It all started with a song.

In traveling to film festivals, one question continues to surface. What's the inspiration behind GREED? Well, it all started with a song. Sitting in my cubicle at work one day years ago, I was listening to Wynton Marsalis' Plantation to the Penitentiary album released in 2007 - this album, by the way, is still one of my favorite jazz albums to date. After the mellow notes of Love and Broken Hearts came to a close, my spirit was jolted with the upbeat and fast-paced melody of Supercapitalism. Here are the opening lyrics if you've never heard the song:

Gimme this. Gimme that. Gimme that. Gimme that.

Gimme this. Gimme that. Gimme this.

Gimme that. Gimme that.

And That and that and that and that.

Now, this wasn't my first time hearing this song, but my inner voice spoke to me that day and said, "Damn, this would be DOPE as an animation!" 

That was four years ago. 

The goal: There were a few. 

First, the song has such a powerful message. The perfect mockumentary of how we - Americans in society today - have become so consumed with stuff, that it defines most of us. So, how could I get more people to hear this song?

Remember how in La La Land, Ryan Gosling's character Sebastian thought the genre of Jazz was dying and wanted to save it? Well, I'm not quite as passionate about the state of Jazz as his character was, but I do know that the popular music being peddled to the masses today is kind of, well, trash. Trash that promotes low moral standards at that.

I was in college when I first saw Disney's Fantasia 2000 - and one of my favorite animated shorts in that collection was set to George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. That animation really got me to listen to, and enjoy, a classical composition that I would have never picked up on my own. 

I think the power of storytelling through visuals is immense. And that is why I decided to embark on the journey of visually telling the story of Supercapitalism. 

- Dominique Wilmore