chashama Film Festival 2012

http://www.chafilmfest.com/whitney/whitney_hamps_2.html

      Kenneth Burris sees iconography in his work work as an investigation of self.  He builds narratives that test his own concepts against the external world, searching to find a way through a network of reference and recognition.  His thoughts revolve around personal and intimate, interwoven by capitalism, environmentalism, industrialization, technology, and culture. By flirting between representation and abstraction, he creates singular worlds of personalized drama that unfold into a critical language of it’s own.

     Influenced by 21st century technology like Video games, Google earth, Internet, and You-tube, Kenneth said ”We live  in a time of anxiety and news media.  It is intensive expression of anxiety.”  

      He is sensitive to environmental issues, and the work he is exhibiting at chashama deals with balance and precision.  He looks at isolation and what is mechanical, methodical, and sporadic.He feels that optimism overcomes anxiety, and he averts disaster by creating a way to funnel anxiety. 

     Kenneth’s visual art will be exhibited at chashama on 217 E. 42^nd Street until Sunday, November 13^th.

    Influenced at an early age by the drawings of my father and oldest brother, Garry F. Grant knew that he wanted to become an artist.  He was always fascinated by century old techniques and traditions of Gold Leaf and its beauty when applied to various frame and glass projects.  The materials that he uses are just as diverse as his influences.  They include gesso, clay, gold, copper and various other metallic leafs.  These, along with layers of acrylic paint, varnishes and shellacs combine to create attractive and fascinating abstract works of art.

       His triptych in the Festival is called Generation X.  He feels that Generation X is the history of the human race.  With each generation, you pass on what you know. We express sadness and anger.  We express what’s wrong with the environment.  For Garry, when things come to a boiling point, it’s important to take it to a place where systems can change.  

      “Every time, I think about NY I see part of myself through the strength and the chaos.  Artists cause strength to speak to our moment and bring out the creativity without necessary distraction,”  Garry said.  

      Garry’s visual art will be exhibited at chashama on 217 E. 42^nd Street until Sunday, November 13^th.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

1.      Why did you submit to the Fourth Annual Chashama Film Festival? 

This will be the third time I’ve participated with cFF. The festival’s 2011 theme, Chaos Theory: The Rise and Fall of Societies, is particularly suitable to the type of work I’ve been making this year, the Project 12 series (www.youtube.com/user/DiranLyons), which is a specific type of video work called Political Remix.

2.      How is your work illustrative of the country you are from?

 Political Remix Video selects fragments from popular culture, the news media, Hollywood films, etc., recombining and reorganizing that content to say something critical about the repurposed sources specifically and current events more broadly. My three works in the fest focus on the downturn of the US economy, the deteriorating living conditions of the 99%, and provide an “identity correction” of US political affairs, whereby the remix’s intention aims at making the examined institution or politician speak more truthfully.
 

3.      Are you glad that your work is going to be shown in NYC?

 Absolutely. It is always great to show creative work in a huge metropolis like New York. Given that the Occupy Wall Street protests have had such a deep and reverberant impact on political discourse this fall, it is a wonderful opportunity to contribute in any fashion to the ongoing dialog and engage with what people are concerned about.
 

4.      Where else has your work been shown?  If you have a favorite place abroad where your work has been shown, what is it? 

Some of the remixes included in cFF also recently screened in Brooklyn at the 2011 RE/Mixed Media Festival this October. Additionally, The 6th International Streaming Festival will show the “LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (Project 12, 8/12)” video in December, with exhibitions at Riviervismarkt 5, The Hague, The Netherlands, and at [THE BOX], Via Confalonieri 11, in Milan, Italy. The Streaming Festival is accessible for international audiences as well, hosting three weeks of screenings on the festival website, streamingfestival.com. Moreover, the “Obama Likes Spending (Project 12, 3/12)” remix received an affirming shout out in Wired Magazine on November 1st. In his article, “The Video Remix ‘Supercut’ Comes of Age,” Andy Baio touted the “Spending” work as one of the most epic ‘supercut’ remixes ever produced. It’s very humbling to hear such kind words from pioneers in the field of remix and to be mentioned alongside heroes of mine like Christian Marclay.
 

5. What is the best part about participating in a festival that facilitates discussion with international artists?

 New ideas always emerge by participating in festivals, group exhibitions, and conferences. Interacting with other artists helps refine one’s thought processes and often initiates new creative projects. It’s always inspiring to see the fresh new work of others from around the globe.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
1. What is it about chaos that is most upsetting to you?

