Starting on my Journey
Hi, welcome to the Green Dream adventure, well as adventurous green and everyday life are. But I think if you follow along you will feel the excitement.
Anyway. As you can see from the director’s statement I have been working on the development of this film for a while. Well, at least a while if we consider it in human time. When I started, my niece Maria, was barely able to walk. But now she runs around the house and shouts out commands. A year and a few months have been half of her life.
In film time , however, a year marks the period of time when you can apply for the second round of grants after you were turned down for the first round. So this film is in its second round of grant applications. It has not been all an easy journey, but while most worth while pursuits are a bit of a struggle I deeply belief (in principal at least), that joy is important element in any work. And I have been trying to remind myself that when I get too bogged down in paperwork and too discouraged by rejection.
I have finished about half of the shooting in the Vancouver area, where I live. Now is the beginning of the part of the film I need to shoot in Ontario and in Bulgaria. So about a month ago I finalized the plans to go away, for about two and a half months, and finish filming Green Dream.
But there was a bit of a bump on the road. Funding had not been confirmed, yet. Waiting for funding would have meant going to film next summer , and would have meant stretching the project almost to the time when my niece Maria starts preschool. I decided to just go for it, before I ran out of steam and what I was trying to say had become old news . I was going to keep the budget and my expenses as small as I can and find alternative ways of funding.
To the surprise of my friends and roommate, I decided to give up the beautiful attic apartment where I lived and put everything in storage so I can be rent free for the journey.
I will filming most of the footage myself and I will fundraise in alternative ways trying to cut my dependence from Arts Councils and traditional funding agencies. I always wondered if that could work and I guess I am about to find out. If people could fund you in more direct way, if they would like to contribute to the art they want to see being done.
And here it is happening.
I moved out a few days ago. I flew to Ontario (yes I tried everything to find the best, environmental way for transportation, but was not successful in finding a ride and could not take the train because of the little budget that I had).
I am in Sudbury, Ontario. Where I am combining a visit to my brother, his family, and my niece Maria with filming of a two day process of laying of sod in their backyard.