Once a month I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last month. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have. For more photos; visit www.instagram.com/ottovonmunchow/
Last week I was skiing in the mountains of Utah (USA), known for its astounding snow conditions. Although we didn’t experience its famous fluffy powder, we had plenty of new snow and good and fun conditions.
However, this post is not about my skiing in Utah, but about something that occurred to me while skiing in some of the more challenging runs. It came to me that there are similarities between skiing and the act of creating—as an analogue between the two. It goes to something I often enough have addressed in this blog, which has relevance for any artist or anyone who embarks on a creative endeavour.
It’s fair to say I am a good skiing, I think. Although I don’t see myself as an expert, I usually negotiate black diamond runs comfortably enough. The next level up, though, double black diamond runs, they are challenging enough for me. I’ll willingly enough admit that it feels somewhat daunting to get on a lift when you are warned that this is for experts only. And when you stand there at the top of the quite steep run or a narrow shoot, it’s definitely intimidating I would think even for many experts.
Nevertheless, again and again I find myself trying the best I can to cope with double blacks. I just want to feel the power of control and knowing I can do it. And of course the fun of whenever you feel you enter into a state of flow. I do fall and I do scrabble down those double black diamonds, but the only way to one day be able to master them is by doing them.
That’s when the parallel to the act of creation occurred to me. Because no matter how many times I practise in a regular black diamond run, and no matter how good I get at mastering those runs, I will never be able to reach the proficiency needed to master double black runs, without actually doing them. You cannot train for the double blacks in a single black runs. It is as simple as that. You need to pass the initial inhibition and intimidation holding you back to step up one level and just do it—and accept that you will fail, that you will fall, that you will fumble down the slope.
It’s the same at whatever level of skiing you are. You can’t prepare yourself for a single black run in a blue run, or a blue run in a green run. You need to take a chance when stepping up.
That’s exactly what you have to when you want to expand you creative skills, become better at whatever it is you like to create. You need to get out of the safety of the famous box, take chances, risk failing and falling. If you stay within the safe boundaries of the box, you will not step up to the next level. Your art will stagnate.
There is another aspect to this analogue. When you are a rooky, a new skier, you know that you don’t start in the double black diamonds, not even the blue runs. That could easily kill you in a worst-case scenario. Likewise with the act of creating. Don’t expect to perform like an expert when you start out, but rather take it step by step. Learn the easy skills first and then keep moving up and slowly by slowly become better. And don’t get discouraged when you fall. We all fall. Just get up and do it again. Know that at some point you will be ready to take the chance to step up to the next level.
There is a third piece to my analogue. We all want to be good at what we do. However, remember that even the best started out in a green run. Picasso or Cartier-Bresson or Beethoven didn’t miraculous become masters. They did all the necessary runs at each level, too. So don’t compare yourself with the masters. If you want to reach the level of mastery, just be aware that it takes a hell of a lot of work, a lifetime of efforts in fact. If you enjoy blue runs, that’s just fine. Keep doing them. And if you don’t like skiing at all, well, there is plenty of other fun activities you can embark on. Just keep creative and every so often step out of the box.
Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.
I have just returned from a week full of excellent movies. As usual at the end of January, I have attended this year’s Sundance Film Festival. And as usual it’s a week full of stress to be able to see as many movies as possible, getting from one venue to another in time, eating whatever you can get to in between movies, trying to figure out which movies to watch among close to 120 movies, navigating piles of snow, high altitude, freezing temperatures, even getting some time to go skiing in Utah’s famous powder snow and finally throw in some hours of sleep in between.
This year we watched 23 films (the record is 37) during the week we spent in Park City where the Sundance Film Festival takes place. It’s probably the best and biggest festival for indie films in the world, this year no exception. In fact, I don’t know if we just were able to pick the better films or if the level was even higher than usual this year. But we did see some amazing movies, both dramas and documentaries.
I would like to recommend a few of these movies, which hopefully will make it out into the world over the next couple of months. It’s not possible—or it wouldn’t be advisable—to review all the movies we watched. Instead, I will briefly describe what I regard as the best in each category that are showcased at Sundance.
In the Premier category, for me, the strongest movie was without doubt Wind River. Not the most pleasant film, but intense, honest, direct and powerful. On a basic level it’s about a murder of a young woman in Native American reservation, but what really makes the movie stand out are the tough characters and their not always unproblematic relationships. This is probably the best movie I watched at Sundance this year.
In the US Dramatic Competition the movie Crown Heights stood out. A dramatisation of a true story, about Colin Warner who was wrongfully sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. It is also a film about how the US justice system does everything to prove itself an injustice system, rather—particularly when you are black and poor. Personally, it was an amazing experience to witness Lakeith Stanfield who played Warner as well as Colin Warner himself presenting the film at Sundance.
