Coruway Film Institute

Our Own Back Yard

2010-10-06T14:15:00.000-04:00

A Big Back Yard

We – my wife, Carin, and I – moved into our house because of a few words in a classified ad. It was longer but I remember it as, “Sale by owner… Nice house, big back yard, call Martha.”

It was that “big back yard” that got us to visit. When we came to look it was indeed a big back yard – not Texas big but New England Village big. Then came the kitchen with an island and gas stove. I heard there were 3 bedrooms and 2 baths but I was ready to move in after the back yard and kitchen. It was the tail of the last recession (like now?) and real estate prices had actually bottomed out, but nobody knew that yet. The next day we offered just a touch below the asking price. I remember making the offer from a pay-phone while I was on a trip. Two months later we were in the house we still own some16 years later.

This big back yard continues to feed my imagination. I think it feeds my wife’s imagination, too, who sits on the deck or in the grass and writes. And I see how this green space fills the wide eyes of our 2 kids, now 10 & 11, who have grown as they explore and play in it.

My kids were nearby a year or two ago when, in the kitchen, I turned on my cell phone, realized it had a camera I hadn’t used – I lived under the professional delusion that cameras go on your shoulder or a tripod and not in your hand – and clicked it to record for our series on climate change. The round red light lit up on the screen, and I thought, “Now what do I say?” and instant response, “Bald Guy on climate change here looking for the climate change solutions in my own back yard.” And that sent me on the journey that now continues. I see something similar in many people who draw creative inspiration from the very real problems and real solutions they see around their own literal and proverbial back yards.

Here’s an aspect of back yards: While property lines might be fixed, may even correspond to fences – we’ve got a nice white picket fence on one side – our backyards are connectors. They connect us to our neighbors and the commercial, civic and physical world and life around us.

As an example we’ve just got new neighbors. The Catholic Church, abutting on our west side, was sold to our own town with the thought it could be a great place for the local library. We are connected. And that building in our western view begs the question, is there a climate change solution here? Can we do well with the opportunity now presented? Not that we, one neighbor, get to decide. But we can engage the conversation. We can engage the opportunities. We can think of the solutions our back yards might inspire, if not contain.

A selling feature when we bought the house was the town or village that our back yard connected. Within a block was a post office, a grocery, a hardware store, some restaurants and other specialty shops. While the hardware and grocery have closed they have been replaced, eventually, by a new grocery and cool restaurant.

A little farther behind our back yard is our local elementary school. We share the sounds of T-ball on Saturday morning.

We’ve had many parties in our back yard: birthdays, cookouts, sledding, harvest, artists. You name the interest and we’ve got the lawn. While our back yard is ours, it is the buffer between the private and the public. There are things I would do in my house I would not do in the back yard. Back yards are permeable. Just ask the squirrels and birds.

When we began our project on climate change – originally called Now or Never and soon to be The Green Screen – our focus was and remains to be solutions. It’s not “The Solution,” but the many energizing solutions that people are creating, using, seeing in their literal and proverbial back yards. Because we can see the problem as well as its solution in places familiar to us.

What solutions are you seeing?

Joe Rogers Award 2010

2010-06-25T14:20:00.002-04:00

Last night was the Work, Inc. Awards Night. It's an evening to honor the work they do serving people with disabilities. Their name expresses how work is transformative. I remember so clearly when I got my first job – in a restaurant. I remember so many of the other jobs, too: teaching at University of New Hampshire, being hired to write a screenplay for a bona-fide Hollywood organization; getting to make a documentary on America's first institution (I hired myself and then got a job in the form of funding from ITVS, WGBH and others).

It's both doing the work AND getting paid for it. Payment is for value received and there's nothing like that to reinforce the satisfaction on a job well-done.

I remember my Uncle Joe getting his paycheck and looking at it line by line; the hours, the withdrawals and the net. Oh, the net!

Sadly the paycheck might not go as long as needed. The film project lasts two years and the pay is for one. But then we are ready for the next thrill of endorsement in the form of value for services rendered. All over again. For in that paycheck is freedom and independence. Learned that from Joe Rogers, from my own experience and see it reinforced at Work, Inc.

Last night my family – the Rogers' Family – offered the 4th Joe Rogers Award for Independence. It went to Chuck Johnson. Here he is.

Losing Mark Gerchman

2010-05-05T14:44:00.003-04:00

I don't know how many in our immediate area knew Mark Gerchman, but he was a world-class lens designer whose glass has been used for so many of the images that we know and admire. At his recent funeral service Les Zellan spoke of the work and friendship they shared. I thought his words a powerful way for many of us to get a look into the masterful work Mark created as a lens designer for Cooke Optics.

-WCR

from Les Zellan:

Eulogy for Mark - April 13, 2010

My name is Les and Mark was my best friend.

I first met Mark by phone in 1997. I wanted him to join me at Cooke Optics. Being conservative and mainly not expecting I could make a go of it, he politely turned me down.

A year later I sent him our first year’s financials and this time drove up to Keene to again make him the offer to join Coooke. I am sure that after consulting with his wife Lisa and his two girls and with their full support, he decided to follow his heart and he joined Cooke.

He told me at the time he would only stay a few years and then he intended to find a teaching job. Well a few years turned into 11 years. He so loved what he was doing at Cooke that I do not believe teaching ever entered his mind again. In fact he often said he loved what he did so much he was amazed he got paid for doing it.

Mark was Chief Optical Designer at Cooke. In the 117 year history of the Cooke brand only 3 other men held this title. He succeeded giants in the optics field – H. Dennis Taylor, Arthur Warmisham and Academy Award winner Gordon Cook. He distinguished himself in his position with his originality. During his years at Cooke Optics, he and his team designed the S4 Prime lenses, the CXX zoom lens, the new 5/i Prime lenses, and the new Panchro lenses, all for motion picture work. In addition, he designed the PS945 and XVa Triple Convertible lenses for large format still photography. Mark was honored with a Technical and Engineering Academy Award, Technical Emmy and CINEC Award from Germany for the optical design of the S4 lens. He even joked that winning the Academy award was an obituary changing event.

Mark was an easy person to like. Our relationship quickly grew from co-workers to friends to best of friends. We generally talked daily on a host of work and personal issues. His intellect and friendly personality made him not only a valuable member of Cooke but more importantly a invaluable friend.

There was much I admired about Mark.

Mark was not a halfway kind of guy, he always put 110% effort into everything, whether it was his design work, his golf game, his dart games in the Cooke lunch room, his music, or, his dedication to friends and love of his family.

Some people have many acquaintances and few real friends. I was always in awe of Mark because he was just the opposite; he had many real friends everywhere he went, not mere acquaintances. That is evident by the people here today as well as the people around the world that wish they could be here today.

When it came to his family Mark was extremely proud and he had every right to be. He and his wife Lisa raised two daughters, Liddy and Sarah. They have shown themselves to be strong, poised, courageous and graceful.

I wish I was more eloquent because my words just can’t express the loss I feel over Mark’s passing. He is loved and he will be missed.

St Bernard's Church
www.stbernardkeene.com
185 Main Street
Keene, NH 03431

Bode Miller: Orpheus

2010-02-24T13:43:00.007-05:00

Before the Winter Olympics in Torino the New York Times featured Bode Miller as the cover story for their new sports magazine, Play. They led their story as we had in our film, Flying Downhill – a film which we had given them a week or two prior – with the avalanche. Bode at age thirteen is caught in a press of cascading snow and nearly suffocated in the airless mass of tumbling snow and ice at one of the East’s steepest and most extreme skiable faces: Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington. Yet Bode emerges, shakes off the snow as his head pops out, climbs out of the compressed snow and skis down to his family; relief, hysteria for all. A typical day for Bode? Clearly, no, but a day nonetheless. Yet in analyzing this opening moment the writer got the myth wrong.

The myth the Times references is Icarus and Deadulus, the flier and father/inventor. Icarus dies by falling to his death after he flies too close to the sun with his dad’s waxen, delicate wings. So this story goes: learn from Icarus, stay away form the sun. Be measured. And we know the results from Torino.

