SILENCE

I have been thinking of silence lately and how it is an integral part of the creative process.   I've realized that the more I am able to create time and space in my life, even in small intervals to integrate silence into my being, the more I am able to connect with what I sense as my creative source.  Silence is an interesting thing because it requires more effort than one might think.  In my life I have spent long periods of time on various quests where I go to be alone and quiet, to connect with the source.  During these times I have come to realize that the act of sitting alone and being quiet doesn't constitute silence.  It is the ability to quiet our ever chattering minds that is the real goal.  I have discovered that for me it all begins with allowing myself the time, space and solitude, without the guilt of feeling that I'm lying around wasting my time being lazy or doing nothing that is most important.

We are all so conscious of developing our minds, our careers, our relationships, that we often overlook that in order to have success in any of these pursuits we need to develop what is inside ourselves..  First we must look inside, sometimes at things we have buried and don't want to look at,  We must slowly and gently approach those aspects of ourselves that so often we deny.  All growth begins with self realization and all creative leaps are rooted in that very space.   Silence is the tool to uncover our hidden resources.   We need to create the balance our creative beings thirst for by giving ourselves the space inside ourselves to connect to a different voice. We are always surrounded by people and voices not just around us, but as we attempt to be quiet,, their voices both past and present continue their incessant dialogue inside our minds. 

As full spiritual beings, we have been given powerful tools by which to grow and develop the unique abilities we each have.  Through the years, we have forgotten the simple but most powerful gifts at our disposal.  The ability to create SILENCE is the most powerful of all, and a large reason for our inability to access it, is our divorce from nature.  The power in standing barefoot on earth, or breathing in a cool wind, or sitting resting against a tree, or napping in the grass has been forgotten.  Find a patch of earth, in a park, backyard or garden and sit, open up and feel something that we have forgotten.  Remembering what we once knew is the key for our rebirth into something which we have yet to experience...........Silence is the key.......and the most amazing thing is that as we reconnect with SILENCE, we reconnect with each other and the world around us in a deeper and more authentic way.  And we reconnect to the source of our creative inspiration.

When I forget the lessons of a quiet mind and spirit ,I seem to aimlessly struggle though my life and my creative endeavors with frustration and bitterness.  I am always amazed at how effortlessly that seems to fade away when I rediscover my greatest friend and muse..........SILENCE!

A New Round Table

Every couple of weeks I sit down in Astoria with a group of friends.  It's a crazy group of individuals and independent thinkers; my good friend and film maker Bishop Christodoulos,  Peter a history professor, Joe, a director, Pete a teacher and all around tradesman, and some other guests who show up on occasion.  The conversation is always thought provoking,  sometimes a bit heated, but always interesting and always coming from a place of critical thinking, thinking outside the box, not tied to any one view point, and more often than not, ideas change as well as points of view.  I always leave, with thoughts I haven't pondered before, or with insights or interesting historical facts I previously was unaware of.  Through the years, I've taken these meetings for granted, but recently I am realizing how unique and fulfilling they are.

I think somewhere deep inside, we are all searching for community, for a community which accepts you without judgment and which openly hears and discusses the thoughts you enter into the discussion.  Art and artists at their best, should be capable of this, but more often than not, ego and narcissism take over.  I often read about the round table discussion at the Algonquin, when the great thinkers of the day would get together and explore different ideas and long for that type of community.........but now I realize, I am a part of an Astoria round table..........as a writer and a film maker, it broadens my perspectives and deepens my connection to people of all stations.  I think it is important that as artists, we begin to break the barriers of who we surround ourselves with and begin to realize the depth of insight and wisdom in all human beings and be open to what they can bring to the table.  In the old days, alot of writers, actors, directors,  considered themselves craftsmen, just doing another job, not better than anyone else.  Their backgrounds were varied and often involved years of physical labor in a variety of different enterprises.   There were no colleges for acting or directing, but their education was from life itself.  Their life experiences informed every part of their artistic output and made them more empathetic to the plight of all individuals...........so as I put together projects, I now look for, in addition to talent, people with varied backgrounds, experiences, struggles and life circumstances, people who can open me up to a new and unexpected way of seeing, to different and exciting points of view.........so as I continue to create, I continue to establish a larger and larger round table.......I'm looking forward to meeting more people who will challenge me to expand my philosophy and point of view. Thanks to all of you and to all who are yet to come...................Sal

