Fourwind Films

Nel blu, dipinto di blu is likely more well know as Volare.  If you haven’t heard this song before, it’s about time.  I think it’s likely the most famous song Italians have ever produced that doesn’t have an operatic voice singing it.  Nel blu, dipinto di blu is a beautiful, surreal song that inspires with the sustained vowels sung by Modugno during the chorus.  

Modugno’s from the south and often sung about typical life and was kind of funny.  His other music is much more locally silly with sort of country Italian living at the forefront of his lyrics.

Volare charted #1 with a memorable harp that makes it the whole song seem fairy tale like, otherwise it has a big band sound run by the piano.  It’s so easy to sing along, so I’m sure if you listen a few times you’ll be singing the pre-chorus with anyone you have around you, as it’s easy there are just Oh words, “Volare” (to fly), “Oh,” and “Cantare.”  And of course, I love the lyrics, it’s about looking into a lover’s eyes and getting lost in a dream.

I think a dream like this would never happen again

I painted blue my face and hands 

At an instant, a wind took me then

as I began flying in the sky that doesn’t end 

To fly, oh-oh

To sing, oh-oh-oh-oh

In blue painted blue

up above, I’m happy, it’s true

And I flew, happily

Past the sun and even further away

Below, the world became smaller and went astray

just for me, music played sweetly

To fly, oh-oh

To sing, oh-oh-oh-oh

In blue painted blue

up above, I’m happy, it’s true

But every dream disappears with the sunrise because

When the moonsets it takes with her what was

to dream in your beautiful eyes, I continue 

Like stars in a sky that are blue

To fly, oh-oh

To sing, oh-oh-oh-oh

In blue painted blue

up above, I’m happy, it’s true

And I continue to fly, happily

Past the sun and even higher

While the world became smaller and disappeared,, way down there

just for me, music played sweetly

To fly, oh-oh

To sing, oh-oh-oh-oh

In your eyes so blue

I’m happy to be down here… it’s true

In your eyes so blue

They always say when writing a story to write about what you know.  In documentaries, it’s the same idea: film what you know.  This means if you know about minor league baseball, you may have access to doing stories about that, you’re more familiar than others.  If your parents were bureaucrats, political investigations might be easier for you.  Or if your parents are teachers, you may understand the educational system better than others.  This is the precise reason why I felt comfortable making my first feature documentary about schools.

Now, that doesn't mean I didn't shoot things I didn't know about. I had never been to Japan and new very little about their education system, except it was considered one of the best national systems in the world. We could not have not gotten such great access and beautiful imagery in Frames of Reference in our Japanese school without the unique creative vision of @yoshitsugukosaka.  He was not only the B-Camera operator, but also connected us to our Japanese Producer @mahomiej who got us access to Ebina High School. Mahomi got us an in at her own high school in Japan in a suburb of Tokyo, where you can clearly see Mount Fuji.

The Japanese believe very much in protecting their kids and the image projected out in the world, but with Mahomi's connection to her school we were able to spend a week in classes talking to students (and staff) about what it's like to go to school in one of the most revered national education systems in the world, and the intensity of it. The pressure placed on Japanese students is well known, as many movies have been about the high suicide rates plaguing these kids for years. We spend time with a typical suburban high school in our upcoming documentary, Frames of Reference, to hear it straight from the source.

However, what you know doesn’t mean you're confined to what you grew up around.  If you want to make a documentary about something less familiar to you, that’s totally doable.  You just need to do more learning and research to make yourself an expert.  Or find a partner like I did in Yoshi & Mahomi who helped me get into the Japanese schools.  That’s why documentary film-making is a team sport!

So talk to people in the community that surrounds your subject. Get to know them, little by little. If possible, make time to go there in person.  Or, like in my documentary, plan part of production to time to meet and great and be personable.  Do as much meeting online beforehand and use the networks of the few people you do feel personally connected to.  It’s about trust and building trust when getting access. 

To gain that kind of access takes a lot of patience. But, by making time to show you have something that no one else has, you’re sure to get funding for your documentary in no time. Be truthful, show vulnerability, and let others want to open the doors for you.

