LAS VEGAS—According to the old saying, “Politics is downstream from culture.” Many attendees at FreedomFest believe the stream has been polluted and it’s time to clean it up.
At first blush, the libertarian gathering may appear to be just a political forum, but the event includes film and comedy festivals. Festival directors say political ideology is only one aspect of a stable society. And political ideology is influenced by culture.
Jo Ann Skousen, FreedomFest’s co-founder and architect of the Anthem Film Festival, said it’s important that culture celebrates the best of humanity. So, the Anthem Film Festival is dedicated to promoting the benefits of truth and freedom for all people.
She began the festival in 2011 because she was disappointed in the dominant Hollywood fare.
“I was distressed by the anti-business, anti-individuality themes in most major movies. I much preferred the small independent films with strong, independent characters blazing their own trails and taking accountability for their own needs,” Skousen wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
According to the Anthem Film Festival website, 3,000 attendees have watched 300 films over the past 15 years.
The 2026 Anthem Film Festival runs in connection with FreedomFest, July 8–11. The festival features 29 films, including documentaries on Cuba, Syria, human trafficking, Israel, and education, among other subjects.
The winning filmmakers will be recognized during a gala on Saturday, July 11.
Adam Weinberg is Atlas Network’s director of marketing and communications.
He said Atlas Network “provides a hub for people who want to provide a pro-freedom voice in their country, in their own context, in the local language, and the local values that people have.”
His company’s entry is “Free Syria.” It is the story of Mazen Derawan, a Syrian American entrepreneur who returns to Damascus after the regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in 2024, after 13 years of civil war.
According to the film, Derawan and a group of like-minded Syrians began introducing free-market principles and liberty to their war-torn homeland. Weinberg says the film shows that the gains are small, but in a country with Syria’s challenges, even small change is significant.
Weinberg said telling such stories can show the benefits of freedom and truth.
“And one of the great ways we tell all the stories of the amazing freedom champions we get to work with is by creating documentaries and videos that share their stories with people who love freedom all around the world as well,” Weinberg told The Epoch Times.
Thomas Pack is the director of incubator programs for Palladium Pictures, an independent film company based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Started in 2023, Palladium Pictures’ motto is “Reclaiming the Culture Through Film.”
“Palladium Pictures is dedicated to telling stories in a straightforward, fact-based manner, stories that have been ignored or misreported,” the website states.
Palladium’s entry is “Operation Arnon,” a 17-minute documentary about a June 8, 2024, Israeli special forces operation to rescue four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
The film chronicles a risky daylight joint operation by the Israeli Defense Force, Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, and Israel Police’s Counterterrorism Unit from an area called Nuseirat in central Gaza.
The rescuers were trapped under heavy fire and had to fight their way out. Several hundred Palestinians were reported as killed or injured. The only Israeli killed during the mission was Arnon Zamora, a counterterrorism officer.
Pack said the left’s media influence is revealed in a simple internet search. Pack said the rescue mission is labeled a massacre by search engines.
“It’s amazing just how quickly this war gets reframed in real time,” he told an audience after a screening of the documentary.
Pack said the Hollywood film industry, which is largely directed by the left, has developed an ecosystem for filmmakers. Following this example, Palladium Pictures developed an incubator program to provide young conservative filmmakers with the same tools.
“I think Hollywood is to be commended for creating this healthy environment for left-wing artists, and as a result, they’re making way better movies than the right, right now,” Pack said. “We can do something about it, but we have to start … doing the same kind of ecosystem.”
Lou Perez doesn’t work in film; his medium is a stage, a microphone, and a room full of people who want to laugh. And it depends heavily on the First Amendment’s right of free expression.
Perez is the director of the Punching Up Comedy Festival. During FreedomFest, Perez and other comedians have taken part in panel discussions on the First Amendment in addition to plying their trade before FreedomFest audiences.
Telling jokes isn’t as easy as it may seem, Perez said. In the early 2020s, so-called cancel culture seemed to be the norm in comedy.
Well-known comedians such as Louis CK, Dave Chappelle, and Shane Gillis were “canceled” or lost career opportunities for past statements or actions. Perez pointed out that in 2019, Gillis was dropped from the cast of Saturday Night Live over alleged homophobic and racist jokes he had made in the past.
In February 2024, the comedian, whose career had progressed, was called upon to host the show. Perez said this is evidence that comedy is moving back to its center.
“I think comedians, especially, have been a lot more empowered to speak up and to say what’s on their mind, also make jokes that maybe would have hurt them, you know, some years back,” Perez told The Epoch Times.
“It feels like a really good time to be doing comedy.”
