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Arrivati a Seattle!

2010 July 9
tags: , , , ,
by Mark Lipsky

(Why Italian? Because it’s such an expressive language and I feel especially exuberant about being here. Va bene?)

PLEASE NOTE: This post, initially meant as an innocent return to blogging after the move to Seattle, quickly and unexpectedly turned into the start of a manifesto. It contains neither the word ‘independent’ nor the word ‘film’…

My lust for life began returning in waves almost the moment my flight left JFK. I’m from New York. I’ve lived most of my adult life in Manhattan and there was a long stretch – perhaps two decades – where I would have sworn it was the center of the universe. I’m fairly certain I was wrong then and I’m 100% sure now when I say that New York City is insufferably suffocating and the last place a person – or especially a business – would want to be if their time horizon in life – or in business – extends beyond a few hours from now. (Except, of course, in summer, when escape to the Hamptons (or wherever) becomes so tragically desperate and convulsive that planning ahead can’t be avoided.)

What? New York is where the opportunities are? OK, but opportunities to what end?

I don’t want to get all apocalyptic, but take a look around. (Wait, you live in Manhattan. Head to Riverside or East End Avenue or Battery Park, then take a look around.) We’re still in the early stages of what’s likely to be hundred years war with radical Islam and other extremists. Global warming or not, we’re experiencing significant climate change that’s almost certainly the cause of severe environmental shifts that are likely to impact us more frequently and with more consequential effect as the millennium rolls out. We’re living longer yet more unhealthfully, a one-two punch that’s going to keep us on the ropes financially and severely undermine our collective quality of life well into the foreseeable future. Regardless of the actual numbers, the rate of extinction of plant and animal species is higher today than it’s ever been and is certain to increase over the coming decades. Unnatural disasters, whether technological (BP) or gothic (genocide), seem just as easy for us to ignore today (or at least as easy) as ever, in spite of the internet. White collar criminals are little more at risk post the financial meltdown as pre. Political parties worldwide (but especially here) are as polarized and unrepentantly unethical as ever. Corporations are relentlessly patenting human genes and quietly but vigorously infesting the food supply with genetically modified substances and force-feeding farmers world-wide genetically modified – and patented, of course – seed. And then there’s the continent of floating filth and debris in the north pacific.

So again, opportunities to what end?

Since it first aired in 1990, I’ve had an unusually deep affinity for the Ken Burns Civil War series. I’ve found myself drawn to it time and time again over the years and I’m watching it nightly right now. Finally, with this viewing, I’m fully realizing its hold on me.

I’ve always felt deeply lucky to have been born an American. I’ve never taken it for granted and I’ve become more and more intolerant of those who do. Especially those who use all the tenets of American democracy and freedom in pursuit of their own intolerance of others. Which brings me back to Burns. The series is so much more than a document of events although it succeeds spectacularly at that. In particular, it drills down to the depths of what it is to be American. It’s a monument to the American spirit and a testament both to the ferocious individuality of the American people as well as every individual’s determination to protect each other’s right to be who and what we yearn to be. And it reminds us with enormous sorrow and an unflinching eye that it took the lives of over 600,000 and the limbs of millions more – along with the assassination of the country’s most transcendent patriot – to remind the nation of its fundamental responsibility to the founding principles and to each other. (The fact that we slaughtered millions of native Americans for the privilege is a rant for another time.)

I realize today that the series is so important to me because it has the power to fill me with intense feelings of pride and a deep sense of purpose. It also fills me with increasing rage. Rage at myself and a growing rage at us as a nation for our seeming inability to act upon or even recognize that we’re living in a virtual cesspool; one whose uncivil, self-involved, undereducated, overfed waters are rising by the moment. And that’s just our own cesspool. America’s not only actively impotent with regard to the growing impact of past, present and impending disasters both natural and self-inflicted, but to those of the rest of the planet as well. The world has never been smaller and yet the gulf between the American people and the rest of humanity is as wide as ever.

The good news is that you and I both know it doesn’t have to be that way. We have the ability – the responsibility – both as individuals and as the freest, smartest, most bountiful country on Earth, to change the tide. Right now. Not tomorrow or next year or in ten years. And not just for ourselves, but for our neighbors, our friends, our families and for every stranger we’ve never met. Even the for ignorant, the intolerant, the indulgent and the MPAA. (Although feel free to get to these groups last.)

How do we begin? Start with random acts of kindness. Two a day. One for a stranger and one for yourself. Eventually, you’ll want to work your way up to living a simpler life. Eliminate clutter, both real and imagined. Strive less, live more. Teach it to your children. Be conscious that you’re teaching by example in everything you do and say in their presence. Kill fewer things. Don’t spray it with Raid. Instead, keep a butterfly net nearby and catch and release. Simple. Effective. Life affirming. These are baby steps but their impact will be far reaching and doing is always more effective than thinking. Especially deep thinking. Raising consciousness is all well and good, but Facebook pages and petitions and U2 concerts are almost always dead ends. They might make us feel better about ourselves but doing is the key.