My 2nd favorite song of MC Solaar’s which comes immediately after the Si On T’demande on Chapitre 7.  I almost always listen to the two songs together, sometimes on repeat.

Au Claire de la Lune uses the French Folk song and lullaby that has lyrics about a person left outside at night asking to come in.  In MC Solaar’s version of the song we hear his version of that played over the lullaby referring always back to the kid soldiers that were well documented in Africa.  There were movies like Beasts of No Nation that would come out in the coming years covering the same topics.

The beat is relaxing, but somehow menacing with the harmonies of the keyboards and chorus of women singing in the background where you get this sad, melancholic treatment of color.  On top of that, MC Solaar’s delivery is varied, mostly in rhythm.  He has this sort of wave of talking steady where he slowly goes up in emphasis before he cools it down at the end of his phrases.  He’s just a great storyteller who makes everything rhyme and again here uses many pop and international geopolitical references.

My favorite part is where he says he’s talking to the left, the right, the center (moderates), then he breaks the rhyme to say we need to reconsider our attention to think about child soldiers. He does it once again to end the song saying what’s necessary are the kids’ minds to save the child soldiers.

Below is a translation of the lyrics, only the first few words are in English:

Six in the morning (in English)

First thing are errands

If you like to be in a hurry

if you like to be on top of things: run!

The little girls aren’t pagans

when they roll around Citroën

And aren’t of Virgin Mary’s

when their husbands are in Ferraris

At the bottom of the class are the idiots that watch like an eagle

They insult the teachers and take from Steven Seagal

They speak of their certain future

between themselves and tell you: shut up

Or maybe it’s bro what up,

Or family, or I’m listening to a single

The valors of the golden sheep

are violence and wads of cash

The class:

breaks wind at the peep shows in Las Vegas

One mustn’t ask why Benoît said to Aïda

That Adidas and Puma busts 10 times more than Al Qaïda

This loving chick I chose as a mentor

Asked for help for herself and for Darfour

I don’t want to wear the hat, man,

you’re not Madame de Fontenay

But there’s Britney’s life,

so please take your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)

Idi Amin Dada in Uganda there’s teens marching in step

Some thing think to escape, but won’t be adept

They dream of playing dada

but there they play AK

Enrolled in force

We must save the child soldiers

Fuck the bluff!

The chicken came before the egg

Eight before nine

and then PIF (Public Investment Fund) before Titeuf (comic book series)

For the cop chick with a cute caboose

We celebrate the coup

We protect the success

of not being weighed down by being rough & tough

We try to struggle against Global Warming

Man, thirst pulled the lever

Now, under the sun, we’re full of cans

The gadgets of China and the kids of Djen Chao Ping

Are powerful persuasions for SS20-Pershing (ballistic missile)

But I’m not Garcimore with a rabbit in my hat

It’s written in the Thai chronicle comics of police

Like Soumahoro said, if there’s words are a knife

It’s that I woke up with a booboo

So the hippie goes beddy-bye

The gladiator’s sword is close to my gut

So, to the demons, I say, “Man, Fuck!”

To Nokia I have Pinocchio that told me

Deuclo (shoe brand) is too early

I speak to the right

I speak to the left

I speak to the center

We need to recenter the ball

And concentrate on the child soldiers

If I were in Hamburg

He would say, “I am a hamburger.”

And his word would make butter, buzz, and biz

We can kill the sacred cows

To clone the double cheese

I would have been strong to resist

But I’m not large

When my backpack weighs on me

I give myself courage

I speak to you too about teens

Not every case is full of sleaze

You can tell me the hobo

That wears a watch from Rado 

The public is not the rabble

And the rabble is not public

It’s Heckel and Jeckel corrected by Proctor & Gamble

It’s not management’s that’s compulsory

It’s moving that’s mandatory

The kids’ meninges are necessary

This is an album I listened to on repeat when I was learning French.  Carla Bruni became famous for her looks as a model as a striking blue-eyed beauty who was one of the most famous supermodels in France.  She’s Italian & French but lived mostly in France and worked as a French model.  She then showed she was more than just a pretty face when she released this incredible soft rock in 2003.  She became even more famous marrying the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.

