An appropriate name for a ‘Re-Create’ post, huh?

How many chances do we get in life to start over? In the movies you’d think only one… maybe two in the entire course of our lives.

I submit to you that every day is a chance to start over fresh. I had the pleasure of exploring this theme with a wonderful cast and crew this past weekend as we labored to complete a 48 hour film project. Here is the trailer for our film, which premiered at the American Film Institute’s Silver Theater last night, and will be posted online when we complete our full edit in the near future.

Executive Producer Cortney Matz, Director Arel Joseph Avellino and actors Alex Witherow, Sheila Spann, Betsy Gupta, and Geoffrey Baskir did amazing work! And who can forget our faithful PA Chris Miranda. I could not have asked for a better team! God truly brought together a unique group with their own very particular talents that flowed well into a whole. I learned so much about my directorial process, and how to let go of certain production details and delegate to talented people.

So… BACK TO THE MAIN POINT!

Every day is an opportunity to start over. You may not have gathered it from the trailer, but lead male actor Alex plays a ‘Sawyer-esque’ con-man who is dragged into a larger story where he is challenged to use his talents to help someone, rather than himself.  He reaches his moment of decision, and finds that along the way a transformation has occurred in him, and he reaches out, to cut Sheila loose, pick her up, and charge forward with her toward impending danger to help her accomplish her mission.

Speaking as one who has been given many opportunities to start over I can tell you that every day is a battle to continue choosing to live a different way than the path you chose in the past. The things we root ourselves in bear fruit, and it’s hard to dig up those roots and get grafted back into a new vine, if you will.  But it can be done. Change can be made. The good in us can win out over the bad, but it requires a decision!

A good friend and mentor of mine likes to point us to the root of the word decision. As a writer, I love this! He points us to another word w/the same root – incision – which is a cutting into; then he takes us to decision – a cutting off from. In order to choose one source of strength and raison d’etre we must cut off the other possibility. My generation is notorious for our inability to do this. We love to “keep our options open,” only deciding – even if you can call it that – at the last possible moment, when the repercussions or benefits of our decision are finally directly upon us.  I could spend some time telling you of the myriad ways in which this dissolves our societal ties and keeps us from the joy of community, but that may be a topic for another post.

We had an excellent time this weekend, and it is an honor to get to work in this profession. I ask you to join with me in making our professions labors of love and of rootedness in community. We, like Alex, can be re-rooted… and it can happen in a moment! Life can be re-created – in a flash!

All that is required of us is that we stop, be still, and make a decision.

Do you have someone who will fight to the death for you?

No, I’m not speaking in the sense fathers-in-law use to question their sons-in-law-to-be.  Nor, quite literally, am I writing of the way William Wallace fought to the death for his country and his right as a man to be free…

Instead, I’m asking you if you are down for the second time in the 12th round, and you’re ready to throw in the towel, does your friend hop into the ring and finish the match for you?

Enter The Fighter – a beautiful film by director David O. Russell, known for Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees.

For those of you who have seen the film, you will know that Dickie Ward was the one who really needed someone to fight for him. He thought he was fighting for his brother, portrayed by Marky-Mark – Mark Wahlberg. But when someone stepped into the ring to battle for the Ward family for the final time, it was thirty year old Mickey Ward.

The film is beautiful. I highly recommend it. Now most of you are probably thinking, “Really, another boxing film? What about the one w/Russell Crowe? Haven’t we seen this story a thousand times since Rocky?”

The answer is a resounding “NO!” As I began to relay to you earlier, The Fighter paints a picture of what it means to be a true brother, a good man, a great fighter who will step into the ring for family, not for foolish pride, or money but for the people in his life that truly matter.

So, if you want a film that will make you re-think your commitments to those you love and might cause you to recognize some things in them that are worth fighting for, I highly recommend this one. You WILL NOT be disappointed. In fact, it might get added to your top ten list!

For director David O. Russel this is a tour-de-force. Having seen two other films he directed, I can say he shows his stripes in all three. He is no flake as a director. However, I think this film rises to a new level of excellence. The way he seamlessly intertwines complicated plot lines, and keeps us guessing as to who is fighting for whom, who the good brother is, who the good guy is, who is the hero we want to root for, is pitch-perfect. He has truly RE-CREATED the philosophy of the fighter, the heart undergirding and filling up all of his punches.  I can’t say enough good things about this director. I hope to get the pleasure of working w/him some day in the future.

I hope you have enjoyed this review. I trust you will find as much pleasure in viewing the film as I have.

Happy viewing,

Kyle

Have you ever wished you could get some fresh produce at the corner store? Missing that one ingredient for your dinner, or just hankering for a healthy snack, rather than a honeybun after a long city run?

