Jay Duplass came to Arkansas to give a talk he called “How to Make Movies in the Apocalypse.”

That sounds scary, but maybe that’s where we are. The world where small movies—comedies and dramas about recognizable human beings—could regularly find their way into theaters is, if not gone, then on life support. It feels like the end of something. And yet, Duplass insisted, artists can still make movies. In fact, they must. What else are you going to do? One of the best things about film festivals, especially Arkansas Film Society’s Filmland, is how they de-mythologize artists. It’s one thing to think of Martin Scorsese or the Coen brothers as figures in the ether. It’s another to sit in a room with someone like Duplass—who’s been there, who’s failed, who’s still at it—and realize human beings actually make movies. They’re not conjured by demigods on high. They’re written and acted and cobbled together by people who once lived in lousy apartments, with one good shirt to wear for their office temp jobs. And if they can do it, maybe you can too. Making art is within your ken.

Duplass grew up in suburban New Orleans in the

’80s. His parents were working too hard to drive him to theaters, and anyway, his father dismissed “Star Wars” as “planes zipping around killing dragons.” (Not entirely wrong, though it........

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