Meet Elliot Kotek | social impact filmmaker & documentary producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elliot Kotek and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elliot, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
We walk the walk with intention. We believe in diversity and sincerity, and intentionally ask if we’ve considered the most representative options in front of and behind the camera. When we work on projects to center the often-marginalized, we don’t then make ourselves the spokespeople for those projects. It might mean we achieve our goals a little more quietly than some other companies, but it serves us long term by building high degrees of trust and authentic, impactful partnerships. No small matter is that we also take care of our crews, and believe in efficiently paying people for their work – even if we’re waiting for payment on the client side – for us, it just feels unfair to ask individuals to have to wait out payment periods. And…. food – we make sure no-one goes hungry – that was perhaps the hardest thing about filming projects during the pandemic, we didn’t get to share meals with our crews and our subjects, or treat them to post shoot dinners where we usually get to have a lager and a laugh.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our north star at The Nation of Artists is IDEAS + EMPATHY = IMPACT – so we don’t get into the race of chasing every production job out there. By making sure that our work sits en route to impact, it means we have to pass on some projects, but, it also means we’ve built a brand that stands for something, and it gives us an identity in the marketplace.

When other agencies and production companies struggled during the pandemic, we found that our alignment with purpose meant that we were sought out by people wanting to create work that mattered at a time when we were reminded of how interconnected we all are, and how vulnerable we can be.

To some extent, I think that coming through the worlds of journalism and documentary-filmmaking, rather than a commercial agency route, really helped to separate us at a time when brand-funded documentary-style content was taking off. People were looking for a sincere/’authentic’ experience, real stories, zero b.s., and that’s where we’ve always lived. That we got some major awards pretty quickly also helped – it meant that marketers could do good and do well – that doing the right thing didn’t have to be some sort of compromise, and instead could actually be the key to kicking butt.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There’s a bunch of givens for people to appreciate that LA is so much more than the Hollywood sign – for me, it’s still hard to believe you can feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere and be in the middle of this massive city – e.g. doing the hike at Westridge, or the relatively light hike up Los Liones for a view of the coastline followed by a drive up PCH is a must (book free tickets to Getty Villa if you’ve got a minute). .Snake your way up and stop at Paradise Cove to put your feet in the sand or Neptune’s Net for catch-of-the-day + a contrasting crowd and some serious Harleys.

Walking the Venice Canals at dusk is still something I think of as magical. So maybe grab some coffee from Groundwork, some Salt & Straw ice cream from Abbot Kinney, or a pizza from GTA, and go sit on a bridge and watch life unfold. If you’re a foodie, it’s hard for me to pass up breakfast at Destroyer Café in Culver City (grilled peaches on french toast with salted maple syrup?) with a quick walk to take in some industrial architecture and the history of Culver Village, Culver Studios (now Amazon, of course) and the Sony lot. Rugelach from Wise & Sons, and/or tacos from Loqui at the Platform if you’re getting peckish, and Honey Kettle’s fried chicken if you’re needing something soulful.

I once did a fried chicken tour of LA – and with Roscoe’s, Gus’s (my favorite, but not an LA-only establishment), Howling Ray’s, and all the amazing Korean options (Bonchon, Kyochon, etc), there’s a world of joy out there. LA is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to food – Jitlada for Thai Town’s best, Hide in Japan Town for the best yellowtail sashimi and special scallop sushi, and 5,000 places (Tacos Tu Madre, HomeState, Loqui, and a variety of gas station food trucks) to grab Mexican and Salvadoran flavors.

Head to the Brentwood Farmers Market for some great food (almond croissants from Farmshop) and better people watching (Adam Sandler in basketball shorts on my last outing), stock up enough for a picnic and head up to the Getty Museum in Brentwood, check out whatever photography exhibit they’ve got going on, and sit in the gardens with a view of the city.

Lastly, book (free) tickets to the Broad downtown, check out incredible art (good for kids, too), follow it up with a slow roll past the Disney Hall, and, when you’re hungry, head down to Grand Central Station for a fill of everything (Filipino from Sari-Sari, Pho, McConnells Ice Cream, Eggslut, etc).

Holy crap, that answer gave me an appetite. Can we take 5?

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There’s very few more unconditionally generous people than my closest friends, many of whom provided sofas on which to surf as I navigated the path forward, over and upward – and there’ve been dozens of people in my family and early career who taught me the discipline of hard work by showing me what it looked like. One particular person who gave me strength of purpose was my first acting teacher at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York – George Loros. Mr. Loros instilled in me that aiming for a result from your audience is a fool’s errand for creatives – because, even if you deliver a piece of work that wins an Oscar, that is deemed by your peers to be the ‘best’ in its class that year, on the street the next day some people will still remark, “Can you believe that piece of garbage won?” Artistic pursuits yield subjective reactions, which can change with the wind, can shift depending on the particular day and the particular mind of the viewer in that particular moment. Instead, focus on the work – make your choices, commit to the task, appreciate the variables and the volatility – if you did the work, then you can defend it (internally, at least) no matter how people react to it. When you haven’t done the work, then the negative comments are harder to defend – you’re on shakier ground – you know you cut a corner. So, do the work. And, if you’re lucky, you get to do it again.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationofartists/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotkotek/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElliotKotek

Other: Little Miss Sumo! https://netflix.com/littlemisssumo Black Boys https://www.peacocktv.com/black-boys For Tomorrow https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0RSKQC2L7V5H2UZW2TG5IL6HT3 & our latest campaign, “More Than” http://www.MoreThanRobots.org

Image Credits
Morgan Lieberman, Robert A Tobiansky