It’s Monday Oct 7th, and tomorrow will be 4 weeks since my mother passed away. At this time, last month, I was in a car on the way to the airport in Tel Aviv. After 20 hours of travel I made it to my mother’s bedside in North Carolina with just two hours to spare before she passed away. It’s...
Our mother was the GOAT. Yes I’m referring to just how stubborn she could be, but I’m really using the term to link her with Michael Jordan - who just so happens to have given a nice chunk of money to help build her beloved School of Social Work. Like him, she refused to accept that the ceiling is the...
I have been thinking a lot about images and how their meaning shifts and changes on both a micro and macro level. Individual images gain meaning through the passage of time. Something that feels so normal as to be not worthy of anyone’s attention at one time might spark intense levels of nostalgia 20 years later. ...
I woke up this morning to find myself tagged in the image above, an instagram post about "Radiation", our most successful film from a festival standpoint, but our least successful film in terms of distribution. While it showed at over 40 international festivals, almost no one ever saw it outside of that circuit. This has happened to a few of...
Last week as we sat by a fountain, my mother said, "Look at that bird." I saw it right away. A trick of the light, this shadow bird could only be seen from one angle, and only at a very specific time each day. My mom has always seen shapes in clouds, trees, and sea shells. Her creative mind...
This week I have been very focused on pulling together the elements for my new book of mall photos, “The Decline of Mall Civilization” as well as the images for a photo show I have coming up in July, and a music video for a friend, and take care of the kids because my wife is out of town, and...
My mom has spent years making magnets. She calls it her “art of the sea” because it’s made from shells and ephemera from her beach walks. She never felt competent as an artist but she found some books that gave her simple tips for creating figures and she used them to make birthday cards for all her kids (and grandkids)...
About 6 weeks ago I was in the midst of a crisis and my good friend Caroline took it upon herself to make me go for a run with her every day that week. She also made me go with her to a yoga class. In principle, I love the idea of yoga. In reality, I don’t think I’d ever...
Journaling and meditation are two proactive and simple tools that you can use to move forward in your process of healing. One prescription that Dr Sarno made for dealing with chronic pain was journaling daily. Nicole Sachs, a former patient and protege of Dr Sarno, focuses some of her work on helping others to journal....
We've been doing this work for over 25 years and have made all kinds of films from rock and roll narratives to crime films to political and personal documentaries. On the surface, most of the films don't seem connected, but certain themes run through them all, and they build on one another. These can be thought of as themes and...
Rage and fear are intimately connected - which can be see in the way we often respond with rage when we feel threatened and feel fear when we are confronted with rage. Sometimes these perceived threats are physical and sometimes they are emotional. When rage is directed at us, we often default to an automatic response of fight of flight-...
Often times when our path gets disrupted we react with distress. It can be easy to fall into a process of getting right back on our journey when our plans go awry. However, if we look at those bumps in the road as opportunities rather than obstacles to be overcome, we often see great value in these interruptions. Our perspective...