A producer from Caught on Camera — what looks like a popular show put on by MSNBC contacted me recently to inquire about the footage I shot from my back yard just over a year ago of the San Bruno Disaster. I thought he was interested in licensing the footage but then he asked if I would talk about my experience of filming the days events that I caught it on camera — ON CAMERA (with his crew). So, just to make this very clear — I caught a tragedy on camera, so his crew wants to catch me on camera talking about what I caught on camera — it certainly offers one more example of the feedback loop in media. To further the feedback loop I should have offered to catch on camera, the MSNBC crew catching me on Camera, because I caught a horrific event on camera…..
Instead I said, what angle are you telling the story from? The MSNBC producer paused for a beat, then made some pleasant remarks and the whole filming ordeal sounded quite breezy and noble and grand. Trying to be a pleaser I said, OK. Behind that OK I thought, well, what the hell, he’s got fireman, local folks and a reporter who all agreed to be in the segment he’s shooting. How bad can it be?
An immediate sense of dread hit me.
I then went and watched a segment from the show available online called “Fury,” and it went something like this:
Enter young man who caught an event on camera (who happens to be a filmmaker and happens to have a mild daze in his eyes that says, YES I am ON CAMERA how cool is this!!)and he says something like: So my friends recommended this great restaurant and we went there and it was a really good time! Then he noticed an argument that he could tell was about to escalate so he took out his phone and started recording.
We viewers then enjoy some shaky low resolution footage of a fight about to break. (And then comes that litttle voice in your head, Fight, FiGHT, FIGHT)
cut to comment from restaurant manager: we found the two guests to be beligerent and using language that was not appropriate!
cut to: an entertaining scene where a fight breaks out and fists, chairs, as well as barricades become weapons of hurt!!
There is an admitted thrill to watching this material, its raw quality offers a satisfying appeal to the inner voyeur. I flipped to another segment called “Crash”and found myself enjoying as truck after truck drove under a bridge too low for their dimensions and found their tops peeled off much like a can is opened by a can opener.
I knew then I could not be a part of this show.
Still I agonized. Am I missing the 15 minutes of fame that Andy Warhol proclaimed we will all be granted in this modern media age? Why don’t I want to be on this show? If I put it in pure marketing terms, it doesn’t fit my brand. If I put it in new age terms: I DO believe media is a feedback loop, what we put out influences thought, and THUS what is put in, and if we begin broadcasting media with heart and love and presence, we may find the world subtly and artfully changing. If I put it in terms I emailed to the producer: I don’t want to draw attention to myself. Yet, that’s not exactly true. I don’t mind if some of my friends notice I did something with all my heart and succeeded or failed, but I do mind if my friends attach me to a show that focuses on the outrageous, violence, disaster, etc… No no no thankyou.
Sitll I had to think about it. Which led me to further imagine, what exactly is my media policy for myself? If Fox News asked me on, do I say yes or no? If Oprah asked me on, do I say yes or no? (YESSSSSS! Oprah, any time, any day) Shouldn’t I have a media policy? Please also allow me to acknowledge the complete presumptuous egocentricity of this thought process, still, I don’t want to blow my 15 minutes of fame on any old raggy show. (Sorry MSNBC, but really! We can all do better!)
So this time I’ll say no to my 15 minutes of disaster fame (why did I even consider it?), still…Oprah, anytime you want to call I’m ready, I have some really cool colleagues and friends I want to introduce you to who are doing amazing work…. and I’m a small part of that movement…. ring anytime! DO!
Over the last weeks I’ve filmed at the Ethnic Dance Festival for the Ohlone Profiles Project, to document what everyone is calling the return of the Ohlone. At each event the folks like Ann Marie Sayers or Corrina Gould remind us that they never left, they were just driven from their original home in the bay area and now their history is finally being recognized in a beautiful way — let this just be the beginning!