Quelqu’un M’a Dit is full of acoustic guitar and her voice almost whispering in tune with one of the sexiest voices of all-time.  She speaks clearly without power, but as she says several times in her lyrics, with caress.  I listened to walking in the forest near my house and at night before bed learning French through her poetry and clear enunciating.  Also the guitars on the album are sick, the drums rest perfectly helping you mosey through the album and the strings support the entirely light structures to sturdiness.

She wrote the majority of the songs, although she doesn’t play instruments too much, her lyrics are very personal and talk about love and romance.  The combination of the gentle guitar, her sexy voice, and the poetry made for a surprisingly powerful debut.  I love the distortion slide guitar solo on Le Ciel dans une Chambre which fits perfectly in on a majority acoustic guitar album.

Because of her background as an Italian, she also does a popular Italian song, Il Cielo in una Stanza, and translates the lyrics to French, but still repeating lyrics in it’s original Italian form. 

I could go through every song and detail why the lyrics are incredible.  But here’s one: Le Toi du Moi is a standout as she just compares things in sets of 2 over and over showing the relationship of her and her lover, one even being “you’re the Beauty and I’m the Beast… I’m the sage and you’re the fool…”  It’s very honest saying with the comparisons of words, including intimate sections like, “you’re the whore, and I’m the pass…” where she whispers it.  Putain the word she uses for “whore” can also mean “bitch, or fucker”, but she’s being very coy.   She ends with “you’re my love, you’re my love.”

I’ll leave you with just the translation of the titles of the songs.

Quelqu’un M’a Dit - Someone Told Me (her biggest hit about gossip and hearing someone still loves her)

Raphaël - Raphael (about an old lover)

Tout le Monde - The Whole World

Le Noyée - The Drowned Girl

Le Toi du Moi - The You from Me

Le Ciel dans une Chambre - The Sky in a Bedroom (talks about beautiful nature scene she experiences from her bed with her friend, this is the Italian cover)

J’en Connais - I’m Familiar with It

Le Plus Beau du Quartiet - The Most Beautiful in the Neighborhood

Chanson Triste - Sad Song

L’excessive - The Excessive

L’amour - Love

Le Dernière Minute - The Last Minute

The first song, Spongebob reminds me of a mix of Connan Mockasin’s album Caramel mixed with some Harold Budd ambient music while they rap over it.  It’s psychedelically a unique vibe carried throughout the album.  The mood is similar to that 1990’s freaky rap and especially similar to Cypress Hill & Aesop Rock who both come from further out places in and around New York City.

In Checkpoints Billy Woods sounds more like Jay-Z in his delivery.  I really love how the crash cymbals play with the bass on that song,

Bedtime & Crawlspace fall more into an MF Dooom vibe it seems, but it still holds that darker Vince Staples vibe.  If any of you from Minnesota have heard of Heiruspecs, I think the attitude here matches that kind of excitement in music you don’t always hear.

I love MC Solaar.  Likely my favorite rapper next to Aesop Rock & Jay-Z.  The amazing thing about him is he tells stories like Country music, but still has that swagger.  He’s a bit boring in concert, but his albums are insane.  Born Dakar, Senegal at a young age he’s credited with popularizing rap in France.  This song Si On T’demande (If We Ask You) is my favorite song from my favorite album, Chapitre 7 (Chapter 7).  His flow is sick, he mixes it up, yet its seamless.  He also has an unreal step in from featured artist Bambi Cruz.  

My favorite part from the song is the delivery from Bambi Cruz “Les gens qui ment, on les tics n’est ce pas?”  That means “People who lie have tics, no?”  While he delivers that line he cracks his voice which seems like a mistake, but it’s him indicating his tick, showing he’s lying. He does this “cracking of his voice” earlier in all his question lines earlier in beginning his stanzas.  Should we believe anything he says?  It’s brilliant.

