Flog

In a recent counselling class my instructor spoke about reframing or the idea of looking at alternative perspectives that we can ‘throw into the picture’ when dealing with issues.   Whether it be the picture of your life,  working on issues in therapy, a creative filmmaking endeavor or even reframing your expectations about what may happen in the future if you take a particular action…  if it…

Through the Attributes of Light.

I subscribe to various e-newsletters and magazine on the subject of filmmaking. I was taken by one article entitled ‘The Four Attributes of Light’ and immediately thought that it can also be a great metaphor for our own personal ‘Light’, that light under a bushel, the light within, our connection to the light or the source.

This particular quote in the article caught my attention:

With the right…

I often hear people in recovery say that they couldn’t change until they really surrendered to the problem. Accepted it. Recognized its existence. It’s as though making change in recovery is a grief process. Like the Kubler-Ross model which lists the five stages of grief or loss as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, when I make a decision to change I can expect all this.

The…

The purpose of Creative License is to share the revelations that can happen in the realm of creative process and filmmaking. It is about the power of exploring the self through the ‘creative, expressive, self-reflexive process of  filmmaking’* used as a form of alternative therapy. There are so many things untapped inside of us. So many dreams, visions and stories. If we are allowed or better…

I recently uploaded a video on how to make a viral video. (Recently meaning about 10 seconds ago.) I have to share with you all that suddenly I have shed all the knowledge I've gleaned over the past few years working on a degree and am saying NO! No! I will not make films that conform to excellence. I will not use great camera and sound equipment to make the perfect looking and sounding film. NO! I will not spend 1000s of dollars to tell a story and suffering through script editors and lecturers seemingly casual remarks which literally say - 'this is crap'. Why should I? Who says I have too? Is my reputation at stake? I don't care.

It's interesting to come to this after several years (8) of study. You'd think I would go the other way. But as I transform into my granny years I get to make decisions that only adolescents are allowed to make.

Had the very sad experience this week of having a film project put out to pasture due to unforeseen circumstances. But you know what, I am okay with it. In fact I feel a bit relieved because I know that the powers that be have something in mind here for me, the cast & crew and especially, my good friend and producer who is in the hospital from a stroke. It was very close, the golden fleece was within our reach when the next obstacle in the virtual script of our lives made it impossible to continue, at least for now.

If there's anything I've learned from working on this film over the last 18 months it's that I have to be open to change. Not something I excel at, I can tell you that. In fact, I've spent a great deal of my time and energy on avoiding change at all costs, which as we know is unrealistic and slightly mad. Change is inevitable; it is not something that can be controlled and, quite frankly, I don't want to anymore. You see, I reckon that the reason I loathe change is that I don't like uncertainty.

Uncertainty makes me anxious. I like to know what is happening, and when it is going to happen. I like to know that all the elements are under control because that way I am safe. Secure in my little controlled world.

If I were Super Woman I would not be phased by change because I'd just crush it and then go about my business of saving the world. But, unfortunately, I don't have the security of that super power... or do I?

If I believe that I have imbedded in me all the power of the universe, which I do, then I have security in that. And because of that security, that spiritual sense of self, that unchanging spirit, I really don't need to fear change nor do I have to control my world. Why? Because I have the greatest security of all: the connection to something greater than my little ego self.

I suppose wanting to be a super hero is just about the desire to want to be more than we are. But you know what, I think we already are... we've just forgotten.

My friend will heal, everyone will be taken care of and the film will eventually get produced. Instead of abhorring the shock and surprise of sudden change this Super Woman is going with the flow, and for now I'll leave the saving of the world to some other Super Woman... and trust me, there are a lot of us!

I missed out on tickets for the big feminist forum here in Sydney called 'The F-Word' a couple of months ago. I am so upset ...and saying the f-word myself right now. Probably my one and only chance to ever see Germaine Greer live and I got caught up in uni work, running a family, writing a new feature script and working with my producer on the pre-production of the Sci-Fi mind twister, AustrAliens. What was I thinking!

