Film Fascistsâ„¢

Film Fascists is Hollywood's worst nightmare.
I started Film Fascists at USC School of Cinema in 1981 as a reaction to the school's Hollywood Formula mentality. Our goal was to promote filmmaking as a (sometimes subversive) art; disrupt the system with hyperbole, subterfuge, propaganda, and pranks; and to piss off the status quo. This mission provided a convenient excuse to vandalize the facilities with a patina of political legitimacy. "GEORGE LUCAS SUCKS" was spray-painted and written in permanent marker throughout the school. At the time, this was akin to writing "DOGS FUCKED THE POPE" in the Sistine Chapel.
Despite attempts to paint over the graffiti, the slogan kept returning, with faux Film Fascists contributing to the visual chaos. Tension mounted as both students and faculty chose sides (99% chose to be against us, but there were some who quietly championed our cause, most likely for their own amusement). The USC Daily Trojan wrote a cover story about Film Fascists, prompting some of the best minds in the department to call us "silly" and "callow." We never denied these claims.
The situation reached critical mass when Mr. Lucas himself visited the school. In a futile attempt to circumvent the Film Fascist campaign of terror, school officials painted over the graffiti just hours before Lucas' arrival. Still, a last- minute strike in the bathroom was successful. When Mr. Lucas used the urinal that morning, he was greeted with a special message so obscene, it cannot be written here. The administration was not amused. Expulsion was threatened. The majority of Film Fascists members (all five of them) denied any association with the group.
A few years later, when Mr. Lucas donated a shiny new cinema building to the school, the old facilities were scheduled to be razed. At an auction for USC Cinema alumni, it was announced that some of the wall panels bearing graffiti of the Film Fascist logo (two back-to-back F's in a circle) would be up for grabs. Rather than let these icons be used to generate illicit funds and fall into the very hands of the classmates who opposed us, a final assualt was made on the building and the panels were destroyed before they could be auctioned.
The spirit of Film Fascists lives on to this day in everyone who treasures filmmaking as an art, anyone who revels in the joy of subversion, and all who aspire to become Hollywood's worst nightmare.
La Dolce Vita (In Via Veneto) by Nino Rota