DANCE

http://vimeo.com/19881823

I've been interested in dance since I was a kid.  After seeing James Cagney recreating those amazing George M Cohen routines in Yankee Doodle Dandy, I was hooked.  Although I was too young to understand what the attraction was, looking back, it was the combination of movement and emotion.  The way dance seemed to unveil deeper more hidden emotions,  emotions that the dialogue wasn't able to express,  was so powerful to me in strange and  mysterious way.  At first I was attracted by the tap dancers, the Nicholas brothers, Cagney and Gene Kelly. but then I started watching Fred Astaire, and the way he so smoothly floated across the floor seemed to combine film and dance in a way that seemed even more cinematic.  But what finally blew me away was Gene Kelly in An American in Paris!  It was pure poetry.  Painting, cinematography, music, dance....a perfect combination of all the arts.......pure, deep heartfelt emotion through movement and art....no dialogue needed.  It was an epiphany.   Since then I have always been fascinated with dance on film.  I am currently working on several screenplays involving dance in a much more intrinsic way........but in the meantime, I've put together this short piece exploring that enigmatic combination of dance, color, music and emotion.  I've recently re edited this piece to this amazingly deep and gorgeous score by an amazing composer friend of mine Erika Ito.  It's my first attempt at something that caught my eye as a little kid in Brooklyn...........and I'll always have that image of James Cagney tap dancing down the White House steps.   Go Jimmy!..........hope you enjoy this piece.........

                                                      Sal

THE POWER OF STILLNESS

I just went to see the new print of Taxi Driver at the Film Forum.......I've seen it many times on DVD, but not for many years up on the big screen..........it always surprises me how much difference seeing a film in a theater makes. I remember seeing Citizen Kane on the big screen for the first time.  I was floored by the power of the imagery that took on a different dimension when viewed through the wonder of the big screen. I truly understood the immense impact and magnitude of Welles accomplishment as a film maker and how it changed the way we think of telling stories.....

In seeing Taxi Driver again, I was struck by the stillness of the film and the performances.  If I would think of this film, stillness is not what I remembered.  It is often portrayed as more frenetic and a bit over the top.  But what I found to be so jarring and powerful, was the quiet intensity instilled within every image and every performance.  Combined with the poetic masterpiece of Bernard Herman's last and greatest score, the film carries you into another realm, dizzying in it's poetic brilliance.  Even DeNiro's famous  "you talkin' to me" scene, is underplayed.  After hearing it so many times and seeing so many comedians parody it, it takes on a different and almost comic  sense.  I was overwhelmed by De Niro's underplaying of the character.  Every scene, and every interaction was built on a quiet stillness and intensity.  Even the violence which was so shocking at the time, was shocking to me because of its relative underplayed intensity.  Compared to the non stop gun play and violence of so many current films, this movie stands out  by it's shocking but quick and underwhelming massacre.  That's what makes it seems so real. A small and lost taxi driver shooting several small and lost people, and life goes on. Not such a big story.  And as the film ends, several small articles in different newspapers, no glaring headline NY Post covers or glorified press fueled heroics, just a few small articles.   This makes the story much more intimate and at the same time, it elevates it to metaphoric status.............but what continues to haunt my memory, is that unique stillness................it makes me realize the power in performances and images that are free to linger and sit, and slowly work their way into your subconscious.  The new fascination with quick cutting, loud music, and overblown emotions, hammer us with a moronic emotional palette which quickly becomes false and overbearing.  When stillness is allowed to live and breath, a truth rarely seen, begins to creep into our psyche and a deeper understanding of human nature is allowed.

In life as well as art, I think the lesson of stillness, quietness, and listening instead of posturing would go a long way in helping us all understand ourselves and each other a little better.



  

WE ARE ALL ARTISTS AND MYSTICS

I've been working on this documentary about a couple of graffiti artists in NY from the late 1970's and it's made me look at graffiti and art in general in a different way.  We were shooting in Astoria and went by the subject's old house and he started looking at rocks in his old garden.  He then went on to explain that when he was a kid, the first time he realized that his father had any artistic talent was when he found intricately painted rocks in the front garden.  His mother explained to him that his father was the one who was painting detailed pictures of ships onto the stones......a fascinating moment, when the graffiti artist realizes that his father was scribbling on stones before he was spraying his murals on the sides of trains...........it made me think of the creativity inside all of us and how we in this society are so quick to label things.............native americans have no word for art and no word for religion......there is no separation  between who they are and what they create and how they express their connection to the spirit......art and spiritual connection are a constant which runs through their being in everything they do in every way they act.........their is no specific time to create art or to praise they beauty of creation ...........everything that is created, is created with the inspiration of a creative greater energy.........there was no such thing as creating something for the sole purpose of being observed........but instead every item had its purpose whether it was clothing or utensils or tools and all were created with the utmost attention to detail, a high visual aesthetic, and an instilled spiritual energy..........this interconnectedness between art and the spirit created full and contented human beings with a deep respect for their environment and a subtle but powerful way of adding an inner artistic vision to everything in their lives.

It made me think of those paintings on the cave walls in France.....I think the simple act of being human drives our whole being to create....from the moment we are born, we are expressing our unique vision in everything we do and everything we say....so let's all embrace that creative vein that flows through us all, and realize that art is the beauty that a life well lived creates......let's create in every moment of our lives and let's not do anything without total concentration and pure purpose........let us all start writing on stones and instilling our environment and our lives with the mystery of divine inspiration once again...........