<End Rant>

For now, for me, life in Seattle is refreshing and revitalizing. It’s a far more progressive environment both in business and in life. To my friends and family back in New York, I miss you and I wish you well. Always. And I hope you don’t take offense. I’m passionate about these issues and I’m equally passionate about my feelings and my concern for those I love. And I love you all. Even if you live in Manhattan.

Please watch  the Civil War series again at your very earliest convenience and light a fire for life.

from → Life on the Planet

  • http://outinthestreetfilms.com Jon Raymond

    Excellent post. We have to turn it around from the inside. We have to mutiny. I recently got into a daily routine of apple cider vinegar with apple juice (look it up), which in turn changed my appetite towards healthier foods. I read T.R. Reid’s The Healing of America, where he describes traveling the world to find a cure for a bad shoulder and ended up finding it in India through massage therapy. American doctors won’t hear of that, nor apple cider vinegar or other non-pharmaceutical solutions.

    When you write “manifesto” it invokes visions of Valerie Solanis and “I Shot Andy Warhol”. You should have a camera crew follow you around just in case.

  • http://outinthestreetfilms.com Jon Raymond

    Excellent post. We have to turn it around from the inside. We have to mutiny. I recently got into a daily routine of apple cider vinegar with apple juice (look it up), which in turn changed my appetite towards healthier foods. I read T.R. Reid’s The Healing of America, where he describes traveling the world to find a cure for a bad shoulder and ended up finding it in India through massage therapy. American doctors won’t hear of that, nor apple cider vinegar or other non-pharmaceutical solutions.

    When you write “manifesto” it invokes visions of Valerie Solanis and “I Shot Andy Warhol”. You should have a camera crew follow you around just in case.

  • http://AFatherAndSon.com Michael R. Barnard

    Great, Mark, truly, BUT what are you going to do about normal life now that you’re in Seattle? I want to know about your attack on the day-to-day drudgery of getting your passion back for, and finding the direction for, indie film. I, too, want very much to save the world. What fits into that, for me, is to get my movie made. HOW??? ;-}

  • http://AFatherAndSon.com Michael R. Barnard

    Great, Mark, truly, BUT what are you going to do about normal life now that you’re in Seattle? I want to know about your attack on the day-to-day drudgery of getting your passion back for, and finding the direction for, indie film. I, too, want very much to save the world. What fits into that, for me, is to get my movie made. HOW??? ;-}

  • Stewart Nusbaumer

    I don’t know what to say. I’ve heard too many rants over the years and today I see too little serious organizing. No individual can change the world, but a group of individuals with clear goal and thought out process and rigorous outreach certainly can change aspects of the world. Is the priority for this blog to strengthen independent films? I thought it was.

    It’s no secret there is not a single, major forum for independent film on the Internet. I find that astounding. Sure there are small separate blogs, but no large forum for an open, stimulating discuss about independent film. Why is that?

  • Stewart Nusbaumer

    I don’t know what to say. I’ve heard too many rants over the years and today I see too little serious organizing. No individual can change the world, but a group of individuals with clear goal and thought out process and rigorous outreach certainly can change aspects of the world. Is the priority for this blog to strengthen independent films? I thought it was.

    It’s no secret there is not a single, major forum for independent film on the Internet. I find that astounding. Sure there are small separate blogs, but no large forum for an open, stimulating discuss about independent film. Why is that?

  • http://outinthestreetfilms.com Jon Raymond

    Stewart,
    Good question. My guess is that there are too many well funded corporate interests working against an strong independent film voice. When I look at the professed voices of indie film, like Ted Hope, Jon Reiss, or Lance Weiler, I see people with bits and pieces of worthy advice but little substance or exemplification of how to make it happen. I think these guys tend to cave to corporate interests and what we end up with is advise on how to improve the existing corporate industry and prostitute our talents for them.

    Reiss talks about a PMD (Producer of Marketing and Development). I believe one of the guilds recently approved such a position as a legitimate title for a crew member. What this does is tap the creative talents of indie filmmakers to work for the man instead of help them find their own voice and success independently. That may not be all bad. But it’s not addressing the indie film community. It’s addressing corporate Hollywood, to help them exploit indie filmmakers.

    Yet I join their websites and add my comments. I think we have to keep a check on these guys and not let them get away with any bullshit.