 There is a list of unsettling items depending on the type of chaos, but in terms of geopolitics, those in power often use the resultant fear from chaos to expand their power. The most glaring example that comes to mind is the Patriot Act, shoved through congress without public hearings or congressional debate. The Los Angeles Times reported that ”few in congress were able to read summaries, let alone the fine print, before voting on it” (“With Powers Like These, Can Repression Be Far Behind? The sweeping new anti-terrorism laws threaten our civil liberties.” by Robert Scheer. http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1030-10.htm). With fear and hysteria enveloping the nation after 9/11, our sacred freedoms were minimized, eroded, and otherwise trampled by this “Patriot” Act.

2.      What’s the most rapid social change that you have ever seen?

 In my lifetime, again, the Patriot Act(s) have had the most rapid effect. “The American Dream” is devolving into a nightmare. We had a 4th amendment, now we have warrantless wiretapping and the privilege of being groped by the TSA (or going through microwave scanners) at airports. We had the protocols of the Geneva Conventions, now we have “enhanced interrogation techniques.” We had the UN Charter barring the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, now we have a persistent “Bush Doctrine,” a perpetual interventionist mindset, and the ever expansion of wars by a peace laureate president that endeavors to “spread democracy.” We had due process of law, now we have indefinite detentions without trial and the assassination of US citizens, as Homeland Security has shifted its focus from terrorists to “domestic extremists.”

We had a 1st Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech and the right to assemble peacefully, now we have rubber bullets, police beat downs, and tear gas when trying to exercise those rights. We’ve had a constitutional scholar, Barack Obama, occupying the White House for 3 years, a man who once remarked that the Patriot Act was a threat to freedom and liberty, but he renewed and intensified it after becoming president.

The zeitgeist appears to be one bent on a trajectory toward a full-fledged police state. We now live in a culture of assumed guilt, rather than the default position of innocence until proven guilty. We were told that all this was the result of evil terrorists who attacked us because they hated our freedoms, but the Patriot Act windswept those freedoms. If it were the freedoms they hated (which were subsequently taken away after the attacks), syllogistically speaking, shouldn’t we end the Terror War? But, from a quotable cult classic, “We are men of action. Lies do not become us.” Just try to picture the “necessary repercussions” the reprehensible US “Super Congress” will impose after a new attack. Not pretty.

 3.      How do you find strength in instability?

 Personally, I find strength in working creatively, exploring issues I deem to be of grave importance and releasing artworks to the public. This ambition, to make strong work stemming from the necessary research that goes into the overall creative process, tends toward a fortifying of character and mind. Instability calls individuals to a higher order. It beckons people to bring about order out of chaos. In that process, growth can emerge if one sets his/her sights on the task at hand, aligns with the passionate and like-minded, and strives to achieve positive objectives within a growing collective. In some sense, that is our only option at present: to grow and become stronger through the current hardship, to never relinquish our will to the forces that threaten us.
 

4.      What do you do to divert disaster?

 It’s often wise to error on the side of caution and take proactive steps to impede antagonistic forces. “Diverting” something implies the ability to see the potentiality of an impending event, attending to necessary measures beforehand to thwart its actualization. There’s some measure of “clairvoyance” involved, where one sees certain causes leading to undesired effects. Often people disagree on whether something disastrous is looming. I think the Occupy movement is doing a superb job at persuading people that something is, particularly if things carry on “business as usual.”

 Individuals have different skills sets, aptitudes, and means. Such diversity is vital. For my part, I lean toward producing DIY creative projects that elucidate some of the problems abovementioned (and their deplorable implications) because these works can foster discussion and often bring to light subjects that many still don’t contemplate, unfortunately, in day to day life. It is my hope that through creative projects, protests, speaking engagements, interviews, vlogging, and articles we will witness a greater awareness come to fruition such that people who happen upon these efforts will intuit the bleak outcome awaiting our society if we sit on our hands.

5.     If you could make a community more peaceful, what would be fulfilling about it?

 An unimaginable amount of funding goes to law enforcement, policing the world, and military conflict. I relish the thought of all the improvement that could manifest in people’s lives, communities, and countries if the taxation upon our society were going toward improving the overall conditions of our world instead of lining the pockets of the military industrial complex. I think seeing those positive changes and the increased happiness would be most fulfilling.

