The most energising talk delivered at TEDx Johannesburg this year came from independent self-funded film maker, Sibs Shongwe-La Mer who, according to those who know a thing or two about film, is the guy to watch over the next couple of years.

He spoke at length about how production and the creative landscape is changing and how the film – and music – industries are doomed to die, if they’re not already on a swift path to the graveyard.

“Hollywood’s idea of a production company includes a massive set, hundreds of staff, special effects and more. Mine is three to four of  my friends with time to kill, a Facebook account and filming gear that can fit into a backpack,” he says.

And he says this means he can literally give his content away, since it cost literally nothing to make.

His story is not unique. “Kids are doing it all over,” he says.

“With so much evidence of this hyper creativity and sharing around us do we mourn the death of the industry?” he asks.

“No,” he answers quickly. “Maybe now we start to really investigate the true nature of this ‘spirit quality’ that we’re so programmed to want and explore. And with industry changing so rapidly, what frontiers come next?”

His next slide reads: “The creative adult is the child who survived.”

“What if we welcome kids as the innovators they are, equipping them with the same logical function – our technology and medical technology – we have at our disposal?

“We’d be killing the idea of the ‘one artist’ and replacing it with an idea where everyone is an artist, participating in a great canvas.

“How about putting a blank section in the back of a maths book? Kids do their math, but then also have to make some kind of representation of what the problem solving process was. The notion of logical function meeting creative discourse becomes something that we all do. We’d be creating a society that combats illness at the same time as acknowledging its own splendour.

“We want more people thinking of innovation and solutions, not the few like we have today.”

While he acknowledges this is all pretty revolutionary, he says, we need to look around and realise that we need to see change in the world.

“Because, in all seriousness, the world is just not good enough as it is.”

To get a glimpse of his work, visit his site.