• Optimistic Communities

• As a social enterprise we are committed to investing back into the community in which we operate in various ways.
• We are dedicated to improving the lives and happiness of people around us - both in the geographical area and in the wider digital eco-system!
• We invest in improving local services such as Food Bank, School, Youth Project and Homeless Kitchen and we train young people on the job in film and music.
• You will see the commitment to our communities best by watching our films and interacting with our work.
• Optimistic Business
• We are currently engaged in a new feature film and social movement building exercise - our new project POWER
• We work with a wide variety of funders and backers to get these projects made, including the BFI (British Film Institute), Doc Society, Walthamstow Council and various charitable trusts.
• Our business model and the quality of art and films we make have been recognised, our film Bank Job is currently nominated for The Grierson Award for most entertaining documentary & our art has been collected by the V&A, Fitzwilliam, Smithsonian and MoMA.

• Optimistic People

• We're committed to employing local people who know and understand their community.
• We offer professional learning and development on the job.
• We tend to develop long and rich working relationships with our cinematographers, producers, artists - and of course bank heist professionals.
• Employee voice, commitment and involvement are actively encouraged. Representatives of the workforce have direct influence in how we run our company and make important decisions.

----How does it work? 

Buying a ticket gives you 48 hours to watch the film from the moment you trigger it. You also get to come to our Q&A plus live-stream event where we will be launching our new currency - the Green Back. So you get two viewings.

----What if I end up being busy on that night?

It doesn't matter.. You’ll have a 48 hour window to watch the film from the moment you trigger the stream - but no rush on triggering it.. 

So you get to see the film immediately - and come back for the live stream & Q&A if you want to 

If you click away from here now, the chances are that you will never see this film – and I will explain why below.

We are not a big company - and we can't spend lots of money on acquiring new viewers.. Facebook charges us for you even reading this. 

----It’s too expensive.

Making this film has taken us 5 years. We have had to travel to the US and hire camera people, musicians, editors to make this happen. Even as you’re reading this we have  a team working on the film. These things can not happen by themselves. Most documentary films are funded by TV broadcasters, they do not challenge the status quo or attempt to spark movements. We have put all our life into this movie, and believe us it’s no get rich quick scheme. 

The BFI enabled us to finish but most of this film only got made because of the love, tenacity and yes, money we personally put in.

So why do we do this?

We are passionately committed to getting this film seen and this argument out there. That is why we have spent five years making it and writing the book. Things need to change and we see ourselves as part of this important movement.

I’ll just watch it on TV

That’s highly unlikely. In the UK our media system is tightly controlled by a ruling idea that film is entertainment – true there are still some political docs that air – but rarely one as political and iconoclastic as ours. 

There’s no longer any space for independent voices looking to change the system. Think about it.

Where on British TV would you imagine this would ever fit? The only space on British TV for indie feature length documentaries is BBC Storyville. We’ve already shown it to the commissioning editor there and though she likes it, she wants to make changes we’re unwilling to make. So that’s not going to happen. Also their budgets are cut to ribbons – and it wouldn’t even be worth us making the edits necessary to get it there.

This preview is a unique chance not just to watch this film once but to get a copy for personal and family viewing. After this preview, covid permitting we will do a UK cinema tour – if we come near to you and you’re free that night, then you may see it in a cinema. But think how much more convenient it will be if you can see it live on 27 May

They may just be ripping us off?

If you’re worried that we’re just charlatans trying to sell tickets and then abscond with the proceeds – ask yourself this.. in the history of internet scams, has anyone ever pretended to make a documentary, by shooting a really cool documentary trailer.. been covered in The Guardian (twice - click links above), New York Times and Financial Times – all with the dastardly design of making off with my £12/ £15? Unlikely.. but not to say impossible.. 

The other way of doing this is looking at our companies – Optimistic Productions Ltd and Optimistic Foundation CIC – log into Companies House and you will see that we are registered properly, submit our accounts and pay taxes. We’re legit 

It’ll be cheaper when it’s on General Release

We’re self-distributing this film. The idea that we may release it to I-tunes or Youtube premium etc is of little interest to us as it makes no economic sense. We’re going to stick to the totally indie route – as we’re using advertising to build our audience it will not stack up to cut the price of the tickets at present. So please don’t assume it will ever be cheaper to view this film. If the subject resonates with you and you want to learn more, take your chance and book it now.

What if the tec is hard to navigate

It's honestly not - when you pay for your ticket you get an automatic email and the email gives you a log in to a membership site. You can stream the film there immediately - and come back there for the live stream on 12 November

Are you open to small community screenings?

Yes we certainly are – and we will also do Q&A’s – please email us for details on the prices associated with this.

This is a journey of just one family and community blowing up £1.2m of high interest debt– but it shows that if they can do it, so can you. And if we all take steps towards making our world a bit fairer, we can totally transform the situation.

Amid a time of bleakness and lockdown, why not bring a little hope into your living room on 27 May.

In 2017 Positive Money did a survey and found that 85% of politicians didn’t understand how money is created – and therefore didn’t understand the true architecture of power not just in the UK but across the world.

In this film, you’ll understand this and have your eyes opened to what’s really driving our economy and political landscape.

You will see how debts are bought and sold for a fraction of their face value and this will empower you to be able to speak with and negotiate with creditors in a totally new way.

• How money is created - (this happens every time as loan is made) The exponential increase in this is what has led to the boom and bust economy. Get behind the headlines in this film.

• How debts are bought and sold for a fraction of their face value – and how we hacked into the system – and bought up £1.2m for less than £20k

• How austerity policies are justified as necessary – but actually the truth behind how the Bank of England creates billions of pounds worth of money out of thin air.. and gives it to the High Street Banks.. 

• So while the people bail out the banks - we end up getting our services cut and have to borrow to make ends meet..

• Buying a ticket gives you 48 hours to watch the film immediately from whatever moment you trigger it off. Early bird tickets are also eligible for the paid event we're organising, which is a Q&A and launch of our new currency - entitled The Green Back, which is now backing a "Grass Roots Green New Deal"

• We learned that most of the morals around money and debt were woefully out of date

• We were also able to renegotiate with creditors when they rang us up – we could ask how much they paid for our debts – and we recognised that some of our old student debts had been sold at discount – this is an instrument of power..

• We were also able to take control of what is truly important – the relationships between ourselves and our communities.

• Finally – and most importantly – we learned about who the truly powerful are – the people, that’s us – but only when we come together.