After releasing in theatres Jan. 30, independent film “Iron Lung” written, directed, and produced by YouTube personality star Mark Fischbach made waves in the movie industry. Opening weekend the film made $18 million and was up to $36.5 million on Feb. 9. The film had an overall budget of $3 million, self-financed by Fischbach, and was only supposed to be in theatres for one day.
Instead, theatres opened more time slots for the feature, after popularity surged.
“Iron Lung” is part of the horror genre, based off David Szymanski’s indie horror game “Iron Lung.” Critics and fans alike flooded the internet after release, sharing opinions of whether the movie was a success or not. But I’d like to shine a light on what it means for students, film majors and beyond.
It’s been a tough time being in the humanities pathway. Dealing with the realities of being a community college student or future transfer student is already hard enough, without the added pressure of the political climate to do with anything academic.
Here in Iowa, legislation against DEI offices is being discussed, and changes to what we can learn may change. Nationally, politics have promoted disappointing division, an attack on students’ Freedom of Speech and sometimes their safety, the pressure to reduce international student enrollment, and funding cuts for humanity programs at select schools.
Kids usually dream of being a hero or an artist when they grow up. Doctors, firefighters, pilots all need specific education and training. However, a movie director is a great choice for a dream job for someone with a more general background. Fischbach didn’t have the backing of any of the huge movie studios, a distributor and a budget as big as movies usually do. But he dreamed big in a way someone dreams of authoring a book, or researching a favorite concept, or inventing something.
So even if we don’t have the support we need sometimes, or watch it slip through the cracks, we have to keep trudging along and learn it anyway. Take an art history course or a creative writing seminar if you can, even if it isn’t what may feel totally secure right now.
And students, like us at DMACC, that currently have resources to tell our stories and explore rich histories through classes like Encounters in Humanities and Women’s Lit, we must not forget there may not be students who do. There are campuses that do not support people’s differing beliefs or ideals, course catalogs that do not like students going abroad or popping small town bubbles, and universities that participate in culture wars instead of backing up their professors.
I hope the next time this rhetoric around liberal arts degrees or humanities departments being a waste of time knocks at DMACC’s door, they respond with backing their faculty and students up. So, our students can go on and write, direct, star in, edit, and distribute their own video game to movie adaptation. A task like that is a lot easier to do with a background of writing and creating.