This song is less a story, but more of him showing his skills and dissing some random person for saying they don’t know anything while walking around them with their flow and incredibly various knowledge about the world.  While they do this they show what they care about, MC Solaar wanted to save the world but says he’s really just living. I have listened to this song just on repeat over and over and every verse blows me away every time and the chorus gives me chills.  Even though the mandolin really carries the beat, that fucking flute doesn’t hurt either.

Bold are the words Bambi Cruz cracks his voice with this delivery

MC Solaar

I wanted to change the the world like Bono & Yoko Ono

That without making clowning around, the masculinity or bonobo

I hideout in the streets like a functionaire of Beauvau (street in Paris)

Listening to Kid Loco, Powo Wow, and Lil’ Bow Wow

I loved K. Solo, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

The scratches of DJ Polo, the nerve of Nico Hulot

Well ahead of No Logo, I believe that I was green

Because I lived through Seveso, Chernobyl, and then Amoco

Claude-Claude, M-M, C-C, So-So, la-laar

Of-of, te-ten, two-two, time-times over just one, which restarts me

Maybe that secret can prepare Raffarin 2012 (presidential candidate)

Maybe the bamboo crisis is caused by Bambi Cruz

Now, I’ll break it down: the girls want big jugs

The men become crazy, they have photos of Rocco (famous movie)

Liquid flows, think solid, Alstom (railroad manufacturer)

The gas state are the words for Gazprom (Russian Energy Company)

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

Bambi Cruz

Call me Submarina because the taffy is what me make in loucedé (secret Parisian language)

In order to breath fresh air in our area

One asks myself often, Bambi Cruz, tell me what’s up?

The good pieces are more rare than the hair on our heads

Seriously, is God dead?  More hardcore

The seasons disappear in the Quartier Nord at Vercors (neighborhood in Paris at a mountain range)

Because mamas come from Panama savor my banana

Escalade like the ones that climb Himalaya

devour it like a Tagada (amusement ride)

Then they come to do dada on daddy

The most attractive pappa as the last Prada

The people who lie have ticks, no? 

If we ask you?  Well, you say you don’t know!

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

There are more zeros behind their Euro

and even more they’re happy

Dude, you’re not net zero

we can save the planet

without making chicks

The Bible is the calculator

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

Bambi Cruz

When we debark at the park in a 4x4 just chatting,

it claps, what’s that brand?

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

MC Solaar

Name, Last, Age, Profession, Sex, or Religion?

Well, you say you don’t know!

Bambi Cruz

Are you brunette or blonde, skinny or round, dumb or the Mona Lisa?

Chorus

Well, you say you don’t know!

MC Solaar

Even if you know who’s going to win the World Cup and the lads ask you

Chorus

Well, you say you don’t know!

MC Solaar

If a dude in a parka approaches us from you and your name, what is it?

La Flaca has a classical coastal vibe.  Of course this song is catchy, the rhythm and lead guitar drive the thing, and the drums constantly slap you in the face to keep movin’ on the dance floor, but the lyrics really push this for me song over.  That and the constant change in delivery and flow of the song.

In the life a woman known as the Skinny Girl

Coral black from Havana, extremely mulatto

A hundred pounds of skin and bone, forty kilos of Salsa

And in her face two suns that speak without words

Speak without words

The Skinny Girl sleeps during the day, they say that’s how she gets hungry

And when the night fals, she descends to dance with the glass

To dance and dance, and drink and drink

One beer after another, but she never gains weight

But she never gains wait

Chorus

For one kiss from the Skinny Girl, I’d give everything

For one kiss from her, I’d give everything

For one kiss from the Skinny Girl, I’d give everything

For one kiss from her, even just once

Even just once

Soaking wet are my white sheets, like the song says

Remembering the caresses that brought the first day

And I’m becoming insane trying to win favor to sleep by your side

Because, God, this skinny girl makes me crazy

She makes me crazy

Chorus

Chorus

Jeez, they don't make movies like that anymore and for good reason. Aside from the outstanding action, car chases in Manhattan, shooting out windows, car crashes, and so much more, the filmmakers sure do love to make Puerto Ricans and black people the scourge of society. They blamed every problem of New York on the two groups. It was exhausting listening to that bullshit. Definitely of the 1980's and for a white audience of New York, who I watched the film with. It's like that "subtle" racism is so commonplace in media and that's the reason why it's still with us today. People who grew up with that kind of attitude in an otherwise normal movie thought it was normal. All black and Puerto Rican men were terrible, but a few women were okay, if they were beautiful.