As if following from the lessons of this myth four years ago Bob Costas lectured Bode and America of the virtue of flying right. On the cover of countless magazines? You best deliver, son. And without proper attitude and altitude your sentence is media death. “You don’t care about us, we don’t care about you.” We don’t care = media death.

But the myth was wrong. Bode was never trying to ski into the sun in a singular flash of brilliance. This was in spite of the braggardly magazine covers and provocative Nike commercials of Bode SIPPING TEA (in a commercial! Ahhhhh, the arrogance!!). Yes, he was (and IS) trying to find the very edge between carve and crash, but he is always trying to find that edge and learn from the phenomena that experience affords. This PROCESS is absolutely dynamic and alive. It is the very essence of human existence. It’s what babies and kids do all the time. It’s spinning until you fall down. It’s diving through deep snow to find an amazing way down a steep pitch. It is learning from life. And, in Bode’s case, it’s a profound mental ability to risk failure to find success. The corresponding myth is not Icarus but Orpheus.

In his myth Orpheus must venture to the underworld – land of darkness – to return again with his life’s love and passion, Eurydice. There are a couple hitches (hitches make for good stories). He cannot look at Eury on his return. But he’s human, tempted by a nagging question. Is SHE the one? And he looks. And that leads to next hitch, by looking…

he must do it again and again, every season he must prove his mettle (and earn any medal). Being human means never being done. It ain’t over till its over. And even then, maybe, just maybe, we can try, try again. That’s what the myth of Orpheus is about: an eternal struggle between life force and failure.

Which brings us to Whistler. And yesterday’s GS. In spite of not getting an objective (automatic because of the rules) starting spot in the GS US Ski Team admin gave Bode such a spot (would have been stupid not to). And it gives us a chance to see Bode’s human effort. And, as in Torino, he was giving it his full measure of effort. And maybe trying TOO hard. He was fast at the top, but couldn’t keep the speed inside the gates. He really is trying to get to the bottom of the run with an extraordinary performance. Yes, he’s trying to create the absolute fastest turn and the fastest way down the mountain, but he is also trying to make it through ALL the gates. He’s not trying to fail. And he does care about results – I think sometimes more than he knows or can admit. But he’s willing to sacrifice mediocrity for brilliant failure. The problem is that brilliant failure often looks like mediocrity in a ski race. That is, unless it is part of a frightening crash. If the goal is ONLY to win, and not to perform in an extraordinary way, then anything but winning is mediocrity. Can we look a tad deeper. Can we also look at our own substantial disappointment. In case you missed it, Bode lost the race – skied off in the first run of the GS at Whitsler. Bummer.

That’s another point of Orpheus. He’s not entirely alone in his journey. While he is the only one taking the steps to the underworld there are others along the way. And his journey is connected to another, to Eurydice. And he’s got these judges looking over his shoulder making sure that he doesn’t look at her (and making sure he gets through all the gates). And WE are looking on at every moment wondering how he’ll do. In 2006 Bode’s response to the enormous pressure brought to bear on him was to say “It’s your expectations, not mine.” I was shocked, while not surprised how self-centered he came off in Torino. Because though he couldn’t let “us” in he wasn’t alone. For better and worse. Yet he retreated to a stoic public isolation which led to a storm of sentences of media death. It was a trap. Manufacturers of “The Hades Game” design it that way. Win or die.

But simple truth, Bode did not excel in Torino. He made it out with Eurydice, but they took separate vacations after the games. It was not a happy time. And it was not success. It was simply survival.

Now there’s Orpheus, 2010 style. It was helped by the newest US Ski Team member, coach of the Combined team, Mike Kenney. Let it further be said that Mike is Bode’s uncle and, as we said in our film, “The closest thing to a mentor that an independent thinker like Bode could ever have.” Mike also arrived at Whistler and look at the results: Bode’s gold was joined with Ted Ligety’s 5th and FASTEST slalom time, followed by Will Bradenburg and his 10th place finish and second fastest slalom. Followed by Andrew Weibrecht’s 11th place finish punctuated by his heroic fall over the finish line as he dove through the last gates of the slalom.

You see in our world Eurydice is the ski race. In my case Eurydice is a movie about a ski racer. In his wonderful essay, The Gaze of Orpheus, Maurice Blanchot, talks of how the artist (or inventor or ski racer) needs to unify two opposing forces. One is the inspiration of the moment. The other is the need for completion and result.

In our film Mike Kenney responded to my question of the notion of time and how it is fundamentally connected to ski racing. Time is the objective judge of results. Mike commented on how the Greeks (those fun folks who told us of Orpheus) had two notions of time. One is chronos and it is the ticking of the clock. It is, in Mike’s words, how’s my technique, how are my edges, where’s my body in space. The other sense of time is kairos – time that jumps out of time. “Ah, what a time that was!” It is inspiration, intuition, creation. It is time that transcends the second or minute or hour or day that contains it. Bode’s always been long on inspiration, but technique and a mastery of chronos and the discipline of time has been an ongoing training exercise. “If Bode can master these two notions of time then he could be a great ski racer.” That’s the setup for the race on Saturday.

One of the aspects of the races we’ve seen at Whistler that Todd Brooker commented on is how much more controlled Bode has appeared. Another aspect of these games, and Bode has spoken of this, is how Bode has raced with emotion. He saw himself as emotionally distant in Torino, but now sees he is racing with a motive. Yet with that emotion has come a mastery of technique. And when it happened it was an absolutely beautiful and inspired performance.

And on Saturday at the slalom it begins again. As great as Bode Miller was on Sunday in the Combined it is a new day. And, like it or not, we will be there with him.

Bode has shown his true character already. He showed up in Whistler and he has thrown himself at something worthy and monumental. It is the deep quest to perform in a way that startles, that unifies kairos and chronos, technique and inspiration, preparation and momentary brilliance. His is a great American success story, made poingnant and significant by the struggle that has come before, a connection forged with all of us, his struggle inspiring us in ours.

That journey continues.

Bald Guy 040 Insulation

2009-11-18T07:16:00.001-05:00

22 degrees this morning. Put a jaclet on your house. At least, wear a hat.

NH Film Festival

2009-10-19T06:45:00.004-04:00

Had a great time at the NH Film Festival. I only wish I could have seen more/ been there more. I guess having the Music Hall a block from my office was just too much. Allowed me to duck out of a screening and then finish an edit. Just glad I can't yet edit on my iphone.

One of the fine things about a festival is the community of makers. Great to see Ron Wyman and George Kachadorian and hear them talk about social responsibility and film. It's the ol' cause thing. In their panel discussion I would have liked to add to the notion that came out about conversation that cause oriented work is about relationship. As a filmmaker we need to be embedded in the world we inhabit. Little video cameras have given us the opportunity to bring the camera into those worlds. Like in Food Inc where a small clandestine camera caught horrendous conditions in the food processing world. Like in George and Courtney Bent's documentary Shooting Beauty where small video cameras are mounted to a wheelchair to go along for the ride. Along as we are given a tale of freedom on the dangerous streets of Boston.

Any of us can get an inexpensive camera and record. That's a start. But it's the relationship that camera forms through its human handling. It's the relationship that the camera forms with the community it enters. With the people surrounding it. It's a 3-dimensional world.

Paolo Nutini

2009-07-25T08:20:00.003-04:00

I met Paolo Nutini last night. He's a sensation and all the more so in an intimate pre-show living-room performance in an acoustic gig I was privileged to attend thanks to The River 92.5 and the Green Alliance. It's a silly comparison – crossing forms and modes – but he's a Bode Miller of music, albeit happy and seemingly comfortable with other people. He offered our preshow show his songs and his band of performers. They also looked to relish just playing. Altlantic recorded and rumor has it we'll be able to hear the mini-gig on the radio. We could have been in the Buena Vista Social Club, or a southern porch, with the rhythm slapped out by a box upon which the drummer sat.

