documentary. There’s an IndieGoGo, and a cryptocurrency fundraiser via mirror.xyz. I’ve opted for two because there’s a small possibility that the IndieGoGo campaign could get shut down by the same censorious lobby we’re seeking to discuss. Should something happen to the IndieGoGo, I can be ready with a microsite to fundraise directly without them. The mirror.xyz allows for Ethereum contributions, and it’s a perfect use case for us. It makes use of exactly what cryptocurrency was designed for; a censorship-resistant financial instrument. I recognise that crypto is not for everyone, but I’m certain there are readers of The Digger who are already plugged into that ecosystem, in which case the mirror.xyz will be an easy way to contribute. Do you have a wallet address you totally forgot about years ago? Now’s your chance to put it to work.

How much?

I’m aiming to raise £200,000 to make this film. In a cost of living crisis, I’m aware that this is a lot of money, but it’s near enough the standard rate to make an hour of television. Since this isn’t television, and it’s a radioactive subject matter, we have close to zero hope of having the industry help us out. If only we could go to a broadcaster and pitch this, but we have very little hope from them.

There’s room to be creative if we don’t reach that target, but I believe it’s worth aiming for because the higher the production value, the higher the chance the film has of finding its audience via a broadcaster, a theatrical release, or even the festival circuit. I spent a good chunk of my career fighting for a film on a reduced budget, so if we don’t reach our goal I’m confident I can deliver something. The reason I’m aiming for this budget is because of the global focus of the film; the contributors we need are all over the world, so booking and properly shooting those sequences requires a proper budget.

The IndieGoGo campaign is set to flexible funding, so if we don’t reach our target, we’ll use what we get to put together a film. The mirror.xyz campaign is set to a similar flexible funding model. Anything received over the production requirements will be put towards marketing, because the most important component of the entire project is in developing an audience.

Next Steps?

The first thing I’ll do is bring in a small production team and get straight into pre-production. I’ll engage with researchers and medical professionals who’ve already come forward in this space and start making bookings for interviews. The new production team will also start on the distribution model, building a microsite and building capacity for the ‘decentralised premiere’ of the film. A teaser will likely be the first piece of content that you see emerge out of the project.

So far, my paid subscribers have been incredible. Without them, we simply couldn’t even be at the stage where a film is possible, but thanks to them, here we are here. I don’t like asking for money, not one bit, so I truly appreciate everyone who has supported me so far on this project, and everyone who feels able to support it going forward.

Research and writing at The Digger will continue, and any original journalism happening here will be fed directly into the pre-production of the film. This means there are two ways you can support the project; by becoming a paid subscriber of The Digger and by contributing directly to the two crowdfunders. The other thing you can do - which is a huge help - is share, reblog, rework, and amplify the crowdfunders. Email them to friends, family, groups, socials, and anyone you think would be interested in the film. If you can help to book a slot with other outlets, podcasters and channels who might give a shout-out to the project and the fundraiser, that’s a huge help too.

We don’t need crooks, liars and thieves, we can do this ourselves.

Back the project on IndieGoGo

The Research Cartel project on IndieGoGo

Back the project on mirror.xyz

The Research Cartel on mirror.xyz