French filmmaker Robert Bresson warned in 1983, “Right now, cinema isn’t an art. If it continues as it is now, it never will be.” He declared that cinema must become, “[. . .] something extraordinary in itself [. . .]”
In lieu of the depravity and decadence of Hollywood, founder William Jacobs saw potential for a subversive independent film industry in the Midwest. “There is the expression that a poet must not avert his eyes from the world, but facing the unprecedented ugliness of modernity is no easy task. It is my great objective to initiate a spiritual renascence with cinema—to bring forth films of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth.”