Be alive. Make movies!

I have spent my entire life behind a camera. I took my first picture when I was nine years old and that very same year I was paid for my work. I kept that old 35 mm camera and still take it to work when the occasion calls. As I grew older, I fell in love with moving pictures and made a life out of that wonderful trade freelancing my way around the world to seal, in photographs, something so hard for me to explain in words. I have seen perhaps too many things. Some of them meaningful, some of them brutal. Some of them, perhaps, too much for a man that always praised himself to be part of a civilized world.

Four years ago, I turned 50 and, for the first time ever, I thought about the end of the road. I never balked at danger for I lived my life dangerously, but that day, I thought about my time left, about retirement, about what I had not done. It did not take long to figure it out. I thought I had seen it all. I had film and photographs to remind me but realized that I had a few things to say and I have always been so silent, bewildered at the repercussions.

It was the perfect retirement plan: to make a feature film with no money, no help, nothing but my own screenplay, sliding in between lines, conviction and reflections that shared and discussed with good and bad people that I had the fortuity to meet in my journey. So far its been two feature films and one short. Always the same drill. No budget. No support. Nothing but the true spirit of indie film making pumping my heart and keeping me going. This is how I am going to live my golden years. Life starts when you decide to take over your fears and your conveniences.

Today, I am planning a new film and as always, I can’t get any support. The other day I was watching Sunday Morning and I listened to Mr. Robert Redford talking about the Sundance initiative and it was so compelling to see that there is someone willing to help young film makers to get started with their careers. Pity, that no one cares about old new film makers. I could use just a little bit of help.