Great performance is PRESENCE. And Paolo is rooted in his song, wistful, longing and connecting to the presence of all great perfromance. Wish I could have pulled out my Sony webbie and grabbed the moments, flickering candles, and budha statues lit by the flames looking on over Paolo's shoulder. On second thought – glad I could just be there and not have to work. (Wasn't enough light, anyway, so I cut the thought.)

But this sheer genius of voice and instrument isn't simply an invention of the moment. This kid cut his chops in a studio and clearly watched, listened, learned. He knows how to take the stage and share the stage. The blend of personalities is strung together by someone who has seen good and knows how to tap it. That makes him REALLY GOOD. It's where the Bode comparison holds. You don't get to great moments of presence and performance without the chops to transcend those very chops. It's what we all look for – at least speaking for myself – this performance that leaps off the stage, frees us from gravity, and turns our solo acts into connected art.

I pitched Paolo into connecting to the issue of climate change and if it hits him I'm sure he will. We all need that sense of presence, if not simply the presence itself.

Here's a clip that does a decent job of connecting to Paolo. Find him yourself.

48 hour film project

2009-06-17T16:32:00.006-04:00

Pick the thing up and do it. Wow. It is real.

I saw Celebration at the Music Hall some years ago. And Hoop Dreams. People. Camera. Relationships. Power. "Don't just stand there. Move it!" It's apt.

That was the line of dialog we were given. And Max Otterbein, waiter. And sunglasses and a genre: buddy film. And 48 hours to make – script, shoot, edit!! – a film.

Never had much pull for a 48 Hour Project till this year. And meeting Sean Hurley. We talked about collaborating. And then this thing in New Hampshire. Pick a camera up in our back yard. See what happens. Portsmouth has been much ignored filmically (not any more!)

Put down the money to enter.

Crazy week leading up to the Friday with two other films to be shown Thursday night. Hoo boy, didn't even read the rules till Friday and then a quick scan. Hope the guy at the table next to me wasn't lying about the 7 minute max thing.

Sean would bring Rick. I would bring Jay with a second (and preferred XDCam) camera.

Then went to the Fresh Local Truck (convenient camera platform for our opening shot) for lunch Thursday and met Doria. She's a sensation – an instant connection. She's dong a documentary on refugees from Bhutan. "Wanna help make a film this weekend?"

"Going to a wedding on Friday in NY, but I can get back if afternoon's not too late?" Get out! Jump in. What can she do/ want to do? "I can act if you'd like. Except I'm in the Union." Not a problem for me! 'Cept that I HATE paperwork.

So we all jumped in. Played. And believed that we wouldn't waste our time. We got the category we wanted (not that we knew any better). A buddy film. Sit and jabber. Let 'em roll. See what happens.

But we did so much more than just let em roll and get what we get. We started there. Doria said it. And she echoed a line in our climate change documentary project. "You begin where you are, man." We cut the specific line (remember that 7:00 thing??), but the thought permeated.

And Sean... alive from the first moment. He and Rick started improvising at Gill's Indian restaurant next to the Double D Comics (no other filmmakers were hungry?) right after we got our assignment. They started playing with elements.

Sean was alive and awake at – was it 5 or 6 AM as we began to plan the shoot, Rick was in by 6AM (doing the morning show on NHPR gets him going pretty early most days).

And the same on Sunday. Sean and I were up with the sun, cutting away. Could have used those 4 hours of sleep for a sound mix at about 6:41 PM Sunday. But jumped in the car and flew to Manchester Karmic radar detector set for every corner.

Thanks Chris and 48 hour Project folks. You kicked some life into these old guys. Well, Sean & Rick aren't so old.

Somewhat cross posted on our blog
coruway.blogspot.com

these old guys. Well, Sean & Rick aren't so old.

The above photo is why we wanted to use Jay's XDCAm:

Still pretty much as the camera recorded it, lit by two street lights, 7:56 PM (or thereabouts)

Uncle Joe Awards

2009-06-12T16:11:00.002-04:00

The winners of last night's Joe Rogers Award for Independence were given at a packed hall in Boston. In this profile we learn the steps Michael Greene and Dennis Machado have taken to get where they want to go.

2009-06-12T08:44:00.002-04:00

What a night! What a week! What a life!

As I get ready for the 48-hour film project beginning today I’m just getting over a previous 48-hour film project.

Last night was Awards Night – the Annual Celebration & Fundraiser for Work, Inc. a non-profit service provider in Massachusetts that supports people with developmental and psychiatric disabilities. One of the evening’s awards is the Joe Rogers award for independence in honor of my uncle and dedicated to his determined spirit. The award is presented by Joe’s family and my dad, Mark Rogers, performed the honor of presenting the awards to Michael Greene and Dennis Machado. As part of the celebration we have, each year, created video profiles of all the nominees and winners.

We had another profile this year: the 2009 Work Inc. Consumer of the Year. Maura Sullivan is inspiring in her quest to connect with others and her leadership in helping others with disability to similarly connect. There is still a bit of last night’s dinner on this monitor – don’t want to admit working till the last minute, but it does seem forensics might ID remnants of the roast beef served up. We were glad to provide this profile of Maura Sullivan – done with time to enjoy desert.

Thanks to Jim Casetta, CEO of Work Inc. and Jim Cawley, development director, and President of the Boston City Council, Maureen Feeney, who was nothing short of inspiring in her position of MC for the evening event. And to Joe Rogers for leading the way; David & Terry Rogers, Mark & Susan Rogers, Barbara Rogers and in memory of Leonard Rogers.

cross posted on Bald Guy on Climate Change and My Uncle Joe.org

How to party with Bode Miller – on not

2009-06-06T10:41:00.003-04:00

I am terrible at throwing a party.

It’s not that I don’t have something to offer – not embarrassed about the food, the conversation, the entertainment, the other friends, nor do I care if the party is for 4 or 400. I’m about typical when it comes to social quotient. I both like being with people and being alone. No shortage of entertainment in either place.

It’s just the logistics of a party. The f-ing details. And the question of why.

Making a film – or any creative endeavor is a little like throwing a party. You invite people you know to participate. You give them a sense of why, when, where, who. Like a barn raising. But, of course the difference is, unlike a barn-raising, many (most??) projects take more than a day, a weekend, a month... So at the end of the party you say, “Hope you had a good time! See you at 6 AM tomorrow for doughnuts and coffee!”

Not a popular closer for most.

But even for the singular, one-off, run of-the-mill party it’s still a basic question of who, what, where, when and embedding the why in there. Do we need to know why we should party? I think it’s handy to know if we’re to buy tupperware, drink like Lawrence, or catchup with old friends, yes.

And there’s the rub. Work to have fun? How come?

Here’s the connection, tangential as it might be. I was talking with a friend about wanting to make a fort for my kids. He said excitedly that he had a fort he was looking to move, his son having gone off to college and the big wide world. My friend is a builder and his fort is solid. Cool for us! But we’ve got to get a crew to move it. Now moving a fort is not quite party material, just needs a few guys to grab corners and heft the thing into my friend’s trailer. But how to make that happen. I stink at throwing parties. One time I invited friends to a party then didn’t show up. True story. That’s when I knew. And it seems especially bad when the purpose is to get friends to do something for me.

I’m actually pretty good on the communication of that last item. It’s a matter of being honest, straightforward and staying away from any guilt trips – YOU OWE ME! It’s the time thing. And it’s THE CIRCLES OF CONNECTION. I bet my cousin in Connecticut could help. Or my brother in Columbus. Or my friend in Massachusetts. But it has to be realistic. A real fort needs people in close enough circles. And then there is the issue of the social circles. A “hefting of the fort” can be a good way to join circles – my local friends, to my film friends.

Connection and the why. The fort needed 4 people to move. Tim, my friend the builder, me and two others. I made a few calls to local friends and could find only 1. So the 2 of us showed up at Tim’s house.