ABOUT YOUR WORK

1.     How did you choose the subjects of the three works you have in the festival?

 Our economic situation teeters on total collapse. In “Obama Likes Spending,” I considered whether a strong remix could be made by meditating merely on a single word as it intrinsically relates to economic implosion. One thing I wanted to demonstrate was that the vacuous promises by our government to reduce spending have been just that: empty. Unfortunately, three years of talking about spending reduction hasn’t amounted to much in terms of reining it in. Thus far, with his own follow up to Bush’s bank bailouts, the gratuitous stimulus spending, and new wars in Libya, Pakistan, and (soon to be) Iran, Obama’s presidency has been just words.

The Maggie Gyllenhaal remix entitled “Death and Taxes (Project 12, 5/12)” points to the aforementioned problems with the Patriot Act in its regard of outspoken citizens as “terrorists.” In the middle of the work, she speaks to her frustration with paying taxes that go to the military, and she winds up being quarantined in a dark space full of explosives after what appears to be her conviction to evade taxation on those grounds. I wanted to pay lip service to diminishing civil liberties, Homeland Security citizen surveillance, corporate greed, our global militarism, and the intersection of these items.

Finally, “LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD” provides an “identity correction” of Obama’s running commentaries on subjects such as campaign discretionary funds, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, military spending, Social Security, and Medicare. Frustrated by the partisan rhetoric of the debt ceiling debate, I tediously extracted words and phrases from several of Obama’s speeches and news conferences, creating an overall commentary that reflects more truthfully the actions of this administration and the past two congresses. 

2.     How do you work with performers?

 The performers in my remix work are generally borrowed from Hollywood films. My intention is to construct the appearance of interaction between unrelated sources so that they speak to more overtly political issues. (It’s a lot more difficult to do than I wish it were! It would be really convenient to direct performers to say scripted lines to one another, rather than excavate statements from completely unrelated contexts, turning these on their head. Serendipity so often plays a huge role in actualizing a video of this nature.)

 3.     How did you choose the other crew involved in the projects?

Project 12 is year-long series, now nearing completion. Every month since January, I’ve released a new video on the 12th day. It’s seemed as though as soon as one project reached the deadline, a new one immediately needed to be conceptualized, edited, and released. Constantly being behind the eight ball is a stressful position. So the series of remixes utilized a film production model where I directed the videos and selected different script co-writers that I’ve befriended over the years, among these were Desiree D’Alessandro, Vrüden Jakov, and Stephen Mears. These individuals stuck out in my mind because of their visually literacy and being so well-versed in current events and recent pop culture. The form of remix is inherently collective, both in terms of its appropriation-based fabrication and online reception. I also think in many ways that beta testing with someone is a form of collaboration. So given the co-writers’ background knowledge and enthusiasm for film and TV, they were particularly qualified to help perpetuate the stamina of Project 12. I enjoyed their feedback, advice, and interest in my work from prior years, so the logical extension of those relationships was to divide the commitment of the year-long project with them as they were available.

 
4.     Why did you choose to make videos in this format?

 Remix is so big on the concept of sharing that it seemed fitting to have the new series intrinsically incorporate sharing into its scope. The script co-writers and I perused potential subjects and then roughly conceptualized the videos, proceeding with algorithmic frameworks much like Sol LeWitt, Charles Gaines, and other conceptual fine artists approach conceptual art. A system always guided the production so that the artist’s subjectivity in the creative process did not have to run roughshod over everything else. After establishing an initial conceptual outline, I then set out to create the works, as I enjoy editing and the creative problem solving and decision-making that invariably goes into finalizing a piece.

 
5.     What is the most compelling sequence of your projects?

 My favorite passage is where Maggie Gyllenhaal yells at the TV screen in “Death and Taxes.”

                                                                                                  Text compiled by Marcina Zaccaria

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
1.  Why did you submit to the Fourth Annual chashama Film Festival?

Steve: “I passed by the festival last year during the festival and I met Rick, we talked a bit and advised me to submit next year.  Two years later and with our new release, To Be King, we’ve been selected to screen at the chashama Film Festival.”

2.  Where was the most favorite place where your work was shown abroad? If it hasn’t been shown abroad, where would you like it to be shown?

The film premiered overseas at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival in September.  

