Greetings from Rome. My family is currently on vacation but I got a chance to take some time and work on prep for the project. Kristen and I are sending out e-mails to Austrian churches and alumni that might be interested in working with us. However, I'm also trying to be very careful, obviously, so that Kristen and I are completely safe. We don't want anything crazy or dangerous to happen while we're trying to make our film/take our photos. Well, I take that back. Crazy, as in adventuresome, is definitely ok by me (:
I received an e-mail from a pastor who suggested that the best way to meet people in the community was to actually come to the services and go out to eat with them afterwards (something that commonly just happens spontaneously for the young adults). This makes a lot of sense to me. Meeting people via the internet can be a little bit sketchy. I think it's more important to simply meet people through encounters and I feel a lot more comfortable with this anyways. C.S. Lewis wrote that two friends are formed not by the desire to have friendship, but by looking together towards a third object of interest. In The Four Loves he wrote, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” I'm praying and hoping right now for many of those moments, which can only happen if I let go of my need to be "doing something" about finding people to interview right now. At the very least, I know we'll find people people that are willing to share their stories for the film!I moved a lot as a kid, and so was forced to learn how to make friends. Ever since I can remember, I've been the girl who could make friends with anybody. There's always something interesting about every person - why would you not want to talk to them, given the chance? Not everyone will be "that" person, who you share everything with and who understands you to the core. Yet there is something unique and wonderful about connecting with people through conversation that makes me feel alive and excited. That's one of the main reasons why I've been so intrigued by the topics of vulnerability and connection. However, I've done enough moving around to know that being in a different culture adds a certain layer of difficulty in connecting with other people.
Meeting the right people for the film will require time, and so I've decided to go for a bit longer than originally thought. I'll be heading down at the end of next week before Kristen comes down the following week. My first couple of days there will be spent by exploring the area that we'll be staying in and trying to establish myself there quickly. We are on a short time budget, you could say, so I will be spending a lot of my time out of the apartment in cafes and around the city. I'm going to observe at first, and hopefully meet some people (waiters, bakers, students, etc) simply by being present. I'll also be attending church services and events. We'll start scheduling actual interviews in the last two weeks, when we'll do the majority of our filming. I've started journaling more often, as well. Written accounts have a lot of power, and I really hope to be able to look at all I recorded with fond reminders of the difficulties and joys of our adventures. Writing it all down will also help organize everything once I'm putting all the film clips together for the final project.
I'm getting so excited, I can hardly wait!
Till later,
Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment