Five Films that Changed my Life

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I was talking with a dear friend the other day, who is back in town after a couple years, and we got to talking films, and I found myself telling her films she had to see.  And then I realized the films I was naming were all really difficult pieces of work, and yet they are the films that have stuck with me.   Something in the form of all these films is utterly different than what I had imagined possible and they changed how I think about film, and ultimately how I see the world.  So here’s the list, and here’s to hard art that changes us.

 

#5:  In the Mood for Love –  for its sheer aesthetic beauty.

 

#4:  Y Tu Mamá También   – for the narration that tells a 2nd truth.

 

#3:  Bamako – for the story that moves between the World Bank on trial, to women dyeing fabric, to men sitting in the street – all of the same importance.

 

#2:  Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Live – for the shifts from mythical to the mundane, all in a moment

 

#1:  35 Shots of Rum – for the beauty of relationship, and nothing else.

 

 

Play Reading Tonight

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It’s been a year since I’ve done a large scale play/film reading at my house.  Tonight is my “Rumble in the Jungle” play reading.  Blessed to have friends and community to do this with.  Here are the pics from last year.

Breakfast in Johannesbug

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I’ve woken up each day this week to work on my world food film with my co-creator Jim.  I’m at a fancy hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, anId he’s some 9,000 miles away in Oakland raising a near one year old, so we connect before work, my time, and before bed, his.

 

 

I eat waffles, fresh fruit, and strong tea as we write through drought in Ethiopia, embattled corn harvest in Mexico, grain trading in the USA.  These characters, whom I know better than most of my friends, and Jim’s voice threaded through the computer surround me alone, perched in my Johannesburg hotel room.

Rubber in Liberia

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I’ve spent the last couple weeks traveling around Liberia visiting rubber plantations and mine sites, talking with people about how these businesses can better benefit local citizens.  I like the technical discussions the best: the cost of replanting a plantation slaughter tapped during the war, the tonnage of various trucks to transport, the process for cleaning and packing rubber.   This plant is run by a lovely Congolese woman who when I break into speaking french with her, invites me to her party.  Sometimes I marvel at home blessed I am to drop into all of these various worlds.

World Food Movie Take 6

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Another amazing evening, with readers of the World Food Movie calling in from three continents. Filled today with thoughts and inspiration on how to keep in developing. Here was the London contingent.

Waylaid in Kumasi

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On my way back from the mine in Obuasi, Ghana to Accra and then to Johannesburg. Flights cancelled and so I hole up in a hotel to work, rest, and sleep. One of the benefits is that they serve Banku, my favorite Ghanaian dish made with pounded fermented corn and cassava. Banku with Tilapia, Banku with light soup . . . I could stay here for awhile.

Solon Beef Days

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Been working on a film about the global struggle for food. The film takes us from the corn fields of Iowa, to Presidential palaces in Ethiopia, to rancheros hiding out in Mexico city. The opening credits roll over shots of Solon Beef Days, an annual festival in a small Iowa town where my aunt and uncle and their family still live. The parade is actually happening today while I am 6,000 miles away at a gold mine in Ghana eating mashed cassava and running projections for millions of dollars of new community projects. Sometime I wonder at the strangeness of how a boy from Massachusetts ended of advising African governments and companies, but today its the Solon main street parade that seems oddest of all.