Nigel: “Going there, I wasn’t sure what to expect but when I arrived and saw the attention the film has received amazed me.  They fell in love with the film.  It was electric, it was a great turnout.  Other than appearing at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, To Be King opens in Delaware on November 10^th and in New York City at the chashama Film Festival on November 11^th at 9PM.  Then we’re at it again the following week kicking off the New York International Film Festival on November 18^th 2011.  It’s been an incredible experience with this film.  We guarantee you’ll love it.”

3.    Are you glad that your work is going to be shown in NYC?

Steve: “Absolutely.  I’ve been waiting for this chance to premiere at chashama for over two years now.  NYC is important for us.”

Nigel:  ”It really hits home to be in the big Apple.  It’s survival, and when you have your peers love the work you do and can show genuine love, then you know they’re right in the trenches with you to make a film that people actually like.”

4.    What is the best part about participating in a festival that facilitates discussion with international artists?

Steve: “Getting feedback about your film – audience members give you the most insight on your work.  When you see the audience react and clap at the end of the show you know you’ve done something good.”

 Nigel: “We love meeting and speaking to people who’ve seen the film.  It’s important to see the different views from the audience.  Sometimes we learn something new about the work just from someone’s personal view and attachment with what they’ve seen.”

ABOUT A RESPONSE TO THE FESTIVAL
1.    What is it about chaos that is most upsetting to you?

Steve:  “The theme that we went with in the film To Be King is redemption.  We built so many characters in the film, and redemption is the theme within itself – regaining trust or expressing power.  The involvement of each character, boyfriend or girlfriend, mother and father, they all find redemption.  In our case with the film, redemption leads to closure.”

2.    What’s the most rapid social change that you have ever seen?

The economy, social media.  

Nigel: “For me, social media has been the biggest change. Once social media was created, it brought a lot of people in contact with friends and family that you never thought you’d cross.”

 3.    How do you find strength in instability?

Nigel: “I find that what breaks you makes you stronger.  If things aren’t stable all the time, we deal with the unseen.  The things that come up in life, you have to evaluate and come up to a solution.  When the first sign of instability comes, you’re not going to be ready for it, and you are going to find strength.”

4.    What do you do to divert disaster? 

Steve: “While shooting the film in the last six months, we’ve seen our share of disaster.  We lost the owner of the gym where we were filming.  Jimmy O’Pharrow of Starrett City Boxing.  It was a tough setback.  Jimmy was a legend in the boxing world.  He helped us in ring work and let us have full access to an historical place.”  

Nigel: “We had a couple more days of shooting and my mother, Ismay Harvey, passed away.  During the filming to To Be King,  her cancer took a turn for the worse, I became a whole caretaker.  I didn’t want her in the nursing home or a hospital.  I had the support of my girlfriend who sacrificed so I could come to New York from Delaware to finish the movie.  It was hard, but my mother always said that she wanted the film to be done.  I was a firm believer in her love and spirit and we felt her there every minute, even after she had passed away.

Steve: “After the premiere at the Long Island film festival in Bay Shore, we met a beautiful young lady, Kaiya Kukura, who came with her mother to the show.  She told us how much the film inspired her to pursue an acting career.  We encouraged as we always do.  We learned that she passed away a week later.  Our prayers go out to Jimmy O’Pharrow, Ismay Harvey and Kaiya Kukura.”

5.    If you could make a community more peaceful, what would be fulfilling about it?

There should be less fighting, more love, less discrimination.  No more war.  That would be a dream.  Everyone could live together.  Life would be so much different if we didn’t have hatred for each other.

ABOUT YOUR FILM
1.    How did you choose your thematic material?

Steve: “Nigel pitched the story in 2008 and we began filming in January of 2011.  This film turned out to be a real blessing.  It involves the things that come into play with us everyday and the struggles at force us to become fighters.  

Nigel: “There are things that everyone is going through and we made it our point to tell a story of a  journey of finding yourself.”  

2.    How do you work with actors?  Or how do you choose your interview subjects?

Steve: “Working with actors can be hit or miss and as a filmmaker we know this is true.  I must say the actors in this film, Nigel Harvey, Frank Merlino, Rosie Moss, Tommy Clohessy, Miriam Morales, Kamel Goffin, LoDeon and a handful of others have impressed me.  This film is no Hollywood Project, it’s an independent feature film with Hollywood caliber actors and actresses, who gave a 1000% to this film.  Never have I been more proud to work with such talented people who were willing to learn and teach me a thing or two along the way.” 

