It must be weird to hear a filmmaker advocating for FOSS; it’s usually tech enthusiasts, indie developers, or non-profit organizations who push for people to switch to FOSS. For those of you who don’t know, FOSS is short for Free and Open Source Software, where “free” refers to “freedom” rather than the “free” in “free food” (although most FOSS tools are also the latter kind of free) and “open source” means the software’s source code is publicly available. As artists and storytellers, two of many things we are frequently taught are that “it’s not the tool, it’s the artist” and “everything is political”. In a way, these two terms contradict each other; while it’s true that the tools we use shouldn’t say anything about our art, it’s also true that the tools we use say a lot about what we stand for as artists. Subscribing to software that includes generative AI tools means you’re fine with supporting an AI-forward corporation, using cloud tools that don’t disclose their encryption practices means you don’t care if a corporation has the right to train their AI tools on your work, and paying high monthly subscription fees means you’re willing to look past predatory financial practices.
To be clear: I am not saying “FOSS or nothing”. I don’t want filmmakers to drop all proprietary tools and switch to FOSS. What matters to me is for filmmaking tools to be accessible, especially for beginners, and for software to respect the privacy of their users. In my opinion, the best way to achieve this is through Free and Open Source Software.
It’s not the tool, it’s the artist.
Like many modern filmmakers, I started out without my own equipment. In elementary school, I’d borrow my mom’s camera and edit with the family PC. While my friends used pirated Adobe software, I used what my mom used to edit our home videos: Ulead Video Studio (now Corel Video Studio). By the time I got to high school, more of my friends got interested in filmmaking, many of them had so many story ideas that went on hold because they were waiting to get access to the latest mirrorless camera or because they couldn’t find a good copy of whatever software their favorite YouTuber used. I would encourage them to just shoot with their phones and to edit with the editing software that came with their laptops but some would ignore this advice and kept searching for unsafe cracked installers. This was weird to me since my photography teacher kept reminding us that “it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer” and I felt like this mentality should apply to other forms of art as well. I found it to be akin to how an experienced sketch artist might eventually invest in different kinds of pencils to achieve specific looks; but ultimately, a number 2 pencil in that artist’s hands is more powerful than a sketching kit in the hands of an amateur. I felt like this should also apply to film editing.
This would be the start of my advocacy towards accessible tools for filmmakers; I’d go out of my way to use “weaker” tools just to prove my point. For example, I shot and edited a skit called “At (dis)Arm’s Length” using my iPhone 8. Also, despite having a perfectly good laptop, I edited my high school short film Runaway (2018) on my iPad using LumaFusion just to prove that it was a perfectly viable option. Granted, shooting on a smartphone and editing on a tablet is fairly common in this day and age due to technical advancements; back then, filming on a smartphone was considered “un-serious” and it was mostly unheard of for an entire 20-minute short film to be edited on this kind of device. I even went out of my way to find alternatives to Final Draft as a screenwriting tool because of its ridiculously high price; I opted for the more affordable Fade In, which has a one-time payment, offers a student discount, and is made and supported by an indie developer.
My teacher in charge of the robotics club introduced me to Linux Mint. Since I wasn’t so familiar with FOSS yet, I would just casually dual-boot my laptop to run both Windows and Ubuntu, and occasionally play around with TAILS. My knowledge of FOSS was practically non-existent so I never took the switch seriously. I would just appreciate the privacy and opt to browse the internet on Linux while using Windows for schoolwork. At this point, my views on privacy were completely separate from my views on filmmaking accessibility.
My belief system carried over to college, where I had film classes and joined two film-related student organizations: Loyola Film Circle and The GUIDON (which was news-focused but newly opened a video production department that produces event recaps and documentaries). For my school and org work, I would edit using Corel on my laptop while my personal projects would continue to be edited with LumaFusion on my iPad.
Discovering FOSS.
Near the end of my second year in college, the COVID-19 lockdowns began and I fell out of love with filmmaking since there’s no fun or enjoyment in shooting and editing Zoom recordings. I shifted to a business degree and resigned from my position at LFC and The GUIDON. Eventually, my yearning to be creative got the best of me and I started to get into game development. While I never made a full game to completion, I made multiple narrative-driven demos for my friends. This new-found hobby led me to online tech spaces, where I started to learn about FOSS and data privacy, and was the push that encouraged me to drop Windows completely and make the switch to Linux. I felt like I had just entered a whole new world where everything is free, community driven, and runs smoothly on older hardware.
Even though I lost interest in filmmaking, I still made some fun videos with my friends. So I played around with different FOSS video editors like ShotCut and OpenShot but I fell in love with Kdenlive.