I was introduced to this song by a former love interest. What He Wrote by Laura Marling has such a mood. The lyrics carry it, as its a woman recounting the end of one relationship that cut her deep, she constantly is reminded of him referring to a letter the man wrote. She starts of by saying she had nothing to say after the devastation, but then goes to tell the rest of the story, a bit ironically. Yet you don’t feel that irony at all, the listener only falls into her sorrow that cuts much deeper than melancholy. She expresses a regret that she doesn’t quite place what she actually regrets or what she would have changed, I think because she loved the relationship how it was. So in lieu of regret she immediatley talks of real anger, fighting the man that she loved when he left and broke up with her.

Laura seems to relate both of the men in her life almost perfect, as she sees herself as the broken one and the men in her life are in control of something, maybe it’s in control over her. Laura’s in love with the man who left her alone, but respects the man she’s with. The idea is that there are these 2 lives she could have had: she’s living one, and the other is with the man she truly loved. This new man forgave her, but the scent of the first man holds her memory, which is so lustful that you can almost imagine the sins that she constantly accuses herself of.

Performer: Camille

Composer: Camille Dalmais

Here’s one of my absolute favorite songs, it’s actually much longer than presented on Spotify, it’s normally 39 minutes, mostly of a drone that represents the album which is called “Le Fil” which means “the wire” or “the line” in this case it’s the through “line” this drone that’s meditative, this drone starts the album. But they cut it off on Spotify, because Spotify’s lame. The whole album is A Cappella except for a bass line. The bass line in the above song is sick. The lyrics are so beautiful. Here’s the lyrics translated to English:

“When I walk, I walk.

When I sleep, I sleep.

When I sing, I sing

I let myself go

When I walk, I walk straight.

When I sing, I sing nude.

and when I love, I only love you.

When I think of you, I can’t sleep

Chorus

I’m here

I’m inside

I’m at the beginning

I won’t mock myself above all

‘Understand,’ you told me

’The song of the world,’ so thereafter

When the sun rises, I am there

And when the night falls

I fall as well

Chorus

When I’m hungry, you nourish me

The cry of the dog, then the rain

When you leave, I wait here

I let myself go

And I forget you”

Diversity is important when making any complex decision.  An artform like making movies is complex in that we really work with three mediums: visual, audio, and time.  Paintings only use visual, music uses audio and time.  It’s that diversity of three different variables that makes movies so effective in my opinion.  You can also add in taste and smell as theatres (and our own podcast Feature & a short) have started to bring what you see in the movies into your mouth and nose to taste what you’re seeing on screen.

In general I have a similar view in life as my approach to art.  The more ways we can view a story, a problem, the more effective it can be.  Diversity shows us more possibilities in what we understand.

There’s the simple parable about the Blind Women and an Elephant that is found in early Buddhist texts and likely a folk story.  A group of blind women who never had encountered a new object they came across. Out of curiosity, they inspected it by touch.  The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake." For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan.  Another, whose hand was upon its leg, said it’s a tree trunk. The blind woman who placed her hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a moving wall."  One woman who felt its tusk, stated the elephant is hard and smooth like a spear.  Finally, the last person felt the elephant’s tail and said, “It’s a rope.”

I think of this all of the time.  There are 8 billion people in the world.  We may only encounter maybe a maximum of 3 million people in our lifetime by sight, that’s not even getting to know them.  No matter how much we study, there are over 100 million books in the world (maybe more)!  There are over 1 million movies made.  

Just imagine, all of these artworks are so many experiences rolled up into a summary.  That is art.  We bring collected beauty, or emotion, or experiences and condense it to let others experience what we know.  It’s a way of sharing knowledge.  Because as a human race, that is something we’re wired to crave.  Just like the bees work together as a hive and a colony, we are bound to work together as human beings.  Art is the rapid way in which we can do that.  Most importantly, art can make us have shared experiences and gain trust, and most of all, empathy for one another.