    As to one big indie voice, that’s a tough order. Indie means diversity. So right there, by definition, you have a multitude of people moving in different directions with diverse interests. But yet there are a few places we can turn to, like Marks blog here, and Chris Jones ( http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/ ) who Mark touted a few months ago ( http://incitecinema.com/blog/2010/05/28/the-anti-marc-rosenbush/ ).

    I think what we have to do, to move in that direction, is to help each other out, as Mark and Chris Jones are doing. Support other indie filmmakers. Buy their films. Tweet and FaceBook their updates. Join their groups. If all indie filmmakers did that for each other we’d have a fighting chance and a huge network of support.

    Checkout my blog at http://outinthestreetfilms.com and my latest film at http://gothealthcaremovie.com. Join me on FaceBook and Twitter. Do the same for other indie filmmakers you like. I do the same for them. If you have a worthy post I’ll add you to my blog as a contributor ( blog@outinthestreetfilms.com ). WordPress has an option where you can create an email address for people to send in their blogs and you can then approve these and post them. If we all do this for each other we’ll build a network and from there we could eventually find a single combined voice of indie film and build a website or even a ring of sites to address what you ask about.

  • http://outinthestreetfilms.com Jon Raymond

    Stewart,
    Good question. My guess is that there are too many well funded corporate interests working against an strong independent film voice. When I look at the professed voices of indie film, like Ted Hope, Jon Reiss, or Lance Weiler, I see people with bits and pieces of worthy advice but little substance or exemplification of how to make it happen. I think these guys tend to cave to corporate interests and what we end up with is advise on how to improve the existing corporate industry and prostitute our talents for them.

    Reiss talks about a PMD (Producer of Marketing and Development). I believe one of the guilds recently approved such a position as a legitimate title for a crew member. What this does is tap the creative talents of indie filmmakers to work for the man instead of help them find their own voice and success independently. That may not be all bad. But it’s not addressing the indie film community. It’s addressing corporate Hollywood, to help them exploit indie filmmakers.

    Yet I join their websites and add my comments. I think we have to keep a check on these guys and not let them get away with any bullshit.

    As to one big indie voice, that’s a tough order. Indie means diversity. So right there, by definition, you have a multitude of people moving in different directions with diverse interests. But yet there are a few places we can turn to, like Marks blog here, and Chris Jones ( http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/ ) who Mark touted a few months ago ( http://incitecinema.com/blog/2010/05/28/the-anti-marc-rosenbush/ ).

    I think what we have to do, to move in that direction, is to help each other out, as Mark and Chris Jones are doing. Support other indie filmmakers. Buy their films. Tweet and FaceBook their updates. Join their groups. If all indie filmmakers did that for each other we’d have a fighting chance and a huge network of support.

    Checkout my blog at http://outinthestreetfilms.com and my latest film at http://gothealthcaremovie.com. Join me on FaceBook and Twitter. Do the same for other indie filmmakers you like. I do the same for them. If you have a worthy post I’ll add you to my blog as a contributor ( blog@outinthestreetfilms.com ). WordPress has an option where you can create an email address for people to send in their blogs and you can then approve these and post them. If we all do this for each other we’ll build a network and from there we could eventually find a single combined voice of indie film and build a website or even a ring of sites to address what you ask about.

  • Mark Lipsky

    Fellas –

    Thanks for the comments.

    Very soon I’m going to be scheduling the first of what I hope will be regular meetings here in Seattle of local filmmakers – and film goers – to thrash this stuff out and start building out a real-world independent community that exists purely to support, counsel, promote and regain a solid foothold in the face of all the nonsense of the past 20 years. In fact, if you have friends in the area who you think might be interested in participating in that kind of perennial forum, please send them my way. I’ll be commenting and tweeting about specifics in the coming days so please direct them to me via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or all three. My hope for the near future is to plug anyone in who wants to participate from wherever they are. Just need to work out the tech. For now it’ll be local in real time but pushed out ASAP.

  • Mark Lipsky

    Fellas –

    Thanks for the comments.

    Very soon I’m going to be scheduling the first of what I hope will be regular meetings here in Seattle of local filmmakers – and film goers – to thrash this stuff out and start building out a real-world independent community that exists purely to support, counsel, promote and regain a solid foothold in the face of all the nonsense of the past 20 years. In fact, if you have friends in the area who you think might be interested in participating in that kind of perennial forum, please send them my way. I’ll be commenting and tweeting about specifics in the coming days so please direct them to me via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or all three. My hope for the near future is to plug anyone in who wants to participate from wherever they are. Just need to work out the tech. For now it’ll be local in real time but pushed out ASAP.