Tim builds houses. So the fort was really a little house. On 7 foot four by four stilts. Around a tree that burned down leaving the fort standing. Amazingly the 3 of us lowered the building to the ground, using the concept of leverage and a deep and abiding faith in God. Once to the ground we realized that there was no way the 3 of us, or even 4 guys heftier. Tim’s built like a house framer, but, me and David are finish carpenters, at best. So we need at least 6 people. A bigger party. For another day of fun.

And it hit me. I like helping friends out. I like hanging out. I like creating. I like helping others create (editing, shooting, writing...). I hate organizing schedules. Does anybody? Some tolerate it better than others. I work with one such person. But I just want to hang out with friends. Hang with creative folks, even those who don’t think they are.

I’ve been out at Sundance a few times. One time I was there for a screening of my Bode Miller film, Flying Downhill, showing at the competing XDance. I was at one of the Sundance hotels looking for a friend, hyping (inviting him to) my screening. And as I was being as cool as possible to fit in – arrogance works as well in a pinch. I could see the buzzing of little parties. One group was assembled around their film and it seemed that some of those party-members sole purpose was to wrangle other partiers to attend their film. Some of the group were solely “ticket-givers” and knew who should sit where. These were professional party people, not amateurs like me. They knew where everybody should stand at the party. And what kind of vodka was in. And out. Don’t know if this was the group associated with another party (film screening) scheduled for the same time as mine. But my friend told me that he had to go to that party, even though he had seen the film and the distributor had already been chosen. He simply had to get more of Little Miss Sunshine. Even though I hadn’t seen it... how could a reckless skier compete with a kid with a great smile, not to mention my hero, Alan Arkin. Our Bode party was good, but would have been better had Bode not been such a good partier (or, at least talked about such before the party).

People who are good at social media look like they are good at a party. But really it’s all about a simple conversation. No problem. My mon, who seems to be good at parties, taught me that many people feel awkward at a party. You just talk. Be yourself. Listen.

I gotta run to find some friends to move a fort! And hang with the kids.

But I do want to pitch that I’ll be working with Sean Hurley and some other friends on the 48-hour film project. We’ll begin at 7PM Friday, June 12 and the party ends Sunday night at 7PM. A movie in hand.

We never had a wrap party for our Bode film because it was moving with us as we went. One such party was in Park City, 2002 after the final Olympic slalom. At 4 AM I walked out from my bedroom and told Bode and the 20 or so others in the living room playing coin games that it was time for me to get some sleep. Thus, end of party. He said “That’s cool.”

We need someone in our endeavors who likes to throw a party. Me, just let me cook and talk. I’ll clean up after. Eventually.

Cause a good party can even help promote climate change solutions. Really.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 032

2009-04-17T16:20:00.005-04:00

Bald Guy on Climate Change finds some great solutions with US Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter, on a tour with the Green Alliance. Habitat for Humanity builds houses, but in the process of their good work finds ways to do more good with their ReStore. That's good.

Balg Guy 013

2009-04-16T20:04:00.002-04:00

Bald Guy gets hung out to dry with his investment in a new solar array.

Bald Guy 029 Wide

2009-03-23T13:51:00.001-04:00

This is Bill's entry into the Fiestamovement, a call for 100 bloggers to drive and write about their time behind the wheel of the Ford Fiesta as Ford tries to make it the IT car.

NESEA Building Energy Conference

2009-03-12T08:32:00.003-04:00

Was at the NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) with Now or Never. We were (are) generously hosted by Boston Chapter of NESEA, BASEA if you're a fan of acronyms. It's aka Boston Area Solar Energy Association and they attract a good amount of querries. I know because I needed to let folks know that we were interlopers, not the real solar deal. We were just the press looking for stories of why folks had come to the conference.

We were LIVE streaming at NESEA and will be today:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nowornevermedia-live

We met some fascinating people: an energy auditor in Maine, driven by high energy prices; an alternative energy service company; a number of folks in the wind business; and the president of a college. The College President, Mr. Theodore Landsmark, took the opportunity of our live feed to sign a resolution of commitment on climate change at the school he leads, The Boston Architectural College.

There's great energy at the Buiding Energy Conference and we'll find more of it today.

Bald Guy 027

2009-03-01T06:38:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

In Saco, Maine they've connected the train to a station that's "on the grid and off the grid" as it gets power from the wind and the earth. The station's smart design is a source of pride for its community and a service to everybody that passes by, including US Congress member, Chellie Pingree. Developer Bob Martin and architect Mike Lassel tell us of why a facility like the Saco train station is good for all of us.

Bode Miller: The Journey Continues

2009-01-13T14:10:00.003-05:00

I am known to write long letters. It's okay. Not everybody reads them, but if you can and want to I'd like it, because I've got a story to tell. And It's about an adventure.

I began a journey ten years ago. The start of that journey is one of those moments etched in us. I was heading toward a tollbooth and heard a press report of Bode Miller coming back from Japan and the 1998 Winter Olympics. That was the beginning. I would follow Bode to the next Olympics in Park City (2002) and see what happens. And find meaning in the journey. That's the essence of any project and the essence of how we learn as we take steps forward.

And the journey continues today. The best journeys of my life have been forward and backward: new experiences that build on old ones. We go away to learn about who we are, where we come from. And so for the story of Bode Miller.

a preview from the soon to be released Bode Miller: The Early Years

Bode's grandparents introduced my parents. It was the 1950's and they were each on their own adventures. They found themselves at the Tamarack Ski Lodge. My mom worked there. As did her older sister, Nancy. My dad was a lodger. They were part of that Bohemian gang, like Kerouac groupies, not looking for a club, but just a place to rest and BE. To ski and BE. To live life as it's meant to BE. Jack Kenney, Bode's grandfather would write in the bathtub. And call up Groucho Marx on New Year's Eve. And Peg Kenney, Bode's grandmother, would keep the place from going completely belly-up, and would ski like nobody else. She was a medal-winning skier and could have been in world competition, had things, timing, fate been a bit different. She came east from Squaw Valley, taken in by Jack Kenney and his big, funny ideas.

Jack and Peg sold land to my mom and dad, an acre from the 400 Jack had bought with shoeboxes full of coins. Peg would later tell Jo, her daughter, who was busy idealizing a commune on the beautiful and harsh land that you want to have people visit and LEAVE, and that if they stay you've got to deal with all their junk. My parents came up for weekends and then left. But they loved Jack and Peg and the world they inhabited. And that was true for a suburb-full of others for whom the mountains represented the life they wanted to live. You make your money in the city, raise kids in the suburbs, but come alive in the mountains. And, as kids, the mountains were where we truly played.

So I've returned to the mountains to find out about the life my parents started. I always wanted to make a film about Jack and Peg and the world they wanted to create and did create. The Beat generation of Jack & Peg led to the hippies of Bode's parents and uncles. Each family member created a house or two on the land, made a stake in the place. Some were stick houses built from the trees they cut. Some were rehabs and patches of the buildings that were there for generations. But everybody had a stake in the land.

And I thought a documentary about these folks would be very cool. It seemed to me it would be Brother's Keeper (the 1992 documentary), without the murder and with smart people. And 15 people would see it. So I let it sit on the shelf as I made films about people with developmental disability and a passion for the blues, which 150 (actually more than 150,000) people wold see.

And that's when I was driving down that highway and reminded of how good Bode was on a pair of skis. And how exciting. And how places are good backdrops, but we need outward places to go and things to do to know why place is important. Because place and character need to be linked together. And the next Olympics would be Salt Lake City, 2002, a good American place, the destination for a good American story of following your dreams. And the wacky idea of how to get there. And the little understood sport of ski racing, with its many gates and great speed and clock ticking. Now we're talking! We're talking audience here! And EUROPEANS. Millions of Europeans. Addicts to ski racing. Feed 'em with a funny young, brash American. The little I knew about Bode back then – I was off at college and other pursuits as he was growing up – did add up to one thing: this kid is interesting. And he just might be as good as he seems to think he is.

