Doing the Work is a series profiling key recipients of HFPA Philanthropy

Wherever there is a film in Los Angeles, there is also NewFilmmakers LA (NFMLA) – a nonprofit that works on behalf of people who aspire to help one another succeed in the industry and who believe that they have something to contribute. Not only does NFMLA screen works that are overlooked by the major film festivals each month, but also it stands ready to collaborate with other organizations on their respective events. It does not come as a surprise that the organization’s young founder, Larry Laboe, made NFMLA in his own image: friendly, agile, eager to learn and to pass on, willing to cooperate, happy to help others achieve their dreams. In a way, he gives us a preview of the world to come – a world where selfish ambition gives way to a fertile field of collaborative – and therefore wondrous – creativity. 

It’s as if Laboe was predestined to his mission. He was born in a large Michigan family that worked for the auto industry and had nothing to do with the arts. But little Larry was burning with a different kind of passion. He counted on his fingers: “I always loved theater, I always loved music, I always loved film, I always loved television – I was obsessed with watching TV shows, I was obsessed with going to watch films in the theater, I’d watch movies five or six times!” It was a regular love affair. As he put it: “Not only can (music and film) change your disposition – how you feel in the moment – but they can also (satisfy) your longing for something that made you feel a certain way at a certain point of time – the sense memory you have from this movie or that piece of music”. 

Throughout his childhood, Laboe did what he could to perform in school plays and musicals. He even went on a Radio Disney tour: “To be honest… I was never a great singer but I was young and I think I had the look that Disney liked…”. But even though his passion led him to places that most of his peers had not even dreamed of, he was not done. By age 16, he had completed his high school requirements independently, got emancipated, and moved to New York City all by himself. There, he got an agent to represent him and was able to work on many national commercials. He also had a high-end manager who sent him to auditions for movies and TV shows: “I loved acting but I don’t think I was a very good actor,” he smiled once again. By the time he turned 18, he decided that he wasn’t going to be an actor, even though entertainment still felt like the world he wanted to live in. And so he heard his next calling, and this time it came from Los Angeles.

Laboe settled in LA and, with SXM, a production company, started producing episodic TV shows for NBC, Disney, MTV and Comedy Central – all with well-known celebrities. Without fear and with boundless energy, he wore all hats as a producer – hired the crew, budgeted, found the locations, the writers, and the directors… Though successful, Laboe soon had to face a difficult dilemma. His nonprofit company, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles had started to demand a lot of time, and so he had to decide “which one – producing or NFMLA – he loved more”. In the end, the latter won and he stopped producing in 2016. Since then, he has been devoting his unmitigated and full attention to his charitable work. 

And charitable it is! Not because he gave up a very good salary and settled for enough to survive on, but because, finally, the thing that he loves above all is to help other artists fulfill their talent and their vision. “I’ll explain,” he said. “When I was producing, I got to work with maybe two filmmakers a year and help them bring their content to life. With NewFilmmakers LA, I get to work with hundreds of filmmakers every year and help them make industry connections, get their work in front of people, get press exposure… For me, it’s just a lot more interesting to have the dynamics of a community – to be a community-connector rather than to fixate just on business. Running a nonprofit – you still help filmmakers build their business and make their content sustainably – but, at the same time, we are a cultural organization. We are curating culture. We program based on diversity, inclusion, region – it’s important for us to have different voices from all over the world. Producing work is very specific, whereas the (nonprofit) is very broad, and to me, it’s just a lot more interesting.”

Laboe co-founded NFMLA 14 years ago, when he was just 20, and modeled it after the NewFilmmakers New York program of the Anthology Film Archives, a nonprofit organization dedicated to showcasing art films every week of the year. “When I was 16 years old, every week I would go to Anthology Film Archives in the Lower East Side to watch movies,” he said, eyes sparkling. “It was so special to me because I saw films I would have never heard of or seen before, and then I met the filmmakers too, heard them in Q&As and got to talk to them maybe in the lobby afterward – very exciting”. When Laboe moved to Los Angeles, he became a member of Film Independent, attended the Los Angeles Film Festival, AFI Fest, and other such events, but he felt the lack of more consistent and easily accessible film programming. That is when he thought of presenting new films on a monthly basis and hence launched NewFilmmakers LA.

The keyword for the nonprofit’s appeal, sustainability and relevance is ‘discovery’. The recent acquisition of Shaz Benett’s Alaska Is a Drag by Ava DuVernay’s company Array Releasing, is a prime example of what NFMLA aspires to. “This is a film that we played two years ago, which no other major festival played!” Laboe said enthusiastically; “and one year ago we awarded this filmmaker the Best Screenplay award at our Best of NFMLA Awards”. “There’s only so many spots available at AFI, Sundance, Berlin, Cannes… maybe enough for 800 new filmmakers in the whole festival circuit. What about the other thousands of really amazing filmmakers that don’t get into those festivals?”

The future of cultural organizations looms hopeful and bright in Laboe’s eyes. “If you looked at our environment about six years ago, (you’d find) it was very different. (Cultural) organizations were very competitive with one another… Actually, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has helped significantly to change that dynamic. By creating opportunities for its grantees to come together, (the HFPA) has created an ethos of collaboration.”

And here is the big question: Trying to help thousands of new filmmakers find a footing in the industry is a fine aspiration, but how can the industry change so that it too reflects an ethos of cooperation and inclusion? “I think that studios and streamers have to have a stronger mandate for executives to not limit content only to what comes from agents and managers, and not to look only at the 15 top films of Sundance… It would be really cool if somebody – a streamer or a studio – made the commitment to invest a percentage of their production budgets to, say, first-time feature filmmakers. That is not just saying ‘oh, we want to support new diverse voices and international filmmakers,’ but it’s something measurable.”

The reality is that as expansive as the industry is now, it still favors established sources for satiating its voracious appetite for content. It is still a challenge to help hundreds of new or overlooked filmmakers. But this is no deterrent for Laboe: “I love it!” he responds without thinking twice; “I love that we get to bring together so many elements to help support so many people. And even though it might only be a fraction of the contribution, it keeps so many people going, and persisting”. “I do believe that this is ‘art meets commerce’,” he added. Undoubtedly, he is committed to the first part of this formula without disrespecting the second, recognizing that one cannot do without the other.