Honesty, Responsibility, Faith and the Web of Life…

FADE IN:  ROAD WARRIOR… The barren landscape where the iron cities no longer exist. Water is like gold and oil is the last drops of the blood of a dying giant.

All I know is that one of my favorite films from my teen years showed a world gone bad and focuses on the few people trying to survive. That film seems to have scary overtone that I also revisited when I use to teach Native American studies at the Ebersole Enviromental Center years ago. Chief Seattle and the web of life really illustrated how interconnected all the ecosystem are. Natural disaster is bad enough with volcanic activity, earthquakes, flooding but when you add in the actions of man like this oil leak it is scary. I mean I don’t want to end up a story teller in the THUNDERDOME (3rd Mad Max film:) talking about the days when we had moving pictures. I might fare okay in the Thunderdome fighting but I will never be able to keep a cool car running like Mad Max because I have no real mechanical skills worth a damn.

On the positive note I think that this oil leak will motivate us to REALLY go do after safer power. I’m talking Teslsa technology of pulling energy from the earths magnetic field vs oil drilling that could cause major damage to world water supply. Also an enemy of the US could attack these oil rigs and take huge focus and manpower to try and manage. On the other hand that kind of action effects ALL people ultimately but some people have a doomsday mentality. So bottom line is just let oil be. OR make oil from corn, soy, hemp but this drilling below our water bodies is a bad idea. I think that has been illustrated so maybe wisdom will emerge.

RESPONSIBILITY is what we are talking about. Also we need true preventative measures on our actions not just reactionary once something goes wrong. IF companies truly knew they would be held responsible certain actions would not be taken because they would be deemed too risky. The Big Auto 3 in Michigan are very happy that Toyota forgot their own teachings of ancient eastern history and rather than using preventive principals they let certain issues go too long. Once they issu es were exposed they were now in a reactionary position which is a western mentality not the eastern mentality previously used by wise men from the east.

HONESTY

This trait factors into the above Toyota issue. Honesty, recall and accepting responsibility would have changed that whole situation. Well the PR departments of the Big 3 made sure you knew that they knew ahead of time. I like the way Tylenol handled their issue years ago. If they had tried to hide that…you get the point.

How does this all tie to movies? RESPONSIBILITY – when you accept a manager position on a project you sometimes are put in a place where you must stand up for what is right especially when you are legally empowered to do so. I recently had a long round table meeting where I explained that we were going into an arbitration over a project. The other party is known in our industry and surely is connected to others. It was asked if my actions could/would hurt my own acting options in Hollywood. I gladly explained that my actions were my duty and that my personal agenda had to come second. Also I don’t want to do business with people of a dishonest nature and so if there was fall out to our right actions so be it. This party is wrong, dishonest and they (like some others) in Hollywood and elsewhere perform dishonest actions because they count on the fact that independent filmmakers cannot afford to come after them. This month we have a major arbitration and it isn’t even a matter of we MAY be in the right. We ARE in the right. This is not just our viewpoint (We often want to be right but are not) but this is just truth and so we will see how this plays out.

We are actually fighting two major battles as a company. One that surrounds WILD MICHIGAN that we had to abandon ship on. But know that in our CDI shipyard the WILD MICHIGAN 2 is being built. I won’t go into any details on this other issue but we are fighting for all the other filmmakers out there who often cannot. As CDI moves into the studio system it is important to me that the crooks soon know to avoid CDI. This dog bites.

So HONESTY, RESPONSIBILITY and now FAITH…

Faith is knowing that things in the world will usually right themselves. The greedy man will face an issue that money cannot buy his way out of. Cancer doesn’t have a price where it will just go away. There is no cash settlement offer for a person fighting MS or other diseases. The unemployed man with supreme health is wealthier than he may know. If health was transferable someone would gladly give their millions for your health. Would you trade? I think not. So every day that you are healthy you are wealthy. It is funny that on all these business fronts EVERY one of these issues is over greed. I hope they learn their lesson and in a Mr. Scrooge kind of way, wake up one morning and they decide to be a kind, honest individual who has compassion for those with less and are willing to play honestly at business. Wall Street take note, Washington take note and each of us can hold ourselves responsible. I’ve made decisions as I’ve stated before that others may not agree with but I do not make decisions based on greed. Ultimately I want everyone to do well. So with each blessed step forward you should always reach back and help a few up. Watch the Special Olympics and learn something about being a good person. I’ve found in my experiences with the “Special”  that the worst parts of being human have been “retarded” in them.  They are special because in them exists the best parts of who we are while some genetic fault(s) seem to have left the worst parts behind. Often they have trouble existing in society because the world around them often operates using those worst parts of people as the way. Think hard on this.

I want to give a shout out to Daniel a young blog reader who emailed me on how he enjoys the words. He had an audition and I wish him well. To be that young and making his way in our industry. Daniel you have years ahead of you and so don’t rush for a finish line but enjoy the journey. Don’t forget to be a kid. Those will be some of your best years.

I’ll be back to more direct movie updates later but this oil thing has been on my mind. Also most of my week was taking up on organizing our communications concerning the project we are in arbitration over. Today is garden work. I like getting out there and working the dirt and seeing the complex way of things in nature. It brings a nice balance to life. So to all you artists out there. I preach the SHOW and the BIZ but on the most basic level keep yourself aware of what goes on in the natural world because we are all connected, the web of life.

Be good.

DJ

“Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”   – Chief Seattle