Back to main site.The power of the camera
Posted by Maura g | Filed under inspirational
Always keep your mind open and your curiosity peaked.
I went to a show the other night at the Hi-Dive. Packed house for 3 out of town bands. Dawes, Other Lives & Delta Spirit. In between sets I ambled over to the merch tables, just to browse. I love looking at what kind of design the band deems to be their image at the moment. Next to the merch table there was a table that had nothing to do (or so I thought) with the bands. Invisible Children it said, and there was a stack of DVD’s..all sorts of different ones. “Have you heard of Invisible Children?” the friendly beaming face said to me. “No.” I stated flatly. And in the next 5 minutes I was reminded of how powerful the medium of film & video can be. What an incredible undertaking and resulting accomplishment. This team started with a simple documentary of their experience in Uganda..and from that have created such a worthy foundation with an admirable cause. Not only are they collecting millions of dollars used for building schools in Uganda and donating hundreds of thousands of books for those schools but they are waking the awareness of other cultures and those cultures strife in otherwise sheltered American kids. And they are doing it with creativity and style and excitement.
Fantastic.
Please go check their site. Invisiblechildren.com
The Ripple Effect and an Old Friend
Posted by Brendan | Filed under behind-the-scenes, musings and humor, new work
The Ripple Effect plays to a sold out premiere crowd
After premiering on January 2nd, our new feature documentary, The Ripple Effect, had two encore showings in Aspen, Colorado at the historic Wheeler Opera House this past weekend. The action sports film focuses on the various ways people pass on inspiration, from generation to generation, from sibling to sibling, and between friends. The film received and incredible reception, with both two packed shows.
For the FF crew, it was a great opporutnity to spend some time in the mountains, visit with old friends, and experience one of the great joys of filmmaking — actually getting to show your work to people who appreciate it.
One old friend we visted with was the artist Gino Hollander, one of the stars of a film we did a few years back called Mountain Town. Gino is in his mid-80s and has an incredible perspective on life and what makes it meaningful. After 20+ years in the Aspen valley, Gino and his incredibly charming wife Barbara are picking up sticks and heading to Ojai, California to start over. Apparently, the altitude and cold winters at 8,000 feet are just getting to be a bit too much for Gino.
Here is a man that fought and was wounded in World War II, had a successful career as a filmmaker, gave everything up to become an artist at 38, moved to Spain and lived abroad for 30 years, and then, at age 60+ moved back to Aspen and took up backcountry snowmobiling. And now, when most people are picking out grave plots, he’s at it again, reinventing his life and wringing every second out of the unforgiving minute.
A friend of mine, who met Gino this past weekend for the first time, remarked that Gino had, in the words of Paulo Coehlo an “elemental faith for life”. Read more of Berto’s deep thoughts here at his Joy Engine blog post.
An elemental faith for life…I like that. I like that, alot.