Why do we want our women raped and bloody?

I was flipping through the channels the other day and started watching the film The Watchmen.  After one woman was beaten and almost raped and another pregnant woman was shot to death, disgusted and repulsed I turned off the film.   What is it with the way we treat women on film?!  It seems that every TV show and so many movies are filled with images of beaten, raped, and mutilated women.......I remember watching the film "Breaking the Waves" a bunch of years ago and being so angry that I started yelling at the screen.  A few years after that, I barely made it through a screening of The Piano Teacher with the excellent Isabelle Huppert...what a vile film of a self mutilating, genital mutilating and self desecrating sex performed by Huppert's character...........I remember watching an episode of the highly praised "The Soprano's" where a young and vulnerable stripper is naked and being entered from behind by her abusive Mafia boyfriend while she is giving oral sex to someone else as she is being verbally abused....a few minutes later, her boyfriend drags her outside and beats her to death as he slams her head against a metal barrier.......that was the last time I watched that show........it is so disturbing to me that this is becoming so common in all our art, that it has ceased to become shocking and we just accept this deplorable treatment of women.........what does this say about us as men or as a society which so willingly accepts and supports these depictions......does art imitate life or does life imitate art, or does it become so entwined that we cease to see the distinction.........in addition to subjecting our children, our wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters and daughters to these" artistic creations", we are subjecting our actresses to what I considered to be the equivalent of rape , abject disrespect. and sexual abuse. How can we as men and fathers hope to create a world in which our daughters are respected and valued if we continue to create and crave images in which women are nothing more than carnal objects created for the sole purpose of fulfilling our most base sexual desires and then being disposed of at the end of a fist o by the blade of a knife or tortured in the most horrific ways.  And we reward these stories with critical praise and awards, praising the way they push the envelope and always look for something that crosses boundaries just because they can...........lets start to explore stories which live up to our potential as men and women and begin showing us another way to relate to our female lovers, mothers and sisters. We have put so much energy into these truly disturbing portraits that I am concerned that it doesn't bring us all down that dark and soulless road and give our children such a bleak and heartless view of a man and woman's relationship that their only course of action is to live out these depraved versions of truth  as their only possible actions............let us realize how much power and influence we as artists have on each other and society in general and most important of all, our children, our future.....and let's not buy into that "it's just a movie or just a song"......no I do not believe in censorship, but I do believe we all need to begin to take responsibility for the power of what we say and what we create to influence others.......

SUFFER FOR YOUR ART

I've been thinking about what gives certain artists that spark that draws us in and makes us want to see more, makes us want to understand, makes us want to go on a journey.  I see so many films, so many actors, so many directors, just going through the motions, some of them even believing they are really doing something important, just to leave me cold and bored.........when I audition actors, so many come in prepared and professional and their auditions are good, but they leave me cold......but then that one comes in and touches some mysterious place and I realize why I do this.................what is that mysterious flame that burns inside those few who inspire me to create, to think, to watch, to want to explore?    I've been seeing that  quality in the last few years in actors who aren't American.........for some reason, the people who come from other countries seem to be connected to something that most American actors aren't.........I wonder what that is.....do we have it too easy here?  Are we disconnected from our true emotions?  I'm thinking that what we are disconnected from is the experience of each other.  I think we have become too caught up in ourselves, that we no longer realize  how to connected to the larger community to the struggles and pains of others.............I think that people who come to this country usually have experienced struggles and hardships that we only read about and this builds, their care, their spirits, their character, their compassion, their empathy.......................of course I'm not saying that all Americans are like this.  I have met and worked with several very talented people who are true artists and who are open to the depth and complexity and beauty of what it is to be human........of course there are many people in this country who struggle and whose hardships and journeys are daunting.......it just seems that not too many of them are creating art.

I know for myself, that I needed to be honed, and shaped by life, before I was able to create anything I deemed good enough to be considered up to my own standards and judgements.  I look back on some of the things I wrote back when I thought I knew it all and I want to vomit.....I'm so glad no one has ever seen them.

I see too many young film makers going to film school and coming out with no connection to anything except a very cerebral notion of movie making and story telling.  The actors and directors of an earlier time, and actors and directors from other countries seem to have come into their careers more by an inner need, an almost urgent desire that they have no control over to create.....the art draws them in, instead of them pursuing an idea that maybe they should become film makers or musicians or artists or actors..........maybe we should change the idea of what a real film school or acting school should be......it should be a place where students explore the world, give service to human kind, study psychology, philosophy , human nature, travel and see the world, work with the sick, those in need, experience life and what it meanS to be alive, what it means to be a human being on this vast and diverse planet.....live, love, feel pain and joy, search for the deeper meaning of life and who we are, and come back with some battle scars and embrace the joy of humanity.........from this, I think we would train true actors, directors, artists and human beings........