So I spoke to Bode and he said sure, let's go, and thus began a journey.

That's the journey I continue today. Part of it relates to what will happen to Bode, will he stand or fall as a skier? What's the line between person, character, celebrity and circumstance? What is success and failure and how do we measure it? Will he realize his potential as a skier and what is that potential? Is it creating a turn that nobody has ever made before? Is it being fastest down on a particular day? Is it overcoming the obstacles in front of you, skiing on one ski if one ski is given? Or is simply a moment of defying gravity, like each of us as we come down the slope, gliding on a cloud of snow? What's the meaning of this journey – in this journey – following the path of one of the most remarkable athletes of our time?

I still get up early to see live timing of Bode's races, wanting to know how he's doing, if he's okay at the end of the run. People have lost their lives, lost their limbs in this unforgiving sport. And every time I get nervous knowing that I shouldn't be nervous, that I have NOTHING to do with the outcome. But that's why Bode's journey is my journey. I am – many of us are – connected to what happens to others. Bode's performance connects to each of us, to the best and worst we can do. To our mistakes and triumphs.

I consider this the final leg of my active journey on this project. I'll see if Bode goes to Val D'Isere and what happens there, if he continues on to Whistler.

But with this site and through a careful re-sifting of the 400 hours of taped history of the last ten years I'll be creating a "reverse blog" that will go back in time as Bode continues forward towards whatever might be next for him. I'll be reflecting on the journey that I've taken and post short clips from along the way. From the ring-side seat in 2002 as Bode delivered one of the greatest slalom performances in the history of ski racing, to the scene in my kitchen as my son, 3-years-old at the time, and I saw Bode go, on a single run of slalom, from behind to winning by 1 1/2 seconds.

I'll also find plenty of shots of Bode working out nearly naked (see the clip above and stay through the end, if that's your interest).

And we'll be giving you a new cut, for the first time a cut that will be released in Europe with subtitles in German, French and Italian (bravisimo!)!

So stay tuned. You know the location. But just in case it's FLYINGDOWNHILL.COM

-Bill Rogers

Bode Miller:The Early Years Preview

2009-01-12T17:00:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

America's great skier, Bode Miller, has always gone his own way. But from where and to where? In this preview to the profile of the American iconoclast we look to see the line between inspiration and a punshing crash. And we get to see Bode nerarly naked, a rare event on the ski hill.

Virability

2008-12-29T10:00:00.005-05:00

Got a newsletter from Powderhouse Hill recently that reminded me of the power of this medium (these media). Our little Powderhouse Hill, which we coined as America's Smallest Ski Resort last March got on the media list on December 26. When everybody needed that little story to make us feel good. Thought I'd re post it here from our YouTube account.

We've had modest success with virability. Our biggest player, to date, is a five-minute clip we crafted about Bode Miller with selections from Bode NAKED, CRASHING, LAUGHING, BREAKING STUFF, you know, a basic day. We didn't post the clip but a commercial outfit put it up on YouTube and GoogleVideo to drive traffic to their site. As we were not capitalizing (at that time) on such posts we let it run and see what the numbers were. Got to about 50,000 before it was pulled for the copyright violation that it was (of our rights). We'll soon be returning an updated version of this and other clips, but not before we understand more about how and why to drive traffic.

During the 2006 Olympics we had about 500,000 visitors to our FlyingDownhill.com Seeing that traffic come and go I vowed that we will know more about how to harness interest, not just how to get it.

And that's the big adventure we all have to learn. I don't know whether it matters if Andy Warhol was right or not that "In the future [aka NOW] everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes."
Having seen how fame has treated Bode and many others, fifteen minutes could be a relief.

Getting our audiences to know who and what we are is key. But the other key is being something REAL. That's what drives the numbers. And that's the prospect of this media. We can get audiences inside the experience.

But virability is not just about being good and true, bad and interesting. It's about appealing to a wide swath of people at a particular moment. And finding a way to connect.

So email your friends this Powderhouse YouTube clip. I just posted it and there are 0 views. The url is above. I've got to think that a clip with nobody naked, no explosions, no fights over the rope, and just the minor controversy of the bald-headed claim/question of "America's SMALLEST resort" is not going to be too viral. But virability? Like a lip-syncing middle-aged dancer!

Here's the url which you can get (or the embed code if you want to paste in a clip). You can watch the clip, copy the url or get the embed code at YouTube:

Holiday Break

2008-12-26T13:42:00.005-05:00

The holiday break began a touch prematurely when I got the flu on Tuesday and spent Wednesday on the couch, less potato than wet rag. I did get out of the last minute shopping spree that is my typical practice.

But today it's back to work and the job at hand is a re-release of our Bode Miller film, Flying Downhill. We're focused on a version for Europe and looking to integrate those things we've been talking about for years. We opted for self-distrubution and though we had offers I'm sure that we would have made even less had we accpeted the offers we received.

Beacause building sales is all about esablishing contact with your customers and there is a direct way to do that with the web. The issue is, of course, getting the expertise to present yourself well and to keep the follow-through that let's your audeince know who and what you are and what you've got.

I've always been a creator and not a marketer which takes other ideas and audiences and plugs them together. But I, like so many other film and media makers, are realizing the creativity available directly on the web.

But its like learning to be a filmmaker – at least how I learned – which is by putting images and sounds together and learning from others. Takes time, process of creation, results, relearning, creation.

This very blog is a way to train and learn by experience. And for me the adventure is getting feedback, learning how to promote sites, learning how to make sites more compelling.

For our new Flying Downhill site we'll be using more short clips on YouTube. We invite you to comment on the clips, send them to friends, post them wherever appropriate.

The good news is this can be done on the couch, or in the office, or like today, at my office at home. And at the heart of this work is the heart of our work: being alive today and responding to what we see and hear, reflecting it back to one another in a fresh and honest way. It's about us – all of us – and how we go through our world together.

December 26, 2008

Bald Guy 025 The 236 Diner

2008-12-10T12:37:00.002-05:00

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Bald Guy is hungry again. How about a local diner. He's heard of the 236 Diner. But where in the world is it? And do they have meatloaf?

Bald Guy 024: Simply Green!

2008-12-05T17:09:00.002-05:00

Bald Guy continues to drive, but at least he can handle a little of the guilt by looking for a conGREENience store. What's congreenience? Watch and learn.

Woven Voices Gift

2008-12-04T14:17:00.004-05:00

Artist and friend Sarah Haskell just came over with a gift of a beautiful prayer flag woven from messages she has received from around the world. Here's the handover.

Spinning Fast

2008-12-04T12:51:00.005-05:00

This is for my son. He had one of those great lines this morning and I told him I'd spin it into a blog entry.

"You get very dizzy because the world is spinning very fast." -Miles Lee-Rogers

I have been dizzy, lately. Absorbing how to do this new stuff, tools to communicate faster, maybe simpler, but new, more, connected. Each day I'm learning basic stuff about how to connect with others through Facebook, Blip, Google tube...

I had a meeting with my web guy on the Bode project and he said how kids should be your testers. How easy is it to get stuff from your site. But adults should be asking the same question. How do we allow others to connect with us?

We had half a million hits on our Bode Miller Flying Downhill (www.flyingdownhill.com) site. But how many come back? How many return to do more than satisfy a random curiosity? In re-doing the site, in re-releasing the film in Europe, that's what we want to be ready for. One of our clips was put onto YouTube by someone else. We let it fly, let it stay there and before it came down 50,000 people had seen it. We need to find a way to talk to those people. As the world spins we've got to find a way to deepen our connection. Understanding is the way I get less dizzy.

But the world keeps on spinning and we've got to keep learning. Thanks, Miles, for letting me know why I get dizzy.

BG 022 Insulation

2008-12-03T17:04:00.002-05:00

Click to Play

Sometimes the climate change solutions are not in your proverbial backyard, but in the literal front yard. So found Bald Guy when his neighbor started blowing shreds into the attic.

Social Media

2008-11-24T08:41:00.005-05:00

What is social media?

