In just a matter of weeks, Marcus Pittman — a pro-life activist and filmmaker — has cobbled together an idea he’s hoping to turn into a top-of-the-line entertainment platform.
The idea was born out of adversity.
In August, Amazon Prime scrubbed its site of Pittman’s 2019 pro-life documentary, “Babies Are Still Murdered Here,” which had garnered more than 300 mostly five-star reviews, but has nevertheless vanished from the platform, leaving behind only a trailer.
“There has to be some better solution for Christian artists to make films,” Pittman told Faithwire. “So when ‘Babies Are Murdered Here’ got banned, that is what really made me start thinking, ‘Hey, what are some other viable alternatives that’s quality, good streaming, and that pays creators really well for their content.'”
He soon determined there weren’t any good choices out there. So Pittman brainstormed ideas, and came up with LOOR, which he described as “a unique platform that attracts and incentivizes the best content creators in the world,” adding his vision is to create a space capable of competing with HBO Max, the new on-demand streaming service from WarnerMedia.
Another impetus for Pittman’s new venture was the French film “Cuties,” which sparked a social media maelstrom due to its sexual exploitation of underage, prepubescent girls.
Pittman said the controversial film, which resulted in a huge exodus of subscribers from Netflix in September, was very influential in the decision to begin launching LOOR now.
“Where are [those subscribers] gonna go?” he said. “Where am I gonna get crime documentaries? I have to cancel Netflix, but I’m gonna lose all my crime documentaries, which are actually pretty decent. They don’t offend me; I love those things.”
The goal with LOOR isn’t to create “a silly alternative” faith-based streaming site, Pittman emphasized. Rather, he wants to establish a platform designed to be a “true competitor” to services like Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime. Pittman, who shared few details about the nascent venture, then equated the undertaking to the Old Testament story of David standing bravely against Goliath with only a sling and a handful of rocks.
The hurdle a lot of faith-based and family-friendly content creators face nowadays is developing films and TV series that aren’t overly cheesy or unrealistic — a trend Pittman said he’s committed to bucking.
“I think it’s possible and I think the reactions to the trailer [for LOOR] actually demonstrate that there is that market there,” Pittman said. “There is a desire to build this thing.”