I really wanted to go. I've been a feminist for a long time now, since birth actually. I don't make a big deal about it, I'm glad to be a woman and just think, hell, we're just as good as men. It isn't only about making the same money, or getting more women on 'Boards'. It's a common sense thing. I don't theorize about it or write academic papers about it, I just like to say 'hey, look at what this Woman filmmaker did' or 'wow, read this quote from the Woman who invented the boom mic.'  Just simple stuff and very anti-sexist. I get to look at it simply.

It makes sense to me, that's all, to believe in women and the power that we have. It makes sense that we do things and think things differently than men, but not better than them or in competition with them but just that we do. It makes sense that we don't have to play a role in life simply because someone else says that's the way we are supposed to be. In fact nobody has to do that. We have choices... don't we?

I believe that we have to have a voice, tell our own stories, run businesses the way that makes the most sense for us as women, not because someone else made the rules, or wrote the guidelines. It's okay to create new ways of doing things and they can be from the heart and soul of a woman's way... whatever that may be, however, whoever she may be... and it will always be different, because no two women are alike.

So then I realise that on top of all this I am a 'humanist' of sorts. I like that word but I don't necessarily mean it as the typical philosophy or view of 'humanist' or 'humanism'. I mean it in the sense of recognising us all as having our good and bad points as human beings. Men and women, or conglomerates of both, we are all in the same boat.

Like Charlie Chaplain's speech in The Dictator (1940), "We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each others happiness, not by each others misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way." 

Maybe we have lost the way, or maybe we are constantly in search of the way, the way that makes sense to us and is right. I think that's what feminists, of all types and beliefs, are trying to do.

So, damn, I missed the F-Word. It would've been awesome... because WE are, aren't we?

In one of my film studies classes I learned about Australian films and what it means to be Australian as defined through film.

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'Kraft' announce it is changing the name of its iconic 'Vegemite' to 'Australia' on Australia Day, 26 January.

The cool thing about film studies is that I get to watch a lot of movies. 'That's terrible Muriel' (see Muriel's Wedding 1994). No not really, but the 'terrible Muriel' thing about it was that I had to watch an enormous amount of Australian movies. Why is this terrible, the general world public may ask. It's terrible because of the many things that get truly flogged here in Oz, Australian films are at the top of the list. There's an immense amount of grumbling that goes on about how bad the films are here, so bad that Australian audiences prefer seeing Dumb and Dumber (1994) fifty times rather than checking out Ten Canoes (2006).

I suppose it's partially because Australian films are often relegated to Independent film status and are not Hollywood films.

It's absurd of course, to compare a low-budget movie made in a country with a population of only nineteen million with anything from Hollywood, made with a worldwide audience in mind. But audiences do precisely this all the time. The odd thing is that the [indie] or low-budget movie gets criticised for being commercially unsuccessful, while mainstream cinema gets attacked for being commercially successful. - Jane Mills, 2001

By the way, all this Kraft business is perfect timing for my feature film, AustrAliens, currently in pre-production, since the script mentions 'Vegemite' thirteen times and shows it about 5 or 6. Several months ago I tried getting the okay from Kraft to use it in the film and now I see they are changing the brand name of 'Vegemite' to 'Australia'. Of course, this leads me to conclude there's a conspiracy and that the reason they never got back to me was because they stole my idea.

FLASHBACK, THEN FORWARD, THEN BACK... NO MAYBE JUST PAN AROUND AND AROUND IN A CIRCLE UNTIL THE AUDIENCE GETS DIZZY. NO, WAIT REWIND... It's because they are in awe of my ideas. NO, REWIND... It's because I am too close to their campaign and they didn't want their marketing plan to get infected by the cross-dressing aliens of my film.

Annnyyyywayyyy... I like Australian films. I like everything about them. The good and the bad. They are growing on a path, they have their own particular style. I really like that they are NOT Hollywood movies and that they spark of Indie films made with heart and soul, true to the chunky, clunky newness of a culture trying to define itself separate from all the hype and temperament of the American kraft, I mean craft, and style. It was by watching Australian films that I learned about mullets, Ned Kelly, and wogs; sheilas, fair dinkum and Woop Woop. For this I am forever grateful.

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Hand reaching up to a grocery shop shelf and grabbing a jar of 'Australia' concentrated yeast spread.

Go see an Australian film today.

