Why Tocaya?
Hollywood is undergoing a seismic shift. Labor strikes, AI, streaming, and box office decline signal deeper systemic issues beyond narrative quality or diversity. The film industry’s crisis is tied to global economic shifts, not just dwindling theater attendance. Theaters and TV networks use to balance audience demand with profitability, creating a feedback loop that sustained storytelling. Streaming disrupted this, prioritizing market dominance over storytelling. These platforms operate at a loss, relying on stock value and debt rather than direct audience engagement, eroding the mechanisms that once guided creative decisions.
As studios rush to compete in streaming, they weaken market signals and further consolidate control. Internationally, U.S. streaming giants flood markets with foreign content, limiting local storytelling while economic pressures reduce subsidies for filmmakers. Globalization has fueled demand for localized narratives, but these remain sidelined.
The industry now faces two crises: disconnecting stories from consumers and consolidating production. Private equity and conglomerates extract value from the creative process, driving up costs and diminishing resilience. This mirrors a broader systemic collapse, as foundational industries face disruptive shifts—from AI to renewable energy—demanding new business models.
Disruptions aren’t simple substitutions; they require rethinking structures, values, and collaboration. Without systemic change, industries will collapse under outdated frameworks. The solution lies in decentralized, collaborative networks and localized production—resilient models that adapt to rapid change, unlike short-term, profit-driven approaches that perpetuate failure.
We are Tocaya: A collective of artists rethinking film for the phase change. We aim to save storytelling and create community by expanding film beyond the screen into a collaborative multi-disciplinary system.
The death of storytelling reflects the limitations of our interconnected system-state. The film industry, the dominant storytelling medium for the last century, remains tied to an outdated centralized system. Its collapse is marked by growing inequality (wage gaps between creators and stars), reduced resilience to shocks (pandemics and strikes), resistance to change (remakes and sequels), financial instability (declining box office revenue and streaming debt), and misapplied disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence.
The Tocaya Model
“Off-the-Screen”
In Tocaya’s system, a single film grows into various “off-the-screen” manifestations: performance, social intervention, art, fashion, and more. Every element of the production is treated as a collaboration, growing narrative from the seed of a script and building interconnected communities and expansive narratives.
Off-the-screen projects are part of the film, ocurring before and after its release. They are pre-marketing, post-marketing, publicity, research, community growth, collaborative activation, and evolve all together as one. This system builds communities throughout the project, offering audiences a journey through the different activations, forming a cohesive yet diverse narrative experience.
This decentralized approach creates a lasting narrative, a universe, beyond a 2-hour film. A single story creates multiple access points for different audiences, while also adapting to cultural shifts and technological changes. Tocaya’s films transcend form, spreading across real and virtual spaces, globally.
We cannot force people back into theaters, no matter how great the film. This outdated, linear approach fails to address today’s complexities. Instead, storytelling must be reimagined as a decentralized, interconnected network. Technologies demand horizontal systems that reflect modern realities. This shift requires moving beyond our saturated “me” culture to recognize the role of individuals within the whole. It means adopting interconnected solutions instead of singular approaches and fostering trust, empathy, and cooperation—a mindset that storytelling can help restore for humanity.
The Tocaya Principles
Tocaya prioritizes storytelling as a collective process where all creative contributions are valued equally. Every element of a narrative—visual, textual, or experiential—is integral to the whole. By fostering horizontal collaboration rather than hierarchical control, we create dynamic stories that incorporate diverse perspectives and evolve organically.
2. Community Engagement
Our storytelling emerges and engages with real-world dynamics, telling narratives that examine the tension and interdependence between individuals and their communities, and creating stories rooted in shared yet nuanced experiences.
3. Multicultural Perspectives and Many Languages
Tocaya’s films are crafted in many languages, reflecting a deeply interconnected world. Our storytelling embraces the grey areas between cultures, examining the loss of identity and the complexity of belonging. These nuanced narratives resonate globally while honoring cultural specificity.
We use AI as a tool to rethink and redefine storytelling, not just as a process but as its own narrative element. Beyond enhancing production, it allows us to challenge traditional metrics and explore new storytelling universes. AI expands creative possibilities while preserving the irreplaceable role of human ingenuity.
5. Stories as Mythologies
Narratives don’t end with the film—they weave themselves into the fabric of culture. At Tocaya, we ensure our stories transcend mediums, embedding themselves in art, music, dance, and other cultural expressions. By expanding narratives beyond the screen, we create mythologies that endure across generations and communities.
6. Resilience and Adaptability
Our model evolves with societal and technological changes, ensuring storytelling remains relevant and resilient. By embracing open, adaptable systems, we craft stories that thrive in a world defined by disruption and uncertainty.