In early December I posted a radiant image of my mother on the first night of Chanukah. She got a lot of positive feedback on that image; maybe too much. A week later on her birthday so many people wrote to her about the picture that it kind of overwhelmed her. Turning 84 was hard enough on her...
A few years ago I went to the dentist and wrote about meditation practice. The other morning I went again and found myself thinking about meditation in a slightly different manner. About a week ago I saw a post about Sam Harris' meditation app and downloaded it. Well over a decade ago my partners and I shot a series of...
Most stereotypes have some truth to them -but it’s how those shreds of truth are twisted that leads to the kind of dehumanization that is seen in this ad. My father, who was Jewish, didn't love money so much as he hated to spend it. We got our winter coats in May (when they were practically giving them away) and...
All the Rage - Trailer from rumur on Vimeo. Our film about Dr. Sarno is called “All The Rage” because, according the doctor, the repression of rage is a primary driver of many pain issues. From Dr. Sarno’s perspective, the pain acts as a distraction or defense against feeling or experiencing “unacceptable emotions.” Many people reject the idea that our...
While we were in the late stages of making "All The Rage," my partner Suki was very focused on the edit, and I began to shoot more on a separate project - work related to protest. The short pieces I was making were part of the process of constructing the film we'd finish next, "Working In Protest". As this film...
PROLOGUE This is a post about ritual, health, belief, and systems in general. Often, those outside a system have the kind of perspective that allows them to spot the flaws or anomalies within a system, while those who exist within it are often "willfully blind" to these problems. The case of Enron is a good example. To anyone who looked under...
[caption id="attachment_21631" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Dr Sarno on one of his last days at work.[/caption] Every time we make a film we have to believe that it will reach people and have an impact. Each of our last 3 films has taken a decade or more to make. Some of that time was simply hitting a stall, having to work on something...
Last night, just before I shut off my computer, a music writer who I have corresponded with for over 25 years sent me a picture of this press letter I had sent him in 1994. It's not the most "professional" of letters, and while I'm 25 years older, I'm not sure I've become much more professional. During the night, I...
2017 was a very long year that went by at light speed. While 2016 challenged the basic idea of objective truth, 2017 took a hatchet to it in a way that highlighted how we all inhabit different worlds and different stories. For those who see Trump as a lying incompetent narcissist, it is almost unfathomable that others don’t see it...
This morning, Vox published an article about Dr Sarno that I was quoted in. I was so disturbed and frustrated by the title, "America’s most famous back pain doctor said pain is in your head. Thousands think he's right,." that I did not post the article to our Facebook page. Instead, I wrote to the author requesting that they re-visit...
Cathryn J Ramin's heavily researched look at the back pain industry, "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting On the Road to Recovery", is painfully satisfying to read - especially for people who have struggled with back pain and the surgeons, pushers, and needle jockeys that profit from it. Ramin's book is framed by her personal journey to...
"All The Rage" focuses on Dr. Sarno, but it's also about much broader themes related to how ideas move through the world. We think through the lens and language of our culture; there's no escaping it. Often times we are completely unaware of how deeply our culture shapes our sense of right and wrong, as well as accepted/acceptable...