This video was made when my daughter was 3. I'm not sure if we were the ones teaching her about responsibility, or if it was her day care, but as you can see, she's never been too happy about the idea of taking responsibility for her actions. Who can blame her though. Very few of us want to feel responsible,...
Yesterday the NY Post published an article about the films, "Five Foot Two" which chronicles Lady Gaga's struggles with pressure and pain, as well as Jennifer Brea's film "Unrest" which focuses on her battle with the effects of "chronic fatigue syndrome". The article is called "When You're in Constant Pain and Nobody Believes You." It's a somewhat sensational title that...
All the Rage - Trailer from rumur on Vimeo. On Oct 11 we are going to have the triangle area premiere of “All The Rage” at the Carolina Theater in Durham. After premiering the film in New York last November, it’s taken a while to get it on screen in our new/original hometown. Twenty-three years ago over Thanksgiving in 1994, we...
Over the past several months I have worked on re-framing my relationship to the world. Starting from the understanding that we "create our own reality" I have worked on accepting everything that happens without judgment, and in general I've found that the results are pretty fantastic. When we simply accept what is, without putting a negative or positive label on...
Tension in the triangle area of North Carolina ramped up considerably after the wild clashes in Charlottesville, VA. A few days after the chaos and the killing there protesters in Durham pulled down a Jim Crow era confederate statue in front of the old courthouse. People were shocked, not only to see it fall, but also to see it twist and...
[caption id="attachment_19306" align="aligncenter" width="599"] self portrait at the end of tour 1997[/caption] The other day I read a story about meditation that focused on the power of forgiveness. The author discussed his experience of being hooked up to a machine that measured his brain waves while he was meditating. During this particular mediation he was focused on forgiving a trusted employee...
Here we are once again, boot strapping a film into the river of distribution on a raft that keeps taking on water. We launch "All The Rage" at Cinema Village next week, and as usual, we are doing everything ourselves. Not only do we have to make the films, but we have to make all the distribution materials,...
One of my favorite things about traveling with our films is taking pictures. I shot the following with my phone as I travelled to Sedona, Chicago, and San Francisco in the past two weeks. This weekend Asheville. The next weekend NYC. ...
[caption id="attachment_21050" align="aligncenter" width="1080"] While in San Francisco I went for a couple of long runs. One one I captured this image from the top of a hill.[/caption] This past weekend we had three profoundly moving screenings in San Francisco. With each event the sense that this film can bring about real change grows. We surprised everyone by filling the Roxie theater...
Yesterday I was on my way to San Francisco to present two films as the SF Docfest. I happened to be sitting next to an older gentleman, Herbert Reichlin. He was reading the MENSA magazine and we discussed the letters section in which 4 different people had profoundly different responses to an article in the previous issue in which the...
I recently re-subscribed to the New Yorker. I hadn't renewed a few years ago because I had gotten overwhelmed by issues piling up on the back of the toilet. However, I came to miss the writing and the connection to what's "happening," culturally-speaking. When the 25 dollar subscription offer came for the 10th time, I decided I couldn't refuse....
Over the last couple of years, I have focused a lot of energy on learning to respond to situations rather than react to them. Our reactions are seemingly "automatic," but they are based on programming; on our learned experience and our genetic pre-disposition. For example, if there's a loud sound, one person might react with fright while another might respond...