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IMAGE retrieved 21/1/12 from: http://www.moviemem.com/products/movie-posters-general-listings/welcome-to-woop-woop-1997-rod-taylor-rare-one-sheet.

On a recent trip to my hometown in the greater Pittsburgh area, the local sheriff accosted me two days before it was time for me to return to Australia. I happened to be walking around the neighbourhood taking videos of the grass and people cutting the lawn because it had occurred to me one day that I could appease my creative stirrings by making a sci-fi short about a group of mysterious lawn mowing aliens.  Afterall, it just seemed extremely fishy to me that never a day went by that there weren’t at least five neighbours out cutting their lawns, riding around on the latest Sears model mower. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, there had been a rash of burglaries in the area, sheds had been broken into and the precious lawn mowers, of all things, were being stolen. So, of course, me being a stranger in the neighbourhood, the neighbours called the cops on the suspicious leather-clad woman walking down the street taking random videos. 

Flashback to the late 1970s: I found myself stuck in the middle of the ‘White Nights Riot’ that broke out over Harvey Milk and George Moscone’s murder in San Francisco. What had started out as an angry protest against injustice ended badly for many in the crowd, bystanders and the press not withstanding. When the police let loose on the protestors I was an unfortunate victim. Suffice it to say, although I survived the brutal attack during the riot, the police are still quite triggering for me now. 

Cut back to Pennsylvania: Standing on the street, I was shaking as the cops asked for my ID and began to question my activities in the US. I told them my mum lived around the corner with her sister and that I just thought it would be interesting to make a little film about lawn mowers and aliens because we didn't mow the grass as much in Australia as they did in Pennsylvania. In fact, I told them there was hardly any green grass in Australia. Luckily, they believed me but still took down my name, address (which, due to the adrenalin coursing through my body, I couldn't remember) and phone number (which I also couldn't remember.)

Regardless of my inability to supply them with local credentials, they finally stopped the 3rd degree and released me. I walked back to the house and, in tears, told my mother what had happened. She got really ticked off at the neighbours and so did my Aunt MJ, who both had a few ‘words’ with the suspected stoolies (called ‘dobbers’ in Australia) later on. Needless to say, I was traumatised and paranoid for the rest of my trip. I kept looking out of the window expecting cop cars and police in full SWAT uniforms to bust into the house, billy club and arrest me for, what, I don't know, pornographic lawn mower images on my flip video camera?

They never did come back to get me though and I am happy to say I managed to just barely cover the extra baggage cost of all those lawn mowers I brought back to Australia with me. In fact, hey, if you need a new lawn mower look up my EBay store Against the Lawn and make an offer. 'Mates rates' apply.

© Flog//A. Silver 2011

I went into my friendly-neighbourhood DVD shop and looked around. Captain America, Green Lantern, and KungFu Panda posters caught my attention. I looked on the shelves, rarely did I see a DVD cover that had one woman in the forefront, by herself. Yes, often in a group or with a man, but never alone and prepared to save the world. Oh and yes, there were a few random covers with women looking like they could kick some evil-villain-arse, however, they all had larger than average breasts and extremely tight clothes that barely covered anything and looked really uncomfortable. How could anyone save the planet with a massive wedgie and the inability to breath?

I came home, sad to say, with Kung Fu Panda 2, an Avatar Wii game and one really bad film in need of editing which shall go nameless... saved by the fact that the protagonist was a female. I suppose the point here is that it is disappointing, time and time again, to see images of women through the eyes of men. Where are the stories of the tough women superheroes who wear sensible clothes, no make-up and badly coiffed hair. Oh, I get it, Super Dag might not make any money at the box office. 

The first word I'm going to flog is WOMEN.

I am quite fond of women. I believe we are an exceptional species living in a challenging world. Still trying to make ends meet. To move ahead. To gain something that recognises us as more than just a word to flog.

I try not to have a chip on my shoulder. To consider myself grateful to be a part of this world worthy of everything there is to be had. Deserving. Enough.

In Australia they talk about the ‘tall poppy syndrome’, which means people of genuine merit are resented, attacked, cut down, or criticised because their talents or achievements elevate them above or distinguish them from their peers. When I look out from my limited view on the world I see a field of poppies and they are all women. Tall and beautiful. Nothing can cut them down.