June 3rd at city hall, Mayor Lee presented Rumsen Ohlone Tribal Chief Tony Cerda with the Festival’s annual Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award, which was followed by a presentation of song and dance. Last weekend the tribe was at the Yerba Buena Center (YBCA) where they performed, and at the evenings close held a healing ceremony for their ancestors who are buried below the YBCA and the Yerba Buena Gardens.
If you haven’t checked it out, the World Arts West Ethnic Dance Festival features bay area dancers performing dances from their culture and as Alastair Macaulay at the New York times puts it, “what other city in the world has anything like the ethnic dance festival.” It is truly a unique and powerful experience with dances from around the globe. This years dances originate from places like Peru, India, Lebanon, Hawaii, Mexico and yes, right here, San Francisco’s original people, the Ohlone. If you are looking for a meaningful event for your fourth of July weekend check out the Coastanoan Rumsen Tribe’s performance among other dancers at the YBCA Novelluss Theater on July 1, 2, or 3rd.
If you want to learn more and follow the latest Ohlone News, check out the Ohlone Profiles project. You might want to check out this bit of local while you’re here (why not, go for it!):
On Tuesday, May 3rd, a handful of people gathered in a grand room in the heart of San Francisco to watch outstanding indie films from around the world —Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hungary and the US—all to benefit youth programs. The line up was demanding, and amazing. We screened 15 short films back to back in the historic building owned by the Elks on Post street. The Elks are an organization that my partner in organizing the film evening (and member of the Elks), Roger, likes to point out, offer the most scholarships in support of education after the US government. They also like Elks, A LOT. Little, elks are woven into the fabric of the rug and stuffed Elks adorn the walls as if they are watching over the humans comings and goings with mild amusement. (Those silly humans, what are they doing now? Why it looks like they are screening films and using the proceeds to help provide scholarships for youth at Urban Services YMCA or TILT and other such grand ideas. Not bad, not bad.)
For many filmmakers it was the first time they had screened their film and/or the first time they had talked about their work before an audience. JR Stone from Kron 4 showed up to moderate the discussion after the screening and he was a natural on the microphone. DJ SIC filled the house with nice beats to start and round out the evening. Those stragglers who’d stayed the whole evening and beyond, ended up at the bar in what felt like a scene from cheers. Misfits, artists, film enthusiasts, friends, fans. We were all there to celebrate how it all starts — humbly, simply, yet with quiet dignity and great intention.
To all the filmmakers out there who sometimes throw up their hands in frustration thinking — I must be crazy — keep working. To all the artists out there who break down sometimes because there is never ever enough time for doing the art you love — keep working. For all those out there with a dream, that can at times seem impossible — keep working. Keep taking one step at a time. It is your dreams, the beauty in the moments you work on what you love that make this world tolerable at all. Continue to spin moments of flow, to weave imagination and magic and bring to life your unique gift that you have to offer this world. And thank you, THANK YOU for doing so.
In light of new permits in favor of uranium development at the rim of the grand canyon environmental groups have decided to trade the grand canyon for several other areas cited to have high biodiversity and breathtaking views, including Detroit’s old tiger stadium, Flint Michigan’s factories and Milwaukee.
Noted environmentalist Mr. Knox Browert is cited as saying, “The grand canyon is an ideal location for landfill such as the piles of radioactive waste associated with uranium mining. It’s up to 6,000 feet deep in places and 277 miles long.” When asked about analysis that went into the decision, he commented, “As environmentalists we have to pick our battles. Protecting the former Tiger stadium and Flint’s factories is a no brainer, but we had to think hard about Milwaukee. It came down to the fact that the art museum just reminds us of Sydney’s famous opera house and it IS by the waterfront, so we voted to trade in the Grand Canyon. I never really liked the Grand Canyon anyway. Most true environmentalists don’t. It’s just a line in the sand.”
Arizona’s tourist office agrees. Recent polls show nature tourists are unhappy with Arizona’s politics of late and many have black marked the state after its introduction of anti-immigration bill, SB1070, so Carlotta Purse, director of the office has hatched a plan, “we’re chasing after a new market — sacred landfill tourists — this brand of tourist will be interested in watching and smelling the accumulation of landfill and hazardous uranium tailings overtime.” Several artists have also stepped forward and expressed interest in documenting the sacred landfill in a long running time-lapsed recording. “At the rate we’re going,” notes Mr. Browert, we could fill it in 20 years and then move on to Yellowstone’s geysers. They’re so hot and bubbly they may just ingest the trash like a beast.”