  • http://www.daltongang-productions.com Nathan Wrann

    Great Rant! Coincidentally I visited the Antietam Battlefield this weekend. When you stand on the field and consider what those soldiers, civilians, men and women went through, what they risked, what they braved because they believed there was something worth dying for back home it is truly a humbling experience. Especially when you consider the shit people fight over today, the last Playstation at walmart before Christmas? A parking spot? People erupt because their cable tv goes out? GET REAL! The problem is that these people have nothing “back home” of value to themselves and the only way that they will ever have something of value is if they do what you suggest: “Start with random acts of kindness. Two a day. One for a stranger and one for yourself. Eventually, you’ll want to work your way up to living a simpler life. Eliminate clutter, both real and imagined. Strive less, live more. Teach it to your children…”

    Great thoughts.

  • http://www.daltongang-productions.com Nathan Wrann

    Great Rant! Coincidentally I visited the Antietam Battlefield this weekend. When you stand on the field and consider what those soldiers, civilians, men and women went through, what they risked, what they braved because they believed there was something worth dying for back home it is truly a humbling experience. Especially when you consider the shit people fight over today, the last Playstation at walmart before Christmas? A parking spot? People erupt because their cable tv goes out? GET REAL! The problem is that these people have nothing “back home” of value to themselves and the only way that they will ever have something of value is if they do what you suggest: “Start with random acts of kindness. Two a day. One for a stranger and one for yourself. Eventually, you’ll want to work your way up to living a simpler life. Eliminate clutter, both real and imagined. Strive less, live more. Teach it to your children…”

    Great thoughts.

  • Mark Lipsky

    Thanks for your kind words Nathan. And for participating. I’ll have to live vicariously through your trip to Antietam for now but I hope to get there someday soon.

    Cheers!

  • Mark Lipsky

    Thanks for your kind words Nathan. And for participating. I’ll have to live vicariously through your trip to Antietam for now but I hope to get there someday soon.

    Cheers!

  • http://www.sydneysbuzz.com Sydney Levine

    Welcome!! I still have to get those emails gathered for you but am flying off to NY tomorrow AM to greet our new grandson to the world (the parents are opting to leave NY for LA next year!).

  • http://www.sydneysbuzz.com Sydney Levine

    Welcome!! I still have to get those emails gathered for you but am flying off to NY tomorrow AM to greet our new grandson to the world (the parents are opting to leave NY for LA next year!).

  • http://libertynumber5.blogspot.com Jon Croft

    Mark, I like the idea of having a ‘perennial forum’ so to speak. I have been wanting to connect with filmmakers more recently about pretty much what your blog has been dealing with- motivation to get together, to get some teamwork moving forward to get that chemical process bursting outward. We all have ideas & dreams & hopes but what squelches them at times is the lack of belief in the team (or lack of belief in ‘me’ or in ‘you’) to kind of help us to feel like the collaboration is worth it. At least that’s my take on it.

    I’ll continue reading & see what springs forth from Seattle. Also let us know if Seattle is worth its salt. I have also considered moving there from Tampa Bay but as a Producer I never saw it as much of a filmmaker’s city- prob better than where I live though. I mean, I guess its ‘close’ to Vancouver- but maybe there’s something you know that i don’t. :)

    I heard Pike Place Market is nice as well as the Experience Music Project but- thats all from touristy info.

    Well I guess its appropriate to say “Light a Fire in Seattle” Mark! Im eager to see what comes of it.

    Jon

  • http://libertynumber5.blogspot.com Jon Croft

    Mark, I like the idea of having a ‘perennial forum’ so to speak. I have been wanting to connect with filmmakers more recently about pretty much what your blog has been dealing with- motivation to get together, to get some teamwork moving forward to get that chemical process bursting outward. We all have ideas & dreams & hopes but what squelches them at times is the lack of belief in the team (or lack of belief in ‘me’ or in ‘you’) to kind of help us to feel like the collaboration is worth it. At least that’s my take on it.

    I’ll continue reading & see what springs forth from Seattle. Also let us know if Seattle is worth its salt. I have also considered moving there from Tampa Bay but as a Producer I never saw it as much of a filmmaker’s city- prob better than where I live though. I mean, I guess its ‘close’ to Vancouver- but maybe there’s something you know that i don’t. :)

    I heard Pike Place Market is nice as well as the Experience Music Project but- thats all from touristy info.

    Well I guess its appropriate to say “Light a Fire in Seattle” Mark! Im eager to see what comes of it.

    Jon

  • Mark Lipsky

    Sydney –

    Congratulations on the new arrival! And on the impending relocation. No doubt to be closer to you first and foremost :)

    Appreciate the info anytime you have a moment to compile.

    And come visit!

  • Mark Lipsky

    Sydney –

    Congratulations on the new arrival! And on the impending relocation. No doubt to be closer to you first and foremost :)

    Appreciate the info anytime you have a moment to compile.

    And come visit!