I made my first film Grass Through Concrete (trailer) (press review) about the bitter fight of a community in Hamilton, Ontario to save one of Canada’s largest urban parks from a four-lane expressway. The fight was lost and the community saw a large part of the park that they loved destroyed. When traveling with the film, I discovered that there are numerous grassroots struggles over green spaces, which have unfolded in the same way. They all seem like little local problems, but when added together they show a reoccurring troubling pattern of loss of wild green space that is very dear to an urban community. I was deeply troubled and I decided to go deeper and understand what is the root of our conflicting relationship with nature. Green Dream chronicles my process on this journey.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
My approach in Green Dream was to turn to everyday life and start observing people’s interactions with nature, the way we care for parks, little green spaces, lawns. The way nature is used in advertising and popular culture and the recent GREEN explosion, which came as a response to the environmental crisis. My personal journey went through my current country of Canada and brought me back to my native country of Bulgaria. What emerged from my visual meditations is that people’s action destroyed what they loved. As I criticized people for being unable to care for nature in a way that is respectful to its playful and ever-changing essence, I started seeing an interesting parallel with my own life and the film I am working on. The intention behind Green Dream had no defined structure, no real clear objective, it was supposed to be an intuitive exploration. I watched people who constantly cut a piece of grass, rake it, water it, fertilize it, blow the leafs off it, and ended up with something that is closer to a carpet but far from the chaotic beauty of nature. I also had been trying to explain, box in, package and contain my own process, the idea behind which was to be a free flowing piece. I was getting nowhere and my struggles through my own creative process made me see that I have the same attitude that I am criticizing and root of the problem is not external, but it is within me. I understand that I live from fear and struggles with controlling my art, and am wondering would things be different if my actions always come from Love. I decide to set out on a 90 day challenge committing to live fully from Love, and to understand what Love is. My observations, interviews and conversations with friends, start dismantling the views and beliefs I hold and I start looking at the world and the problems in it with different eyes.
Green Dream (rough cut of the begining of the film) April’09 from Maia Iotzova on Vimeo.
Approach and Vision
My approach is to explore social and environmental issues in a poetic and playful way using what I think is the most striking resource – everyday life.
Green Dream will push us to see beyond the hype of GREEN, and address our fundamental conflict with nature and ultimately with ourselves. But the film is not going to do this by listing off facts, interviewing people, or presenting academic arguments. Instead, it will immerse the viewers in a playful and poetic experience of searching for the answers in everyday life, allowing them to see the reality that is right in front of them in a new light.
Artistic Influences
The two biggest influences for this film are Baraka with its commentary on life using only images, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s heart warming novel The Little Prince with its innocent and sweet approach to social critique and sharing deep wisdom.
Expert from The Little Prince:
“The men where you live,” said the little prince, “raise five thousand roses in the same garden — and they do not find in it what they are looking for.”
“They do not find it,” I replied.
“And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water.”
This film cannot be done without your help!
I started preliminary shooting in the fall of 2007 thanks to the funding I received from the National Film Board-Filmmaker Assistance program. During that time the film grew stylistically and I decided to make the jump to shooting in High Definition. This brings me to today, when I am in the midst of shooting and fundraising and keeping in touch with the community, which always pushes the process further.
Green Dream filming:
May-mid July – Vancouver area
late July – Ontario
August – Bulgaria
late September – autumn shots of Ontario and British Columbia
Editing of the film will take place in the fall and early winter, hoping for a release date in Spring 2010.
