onilecraM | Marcelino

Back to Madrid

Sitting in a café in Madrid, reflecting on my trip.

My trip to Egypt has solidified my belief that first and foremost, I am a filmmaker. I don’t think there is anything that I enjoy as much as the filmmaking process.

Although the Egypt production was pretty low budget, I could totally see myself doing a combination of ethnographic/social documentaries as well as fictional narrative films. I think that one part could finance the other. Now I just need to find a way to finance film projects on a continuous basis. Going the academic route is certainly one possibility. There is something to be said about being in school for 9 months and then applying for a grant to shoot for another three months. I would just need to find an academic program that would allow me to combine the two. I’m not much of a cultural anthropology guy, but if that’s what it takes, I may go that route. The other route would be to concentrate on one comparative area (say the Middle East or Latin America) and enroll in an academic program that focuses on a variety of socio-political and economic issues from the said area, and then apply for grants to shoot films in that area. I suppose that another academic route would be to go for the MBA, specialize in entrepreneurship, and use that academic foundation to open up a production company that combines the academic documentaries along with narrative fictional projects. That’s the strongest possibility right now. I need to start writing to admissions officers to see how I could structure such a program.

Another thing about going back to school is that it would certainly allow me to take off to Europe for a summer and take some courses. I really really love Madrid; I think it’s absolutely great. I could totally do Barcelona or Salamanca for a summer semester and then head out to other European cities on weekends and breaks. On that note, perhaps I should consider London School of Economics. That’d be a quick way to get to Europe and do the academic thing at the same time. Hmmmmmm.

Need to see how this is all going to work. So many thoughts running through my head, but for the first time in a long while, I am beginning to see a semblance of the path that I need to take in order to make it all happen. Weird – as I’m writing this, my iPod is playing a song by JET called Move On. First few lines – Well I been thinkin’ ‘bout the future / too young to pretend / it’s such a waste to always look behind you / you should be lookin’ straight ahead. Yeah, I’m going to have to move on / before we meet again. - Mia, your music taste rocks.

MBA – production company – documentaries – film projects – creative projects – photography – graphic design. I think my resources (in terms of networking, personnel and personal skills) are at a point where I can make it happen. Just need some venture capital. Make your checks out to Rhinohazard Productions, please. : )

I love the fact that it’s 9:30 PM over here and still daylight. Been here at this caf? for about an hour, and (partially because of the two espressos that I’ve had) I am really enjoying life right now. It’s going to be really difficult to get back into the swing of things back home mainly because shooting this film has really made me aware of everything that I’m missing out on in life. So many people, so many places, so many projects designed to discover. I know I’ve said this before, but this has really been a life-changing project. I think I need to take more time to discover peoples and their societies, starting back home in Miami. I need to do more photography projects, I need to shoot more fun creative projects, and I need to write more. This is just a start, but I can say (and it’s not the caffeine speaking, I swear) that I’m on an incredible natural high right now. I just feel like smiling. Life is really good right now, and I just want to make this feeling last. I think editing this doc will help me sustain it for a few months. But I need to travel again, and soon - possibly a December return to Egypt with my dad and my brother to do some more scuba diving in Sharm and perhaps a return to Cairo and the pyramids. I might also do some more touristy stuff like the museums and such. I think I might also take an Arabic class. I got to a point in my time in Cairo where I felt comfortable listening to the language – I could recognize words (not necessarily their meanings) spoken in conversation. Reading and writing Arabic are a whole other world – but maybe I could learn. Might come in handy some day. I was able to pick up enough conversational Arabic to take a cab back home. Another fun project. I think if I infuse enough caffeine into my system when I get back home I’ll be able to sustain my energy for all these projects. But it’s so difficult when naps are soooo tempting. Must fight off the urge – at lease for the next three months. Life’s challenges are so hard.

Another thought. I guess one of the unforeseen personal benefits from this trip has been this: In conducting several interviews with each of our subjects over the course of two weeks to arrive at an articulation of their perceptions of their identity and their society, I’ve been able to reflect on my own identity and articulate my own thoughts on some of the issues they’ve addressed. In addition, I’ve been able to branch off from their ideas and construct an interpretation of how I view myself and the society I live in. This to me is the greatest aspect of documentary filmmaking – that in the process of telling the stories of individuals and their societies, I absorb their stories (and the process of recording them) into my own personal history. So vís a vís the documentary process, I continuously reflect on my own identity and further define who I am as an individual. I can’t think of any other way to learn about other people and their cultural nuances and still retain part of their stories as part of your own.