Leadership Quote by Dan Glickman

Dan Glickman’s line reads like a benign compliment, but it’s really a policy argument in casual clothes. “Tremendous intellectual fervor” flatters independent filmmakers as more than scrappy artists; it frames them as a civic asset, a knowledge class generating ideas the culture can’t afford to waste. Coming from a politician, that phrasing isn’t accidental. It borrows the language of research, innovation, even national competitiveness - the same vocabulary used to justify funding for universities or tech startups. Indie film becomes not merely entertainment, but an ecosystem of thought.

The pivot is “and that has to be cultivated.” Cultivated by whom? Not the filmmakers themselves - the sentence quietly assigns responsibility to institutions: public arts funding, tax incentives, distribution infrastructure, film commissions, education pipelines, festival circuits. “Cultivate” implies fragility: left to the market alone, this fervor withers. That subtext aligns with a familiar tension in American cultural policy, where the country celebrates the myth of individual creative grit while relying on invisible scaffolding to keep non-commercial art alive.

There’s also a strategic contrast embedded here: independent filmmakers are presented as the antidote to risk-averse studio logic. “Fervor” signals experimentation, dissent, formal play - the kind of work that challenges consensus or reveals what glossy mainstream narratives smooth over. Glickman’s intent is likely coalition-building: reassure creatives that government understands their value while signaling to voters and donors that supporting indie film is an investment in national cultural capacity, not a boutique luxury.