Tell the story before the time passes to do so.
Stories find storytellers. Storytellers find those who want to hear them. Those who hear them tell others about the latest discovery, the most unusual circumstances or the everyday life of someone who is anything but ordinary.
Storytelling is that never-ending miracle of shared experience and the great “AHA”.
The stories I tell as a filmmaker vary considerably – recycling in Indonesia, dancers on a Friday evening in costumed regalia, a remarkable football team’s accomplishments interwoven with acceptance in racially challenging times, a gifted artist who is drawn to the beauty of nature and a professional calf roper with a heart for community and building a family business.
How does that happen — the telling of a particular story at a particular time? I call it the big “YES”. Yes, I will help you tell that story because it matters to you that I do. Yes, I will because I have been a part of the story that I am telling. Yes, I will because I deeply respect a fellow artist and want to say thank you along with those whose lives that artist enriches. Yes, I will because I want to seize the moment in an older gentleman’s life to tell his story for all the world to know.
What story is right in front of you to tell? Will you write about it, make a social media post, pick up a camera and interview a hero, a heroine, a happy or tortured soul? The world today is not the world tomorrow. Ken Burns says that his work is to wake the dead. Look back, look straight ahead, look up or look down but DO LOOK AND LISTEN.
Observation is a story’s origin.
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