 3.    How did you choose the crew on the film?

Steve:  “Some of the people that I’ve worked with in the past.  Nigel Havery was in the last film,  Bloodline.  As well as being the lead actor in the film, Nigel helped produce the film.  We had one lighting guy, Julian Conde who made every scene pop with colors.  Myself and Julian did the majority of the filming.  We kept the boom mounted to the camera.  It’s a style I preferred to use since the beginning of my film career.” 

4.    Why did you choose to make a film that length?

To Be King runs 1 hour and 42 minutes.  It could’ve been longer, we shot the material but we wanted to keep the audience involved and never get bored.  It could have gone on for two hours if we wanted it to. After are screenings we’ve learnt that if it went 2 hours, no one would have noticed.  It moves at a brisk pace with plenty of action and story.

5.    What is the most compelling image in your film?

The relationship between the father and daughter.  It shows what men go through to fight for their families.  It would make a grown man tear up – it’s fantastic.  See what we’re talking about.  To Be King, Friday, November 11, 9:00PM at 217 East 42nd Street.

                                                                                   Text compiled by Marcina Zaccaria

The Opposite of Chaos

by Marcina Zaccaria

     Michael Fox is a freelance journalist, translator, radio reporter, and documentary filmmaker.  In 2007, he founded Estreito Meios Productions as a means of telling stories that reveal desperation, indignation, and hope through difficult times.  After making Beyond Elections, Fox and his team developed Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action, a feature-length documentary that takes us across the country amidst the economic collapse of 2008.

     Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action sheds light on grassroots solutions found throughout the United States during the 2008 financial crisis.  “We drove all around the country, out to California, and all the way back to the South, and we asked people what they thought,” said Fox.   

     Interviews from the film span two years and cover nearly 40 states, drawing from farmers, truck drivers, homeless people, workers, and immigrants. By revealing dreams in light of a disastrous economic breakdown, his documentaries are to create a debate or a discussion, and with relatives who were coal miners in Appalachia, Fox enjoyed sharing their stories of solidarity. Fox has lectured at Marymount Manhattan College, University of Maryland, International Action Center, The Brecht Forum, Black Sheep Books, and Hampshire College, among other places.   

     When Fox is traveling, he operates with a spare crew – mostly it is only he and Silvia Leindecker. “It’s been pretty much Silvia and I.  On the first film, we had a little bit more help in terms of audio editing…it’s pretty much Silvia and I, and that includes shooting it and editing it and interviewing it and post production.  It’s really spare, but in time of economic difficulties, it’s what you have to do.”

     Fox and Leindecker get to travel quite frequently.  Estreito Meois started in 2007 is an independent production company founded in 2007 and in South America.  “Sylvia is from Brazil, I’m from the US, but we lived for the last six years in Latin America, so we were largely in Venezuela and also in Brazil.  The connections are really amazing…what’s so exciting about Latin America is that people are creating alternatives and questioning the models that exist and really go deeper.”

     When working on Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action, he found that, “It was a lot of hope in 2008, it didn’t matter if you weren’t there.  Those perspectives really diverged.  But the tea party movement, cut all government spending, prevent individual rights.  In 2010, it was the year after Obama was in power.  It was a change, it was the way that it was before, and the answers from the other organizations were in their own hands.”

     In 2008, we were in the States with our first democracy in the States that was called Beyond Elections which was about participatory democracy in Latin America, especially participatory budgeting in Brazil which is exciting it’s just starting here.”  He looks at how local experiences of participatory democracy, how people are engaging in local government.   

     “We have a lot to learn from so many other people, and at the same time, abroad, people have so much to learn from the US and that was part of what we were trying to tell.  Outside of the United States, so few people actually understand what is happening within this country.  We made this documentary for the United States public, but we also made it abroad for the communities all around the world that they think still that the streets are paved with gold in NY.”   

     With the freedom to translate his US and Latin American readers, Fox is an Associate Editor at NACLA, a 45 year old bi-monthly magazine and it came out of the new left student movement of the time, and it started to ask questions, like why does the United States work with the Dominican Republic.  What did we invade Guatemala in 1954, and it was an outlet really focused academically, really focused scholarly about diplomatic relations abroad.  We focused a lot on social movements on leftist policies.  It focused on the solidarity movement from the 1980s.  There is a website with photo essays, blogs, video, and radio essays.    