BTW: this is a satire, (in case you didn’t catch that), but we aren’t too far off from it, inspired by AD and CS and MK and LFH (you know who you are).
I am so so so grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in the BAVC Producers Institute with our team at Sacred Land Film Project (SLFP), Toby, Jennifer and Quinn and our partner Dorothy Firecloud from the National Parks Service. As I blogged here for SLFP, the producers institute is an intense new digital-media boot camp leading to a project presentation before a packed house at the The Center in San Francisco.
For 10 days our team was immersed in learning about emerging new media technologies, how to harness them for social and environmental justice, how to nurture and grow communities, and how to motivate positive action using these exciting new tools. Topics ranged from alternate, augmented, virtual and hybrid digital reality, web 3.0, the “intelligent web,” data visualization, interactive mapping, to twitter strategy and crowd sourcing. We were surprised to learn that we are no longer filmmakers, we are “screen content producers!”
I’ve finally posted What Brand Are You? to the world wide web. Dubbed “a visual rollercoaster through the dizzying world of pop-culture,” and “investigative journalism on party drugs,” by The Sydney Morning Herald’s arts writer Tracey Clement, What Brand Are You? is a 30 minute hybrid documentary that merges MTV music video with broadcast journalism to explore personal happiness in a consumer society and our emotional relationship with brands.
I was riding on Bart, and in the aisle next to my seat, there were two shiny pennies on the floor. I noticed, but it didn’t cross my mind that I might just reach down and pluck them, essentially making myself 2 cents richer, for nothing other than the fact that I noticed and bothered to scoop them up. Just as I was contemplating the discarded pennies, a man wearing a Bart uniform swooped down and picked them up. Maybe he caught the startled look on my face, I’m not sure what made him stop, but he did. He stopped and told me his penny story.
I ride Bart all the time, San Francisco’s “bay area rapid transportation.” One thing I’ve noticed is that in Bart stations and on the trains themselves, somehow people seem to drop or lose or discard their pennies. I’m not saying Bart is swimming in pennies, but there are enough pennies around that I’ve noticed. The man said that once he found a row of pennies. He laid his recent catch of pennies onto the empty seat next to mine, spreading them out as if they were a deck of cards. There were four or five pennies just sitting there on the seat, like someone was just picking them out of their wallet because they were in the way. I pick them all up he said. I put them in a jar at home. He smiled, he had a beautiful smile, dimples, bright eyes, a handsome man. And then he wrapped his fingers tight around his pennies and said, “they add up,” and continued on.
His message sunk in, maybe not the way he intended it, but I knew that each of the pennies he picked up was more than a penny, it was a symbol for something much bigger. It was a symbol for the way each of our small acts add up. Sometimes we have a dream, and even though we’re taking steps toward it, it feels too slow, or we get lost and in the worst case, even think about giving up. But we shouldn’t give up, because if we keep working on our dream — gathering the pennies — one by one, in time we’ll notice our jar is almost full and what we’ve set out to do is almost realized, or if it’s an ongoing project, we’ll see that we have really made a lot of progress and that such a satisfying feeling.
So the moral of the story is, even though they’re small, pennies add up. I hope that you, have the courage and strength to continue to pick up your pennies and happy holidays to you!
At 6:30pm today, as far as I knew, a plane had crashed into my home in San Bruno. Michael and I heard that news from our landlord’s panicked call as we were driving home from San Francisco, and for a long minute we were horrified until we realized it was clearly just a prank. (A rather mean prank). I felt huge relief at that thought, until Michael pointed out that our landlord Tina, had NEVER pranked us, in the two years we’ve lived at our first floor in-law. Our faces then turned back into horror, Michael stepped on the gas, I thought I might pass out and the smoke billowed over San Bruno hill, just tempting enough for us to nearly COLLIDE with another car, though Michael quickly adjusted his eyes to the road. We both screamed, an inner wail of, what if, it’s true? What if I just lost every “thing” I own and the roof over my head?