Humans are designed/hard-wired to live in tribes, to find those that help us live.  We can distinguish those like us by sight, sound (language, accent), taste & smell (cuisine), and touch (imagine the possibilities).  That keeps us from unifying into a larger tribe and working together to make the world a better place for everyone in our human colony on this earth.

Through art, we can teach ourselves to accept and appreciate each other more.  As we are already connected globally and interracially.  That’s just a fact.  But some of our old hardwiring is preventing us from all working together to use all of our resources the best we’re able.  Again, that’s where art comes in to help communicate in a quick and efficient way.  The way that we can help us live together is to show to others those they’re not familiar with, those who they haven’t had the experience of relating to.

In order to do this we need diversity to make new art that communicates in our global world.  By working by including diversity in making movies, or other art, you are creating art that is fresh, that is advancing society, that is making something new.  It’s this blend that the art world calls “post-modernism” where blending of styles and ideas has really come alive.

I think post-modernism was an idea just combining styles, like Rap/Rock music.  Andy Warhol’s pop art mixing with fine art.  Fusion of Latin music and jazz.  Hong Kong featuring French music in their films.  The Russian montage filtering throughout the world.  All of this is post-modernism in style and cross pollinating cultures.  This brings appreciation and that empathy I was talking about.

I didn’t expect to cry watching Roman Holiday. I knew it would be a beautiful romantic film I’d enjoy watching, but it was so much more than that. Be prepared to go through an entire rollercoaster of infallible, beautifully chaotic emotions.

The rush you feel when watching it kicks in halfway through. At the beginning, you’re simply intrigued by the lovely Audrey Hepburn as Princess Anne, and the incredible Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley. In the first half hour or so, you’re interested in how the film will turn out. Then, when Princess Anne makes a run for it from her country’s embassy, meets Joe Bradley for the first time and goes on a whole series of adventures in Rome, the emotions kick in once they fall in love and dance.

The moment is completely timeless. The princess enjoying a simple, unobserved dance for the first time, and Joe enjoying the company of someone he never thought he’d meet. It’s something out of a fairytale; something they’ll both remember forever. Now in this moment, both seem to forget that they’re from completely different worlds, but when the secret service men locate the princess, that’s when everything turns chaotic.

Princess Anne starts to panic, thinking about the horror of returning home, and Joe is frantic, trying his best to save her. It’s completely rambunctious until finally, they make an escape. Here, romance makes an entrance. The pair has their first kiss and get a glimpse of what it truly means to love. As the night goes on, it goes from excitement, to passion, and then to mourning. Soon, the princess understands she must leave. Joe understands as well.

Both are heartbroken, completely out of it, and then they embrace. Their second embrace on the way back to the embassy is their last. It’s heart-wrenching to watch because they both know it’s something they’ll never get to do again. Towards the end of the film, the emotion you go through is one of defeat, because after experiencing every kind of emotion there is (from intrigue, to excitement, to laughter, to tears of joy, anticipation and sadness), you simply accept that there is no fairytale happy ending. Princess Anne won’t marry Bradley, and they won’t end up together. 

In the final moments of the film, when the pair look at each other for the last time, you just know there is a sense of defeat. There is a sense of longing to cross the threshold that’s keeping them apart and embrace one another again. The acting is brilliant, the directing and editing as well.  It’s simply flawless because it leaves you completely moved as a viewer. An audience member must accept defeat as well because the happy ending they want for the characters will not really happen.

When so many romance films these days have that typical, must-have happy ending, you have the slight or gigantic expectation that Roman Holiday might be like that, too. It wasn’t, and that’s okay. But I somehow think it ended the way it was supposed to. Somehow, it showed that the “holiday” the characters went on, the adventure of a lifetime, was just that, a holiday. And now it’s time to go back to their own lives. It’s like a little sprinkle of reality after all that magic.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a film that honors its name. In the beginning, it does so by introducing main character Holly Golightly (played by the iconic Audrey Hepburn) having a literal breakfast at Tiffany’s. She does so by getting out of the taxi cab, standing in front of the shop and pulling out a coffee and pastry from a bag. She starts eating, sipping her coffee and enjoying the scene. Having her breakfast there shows she feels right at home.