     One of Fox and Leindecker, their favorite places to work is Venezuela.  He is the author of a book called Venezuela Speaks!: Voices From the Grassroots.  “We usually think of human rights of political and civil, and when we talk about human rights, we talk about Ghana or we talk about Venezuela, or anywhere that is not the United States.  We have a human rights crisis, in terms of jobs, in terms of housing or in terms of healthcare … the first draft of the documentary, it was there, but it wasn’t highlighted.  After reviewing it and reviewing and looking at it, we thought, this is really, really deep.  Obviously, there are a lot of organizations including many of the people that we interviewed whether it was in Poverty Initiative or United Workers or Media Mobilizing Project, Vermont Workers Center that all talk about the human rights framework, and they are all pushing to build a movement lead by the poor to end poverty, and right, that makes sense, it’s empowering.” 

     As a filmmaker, he looks at alternatives that might be forming as an option to collapsing into chaos.  Of course, like so many filmmakers participating in the festival, he finds so much unsettling about chaos.  In Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action, we find that the solutions are in the hands of the people.  “To come together, to know that you’re not always right, and how long in this country has that not happened. We have these barriers, these walls that block us from each other,” Fox said.   

     Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action will be shown on Saturday, November 12th at 12 noon.  To reserve seats, please send a message to pr@chafilmfest.com.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

1. Why did you submit to the Fourth Annual Chashama Film Festival?

I wanted to bring my film to a wider audience, and I loved the fact that chashama is a free film festival dedicated to exploring what may seem to some viewers to be controversial topics.

2.  How is your work illustrative of the country you are from?

Although I am addressing international issues in my film and interviewed folks from England and Australia, as well, I use the American financial system to show the blueprint for financial manipulation taking place on a global scale.

3. Where was the most favorite place where your work was shown abroad? If it hasn’t been shown abroad, where would you like it to be shown?

This is the theatrical premiere for Vox Populi, Methods of Manipulation, but I would like to see it shown all over the world for free.

4.  Are you glad that your work is going to be shown in NYC?

It is always nice to come to NYC, I have not been in several years and so I am looking forward to both attending the festival and also visiting family and friends.  Though I live in Europe most of the time, I was born and raised in the suburbs around Philadelphia.

5. What is the best part about participating in a festival that facilitates discussion with international artists?

International events like this one provide a wider perspective of the world.  I always enjoy getting the chance to view life through the eyes of a different culture or religion.

ABOUT A RESPONSE TO THE FESTIVAL

1. What is it about chaos that is most upsetting to you?

It is not so much chaos that is upsetting but those who intentionally create chaos in order to steer the behavior or others that is disturbing.  Ordo ab Chao is a saying used by high level masons illustrates this point.  When such high level members of secret societies run governments the outcome is criminal.  Italy’s P2 lodge being a prime example.

2. What’s the most rapid social change that you have ever seen?

For me one of the most poignant if not rapid changes was America’s plunge into paranoia and xenophobia after 9/11, so much so that they welcomed fascist laws being enacted.

3. How do you find strength in instability?

I have found strength in people of like mind who also wish to see a paradigm shift which would benefit all of mankind and allow us to flourish in love as opposed to perish in fear.

4. What do you do to divert disaster?

The first step to averting disaster in my opinion must be a revolution of consciousness with each adult stepping up and taking responsibility for what is wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. Next is the abolition completely of money issued as debt from a private banking system. In addition we need replace those in office who do not serve the people. Small local democracy and councils to determine local laws and policies and decentralization of power are key.

5.  If you could make a community more peaceful, what would be fulfilling about it?

I work toward a day when every person has the opportunity to thrive as opposed to just survive.  How many lives are lost or wasted due to the circumstances of a person’s birth? What genius might surface if everyone had the chance to develop their talents?

ABOUT YOUR FILM

1. How did you choose your thematic material?

I choose material that I feel deeply about. Material which I feel could also make a change in the lives of other people.  Much of that vital information is never taught in school.

2. How do you work with actors? Or  How do you choose your interview subjects?

I choose my interview subjects via books I have read or lectures I have attended which have touched me deeply.

3. How did you choose the crew on the film?

I am my crew and my reason for choosing me is that I was willing to work for myself for free. Many other friends were kind enough to offer advice and their original music.

4. Why did you choose to make a film that length?

In truth I was planning on it being a bit shorter but I found so much information that it grew an extra twenty or thirty min.

5. What is the most compelling image in your film?

For me, the most compelling images in the film are the ones of starving children.  In a world of abundance, this is the most horrific thing imaginable.

                                                                                             Text compiled by Marcina Zaccaria