It's media you catch from other people.

When I was about four years old (It was the 1963? NY World's Fair) I grabbed a hold of my parents' home movie camera and recorded what I saw. It's like my kids jumping on a computer and hitting the keys till the right thing happens – or till something that makes them happy happens. Or picking up one of our digital still cameras and clicking their world. Life is happening all around us. Right now. And that life is reflected in my kids' eyes. By what they see, hear, record.

But then it's put onto a hard drive, uploaded and shared. And it is part of that great exchange of ideas and perspectives. Interchangeable with others.

What we do as creators of social media is to drive up the value of the exchange. We create a context for the media to keep it from being a random act of sole observation. We connect one person to another.

That's social media.

Amelia and Midnight by Miles

Bald Guy on Climate Change 020

2008-11-04T14:36:00.001-05:00

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A new day for Bald Guy? You betcha. Cause today's climate change solution is votin'.

New Media & Social Media

2008-11-03T09:49:00.006-05:00

Is it New Media or Social Media?

Both work, but in our media the social aspect makes much sense. Our media is about people and how they relate to larger structures. We are our culture; and our culture is us. They're in a dance, both individual and societal.

Have you received a web video recently? Have you clicked on it? I did. I was brought (or I went) to the donation section of the Obama site, and then to the video. In this case it was a behind the scenes look at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The important point is that the video is related to the cause and the DNC and Obama teams are leading in a vital way. Leading with stories. And leading by connecting those stories to data (like my email, address...).

The same day I received an email from Michael Moore talking about how vitally important this election is and how his message is going out to 1 million people, and how that million can reach 5 each... That's the story of social media. A simple message can be passed one to another. I've got to bet his "free download" of the profile of the 2004 election, SLACKER UPRISING was and is a big part of that list of a million. He gave it way for free and got one huge load of emails. Now he's using that power.

And all this is social.

And not just us pinko, whacked out radicals. Many of them are foaming at the mouth Fox-fed radical anti-radicals.

It's social and we better realize who we're talking to and how we're talking to them.

What the Obama folks (assisted by many including MoveOn) have done masterfully is presented stories – long and short (though clearly more short than long) and tied those stories to more than one indivdual and what drives them. They've linked those stories to us. And created an internconnected social web of interests.

It's what we need to do – what we're beginning to do – in regard to climate change, human rights and the many daunting issues that need us to see the world in a new way.

That's the promise. I'm with Obama's network of change. I'm a fan of public financing and public TV. But there's a new model of social networking and social media. It's a powerful force.

The NYTimes ran a story this morning about Obama, tired, at the end of a day, end of a long campaign. He's seen in his plane, taken from outside through a round window, he's on his cell phone. And in the dark on the outside of the plane is a portion of the text: barackobama.com. It's powerful force.

NoworNever 010: Biodiesel on the Farm

2008-10-27T18:36:00.001-04:00

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Can a New Engalnd Farm be the center for postive climate change? Dorn Cox and researchers at the University of New Hampshire see the small scale of a New Englnad farm as a measurable way to look at a climate change solution. Can there be power from the flower?

Presenting at NHFF

2008-10-18T09:01:00.003-04:00

Heading into Portmsouth to work with a small group of students who are part of the NH Film Fest's media workshop. I'll bring my newest tool: a Canon Powershot A530 digital still camera that I'm using to shoot video. I fits in my pocket, stores to flash drive, downloads via USB to computer AND looks pretty damn good.

One thing I like is the slow frame rate (10fps). This works well for web video, which is often stuttery regardless. And also the fact that the digital still backdrop is a series of still frames. That's what film is. TV is (has been) 30 frames per second, each of which is broken into 1/2 frames (or fieldes). These subframes are stitched together via INTERLACING. But digital stills are full frames, ande so, when shown in succession they have much more the feel of film.

But back to the other good thing about this little camera. The video image size is 640x480, good enough for web video. I shoot. I plug the camera into a computer (I use a powerbook so iphoto automatically downloads the video), I translate (export) the movie onto my media harddrive, I import the clip into an edit program, edit, export, post and review.

So time to go do that.

Oh, yeah. One other little issue. Have something to say and say it, show it, do it.

BG 019 Bald Guy on Climate Change

2008-10-17T12:58:00.002-04:00

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How do we count the ways of change? In this selection Climate Counts show how we can vote with our dollars by learning of the carbon footprint of the companies where our dollars go.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 018

2008-10-16T15:31:00.001-04:00

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When the Kittery main dump needs power, now can now look up to the heavens. When the wind blows, electricity flows. And Bald Guy was there!

Bald Guy on Climate Change 012

2008-10-16T11:16:00.001-04:00

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Does a bald guy need a haircut? Does a pig need lipstick? Lets see at Micheles where bald guy gets cropped.

Casey on Campus!

2008-10-15T15:23:00.001-04:00

This is made in partnership with Clean Air Cool Planet.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 016

2008-10-13T13:06:00.001-04:00

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Bald Guy met Steve Garfield at the NH Mediamakers meetup. Time to make a video blog entry! In the car Steve talks about how climate chnage and the new media landscape fit together. Over a bridge to somewhere.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 015

2008-10-09T12:09:00.001-04:00

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If the solutions to climate change are in our own backyards, what solutions can Bald Guy who has his own backyard find? Let's just see...

Bald Guy on Climate Change 011

2008-09-26T16:13:00.001-04:00

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Bald Guy goes to Epping, NH to see what frugal yankees do when its time to fix the town halls boiler.

Casey on Campus

2008-09-19T11:00:00.001-04:00

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Casey is looking for solutions to climate change. But what's a student to do? So many choices, so little time. But thankfully she's got Clean Air Cool Planet and their carbon calculator to help.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 007

2008-09-05T15:11:00.001-04:00

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Bald Guy gets his vacation! But meanwhile climate change keeps lighting those candles. Not to worry, Bald Guy's got his cell phone to call it in.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 009

2008-08-27T15:17:00.001-04:00

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Bald Guy comes back from vacation to hear about tornados in the land of snow. What other changes are afoot?

Bald Guy on Climate Change 006

2008-08-27T14:31:00.001-04:00

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Even in a carbon constrained world everybody likes a good road trip. Bald Guy and Producer Melissa Paly head to the University of New Hampshire to learn about Clean Air Cool Planet's Planning Tool and Carbon Calculator.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 001

2008-08-23T07:59:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

What's a poor guy making a series on climate change to do? Make a shorter series on cilmate change and bring in those who have pulled their hair out over the topic. And do it every day. These short videos are about Bald Guy looking for solutions.

Bald Guy on Climate Change 001

2008-08-22T13:00:00.001-04:00

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Joe Rogers Award for Independence 2008

2008-06-23T09:04:00.000-04:00

Monday night was Awards Night for Work Inc. Work, Inc. is a sevice provider for people with disabilities and psychiatric disabilities in Massachusetts. My uncle, David Rogers, presented the Joe Rogers Award for Independence to Paul Baxter. It was an exciting night at the IBEW hall, across the street from the site of Work Inc's new facility in Dorchester. The evening was also groundbreaking and by next year the new location should be good to go.

We showed a video for the event that features the seven nominees for the award. The nominees are Paul Baxter, John Carideo, Robert Collier, Alan Miller, Robert Ouelette, Grace Smith and Maura Sullivan. The award honors independence and each showed a side of the quality that was so essential in Joe Rogers' life.

Here's the video:

And the video from last year:

Ohio

2008-05-29T21:53:00.004-04:00

Back from four days in classrooms learning – i.e. filming – about kids learning. It's one of the new things in education – formative assessment – and I was skeptical if it was just the latest thing or something. Turns out it really is something and really turned my head when I saw it work.

The best case was a fourth grade (I think it was fourth grade, but it all went into one, after a number of classes) math class in wich the kids were just cooking along in some formative exercises. The formative part is the kids and teacher assessing what they know. It's meant to be a quick snapshot which then moves into pushing the boundary of what the kid's know.