The second instance or the second few, rather, is how often the name “Tiffany’s” is mentioned, whether by Holly Golightly herself or her love interest Paul Varjak (played by George Peppard). When Holly explains her adoration for Tiffany’s to Paul, that adoration remains even when it’s slightly subdued as the film’s plot thickens. Then, halfway through, we have Holly finally enter Tiffany’s, the abode she’s been waiting for.

This is the third instance in which the film’s name is recognized, and it is even more so when Paul purchases the engraved ring for Holly. The way in which he carries it for a long, couple months, the shot of him exiting Tiffany’s with the ring box in hand… somehow, it shows how connected Holly is to Tiffany’s, how it’s truly her very own soulmate.

What’s more important is the connection between Holly and Tiffany’s. It means so much because it taught me a few things. I thought, “How nice it must be to have a connection with something.” The way in which Holly seems tethered to Tiffany’s is similar to how people feel connected to a particular passion. It shows how, no matter what we go through in life, if we have at least something that makes us happy, we should keep it in our lives.

It also made me realize that it’s okay to have a passion. Whether it’s a hobby or a career or a simple, daily walk in the park, that’s important when it comes to looking for happiness.

Throughout the film, Holly’s afraid to be happy because of a number of things. Then, when she finally wears the ring from Tiffany’s, finds her “nameless” cat and embraces Paul, she’s finally accepted happiness. Whether that came from acknowledging her love for Tiffany’s or elsewhere, I believe that can be up for debate. 

How do you write without being stopped by fear? What is the number one thing you need to do in order to believe in yourself as a writer? Beyond confidence, it’s having faith in yourself. It’s trusting that you can produce the work you’re afraid of creating.

When I was 16, I was writing poetry like it was no big deal. For days, even weeks on end, I would write poetry seamlessly, treasuring every word I wrote and being so proud of it. However, at some point, I stopped doing that. At 20, I was not writing a single thing for fear of it not being “good” enough. I got stuck. For years, I endured a long, wintery writer’s block, not knowing what my true purpose for writing was.

When I forced myself to write even when I didn’t feel like it, that’s when things shifted for me. The more I wrote – whether it was blog posts for my blog or poetry for myself – the more I trusted myself. It was this key I never knew I had, an awakening that set me free.

When I turned 23, I opened the doors to the key I was holding and finally found my purpose: putting out work that I’m proud of, creating something I’m proud of, and only releasing it if I think someone will benefit from or become inspired by it. When I forced myself to write even if I didn’t like what I was creating, it became easier and easier to cling to what my soul wanted to say rather than what I thought it had to say. That’s the difference: to write for yourself rather than for others. It made me more in tune with my creativity, it made me who I am, and it made me accept my writer’s mind more. I sat and just wrote stories. Some I posted online and some I didn’t. I wrote like it was nobody’s business but mine.

When writing poetry, I use the stream-of-consciousness form because I find that really helps when it comes to creating intuitively and in the end, I’m proud of whatever I produce. Journaling as well, which is a form of writing that allows you to document your emotions, thoughts and experiences, helps when it comes to figuring out what you’re feeling and what you want to write about. When I’m journaling, sometimes I get an idea when expressing a thought or emotion and that usually inspires a poem or story. Journaling, or writing poetry, in the stream-of-consciousness form is personally my favorite thing because when you write with it, you’re not thinking about the form or structure of your work, you’re simply producing whatever comes to mind.

Tariffs in film history have a long history, smaller less popular filmmaking  countries than the United States of America have implemented them to increase local production so there are less imported films abroad and it works seemingly about half the time if the citizens pay to see the new movies.  In 1947, the United Kingdom imposed a 75% customs tax, primarily to keep films made in by the United States at bay to make sure their country was creating and making money off of their own culture and ideas.  A more common practice was, instead of tariffs, to implement quotas that mandated screening films produced within the country.  Almost all of these quota systems were to prevent Hollywood dominance in their entertainment industry.  They were implemented in Amazing moviemaking countries like Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and many others.  These quotas were very effective in getting people in their own country to see domestic films, despite American movies still being very popular abroad.  

