Pep Talk
Hi, Friend.
Today I’m here with a pep talk inspired by a recent conversation with a young filmmaker. I don’t know about you, but I could always use a pep talk. This one begins in a theater full of high-school students.
This week I was fortunate enough to attend a private screening of an incredible independent film called Hummingbirds, directed by and starring Estefanía "Beba" Contreras and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Classes from five different Central Ohio high schools came to watch the film together in the theater at the Wex, and afterwards Silvia Del Carmen Castaños joined us via Zoom along with Jillian Schlesinger, who was a producer and editor on the film. Thanks to teacher Jess Haney for the photos below.
I kicked off the conversation with Silvia and Jillian, and then the students and teachers had questions of their own. The last question of the day was, “What advice would you give to young people who want to make films?”
The answers from Silvia and Jillian were fantastic, and they applied to any art-making practice, not only filmmaking. Silvia mentioned not waiting for the perfect time, the ideal funding, the newest and best equipment—just make what you want to make now with the materials and resources you have. Jillian agreed, saying there would always be more no’s than yeses, but not to be deterred. Just do it.
I loved that we ended the conversation on the importance of tenacity, and encouragement to approach art-making with a scrappy, DIY spirit. I suspect that between the poignancy and humor and energy of the film, and the candid conversation they were able to have with Silvia and Jillian afterwards, students are going to be lit up by this experience for a good, long time. I hope it was as inspiring for them as it was for me.
I left with the important reminder that there are no perfect conditions under which to create art, so don’t wait for them. There will always be constraints—time, budget, materials and equipment. If you’re waiting for all of the roadblocks to be cleared before you begin, you might be waiting all your life. So stop waiting. Just do your best to put something into the world that wasn't there yesterday.
We can do that.
I hope you begin something today, maybe something you’ve been putting off or waiting on the just-right conditions for. Forget just right and try right now instead. You don’t have to know what you’re doing or how it will turn out. Just start.
Love,
Maggie
For some reason your pep talk made me think of the following by Wendell Berry:
the seed is in the ground
now may we rest in hope
while darkness does its work.
I saw that on my beautiful neighbor (poet and essayist) Lia Purpura's daily outdoor poem black board, a pep talk for thinking of darkness in a different way -- darkness being something that gets in my way of thinking I have anything to say that could be helpful. just do it...
thanks for the pep talk!
Love this. I know it, I've heard it, I've said, and yet it's one of those things you can never hear too many times. I really needed to hear it again this week. Thanks, thanks!