For pocket change I have a part-time job selling tickets at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema and Lounge, the independent film theatre in Indianapolis. This summer our patrons have been confused because we have been showing the summer blockbuster movies like "Sex in the City", "Indiana Jones", "The Dark Knight", along side our regular fare such as "The Visitor" and "Mongol". The blockbuster isn't busting at our theatre, even though it is selling out at the AMC down the street. People who know about us simple don't expect us to be screening such movies. They have brought in a few moviegoers who might not have wandered into our theatre, but for the most part we have had plenty of seats available for the blockbuster screens.
The management provided us talking points to explain to our regular customers why these studio films are on our schedule. It seems there is a crisis in the independent film community. Three distributors -- Warner Independent, PictureHouse, (? slipped from tongue) -- are dissolving and production companies such as THINKfilms are fighting to stay solvent. Investment in new independent films, the life blood of the industry, is becoming harder to find. Is this because of the economy, gasoline prices, diverting money to presidential campaigns; the lower cost of direct to viewer YouTube, DVD and streaming technologies provide; audience burnout on angry films or just the lack of stories or production personnel that an investor is willing to gamble on? Most likely all of these factors.
If ever there was a time for filmmakers to produce films that enlighten, entertain, or provide an escape, it is now. Transformational Cinema is alive and booming. Whether as a documentary or a narrative, these films are finding their own place in the market. Films like "Peaceful Warrior" and "Sliding Doors" have now found their way to cable networks, which in turn has boost their DVD rental and sales. These films have a much longer life cycle than the traditional mega-release. Viewers keep finding them, long past their release, and treasure them, much like they treasure that old childhood teddy bear in the closet that comes out for a memory or two every now and then. The warmth felt for the teddy bear is much like the feeling of finding a transformational film again, for both have a profound emotional memory associated with it. Transformational films are just that, transforming. We grow through watching them. We heal through watching them. We expand our horizons and find our sense of a larger existence.
This is why I started Toucan Films (Toucan rhymes with "You Can"). Stories should be so much more than just passing the time. They should engage, enlighten, expand our existence.
What are some of the great Transformational Films you've experienced?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Restarting yet again
Due to several events and distractions, work on The Active Mind came to a standstill several months ago. It was as if I went dull, the project taken away, dissolved. For the first time since the beginning in 2004, the energy and momentum was completely stopped. And I couldn't seem to find a way back.
I even found at first it difficult to meditate on the film. When I would try, other events quickly invaded my inward screen, demanding my attention. Emotions seemed distant, dull leaving me no choice but to simply get through the day. And that I did, sometimes filling my hours with a hobby, others with just getting through. Now and then I would try to think about the big questions, like should I continue the film or what do I really do to help the world. I had an increasing drive to become relevant, do something that made a difference. Yet, as an idea come to mind, often upon waking in the morning, it would soon fleet away before my head raised from the pillow. So I did what I could, which was often just counting the chimes of the clock or watching the weather.
Then one day, as I again attempted to meditate, I felt a shift in the energy of the planet, and a oneness with that Allness, that warmth radiating from me called Love. As I watched news events, accessing if the film was still relevant, needed, mine to do, I started to hear themes in the anchors' reports. So many reports seemed to identify the creative and powerful energy of thought, only to fall back into our mechanistic thinking. This film still has a role to play.
The Marianne Williamson's quote that starts with "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure" now hangs on my wall. This section is now marked, "Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you." I then realized the film and other creative projects started to disappear because of my reaction to harsh criticism and quick judgments of me, of my abilities and strengths. I started to accept other's limitations that they so willingly shared with me. The price of this was cutting the ties I have spent a lifetime cultivating, connections to the Allness of God, Creation, Infinite Source. In this effort to adopt the opinions of others about me, my body started to experience dysfunction, my mind started to stall and my lips stopped singing or laughing.
This is the theme I heard in the anchors' reports. We all are tempted to make real their stories of lack, fear and oil domination. Which means even those of us who have studied and worked the power of thought haven't integrated our spiritual understanding with our daily societal living. Thus, this film is still relevant and very much needed. It is time for us as a nation, as a human race, to understand that we create this experience. Whether you choose to understand that from the viewpoint that a person with happy frame of mind has a better time of it going through life than the one that only sees and therefore attracts challenging events, or from the viewpoint and understanding "It's all illusions!", it is still true. Science is starting to define this Truth, that the early metaphysicians discovered through their own seeking in the Silence. And when we open ourselves up to the Allness of God, we open ourselves up to all knowledge, all creation, and to our own source of greatness and purpose.
So I restart again, as we all have the chance to do, to become part of The Active Mind.
I even found at first it difficult to meditate on the film. When I would try, other events quickly invaded my inward screen, demanding my attention. Emotions seemed distant, dull leaving me no choice but to simply get through the day. And that I did, sometimes filling my hours with a hobby, others with just getting through. Now and then I would try to think about the big questions, like should I continue the film or what do I really do to help the world. I had an increasing drive to become relevant, do something that made a difference. Yet, as an idea come to mind, often upon waking in the morning, it would soon fleet away before my head raised from the pillow. So I did what I could, which was often just counting the chimes of the clock or watching the weather.
Then one day, as I again attempted to meditate, I felt a shift in the energy of the planet, and a oneness with that Allness, that warmth radiating from me called Love. As I watched news events, accessing if the film was still relevant, needed, mine to do, I started to hear themes in the anchors' reports. So many reports seemed to identify the creative and powerful energy of thought, only to fall back into our mechanistic thinking. This film still has a role to play.
The Marianne Williamson's quote that starts with "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure" now hangs on my wall. This section is now marked, "Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you." I then realized the film and other creative projects started to disappear because of my reaction to harsh criticism and quick judgments of me, of my abilities and strengths. I started to accept other's limitations that they so willingly shared with me. The price of this was cutting the ties I have spent a lifetime cultivating, connections to the Allness of God, Creation, Infinite Source. In this effort to adopt the opinions of others about me, my body started to experience dysfunction, my mind started to stall and my lips stopped singing or laughing.
This is the theme I heard in the anchors' reports. We all are tempted to make real their stories of lack, fear and oil domination. Which means even those of us who have studied and worked the power of thought haven't integrated our spiritual understanding with our daily societal living. Thus, this film is still relevant and very much needed. It is time for us as a nation, as a human race, to understand that we create this experience. Whether you choose to understand that from the viewpoint that a person with happy frame of mind has a better time of it going through life than the one that only sees and therefore attracts challenging events, or from the viewpoint and understanding "It's all illusions!", it is still true. Science is starting to define this Truth, that the early metaphysicians discovered through their own seeking in the Silence. And when we open ourselves up to the Allness of God, we open ourselves up to all knowledge, all creation, and to our own source of greatness and purpose.
So I restart again, as we all have the chance to do, to become part of The Active Mind.
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