“Have no fear, Bo is here.” DC Central Kitchen has started supplying healthy eats to local convenience stores at these locales.

Watch the short film highlighting Bo’s daily deliveries to enthusiastic store owners:

Keep an eye on this pilot program.  For many city residents it is a long commute to the grocery store. If things go well w/this program, we might see more spring up around the country. And the shop owners say their customers love it!

Think about what this might mean for students who love to hang out at convenience stores after school.  If we get rid of soda machines in schools and kids make healthier choices at convenience stores, we might be on our way to less childhood obesity.

Fore more information about the program visit DC Central Kitchen here.

And thank you DC Central Kitchen for helping me re-imagine healthy communities. Stories are equipment for living. This one’s given me a new way of looking at convenience shopping.

Isn’t it sweet coming home? Familiar smells, landmarks, and relationships generate a warmth and peace in the heart few other things can.

But what if you don’t know how to find home? What if home lies past so many turns in the road and roadblocks that our journey becomes and Odyssey, taking us ten years or more to find home, if ever?

I hereby introduce you to Makoto Fujimura.

He has made it a mission to use an art form intended to express primarily waywardness as a signpost for weary travelers.

He is re-creating the odyssey that most contemporary artists find themselves on. And he brings cultural artifacts into the popular art market for consumption and critique that use a literary form, if you will, of waywardness to illuminate a path.  His faith is openly discussed alongside his art because atheist, agnostic, or not critics cannot argue with the beauty he produces from paints and canvas.  He has made it in NY, the toughest and most talented art market in the world, and wants to share his story alongside his amazing works with a coherence of being that is hard to find.

Mako founded the International Arts Movement almost 20 years ago to undertake the weighty process of re-humanizing our friends, family and neighbors. A cultural task Mako credits to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Much of contemporary art is about dissection, or finding our commonalities w/the beasts of the animal world, or simply breaking free of community, responsibility, and common conceptions of love. Bronte would likely see our current cultural state much as that of Rochester’s wild, unkempt nature in her novel, requiring unconditional love to bring us back to our humanness.  And hence Mako has heard the call and responded faithfully and winsomely.

Just recently Mako jaunted further out the cultural limb he finds himself on, and joined with Crossway Books to Illustrate the four Gospels.  I invite you to watch this video profiling his innovative, yet restorative, ancient work.

I imagine asking an artist friend to read a chapter or two of each gospel across from the illustration would be an excellent introduction to how faith and art intersect in the journey towards home. I know for me these two seemingly disparate parts of my life have shown common threads in the last few years. And I am excited to know that there is a vanguard ahead of me opening hearts once again to a world some of the greats like Michelangelo and Beethoven once frequented. This world of faith and work – artwork – that allows men to be whole, real men.

Let’s join Mako in re-humanizing ourselves and those around us. Let’s no longer compartmentalize our lives, as post-Enlightenment Westerners are so apt to do. Let’s freely express who we are in an exceptional way in our art, our work, our play, our home-making, and dare I say it – our worship!

Happy Friday to you! Hope your excited about enjoying the great fall colors this weekend.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a single mom? And on top of that be on the streets with your small child?

I hereby introduce you to one organization that doesn’t have to imagine it. They serve the children of these moms and dads on a regular basis. And Captivate Films had the pleasure of joining in their efforts by providing an evening of filming and graphic animation of their logo on this video, shared with the public for the first time at their Annual Gala a month ago.

A young woman named Jamila Larson went from imagining to experiencing what it is like through the life of a young man Marcus.  Marcus wasn’t even homeless, but he did teeter on that line w/a drug addicted mom working at the Children’s Defense Fund in a cube next to Jamila.  Read more about Jamlia’s work with Marcus here.

Since her time with CDF, Jamila has been busy! She founded and has grown the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project to serve many of the District’s homeless children and families.  At a time when Mayor Gray made many promises to care for the homeless and has little political will and/or tax funding to do so, and shelters are closing, HCPP is thriving.

At their Gala I met some of the amazing volunteers that make this organization go. It was incredible. Many are getting MBAs in grad school, others working for the Green Building Council, on the Hill, etc.  And somehow all of them make time to care for someone else’s children.  Some are single, some are married, but all seem to have a heart for their neighbor. A neighbor they might never see during their regular business day to day.  But for some reason they go out of their way to care for these kids and their parents.

They are truly re-creating homelessness for many in DC. And they’re re-creating responsibility. We can’t wait on our politicians to fix our problems for us. Now, more than ever, we need to follow the example of Jamila and her cadre of volunteers, and be the change we seek!  Let’s get after it!