Director’s Statement
From the beginning, my thoughts as a Director, have centered around the concept of complete honesty in presentation. The decision to present “voice-overs” with the intent to dramatize the truth, has proven paramount to the film’s emotional impact. Much of the verbal dialogue was steadfastly recorded, without rehearsal, and without another person to react, or to engage… thereby helping the message to become more global and universal, rather than specific. My decision to stay in the first person - too - helped convey the truth as I have experienced and felt it… making it more difficult for the audience to escape the reality that life is what happens directly before us — not what happens far away in the third person! My innocence and lack of experience as a filmmaker gave me the “blind courage” to try putting the film together from a purely emotional base, rather than from a structural one… though I’ve always been aware that the structure would have to replace the film’s lack of entertainment value. Our editor, James Becker, has saved the day with his genius and patience… and has polished all our efforts in such a way as to prove that true expression can and does survive all the tests of technology and all the rules. I’ve always liked Marshal McCluen’s statement that, “… the medium is the message…” but now I begin to question it.
