Wisdom Comes at 65
Trent Gilliss, online editor
Last winter I paid a hefty fine to the Minneapolis Public Library. I couldn’t let go of several photography books, including a pair by Andrew Zuckerman: portraits of beautiful animals — two- and four-legged forms — supple and lithe in their stillness, majestic in simplicity, unpretentious and vulnerable.
I intended to share some of these images then; I’m glad I waited. This video from Wisdom: The Greatest Gift One Generation Can Give to Another shares the ideas and profundity of those who have lived a life worthy of furrows and ridges. A few of my favorites touching on themes of work and love, conflict and resolution:
You can’t get to wonderful without passin’ through all right.
—Bill Withers, musicianLove something. I think we’ve got to learn love something deeply.
—Andrew Wyeth, artistThe human being has a need for dignity just as — like water, like air.
—Wole Soyinka, writerIf you’re willing to offer your life for it, you might actually get something done.
—Bernice Johnson Reagon, activistIf everyone takes care of their own area, then we won’t have any problems.
—Willie Nelson, musicianYou don’t stop doing things because you get old. You get old because you stop doing things.
—Rosamunde Pilcher, writerI get sillier as I get older. I don’t know what wisdom means.
—Judi Dench, actor…who I am, and what I need, these are things I have to find out myself.
—Chinua Achebe, writer
(photo: Andrew Zuckerman)
Swimming at the Top of the World
Trent Gilliss, online editor
A thoroughly inspiring lecture from a man who has been called the human polar bear. Lewis Gordon Pugh has swum in unimaginable places, including long-distance swims in all five oceans, in order to call attention to climate change.
Here, he talks about his most recent feat: swimming one kilometer (nearly 20 minutes) in minus 1.8 degrees Celsius water at the North Pole in order to raise awareness of the melting polar ice cap and rising water levels. For every one hour he spent training in cold water, he spent four hours in “mind training” — visualizing himself at every phase of the swim and willing his brain to raise his core body temperature.
If you only have a few minutes and can’t watch all 19, I recommend dropping in at the 10:25 mark to watch a short film about his journey. It’s quite moving.
(via Mashable)
“Looking Out for Hope”
Trent Gilliss, online editor
It’s been some time since I’ve posted a Friday video snack. I don’t know about you, but these last few months have been a blur — hectic and almost harrowing at times. And there is good, a lot of good, that’s come of meeting new people and sharing our work and talking to long-lost friends back home.
Looking for a contemplative moment, an adult time-out, a centering event, I was lucky enough to happen upon this short film that puts into play Bryan Mallessa’s fictional letter to Raymond Carver with music by the band Low. The film’s remarkably meditative in its quietude for the medium. It allows one ten minutes to reflect, to peer into blizzard and cold, to think about hard times, and the joy of the road ahead.
(h/t things are happening*)
Hanukkah and a Colbert Christmas
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
Coinciding with our Hanukkah program is this tasty video snack via Stephen Colbert’s A Colbert Christmas special. In our program on Hanukkah with book designer Scott-Martin Kosofsky, he talks a bit about the perceived “competition” between Hanukkah and Christmas. A little tongue-in-cheek humor here with Stewart and Colbert to reflect that, with Stephen experiencing a bit of Christmas humbug…
One Man Standing
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
On the social matrix of the Web, one meets all types of interesting people and finds interesting stories through these happenstance relationships. Take, for instance, Sinan İpek. In a random checkup on the status of SOF videos, I found this Turkish filmmaker had commented on two SOF videos with themes of women’s rights: one about Kenyan women striving for a more verdant future and another about Diana Matar’s exploration of women and the veil in Egypt.
This documentary is too long for me to consider it a video snack, but it’s a compelling 25 minutes of narrative that grips you from a tender, darkly lit opening scene. İpek could have told the story of a paralyzed son and his mother’s love in an exotic land and made it feel foreign to this Midwestern American’s eyes. Instead I felt united in their fight for decency — as a journalist, as a father, as a compassionate bystander, as a citizen of the world, as a kid who used to throw snowballs at my neighbors never noticing the person behind the glass watching with eagerness.
Watch it over your lunch break, in the wee hours of the morning or in the still of night. You won’t regret it.
“Lei Zhang: Floating in America”
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
It’s been a heavy week, hasn’t it? I could use a little beauty and a short respite this afternoon. Here’s a video snack to ease you into the weekend.
Tesfaye = “My Hope”
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
It’s late afternoon. The SOF quadrant is deserted since most of the staff are working the Minnesota State Fair. And as I was uploading videos, I watched this inspirational story of Tesfaye, an Ethiopian man who watched the deforestation of his home, did nothing, and is reclaiming his land and his memories.
How many other efforts similar to Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement are happening on the African continent that hear little about?
The Sound of … Minn Heima
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
It’s been quite some time since I posted a video snack on SOF Observed. And although it’s creeping into the evening hours on a Friday night here in SOF cubicleland, I needed a reprieve after a compressed work week.
There’s no better cure than the music of the Icelandic group Sigur Rós. Shed the angst and stress of a ruthless schedule without going classical. Now pair that with some out-of-this-world visuals of mustangs galloping, brooks gurgling, and velvety-soft mossy mountains lying low under a travelling sky and magic’s about to enter the room.
Ben Millett, whom I just realized makes his home in our sister city of Minneapolis, makes me long for a distinct show on sacred space. We tangentially touched on this topic with our program on the Rural Studio. Maybe the director/designer Julie Taymor is that voice, or perhaps James Turrell. Are you all aware of any other people out there that are just waiting to be heard on this topic?
The First Breath after a Coma
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
As we all know, Fridays require mini respites from the long working week — whether I’m coming off a professional high (cue Peabody Award post) or the depressing reality of six inches of snow in April (yes, we are in Minnesota). How about a video snack?
The last several months I’ve been turning to the delightfully short films of independent auteur Carolina LaBranche (aka cayoyin) on Vimeo. Her compositions are elemental, musically thoughtful, not overly maudlin, and display a lust for life that reminds me of why the day’s a gift and not a drag. This particular video has a loose narrative. I’ve woven my story in my head; what’s your take?
