Filmstack Inspiration

First the easy part. Everyone here on #filmstack has been an inspiration to me! I can’t offer inspirational advice myself on filmmaking; I’m a first time filmmaker at 62, making a documentary with my kid Ray. So I’m just going to tell you about that.

I thought I knew why I decided to do this but I didn’t really start to understand until a friend, a documentary filmmaker named Steve Rogers, who has produced a series on PBS for the last 13 years called “Here’s the Story” told me he would like to do a segment on our documentary. He’s known Ray since they were 9 years old serving as a mentor for their first film they shot with an ipad and edited with imovie. He was particularly interested in depicting our experience working on the film. He asked if we had shot any BTS, which we had, and he said great, and I’ll interview you guys to round out the story. I began playing through in my mind what I would say when he would ask me why I was doing this. I began thinking about how much I enjoyed watching Ray over the last ten years as they worked on their films, or helped on friend’s films, attended festivals where their films were being screened.

I had never really thought about working with Ray until they went away to college. The empty nest syndrome kicked in and after they told me about the “lame” experience they had doing a short documentary assignment in class with a couple other film students I more or less blurted out “I have a great idea for a documentary, let’s make it together!” So this was my narrative. I’m having a great experience making a documentary with my kid! But as I thought about the question I knew Steve would ask I knew it was more than that. Ray was the kind of kid that would work with me around the house doing projects for hours, never losing interest or getting tired. I remember one time we scraped all the paint off our old wood garage door and then repainted it, Ray doing the bottom as high as they could reach at 6 years old. We did everything together. I was everything to them and could do no wrong. As it goes, Ray gradually began spending more time with friends, especially in high school. Particularly with classmates in the film program (we were very fortunate to have a school system with a special magnet school for fine and performing arts!). Then they went away to college last year and like I said the empty nest syndrome kicked in. I had found the real answer to Steve’s question. I wanted that special intimate relationship with Ray again. Just you and me kid! This time standing side by side. So I guess you could say my reason, born in my subconscious, was selfish. At this moment I began to understand what art, being an artist, is really about. It’s deeply personal and if you are really honest with yourself, and depict that truth in your work it speaks to others. This was the true journey of making my documentary.

Subscribe to my substack to read more about my documentary and the amazing journey in making it!