Mission
Soft Cage Films is a radical, non-profit multimedia production company in Chicago. We make work that challenges oppressive systems, combats harmful narratives, and amplifies voices for progressive social change.
Soft Cage Films is strongly committed to inclusivity, sustainability, educating and empowering aspiring filmmakers, paying artists, and producing radical films that directly engage with critical issues in the community.
History
Soft Cage Films was founded in 2012 as a non-profit to empower filmmakers to produce visually bold
work with strong social justice messages critical of the current economic system, corporate power,
policing injustices, and institutional racism. Soft Cage has produced 3 feature length narrative films, an
original musical short film, several co-productions, dozens of collaborative multi-disciplinary events,
and 42 mini-documentaries.
Soft Cage's first feature film, “Yellow” explored isolation, corporate exploitation, and violence. After a
Chicago premiere, the film secured international distribution with Maxim Media and recently surpassed
one million streams. Their next feature length film, “Graffito”, was about a local graffiti artist
confronting issues of art, love, crime, gentrification, and activism. "Graffito" screened at local art
venues over 20 times, was an official selection of the 2014 Oracle Theatre Aperture Series Filmmaker
Showcase, as well as screening at national and international film festivals and winning awards.
Soft Cage's third feature film is the “Anthropology Anthology”. This anthology is a collection of three
films that examine the lives of three unlikely heroes, and how technology is eroding the labor market:
“Pilgrim”, “Breaking”, and “Mandala” were produced over the course of three years beginning in 2015
with a strong original music component. “Down the Rabbit Hole”, a 2017 Soft Cage co-production,
was accepted into 3 film festivals in 2018 including several screenings at the (In)Justice For All
International Film Festival in Chicago.
In the summer of 2018, Soft Cage produced an original musical film called “Blacksite: The Musical!”
with support from an Illinois Humanities project grant. “Blacksite” tells a story inspired by the real life
detention facility known as the “Homan Square Blacksite” as well as the “Freedom Square” protests
that erupted in the aftermath of the facility's exposure. “Blacksite” reclaims the musical form and takes
it back to it's historical function within marginalized communities as a form of protest, hope, and joy in
the face of oppression.