In the World Cinema Dramatic Competition the Mexican movie Sueño in otro ideoma or I Dream in Another Language totally captivated me. A beautiful movie, magical and both funny and sensitive at the same time. It’s about old languages disappearing, it’s about getting old, it’s about love and the ever divergence between being outside and inside a community.
In the US Documentary Competition, there were quite a few strong movies. My favourite was Bending the Arc about the extraordinary doctors and activists whose work 30 years ago to save lives in a rural Haitian village grew into a global battle in the halls of power for the right to health for all. One of the doctors ended up becoming the director of World Bank. Extremely powerful.
My favourite in the World Cinema Documentary Competition was 500 Years. It is a film about the fight in Guatemala to get rid of presidents who were responsible for genocide in the last decades of previous century. The title refers to the struggle for the indigenous Maya population against the white oppressors who have ruled the country since the Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado conquered Guatemala.
If you ever get a chance, these five movies I all strongly recommend.
On a different note, I want to remind you that you could win a free participation in my online photo workshop «Finding Your Photographic Voice». It’s an eight weeks workshop that starts up May 22nd. Just send me an email, stating your name and why you would like to attend the online workshop and you will be in for the draw. But remember, you will have to enter before the end of January. In other words, only few days left. I will present the winner next week.
Facts about the photo: The photo was taken with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II and either a 24-105 mm lens or a 100-400 mm. The photos were processed in Lightroom.
Once a week I will show one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.
Once again I have covered Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, the independent movie festival initiated by Robert Redford. And as always it’s a both fun and intense week. It leaves you with strong impressions and wonderful insight to how they work, those most creative filmmakers in the world. I watched movies – of course, I photograph people in the film business presenting their work during the festival and I try to get some time up in the ski slopes above Park City as well. The better of two worlds in other words – some skiing and loads of movies. This time, though, I only watched 26 films compared to my old record of 37 movies in a week. Still plenty enough and not leaving much time for ordinary tasks such as eating and sleeping.
As always I am impressed by the high level of the films presented at Sundance Film Festival. There at lots of excellent films from all over the world, and unfortunately it’s only possible to watch a small fraction of what is offered. I wish I had had more time, but then again another week with such intensity would probably not have been very good for my health, neither physically nor mentally. But it certainly leaves anyone attending the festival – included me – with the dilemma of what to watch and what to leave out. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t, but still you never encounter uninteresting movies even if they might not be of your taste.
A handful of favourite films I watched this time:
Rudderless – A poignant and very emotional drama directed by William H. Macy (who also has a small role in the movie). It deals with the terrible shock when a father experiences a school shooting where his son is a student. Billy Crudup does an astonishing job portraying the father. One of the movies that really stands out.
Fed Up – A very strong documentary that shows how the food industry is destroying our lives with their unhealthy processed food. You think you eat healthy? After having watched this film you will surely re-evaluate your eating habits. It’s shocking, no less. Hopefully it will make it to the cinemas or the TV-station. Another one to watch.
The Trip to Italy – If you want a brilliant and hilarious funny movie, this is for you. The British actors and comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon travel around in Italy, eat excellently and are just unbelievable funny.
Dead Snow – Red vs. Dead – Maybe not for everyone. Actually only recommended if you have a macabre sense of humour and don’t mind gore and blood completely over the top. An army of Nazi zombies meets an army of resurrected Soviet soldiers in Northern Norway. This is the sequel to the original Dead Snow, which gained cult status after it was released at Sundance in 2009.
Enough movies – on a different note I will just apologize to those of you who didn’t get a spot attending my new eWorkshop I launched before I took off to Park City. It only took two days before the workshop fully booked. I promise the workshops will be launched again at some later point. I hope to see you then.
Last week was an intense week. Once again I covered Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and once again it was a week full of strong impressions and great movies. With something in the close range of 200 films being displayed it’s almost despairing, knowing no matter what you will only be able to see a handful of the lot. So you do your best to pick the ones you think will be the best, and you know you will miss some many. But that’s just the game of any film festival. Having done this for almost the tenth time now, we do get better at picking the right ones, but still it isn’t possible to get to all the ones you pick, simply because the puzzle of time schedules and venues won’t fit together. And this time we even slowed down a bit and finally «only» watched a little less than 30 movies. Still enough to make your brain go dead and feel oversaturated, so much that one would think we would have had enough movies for some time. But guess what, I had hardly gotten back from Sundance Film Festival before I put on a DVD…
The whole experience of a film festival is quite exhausting, but it’s also incredible inspiring. You see so much creativity and cutting edge artwork almost on an explosive level that it makes your own creative mind go skyrocketing. It’s truly what Julian Cameron calls replenishing the creative well.
