The story of subMedia.tv is about turning the old-school media model inside out. “Capitalist media is fucked. subMedia.tv says fuck capitalism,” Lopez says. “We proved we could make really radical films and not get censored. We can play as much riot porn as we want, we can curse as much as we want, and at the end of the day, what you get is uncensored raw anarchist cinema.”
“We showed you can make films without being beholden to careerism or studio bosses, without being slaves to film festivals or threatre circuits,” Lopez says. subMedia.tv has been crowdfunded for over a decade now, and does not accept money from governments or corporations.
Lopez says that subMedia.tv's work is an homage to people everywhere resisting oppression and capitalism. He adds: “Mainstream media already denigrates us on a daily basis. We wanna make films that lift the spirits of the people fighting, that celebrate our culture of resistance and show us that we can win.”
Proceeds from A Decade of Subversion go to fund subMedia.tv's upcoming projects, including a series called What Are We Fighting For about anarchists and other freedom fighters telling the stories of their struggles, and a feature film about the story of Anarchy with the working title of ¡Libertad!
subMedia.tv's anarchist cinema output began in 2004 with the short Join the Resistance: Fall in Love! Inspired by CrimethInc's Days of War, Nights of Love book. In 2005, the post-Hurricane Katrina video remix George Bush Don't Like Black People reached over a million viewers and was featured in the New York Times. Wired Magazine picked subMedia.TV for its list of top ten online video sites in 2006. That same year, subMedia.tv unleashed its comedy news vlog It's the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine, watched by thousands of faithful fanatics.
In 2011 subMedia.tv released END:CIV, its first feature film. The film toured the world with screenings in over 150 locations around the globe. In 2015, subMedia.tv will release To Change Everything, a multi-language video collaboration with CrimethInc that will introduce Anarchy to a wide audience. Stay tuned in 2015 as the fires get higher.
Download A Decade of Subversion or buy the DVD and support the next decade of subversion
The site for the Montreal local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.