Ask me how I am and I’ll likely tell you that I’m exhausted.
But that rings incomplete at the moment. Inappropriately nondescriptive.
Truth is I’m full up of emotion and experience.
Yes, my muscles ache, my sense of direction is off, my body crying for sleep despite coffee with two added shots of espresso. But just past that is someone trying to make sense of what he has seen and lived and filmed over the past three months.
The filming we have done in Branson through the summer and the film that we have just wrapped in Denver have taught me much – about collaboration, about working with new technologies, about plunging ahead on leaps of faith.
From a filmmaking perspective, we took our Branson model of working (small crew, Panasonic HVX200, P2 cards, always mobile) and applied it in Denver to another scale (8 filmmakers, 5 cameras, constantly passing cards, batteries and text messages amongst us as we ran from one location to another).
Denver could not have happened without what we learned – or without the constant exercise of creative muscles that we put to use - earlier this summer in Branson.
It also could not have happened without a simple credo that has run through both films: “I’m down for whatever”. It was the mantra of each person who joined in these efforts, whether they joined us from Columbia, New York, London, Dayton, Los Angeles or Denver.
But looking beyond the work, there’s something else that I’m left with as I return to Los Angeles. It's a renewed appreciation for public service.
Whether in Branson, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by 2-to-1, or Denver where (at least for the past week) the opposite was true, I’m impressed and inspired by those who want to do something to make their communities, cities, states and nations better places.
The cynicism that infects our political and social discourse, the sloppy, knee-jerk name calling and conspiracy theories, the constant questioning of motivation - not just of politicians but of all those who work in the public sphere – becomes all the more repugnant the closer you get to some of those who’ve dedicated their lives to service.
Yes, there is corruption and incompetence and, yes, there are very bad ideas. There are things with which you surely disagree and you should stand and make your arguments. This is not a call to stick your head in the sand or be passive in the face of those issues you hold dear.
But I remain hopeful for a new kind of dialogue, one in which both the right and the left debate their disagreements rather than launch lazy character attacks (and I ask this of myself as well as others).
I’ve witnessed good deeds on both sides of the political divide this summer, people of good faith who work (often unheralded and sometimes unpaid) to address the best and worst of their communities. Their ideas may be different, their methods may be at odds, but their reasons for serving are often the same.
We’d do well to look past our own contemptuousness and hope for a different kind of conversation, a new (even if grudging) respect.
While not everything about this summer has been easy – being away from home and family at the top of the list of negative consequences – these are experiences that I will never forget. My thanks to the collaborators and subjects who’ve been down for anything this summer.
I’m a better filmmaker due to you and hopefully a better (certainly older) man as well.
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