Snap back to reality.

Hello Friends,

5 days until we leave for Brazil!! So much has gotten done since this project was concieved. It is a truly humbling experience to fall in love with a project and put everything you have into it. Not just for the feeling of doing something you love coupled with the mountain of work that needs to be done to see the project through, but the people who throw down, and become involved. My favorite thing about making films aside from creating art is that I get to create art WITH people. Amazing people.

Thanks to the people who are making this project their own:
Roberto Bettega, Dan Mclane, Jim Hamilton, Kris Rey-Talley, Benjamin Barnett, Motti Salma, Jeff Curran, The Turnpike Collective,  Media Bureau, Empowerment Group, Paul Johnson, Juliano Telles, Steve Herrick, Angel Rodriguez, Nicole Deluca, Brooke Welsh, Eddie Barber, Harmonica Lewinskis, Lower East Side Blues Collective, Richie Rich and the Poor People, Zoe Shevack, Luke Elliot, Iki Beat, Zeb J Row, Jameson VanHorn Band, Paulo Sampler, friends, family, lovers.



I often feel apathetic towards groups of people, for a long time in my angst filled early twenties I repeated the mantra "the person is smart, people are dumb." Then threw myself into the arts, namely theatre and film, which are art forms that only exist with groups of people. This idea is at the essence of cinema. Unlike a painting which is usually made by a lonely artist in a dark dusty studio, which then is distributed into one sole location, films are made by masses of people, to then be distributed to the masses. Much like music, with the power to unite, effect, and change our little world in some way.

The last few weeks have been hard but wonderful, yet I have been feeling the stress (if you couldn't tell by the cerebral blog posts,) which made me forget how lucky I am to be able to work on a project I love with  talented people, and more join the project everyday.

We are just about finished with our first round of USA shoots, and currently working on a 15 minute cut of the film. We are holding a fundraiser this Saturday at the Media Bureau in Philadelphia, with an incredible collection of musicians and artists.

It is late and I am beat. Items are being crossed off lists, cards and hardrives are being filled with trans-codes and cuts. Pages of documents are piling up. Press and articles written, connections and collaborations happening.

It's ALL very GOOD!!

Talk soon! Thanks for your support!
-Stephen