Very cool stuff and shows me how far the classroom can go in a short time.

The great fringe benefit of the job is that I got to stay with my sister, Nancy who had just moved to Columbus with her husband, Rich. They were in the center of all the school's we visited, and only two blocks from a real town center. Not a strip mall, but a real place. Glad to see we've still got some of those real places around the country.

5 Point Film Festival

2008-05-18T06:49:00.003-04:00

Just read Bob Lefsetz post "Doing Business." Bob's been on the changes in the music industry since napster and has provided insight into the changes, we in the film world are now seeing full-on today. Music led the way as digital audio is smaller than video clips. But download for video and streaming is here, and the changes to the industry and culture are revolutionary.

One aspect of the change is related to this blog and how we present our work to one another. As with so many changes it spins to both more and less mediation. On the one hand we – filmmakers – have more opportunity to present ourselves and our work to our audience. But, we also are even more dependent on others to present our work. The new paradigm is about partnerships, about finding alliances and interests and using them to get our work more known.

I was out at a new film festival in Carbondale, Colorado, the 5 Point Film Festival, showing a new version of Flying Downhill, our profile of Bode Miller. It was the next chapter – I'm calling it the second life – in this ongoing saga of one of the most extraordinary performers working these days. The cut I showed is based on "The Skier's Version" which we first constructed in 2004 to be more like a Warren Miller film – episodic as opposed to narrative, jammed with music, each piece of which becomes a theme in itself. Episodes are about: explorer, faller, family back home, the roots... What was fun about making this cut is that the episodes could stand alone. In a narrative there is an underlying structure that makes constructing the film a complicated puzzle, where specific pieces must go in specific places to support the whole. No hassles like that in episodic media. Film too long? Throw out an episode or two. Too short, throw in Bode free-skiing in Bella Coola, or being a superstar in Europe.

This kind of modular constuction suits posting short clips very well. It's not about previews from our film, it's about moments in time, episodes in the world our film inhabit.

In my films I become part of a world. I invest in the people and place that has hooked my interest. I form a relationship with character and the specifics of what makes this character tick. It is particular.

Universal Design for Learning

2008-04-04T12:15:00.003-04:00

I shot a long day yesterday. It was a conference with a name almost as long as the shooting day: Universal Design for Learning: Tipping Points from Research to Practice. It was fascinating material, very much inside a specialized niche, but related to so many other cultural movements. And just the fact of shooting a long day – though tiring and hard work – is rewarding. And that's more to the "Universal" aspects of this: how the niche defines the norm.

Much of my work is back here in my office. Long term projects, long presented and crafted. And it feels good to get out into the field – really another foreign field – and get rewarded (aka PAID) for doing that. And that's how work can be rewarding and fulfilling.

The content of much of the conference was about how the classroom will be, increasingly, a place where universal design elements will serve all children, including those with "disabilities." Some of the most exciting moments – speaking, of course, subjectively – were when web based technology enable all students to access content. Linked together it can become social networking. As we – with our climate change project, and our continued outreach towards individuals with disabilities and their supporters – move towards a way to link interests, we are part of the niche becoming universal. The niche becomes more universal (or it can become so) as it becomes more accurate in its reflection of the human needs and aspiration of the niche.

The Margin and Independence

2008-03-02T07:33:00.002-05:00

.64 at the first interval.

My Uncle Joe

2008-02-22T09:08:00.002-05:00

Re: MyUncleJoe.org

More than twenty years ago I began a film project on my uncle. I thought he was cool and interesting. He had lived over half his life in an institution with a label of what then was called "mental retardation." But he got out of the institution – Fernald State School – and found his rightful place in a community south of Boston: Quincy, Massachusetts.

He had challenges, but faced them with a free and indomitable spirit. The film I made about Joe, simply titled, My Uncle Joe, was released in 1991.

We lost Joe in February, 2005 when he was struck and killed by a small truck while he was crossing a street. He was heading home after dinner at one of his favorite restaurants.

I've been working with Joe's brothers to create a site dedicated to Joe's independence. There will be this show site and a related web site, MyUncleJoe.org. All will present stories of people who, like Joe, tell us something about how our world works and who we are. It will be about struggles and triumphs. It will be for people labeled with disabilities and poeple who help them, as well as people who just want to know more about what makes us all tick.

So here we go. It starts today.

Bill Rogers

February 21, 2008

Picture This Film Festival

2008-02-13T13:29:00.003-05:00

Was pleased to accept an award from the Picture This Film Festival for FRONT WARDS, BACK WARDS in Calgary this past Saturday. I only wish I could have made it there in person. It seems like a grass roots fest, for people with disabilities, celebrating the individual with a people-first perspective. And an honor to be recognized by them.

The challenge in creating work that is honest about disability is that you have to form a complete, often complex relationship with your subject. We can certainly say that disability is only a definition – a state of mind that can have little to do with the capabilities of a person – but then there's the reality of the personal experience. With my Uncle Joe, who was labeled "mildly mentally retarded" I often sensed frustration at limitations, real and projected. An ongoing issue was not being able to drive a car. These limitations are real. A driver's license and car are freedom in America.

We can and do create false divisions between "us" and "them." Having spent a long time making and learning about people with disabilities and the place where such people were defined, I've found the dividing line between ability and disability to be malleable, personal and cultural.

An example of this idea is contained in the title of our film, and the title I wanted to give it. We ultimately went with the title Front Wards, Back Wards because it refers to the varying shades of disability (or not) that were lumped together at the institution. The title I wanted was Idiots, Simpletons & Fools. It was vetoed by many people who were concerned of the obvious negative connotations for people so labeled. I liked it precisely because it points to negative labeling, and implicates those creating the labels. But it is not for me to judge the effect of negative labeling, so I would have had to overcome the objections to try to command more attention. Many other filmmakers would have done so, and either I'm a wimp or I listened.

And that points to the two realities that intersect with disability – my perspective as maker and your perspective as viewer. Both relate to the important reality of the subject. It's about how we all meet in images and experiences – as all play out in images and sounds. Is the experience true? Is it real? Is it significant? Glad to get a recognition from the Picture This folks that they thought yes.

Here's the letter I sent in acceptance of the award:

I am so pleased to accept your award for Front Wards, Back Wards. Making this film has been long and often hard. Hard waiting for funds, hard waiting for doors of access to open, hard to go inside a place where human beings never should have been. But my personal experience in making it was easy in comparison to those who lived, forgotten, behind Fernald’s walls and places like it.

In my early days researching this project I found a note – in crayon, scrawled – it said “I want to go home.” Who was that person? What were the conditions of his or her life?

When I got tired because of the hard work, discouraged because the work is long, I remembered that note and the stories of Vic and Joe and Patti, and remembered that they were the ones who had it hard. And from that perspective my job was and is really easy: listen, look and tell others.

This project is about the first institution for people defined as mentally and developmentally disabled. It’s about how institutional walls acted to contain people. And to contain we have to define – what’s in and what’s out. Working on this project, working on a project about how containers define those we contain showed me that it’s not only the disability that presents the problem but our, to borrow your festival’s title, our picture of it, our notion of disability and the conditions of the humans whose lives with disability we see and define.

But I also wanted my audience to spend time in a place where we cannot simply explain away disability. It is not the case that we can say that disability is MERELY a state of mind. When someone needs to be fed, moved, even in a sense spoken for, as is the case of one of our films stars, Patti Hillis, there is a disability, a particular experience that requires an adjustment from “normal” experience. Patti confronts us with a way of relating with the world that is markedly different from most others. But in showing her distinct experience, we can see that familiarity. She wants to go out into the air, and feel a spring breeze on her cheeks.

So thank you for your recognition of stories like Patti’s and the complex web that it weaves with others. It feels like a recognition of the spirit of that person who said, so we could hear it, years later, but loud and clear, “I want to go home.” I imagine that person looking out one of Fernald windows, wondering and hoping we can hear. Your festival now has heard that voice as you’ve welcomed many others. Thank you.

