festos

i love explaining things almost as much as i love hearing others explain things.

Here's a itty bitty bio:1. birth. pittsburgh, pa. lil bro, lil sis. good times. read lots and lots of books. acted several out with help of bro and sis. 2. high school. moved to cary, nc. began working in independent theater, Galaxy Cinema. was awarded jedi trophy for employee of the month.3. college. uncw. got sucked into the wacky world of cucalorus where i have remained for the past three years. 4. future. afraid, very afraid.

Manifest, manifest, manifest-o. cheery, cheery, cheery-o.

I've often told people that I want to be a filmmaker because I love stories. This is a lie. I want to be a filmmaker because I love people's reactions to stories. Whether it's a magazine article or a billboard or song on the radio or tv show or film, the best part of any media is the reaction each person has to it. When you can experience a new perspective or vision or story your mind's eye is opened a little more, your understanding of the world is a little bit more complete.
Unfortunately a lot of media is one-sided, you can't respond directly to it. If the content so provokes them a person could write a letter to the editor or the company or sing along or share and rewatch. But the best response is the unconscious connections made between what we are made to experience and what we choose to experience.
When you're watching a film and you're completely drawn in, fascinated and unable to be torn from the screen for whatever reason-that is the moment I want. The moment of complete connection with a moving image. That almost impossible bond when the screen and audience, viewed and viewer, specactle and spectator interact and one is changed because of it.

A while ago I forgot why I wanted to do this. Film studies can seem like a completely self indulgent study, what does it really do to help anyone? Change anything? Contribute more than a few forgettable scenes when compared to the enormity of the rest of life? I was in a hostel in Ireland travelling when I met a woman who was in the same room as me. As she packed up from her one-night stay I shared my trouble with her. She told me she was a nurse. She saw patient after patient every day of the week, who knows how many different people she met in a year, how many people she took care of. People from all over, from all different walks of life, different careers, families, lifestyles. But the one thing that seemed to connect all of them was the films they saw and shows they watched. Through that they could relate to the nurses that tended to them, the doctors that diagnosed them, the other patients they met. Film and tv was the medium through which strangers could find a common ground.
Later that night, while sipping on the best beer in the world, I met a Kiwi and the first thing I said to her was how I loved her country because of Lord of the Rings. Soon our conversation was joined by several others and it seemed that the nurse knew what she was talking about.