One of the most well known quotas is China’s current system under the Communist Regime.  China only releases 34 foreign films per year which are only permitted to a 25 percent share of all ticket sales.  Because China is such a huge market, 1.4 billion people who could feasibly go to the movies and buy a ticket, it’s a really big deal.  Because the government is so controlling and basically autocratic, the movies they do release do not tend to criticize the government or officials in the least, saying their film market isn’t necessarily free artistic expression.  It is similar to how the Soviet Union controlled movie content shown in theatres, although they didn’t stick to a particular quota.

However, American citizens today already pay to see the movies we make primarily here in the United States.  We have a much stronger economic strength through our great motion pictures which are in high demand worldwide already.  So much so that Hollywood and independent American companies often can work around quotas and tariffs by helping fund and make movies for international productions due to our technical expertise, strong economy that helps finance, or even American star power that gets foreigners demanding to see American-made movies.

Tariffs proposed by the United States recently have often been received by other countries retaliating.  A lot of American movies are funded partially through international pre-sales and sales, so any kind of retaliation may decrease our overall output.

Now, the movie industry has been in a downturn due to the tech industry stopping competing in the streaming market, due to the recession and the extended Hollywood union strikes that cut off a lot of work over two years time.  Two streamers seem confident in their place in the industry at the moment: Netflix and Amazon Prime.  The others don't know where they fit yet and have eased on spending to get a top spot.  There's more room for streamers, but too many players.  Likely consolidation will help the other big players.  On the other hand, niche players seem to be holding on stronger and still creating a slower business and finding spots for independent streaming.

We talk a bit about protectionism on our podcast, Feature & a short, in the 1930's Fresh Air Award episode.   Take a listen and inform yourself a bit about cinema history.

Writer’s biography

Episode #45 - Welcome to the sixth Fresh Air Award! Four cinephiles continue a Fourwind Films tradition of awarding a film that pushed cinema forward the most as an artform during a particular decade. To be nominated, a motion picture has to have advanced cinema in some way and made a lasting impression on how movies are made. This episode delves into the decade frought with the greatest war ever known to humanity, World War II.

To start the episode, our host, Justin Joseph Hall goes through a quick history lesson on what was happening in cinema business during the decade.

The four cinephiles who select the nominees in this panel are cinephiles Kevin Cecil, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer, and Kevin Hinman. Any moving images that came out in the appropriate decade is eligible for nomination. Nominations spanned documentaries, shorts, animated films, and feature films. They featured cinema with thoughtful use of the first green screen, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome patients, and maybe the most immediately influential film in all of cinema’s history.

Here is the link to all the nominations: 1940’s Fresh Air Award Nominees - Letterboxd list

There were several overlaps, but here are the main nominations made by each panelist:

Kevin Cecil’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Justin Joseph Hall’s nominations

Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Von Gogh (1948)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Begone Dull Care (1949)

John Robert Hammerer’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

Cat People (1942)

Fantasia (1940)

Fireworks (1947)

Rome, Open City (1945)

Kevin Hinman’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

Children of Paradise (1945)

Let There be Light (1946)

Fireworks (1947)

The Red Shoes (1948)

We hope you enjoy this episode! Share with us your own lists, comments, arguments, and films that we left out via social media @fourwindfilms. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Thank you to our cinephiles who did joined this out of their passion. To hear more from them, visit links below:

Kevin Cecil

Movie Trivia Nite

Justin Joseph Hall

Fourwind Films

John Robert Hammerer

Director's site

Kevin Hinman

Magnum Opus

Spesh to Death

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Fresh Air Award Contributors for 1940’s Decade - Kevin Cecil, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer, & Kevin Hinman

Host, Producer - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer - Hans Bilger

Intern - Olaf Jiménez

Special Thanks - Laura Davi

The theme song of Season 6 is New Tires by Silent Partner.