-Bill Rogers
Producer/ Director Front Wards, Back Ward

Music Hall show

2007-09-28T11:18:00.000-04:00

We have an upcoming screening in Portsmouth of our Fernald film and I'd like to get many people at the screening who have been effected by disabilities and institutions to be present and to talk about how the issues of the past are alive today. New Hampshire has closed its institutions, and even in Massachusetts a dwindling group receives services at large facilities. But to what extent are the issues of Fernald (and in NH Laconia) still with us?

I made Front Wards, Back Wards because I feel the issues of the past are very present. I am concerned that if we say that we've closed institutions we might say we can forgot the mistakes (and triumphs) of the past. Or simply use them as fodder for horror films. Many people lived and died behind walls like those of Fernald (and Laconia and Pineland). Those lives had meaning and value, even as the people who held that value and meaning were systemically devalued.

As I mentioned in a post earlier the film will show again on Channel 2 on October 23 at 10PM, a couple weeks after the NHFF screening on October 12 at 4:15 at the Music Hall.

I was in a play – Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage – quite a few years ago directed by Tony Kushner (Angels in America). I played The Cook who tries to lure the charismatic Courage away from The War. But it's futile. The War is where she makes her money, and my character was left to beg for a stone for his soup, singing for his supper. I feel that's what we, creators, must do; sing our most passionate song to get people to listen. But we really are in service to others, at least in relation to others. So come to the Music Hall. You'll hear some passionate songs.

NH Film Festival II

2007-09-23T16:46:00.000-04:00

Something the NHFF seems to do well is establish a good atmosphere for filmmakers to come together. I think a lot of us made a decision to stay in the boondocks, because we could work here and live here. Here is where we want to live.

But there's no film industry here, just some people who express themselves with the medium. If we want to compete in the wider world – get our work seen – we need to know the wider (business) world. So a festival can help us to bring an audience of viewers as well as makers together, and we can build some of the pieces that we need to get our work to a wider audience.

Our work needs to continue to get better and our ability to bring it to an audience needs to get better.

I think it is business 101. I never did business school or classes – arrogant fool that I was (am), so it's a slow process of realizing a market. And, not being in a center like LA or NY, there are less people sophisticated in the business of film/ media. So we guess at how to bring a film to an audience. We can learn, and we can get better about it. My focus is on the production side of things, while I'll continue to find those who approach film as if it were curtain roads, or software, or medical devices, or popcorn...

Early in my career I met with a film exhibitor. After talking for a while he said, "You and me don't talk to each other." He puffed on his cigar from behind his SUV- sized desk. This was before Hummer's and Denali's so he had to make the best with he had. "You just want to make movies, and I just want to make money."

If I want to keep doing this my projects need to be viable and make money for somebody. And our work engages many. We just have to keep getting better. Here's to the New Hampshire Film Festival!

NH Film Festival

2007-09-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

It has been a busy month – end of summer into the high shooting season of September light.

And a few nice dates coming up:

Invites to: Taos Mountain Film Festival in New Mexico for Flying Downhill. And the New Hampshire Film Festival for Front Wards, Back Wards, right in our back yard (actually a block away for the screening at the Music Hall).

And an upcoming Prime Time slot on WGBH, Boston on October 23, 10 PM, after Frontline.

More soon.

Now or Never

2007-08-13T10:29:00.001-04:00

We've got a new project. It's about climate change and what people are doing about it. It's Now or Never.

Melissa Play, Peter Vandermark and I are good Americans! We have all been involved in creating greenhouse gases for a long time. And now we want to conrtibute something that lowers our contribution to the problem. Peter produced, and I shot and edited a film (Out of Balance) for and with Tom Jackson about ExxonMobil's contribution to the same. But we credited ExxonMobil's contrubtion – in another sense their very literal contribution of money to causes dedicated to steer the debate away from the scientific consensus – towards inaction. They gave money to the Amercian Enterprise Institute and many more so that efforts to stall action on the growing concern about climate change would be dominant. All so that they – ExxonMobil and more like them – could make more money.

There's a good argument for the notion that everybody is simply trying to make money. But when our desire to make money goes against the welfare of others, of a common good, then we need to look at the construct. The construct needs to change. And (I believe) it IS changing because we are changing. And the world and its (our) climate is changing. That's where the current drive for solutions comes from. It relates to the above point that everybody is trying to make a buck and making a buck can be of benefit to common good when there's a good feedback loop. It seesm to me it is the feedback loop that has gone astray. Reagan and Bush felt the markets would provide all the feedback needed. But they both devalued the feedback of informed consensus. Markets have had a hard time including the real cost of their actions. Air pollution costs, toxic spills cost, and far more than may be expressed by current market value. It is a complicated calcualtion that all of us can make, not just those invested in the company and its current value.

There is a growing market for the kind of solutions we sense are happening all around us. Look at hybrid cars. They are part of a changing climate. But if one looks at the costs versus return, an economical internal-combustion car makes more sense. But there is a value in contributing to solutions. There is a value to contributing LESS greenhouse gas.

It is similar to me riding my bike into work. The savings (in terms of gas) are small. The costs is moderate –1 1/2 hours compared to the time to drive the same plus the $15 yard sale bike – but there is value in the feeling of personal accomplishment, of health benefit, of connection to my environment.

Moving from my own experience we're anxious to find what many others are doing. And moving from the "converted." We don't see this show as being about biking to work as the solution to climate change. Nor do we see exposing ExxonMobil as being the solution. Or changing the current political equation. Rather it IS those and many, many more. My sense is that they are part of a movement towards less centralized power. Like when we bombed a country to smithereens and their web of communication still made connections.

What are the solutions to climate change? A myriad ways of looking to a new form of power.

Front Wards, Back Wards

2007-06-06T15:56:00.001-04:00

Our film about Fernald State School has just been released on public TV and I heard of a person in Wyoming who was quite shaken up by it.

I encourage people to post their experiences with the film and with institutions here. Are the issues that we touch on in Front Wards, Back Wards about the past or are the issues still with us?

We weren't looking at whether Fernald should remain open or whether it shoud be closed, but were looking at what meaning we can get from the fact of its continued history up to today. What's your expereince?

-Bill

2007-05-07T09:53:00.000-04:00

I went to Quincy (Massachusetts) to the offices of Work, Inc to interview two of the nominees for the Joe Rogers Award for independence. It was established by Joe's brothers, Len, Mark and David and their wives, Barbara, Sue and Terry. Both Frank Nasher and Patricia Bey – the two nominees for the award – were great people, but it's Patricia's story that speak to this medium. Born deaf, Particia uses sign language to speak. We had two translators, Ellen and Sharon (Patty's job supervisor), and from when the camera began to roll they were busy bringing Patricia's view of her world to us.

Independence means a great deal to Patricia. And she has brought her independent spirit to one of Boston's premier hotels, the Ritz Carlton. She works in the laundry and is a maid in the guest rooms. And she meets the high standards of a posh hotel. I aksed her about the expectations and her eyes raised up as she said that each room gets three peices of stationery, positioned just so. The towels must be placed in their particular spot, dust must be hunted from each corner, behind each and every edge.

She also spoke about her pride and excitement at buying a dress online for an upcoming company dance. She sees this as another example of her independence.

And she spoke with her love of going for a walk, and how this also shows her independence. She should be on a national panel for the benefits of exercise towards well-being.

We'll be creating a short video about Patricia and Frank as an introduction to the Work, Inc awards cermony on May 24. And this blog as well as the upcoming short video is about how we can access Patricia's world. It is such a simple and basic thing to hear another person's story, to be given the gift of witness, of presence, to just hang out with another compelling person. And this medium allows others to take part in that story and its telling (and those stories and their telling).

Patricia's story and its telling grabbed my attention. Frank's story is similarly compelling, it is a matter of leaning in and listening – a line I used to describe my early conversation with my Uncle Joe.

Keep tuned to coruway.org for the posting of those clips.