Far away in the land of possiblilty

Friends,

Time has passed by like a speeding train. We have spent close to a month here in Curitiba, a small city in the south of Brazil that sits inland about 100 miles from the lovely ocean that littered our blog before. The beautiful dream-like atmosphere of Rio is far different from the concrete jungle of this city. Influenced heavily by Europe, Curitiba seems like a different country from my experience in Rio.

We have spent much of our time with Rob's huge, incredible family. A mix of Italian and Brazilian backgrounds, the many branches of his family contain pockets of charisma, beauty, and guile that is new to me given my smaller American family experience. The bonds that connect them also pale in comparison. A talk with some family friends one day at lunch turned into an interview, where they described their family dynamic as a group dynamic; where the individual identity disappears and each person becomes a part of a larger family identity. If one member has a problem, the responsibility is not solely on that individual to fix it, but on the family as a whole to fix it together. In the same vein, the success of one is the success of all.

Now, I know this exists back home, but I tell you, my friends, it is much different here. In the US, we rarely sit down and have dinner as a group anymore -- let alone come together many times a week to share stories, issues, and achievements. Back home, it is the expectation of the individual to go out and make a name for themselves, in order to create another family to keep the name going. Here, it feels more like the mentality of "family" in our social groups, but within the context of the immediate family.

These concepts will be weaving their way into the story of our film, as we explore the unique deeper cultural qualities of this country and its society. To be honest, it has been difficult for me to work through everything I am living through here, and to figure out what it is that we are truly doing. It seems every corner I turn opens a new chapter, which could be an entire new film. The last few weeks, however, have been slower. We have major budgeting concerns, schedule conflicts, and other issues that every film production must confront, and -- as we have done many times -- we will battle through and prevail. I awoke this morning with a renewed energy and optimism. There are some incredible people here with whom we have worked over the last few months. We found a couple of projects here and there to help put bread on the table. Through all of this I realized -- possibly for the first time -- the true magnitude of what we set out here to do (which may be why it has been so scary the last few weeks). But when I think about what we have done (under budgeted and under planned), then I feel relaxed. This is the life of the independent artist. The dreamer who will fight till the end until the big break... right! DAMN RIGHT.

Here is a little snippet of a Video we shot the last night in Rio. Subtitles will be added when we create a larger cut of the film. Please enjoy, share and comment.