I pulled up SFGate on my phone but it had NO news. Then we were both like, DUH, twitter IS the breaking NEWS. Right? Of course, twitter requires some filtering. It had conflicting news. The fire was either caused by a plane, or it wasn’t caused by a plane. I refreshed and CBS5 had tweeted, it is NOT a plane. (And it turns out a natural gas line ruptured.) I navigated to their site and found the exact streets where the fire is.
It IS burning just down the hill from my home. Our local grocery, Lunardi’s was turned into a temporary parking lot for every police car, ambulance vehicle and firetruck in what looked like the ENTIRE Bay area.
San Bruno has been a very interesting place to live regarding a disaster now and then. A plume of black smoke erupted over the airport not too long ago. Fires broke out over the San Bruno mountains just last summer. I can already feel the bad jokes about an earthquake being next.
ABC 7 news on the web reports that about 45 homes may be affected. It reminds you how fragile life can be and how there is no excuse not to respect, love, enjoy and honor every single minute of it!
The sky is dark now and the fire is burning low. The planes have stopped circling, though the firetrucks continue to work below. The ABC is sharing news about the people who have lost their homes and I am thinking of them now, their lives altered, may they find some hope in the wreckage.
I’m facing a moral and environmental dilemma and I’m not sure what to do.
Earlier today I was ready to march up to my landlord’s door, (let’s call him Russell) and um, and, yes I would…well, and my plan got stuck there at inception because what would I do?
Berate him for cutting squares of Styrofoam into rounded shapes with such abandon that the Styrofoam coated the backyard, making it look as if a fake snow had just fallen? Should I point out that it’s not good for his son to inhale Styrofoam? (Because, it wasn’t Russell, who cut the Styrofoam, but his 16 year old son, who regularly breathes in all of those tiny Styrofoam balls into his young body as he shapes piece after piece.) Was I to cry about my small garden patch that now has Styrofoam pieces littering it? Was I to hand him facts about Styrofoam (one word: TOXIC) and suggest Styrofoam alternatives? Then ask if I could borrow one of his (many!) tools to fix something? Hi you morally bankrupt Styrofoam spilling MONSTER, can I borrow your handy box of tools? Read More at Conducive Chronicle
OR Watch the video evidence here:
In March, women made film history. How apropos as it’s women’s history month. Kathryn Bigelow landed an Oscar for best director after 30 years in the business. In its 82 year history, the Oscars had never voted a woman as best director and have only nominated four (Sofia Coppola, Jane Campion, Lina Wertmuller and Ms. Bigelow). She also took home the Director’s Guild of American prize, the first woman to do so in its 60 year history.
The recognition she gained made me stop and take notice, to test the wind; has something changed? Are we moving into a new era? Has the measuring stick moved? Perhaps something in 2010 is different?
No sooner than thinking it, I heard a BBC radio debate/discussion that popped with energy and emotion, the reason? A blog titled “A Rant About Women” by Clay Shirky, an NYU professor. To recap his thesis, he says that “not enough women have what it takes to behave like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks,” and women need more “role models who are willing to risk incarceration to get ahead.” I am pretty sure that despite his wish for more females that behave like Bernie Madoff to pave the way for other successful women (what?), Mr. Shirky’s rant intends for women to gain more of what they want. Read more at Conducive Chronicle
Santa did not bring me the Barbie Video Girl this year... perhaps next. (sigh)
; - ) http://t.co/XnHtJSO2 2011/12/26
RT @freerangestudio: Very cool -- a blog post on the @gatesfoundation blog called, "Can Stories Save Lives?" I think we know the answer! ... 2011/12/23
This video by @WomensEarthAlly and @freerangestudio is media at it's best and brightest http://t.co/H1riaf9f 2011/12/23