When lockdowns were finally lifted, I immediately jumped back into filmmaking. With what little money I had in my savings (a remote-learning student who lives with his parents tends to not get an allowance), I gathered my friends and made my first ever Kdenlive-edited short film The Misfit (2022). When I finally returned to campus, I was practically alone; most of my friends graduated ahead of me since I shifted degrees and had to extend by a year. This is the moment I decided that I wanted to pursue filmmaking on my own terms so I never reapplied for The GUIDON or LFC. On my own, I was able to shoot some event videos like the Pride Parade and the Bonfire (despite having almost no practice for the duration of lockdowns, I’d say I’ve improved since my first Bonfire video before the pandemic). Eventually, I made a short documentary called Meet The Cateneans (2022) and a few skits with my new friends. All of these projects were organized on Linux and edited with Kdenlive.
Integrating FOSS with my professional work.
After graduating, I got my first job as an in-house multimedia specialist for a visa consultancy agency. They provided me with a MacBook Pro and an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. While this was against my beliefs, I acknowledged that they had a certain expectation for speed and quality, so I accepted my fate and used the tools they provided me while using FOSS tools for my personal projects. For the most part, I just made content for their social media pages; but they had this tradition of making short films on holidays. Now that this was my job, I got the opportunity to write and direct a few holiday-themed short films. They graciously allowed me to use whatever tools I was comfortable with so I got to edit these short films with my beloved Kdenlive.
The reality of FOSS.
The truth is that just like when I was in high school, I am opting for “weaker” tools purely for the sake of proving a point. It’s not a secret that many actively-developed FOSS tools like Kdenlive and Cinelerra-GG are not as powerful as DaVinci Resolve, and other tools like Natron have had no stable release in years. This tends to be a turn-off for many people experimenting with FOSS alternatives, but this isn’t always the case. There was a time that Blender was shrugged off as something that was only good for Minecraft animations. Now, Blender is an industry-standard tool that was even used in making the Oscar-winning animated feature film Flow (2024). With enough support, a FOSS tool has the potential to become just as powerful as anything else in the market.
Unlike in filmmaking, most digital painters don’t care about the software other artists use to draw. Someone drawing with Krita won’t be questioned since it’s just as accepted as Procreate or Illustrator, I’d go so far as to say that they don’t even talk about the software they use the way filmmakers do. In filmmaking, there is an insistence that some programs are better than others. VFX artists MUST use After Effects and colorists MUST use Resolve; and when I mention Kdenlive, many video editors haven’t even heard of it and shrug it off.
Does this mean that I believe in FOSS or nothing? Of course not. There are many proprietary tools that I still use because they are accessible and ethical. Unreal Engine, for example, is free for low-budget teams, Linux-friendly, and publishes its source code (not open source but source code available). In fact, I still use Fade In to write my scripts; it works perfectly and my student-discounted lifetime license is still active today. My FOSS-forward advocacy hasn’t stopped me from working with people who use tools like Canva or Resolve. Again, the tool doesn’t define the artist. While I do encourage them to use FOSS tools when possible, I don’t stop them from using whatever tools they feel would help them work efficiently as artists. However, I will admit that I do tend to discriminate against Adobe users. While I don’t look down on the users, I do hate Adobe as a company. They are financially predatory to their users and are disgustingly forward with generative AI. I tend to avoid working with Adobe users since I genuinely feel disgusted knowing their software was used on my work.
Supporting FOSS in return.
As of today, I use free and open source software wherever I can. Most recently, I finished a short film called The Knight of Candle Mountain (2026), which was edited with Kdenlive, has hand-drawn animated sequences made with Blender, and proudly opens with the words “This film was made using Free and Open Source Software.” at the start of the film. It is currently going through its festival cycle and will eventually be available online via YouTube, Vimeo, and PeerTube.
While I’d love to support the free and open source software I use financially, I unfortunately do not make a lot of money. Instead, I return to the community by occasionally answering beginner questions on Reddit and Mastodon; this helps newbies feel welcome while also lightening the load for the real experts who answer more complicated questions. I hope to eventually do more and be able to make regular donations; but until then, I will continue to advocate for FOSS through my work.
Bonus: Piracy
Whenever I mention the “everything is political” and “supporting unethical corporations” arguments for FOSS, many people tend to defend their use of proprietary tools by saying it’s fine since they pirate their software. To this, I say that I disagree. I am vehemently against piracy; not because I care about the corporation’s profits, but because I still think it’s harmful to the user and society in general. Unlike pirating movies or music, software piracy puts your device at risk since it usually requires giving unregulated programs administrative access to your system. Additionally, you are still encouraging the use of these tools in regular production pipelines. It baffles me how many job postings there are for video editors that require proficient use of Premiere Pro. Really? Seriously? You want a specific, overpriced, bloated-to-hell software to edit your little TikToks? Not even CapCut? Whatever, weirdo, I didn’t wanna work for you anyway.