@The Movies!
It is the week of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and I am loving the excitement around town, the menu of films to choose from and the creative energy crackling at the venues. Yahoo! Beautiful, glorious sunny days be damned! I’m heading to the dark theater and am off on a wild itinerary of varied expeditions. I completely lose myself in film, and I’m one of those people who, for a fleeting second, actually looks around for my seatbelt when the lights go down and the trailers begin.
This week I’m pulled in too many directions: being a mom and tending my flock; supporting Mike’s Reel Nature Sidebar – a slate of natural history films he chooses for the festival; trying to see as many films as possible; and oh yes, there’s also my real job which is paying attention to our film company, not to mention the variety of other commitments tugging at my sleeves. O, woe is me! What a terrible problem to have:)
But juggle I do, and yesterday I managed to see four movies. While I have little interest in critiquing these films, I was struck by one consistent thought that is germane to this blog: the throat grabbing power of film when done well and made with singular passion and commitment. I was moved by the people making the films, those whose vision came alive on the screen, and I was also touched by some of the characters in the films. I love meeting people – whether in films or real life – who possess conviction, playfulness and intense desire to facilitate positive change. People whose lives spin the world in a good direction.
I find myself wondering how these people got this way. There was Australian Dave Rastovich – featured in the film “Minds in the Water”. He’s one of a group of pro surfers traveling the world to promote the protection of whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals sharing the waves they all surf. Rastovich has an impish, boyish look and has two of the clearest green eyes ever to occupy a head. In the film he is funny, open hearted and speaks poetically of his love for the ocean and surfing big waves. He looks like the kid who could never sit still in class, who probably got sent to the principal’s office, who probably looked out the window a lot and spent a lot of time thinking about the ocean. But he made it big and is now working hard to bring awareness to the inanity and horror, in particular, of hunting whales and to the frailty of the marine world. He’s making a difference.
I watched the Wim Wenders film ‘Pina’. Each frame is as beautiful as an exquisite still photograph. Wenders moves us through and around choreographer Pina Bausch’s dancers. Shot in 3D it both fascinated and exhausted me as I held my breath during some incredibly athletic and strenuous moves. His use of 3D had me scanning the screen seeing crisp, riveting details I never would’ve seen watching these dancers live on stage. Remarkable. And I wondered about both Wenders and Bausch. I watched the film with two former professional dancers who weren’t so crazy about Pina Bausch’s choreography, but I suspect would admit that she was, however undisciplined they found her work, a force in her field. The artistry of Wim Wenders is undeniable and legendary.
Where and how did they find that focused passion (pun intended), that drive, that capacity for such hard work? And hard work it is in all of these cases. Drill baby drill. No slouches, they. Hours, hours, hours of dedicated work and effort. Each tapped into that quiet place within themselves and as a result, their artistry grew exponentially. And then they worked, worked and worked. Whether it was wave after wave, or dance move after dance move or film shot after film shot.
The late poet and philosopher John O’Donohue loved to quote Meister Eckert, the 14th century mystic. One phrase (paraphrased) remains in my mind as I think about kids: there’s a place in the soul that no time, no space nor no created thing can touch…there is a place in you where you’ve never been wounded, where there is a sureness in you, where there is a seamlessness in you and where there is a confidence and tranquility in you.
How do we help our children find that place? It seems to me that true creativity is the result of so many things but surely it needs that place, that fertile soil in which to grow. So, I keep wondering how we help kids locate that core voice within. With their busy lives, their schools that push them hard to fill in the right bubbles on those tests, with all their distractions, we are not making it easy. And once they do find that place, against many odds, how do we instill in them the capacity for hard work, for reptition of a task? Help them develop the kind of appetite that emerges from their own desire to master a task, not from someone pushing them to do something to augment a college application? I just don’t know, but I do know that each child needs to venture into that space within themselves, and I am not sure we are giving them the time to do that. They need to find that thing, that work (pleasurable work!) that allows them to lose track of time and space and find real satisfaction, a sense of mastery and confidence.
Finally, at the end of the film “Heist” Van Jones asks what species we want to become. Paraphrasing here since I can’t remember exactly what he says but essentially, he asks whether we want to become locusts, creatures that travel great distances in swarms and quickly devastate everything in their path, or do we want to become honeybees, consummate communicators who work successfully in groups to ensure the survival of all? Seems to me that when we endow our children with the ability to find that work that suits them best, work that reflects even an iota of that place within them that brings them peace and a sense of contributing something uniquely theirs, we will be humming like honey bees. What do you think? How do we give kids the time and ability to tap into that place? How do we give these kids a chance to foster the artistry within themselves? The confidence that gives them the power to make their voices heard and the desire to contribute to a cause greater than themselves? I’d like to know your thoughts.
