I asked Jennifer Fischer, my film making friend, to share some words about her current project and crowd funding campaign. I am a supporter and want to help her spread the word about the issues her and her husband are exploring through her socially engaging work. Please consider supporting this project if this issue speaks to you too.
-Amy
Dead Poets Society
was one of our family’s favorite movies growing up. The power of those students
standing on their desks and saying “O Captain, My Captain.” The mantra, Carpe
Diem, ringing through my mind. My father loved that movie and its message. He
had not lived his life by those words, but he deeply wanted his children to
live their lives that way, even if it wasn’t always so easy for him (like when
your 20 year-old baby girl decides to travel the Middle East by herself for 6
weeks), but I digress…
Carpe Diem -- Seizing the day looks much different for me now
than it used to. There was a time when it meant traveling solo around the
Middle East or Southeast Asia -- it meant something extreme and exciting.
Now, Carpe Diem often means seizing the opportunity to snuggle up
with my boys at the end of the day, seizing a rare date night with my husband,
and working like a mad woman into the wee hours of the night to make my next
film project a reality.
My husband and I run a small production company. We’re committed to creating stories that sustain our humanity; stories that illuminate dark corners; stories that can create change. And let me tell you, it is not always easy. In fact, quite often it is hard. As a teenager and young adult, I did not imagine that Carpe Diem might mean:
My husband and I run a small production company. We’re committed to creating stories that sustain our humanity; stories that illuminate dark corners; stories that can create change. And let me tell you, it is not always easy. In fact, quite often it is hard. As a teenager and young adult, I did not imagine that Carpe Diem might mean:
Your children finding you hiding in
the bathroom in tears because your latest campaign has launched, but there are
some website glitches.
Throwing up three mornings in a row
because you are overcome by the fear of failure.
Deep uncertainty about everything!
But, so it is. My latest film project, ‘The wHOLE’ is a gritty
dramatic series about race, crime, prison and so much more starting with harsh
reality of solitary confinement.
Deeply committed to telling this story with humanity and
integrity and in collaboration with individuals who have lived it means we are
also deeply committed to the project being an independent production. To fund
it, this means inviting others to support our work. It is truly a film for the
people, of the people and by the people -- and to make it work we need the people.
This reality is not unique to my circumstance as I seek to live
an intentional, meaningful life as an artist while I raise my sons. We all need community. (This is why I value
the work that Amy does). We all need to support one another if we are going to
live our best lives; if we are going to seize the day.
The best thing I’ve learned in this very challenging process is
that not only do we all need each
other, we also want to need each
other. People want to support the inspiring work of others. People want to see
the dreams of others blossoms and to follow that inspiration as they seek their
own dreams.
As I’ve reached out to others to support my dream and many have (though we need many more). As I’ve reached out to thank them, they’ve surprised me by thanking me.
They are grateful for the opportunity to join my dream. They
are grateful that I’ve shared my work with them. They are grateful to be a part
of the embrace of an intentional life, and I find that we both sit there in
that beautiful space of gratitude.
Go. Seize the day. State your dream. Move your intentional life
forward, and invite others to walk with
you as you make your best, intentional life real.
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