We face unfairness in our lives. That’s especially true for women, minorities and outsiders. Some of us are forced to run uphill more than others. Only 19 percent of produced feature films are written by women—a grossly unfair statistic. How to cope?
I asked screenwriter/director Robin Swicord for her perspective on creativity to share in my book. Reading her words got me teared up. Their humanness and power apply not just to women but anyone who is treated as a minority or an outsider. I share some of her thoughts here:
“Dr. Lauzen’s 2009 report shows that women comprised 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 250 films the previous year.
Would it have been better to know all of this before I dedicated myself to becoming a filmmaker? Or is it better not to be aware of the obstacles we face? I found myself having to constantly weigh similar thoughts when I became a parent of two daughters. How do I help my two intelligent, creative daughters be strong and mentally free in the face of subtle bias? How do I prepare them to thrive in a world or a career where they might not be fully valued? Anyone who has ever overcome a seemingly impossible obstacle knows the simple answer that silences these questions: Do it anyway.
Write your script anyway. Direct your movie. Is there a barrier? Go around it. Ignore conventional wisdom if it doesn’t serve your goal. Use your own judgment. Break the rules, if the rules don’t make sense for you. When you succeed, no one will mind that you didn’t do things “their way.”
When you fail, accept the blame. Apologize and begin again. Keep going. I don’t believe that ignorance is always bliss: I like to know what I am up against, so that I can ignore it. Make alliances, if you can. There’s strength in a common goal. Whatever is impeding you eventually becomes irrelevant when you follow your intention, and do good work.
Not sure that you know how to do good work? Do it anyway.”
Own That We Chose Our Inventive Path
The world is speeding up. Inventions are avalanching into all phases of human experience. Technology is pushing us to frontiers both positive and negative that we never dreamed of. Nobody knows where this is all going.
Here’s an example: There are going to be 5 billion media consumers out there using everything from Google Glass to iWatches and goodness knows what else, alongside the traditional film and TV delivery systems. With business support, USC just inaugurated the Edison Project, which involves fourteen professors from multiple disciplines trying to find a sense of direction for entertainment production, new media and new distribution platforms.
In all endeavors and industries there will be obsolescence, loss and change. For we, the creative, navigating these new and uncharted and sometimes stormy futures, all seems chaotic. But in chaos, I see opportunity.
Those steeped in the safety of their old ways will still be trying to teach blacksmithing in the automobile age. Others, meanwhile, will embrace change using crowdsourcing incubators. Change is the new gold rush.
Work hard at what you love. Trust that the human animal will not change its emotional make-up and create from your heart. Dynamic people attract others. When you do what you love, when you work from passion, it is not so much work anymore.
If you don’t attempt something distinctive, different and dangerous, how will you get noticed? Ask yourself: Is it better to occasionally face going down in flames than being hidden in the shadows guessing at what others want and making Xerox copies?
My Passion?
When asked where did I grow up? With quiet pride, I say I haven’t yet. I left school at 15, a stigma at that time, but I think it saved me from being academically processed into a “useful” worker. It has taken a woefully long time to call myself an artist, give myself pure permission to play, explore, be eccentric.
Yet since childhood, when I witnessed my parents making theatrical shorts at age four, it is what I yearned for the most: to cast spells with a camera and my imagination. In filmmaking, I have tried to avoid the critics’ opinions, both good and bad. Neither is correct, only time will finally judge. I have come to see the true test of what I accomplished is simply to ask myself, “Knowing the outcome, would I do it again?” Surprisingly, my usual answer is yes.
And about my creativity goals in the future? I have three of them. One: I have film projects that impassion me enough to “spend” my time on them, including a script that makes me tingle when I work on it. It’s a character study of a white detective with a tragedy in his past, re-discovering his humanity and spirituality learning from a Navajo Tribal police woman struggling with her own beliefs. Two: I am on a personal journey of photographic discovery. I love cameras and wanted to make images that cause the eye to dance. For most of my life, I followed the “rules” and failed my aspirations. And then I stopped obeying and starting asking “What if?” I am making stunning impressionistic, in-camera, nature images that are unlike anything I have ever seen. Some exclusive editions are selling for as much as ten thousand dollars.Three: Increasing my knowledge of creativity by sharing experiences with impassioned people, young and old, from my tribe.
I was inspired to write this article because a close and encouraging ally of mine was feeling the blues. It could just as easily have been the other way round. So, I dedicate this to all of you who have similar yearnings and deeply wish you the greatest of creative adventures!
I may be tempting you to become Van Gogh, who only sold one painting in his lifetime. There is that risk, which is why it is vital to see your daily work as your passion being fulfilled. But, if there is an afterlife, the old Dutch dude has to be looking down and laughing his ass off right now.
The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.
-Vincent van Gogh
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