My four favourite movies from this year’s Sundance Film Festival are:
The Crash Reel – A documentary about the almost fatal accident of half-pipe legend Kevin Pearce and his recovery.
Stoker – Probably the best vampire movie I have ever seen. Very subtle, very intelligent and with beautiful cinematography.
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman – A bizarre, dark and beautiful love story, as well as a story about finding a meaning to life.
Don Jon’s Addiction – A hilarious funny movie about sexual archetypes and why relationships often end up being screwed up.
Since I have just returned from Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, this post will be a little different than usual. In a sense it will still be about creativity and imagery, but this time taken from the film industry. This post is in a way a tribute to all those great movies that were showcased through the week of the festival. Sundance Film Festival is the biggest festival for independent film in US, and as such is both a great manifestation of the creative forces outside of mainstream Hollywood and an intense experience of the best movies the whole world are able to muster. This is the 7th time I cover Sundance Film Festival and the quality of films being showcased was – once again – amazing. Here is a little summary of my favorite movies from this year’s festival.
Let me start with my two absolute favourites. First of all The Ambassador emerges as an outstanding document of the problems facing Africa. Behind the film stands the Danish journalist Mads Brügger. He bought himself a diplomatic title and passport from Liberia and entered the Central African Republic as their ambassador. The purpose was to expose the trading of blood diamonds in this maybe most corrupt of all African countries. Mads Brügger plays the role with wit and an almost naïve approach, like an arrogant, postcolonial, upper class, white diplomat, sporting dark glasses, riding boots and a cigarette holder. He ominously uncovers the comprehensive corruption, among Africans and Westerners alike. Really one to watch.
The second of my favourite films is a drama that takes place in Kashmir. Valley of Saints is a delightful, beautiful, enlightening and sweet story about Gulzar, a working-class boatman on Dal Lake, that falls in love with a pretty biology scientists and how he gradually realizes that the ecology of the lake faces an alarming threat. The lovely story takes place against a background of political uprising and a weeklong military curfew. The landscape is serene; the acting honest and wonderful – even though none of them are actually actors, and the cinematography simply outstanding. If you have to have some moments of hard action to be able to enjoy a film, this might not be the one for you, but otherwise it’s one of the best I have seen in a long time.
Other movies in the dramatic category I really enjoyed, was My Brother, the Devil, a Muslim gangbanger film with a gay twist taken place in London. It’s a film rich in beauty, humility, authenticity and depth. The Words is another dramatic film about a young writer who suddenly achieves success after having found a complete manuscript that he passes on as his own. When he meets an old man that turns out to be the one who wrote the manuscript, his whole life changes dramatically. This is a well crafted and subtle tale that examines how overwhelming desire can lead to unforeseen and unwanted consequences.
Two recommendation in the documentary category: In 5 Broken Cameras the Palestinian Emad Burnat tells the story of how his village of farmers fights Israeli settlers who take over their land. During filming 5 cameras are lost and broken due to violence by Israeli soldiers. Finding North is a shocking document about hunger in USA. It reveals that one out of six (or 50 millions) US citizens suffer from food insecurity – they don’t know if they have food for the next meal. It reveals the disgrace of US politicians who rather subsidise corporate agriculture that produces unhealthy products with high content of starch and sugar, instead of helping their own people get food on the table.
Two movies for those who enjoy humour: First of all; 2 Days in New York is a movie by French Julie Delpy that heightens cultural differences to comedic extremes. A hilarious film – featuring Chris Rock. Sleepwalk with Me is an autobiographical movie about the comedian Mike Birbiglia – based on his successful one-man show. Great fun.
I have to mention two movies in their own class, both way out there and rather weird. Wrong is a movie I absolutely didn’t like, but I met many who were equally delighted about it. So if you don’t have the same taste as me, I will recommend it. And if you don’t know my taste, I guess you will have to take a chance. 100 per cent weird. The exact opposite can be said about Excision. This one I really liked. Macabre and really bizarre.
My last recommendation is going to be Under African Skies about Paul Simon and the making of his album Graceland with South African musicians during UN’s cultural ban of South Africa which resulted in protests from all of the world as well as ANC. It follows Paul Simon back to South Africa 25 years later, a return which ends with a reconciliation with ANC. A delightful movie.
Hopefully these movies will hit the cinemas of the world one day. Let me round up this post with a little digression; a picture of me enjoying something else than movies in Park City (© Pat O’Rourke):
In Flow with Otto 