Ayn Rand and the Happy Movie

This weekend I watched two movies that really got me thinking.  The first one is a documentary called, "Happy" which I highly, highly recommend.  The film goes around the world, interviewing neuroscientists, authors, regular folk, and extraordinary folk, about what makes them happy.  

Patagonia HQ and the Double Bottom Line

A couple weeks ago, while in Southern California for the Westdoc Documentary Conference, I was lucky enough to get a  private tour of Patagonia Headquarters in Ventura, California.  Although I've never actually worn anything made by Patagonia, the tour turned me into a huge fan of the company.  I admire the way they treat their employees, their commitment to making ethical products, and their dedication to a larger social mission.

The first room I saw at the sunny, breezy HQ was quite literally a surfboard library, where any employee could just grab a board and return it at their earliest convenience.  They had the same thing for bicycles.  There were child care facilities, a beach volleyball courts, electric-car chargers, and a refrigerator stocked with organic, local produce for employees to purchase at subsidized prices.  

As I walked through the company's product design offices, color research lab, and eventually the retail store, I noticed a common thread.  There were posters, programs, and signs everywhere reminding employees, customers, and suppliers that Patagonia does not simply exist to make money.  It exists to make money AND help tackle the global environmental crisis.  

The Patagonia mission, in fact,  is carved in wood on top of the door frame that greets everyone that walks into their offices:

Patagonia is pursuing what is known as a "Double Bottom Line," doing well (financially) and doing good (socially).  They have registered as a B-Corp, a new movement and legal status for companies that want to be known for something more than just their commitment to profit.   They have created metrics for ensuring make their products are made ethically and sustainably.  They have a long laundry list of impressive environmental initiatives that are affecting real change.  

I believe that this model is the key to answering many of the challenges we face as a society.  The private sector typically addresses only market-driven problems.  Government is overly bureaucratic, slow, and nationalistic by nature.  Philanthropy does not often think about self-sufficiency and scale.  I think business may hold the key to making sweeping global changes.  I, for one, am really inspired by this idea.  I am also now the proud owner of a new orange, down Patagonia jacket.

Great Documentaries

Friends, see these docs when you can.  Most are either on Netflix or HBO.

I recommend all of these highly:

The Artist is Present- You should see this because Marina Abramovic is a rad performance artist who is totally dedicated to what she does. 

Jiro Dreams of Sushi -  Here's another person totally dedicated to his craft.  Watch this one on a full stomach, or better yet, with lots of fresh fish in front of your face.  I am ready to reserve at Jiro's restaurant right now.  If I get a reservation, I may just fly to Tokyo for it.

Client 9 - All about former politico Eliot Spitzer and his downfall.  Same old story we've heard countless times.  But somehow documentarian Alex Gibney makes it seem like a crime/mystery movie.  Up and coming politician, beautiful family, everything going for him, you know the rest...

A Tale of Two Escobars-  Fascinating weaving of two seemingly disparate tales that are not so disparate after all.  How coincidental that the soccer star and drug lord, besides having the same name, were also killed by the same people.  Amazing footage, interviews, and editing in this one.

One Nation Under Dog- This one had me in tears after about 15 minutes. Some of the most graphic animal abuse footage I've seen.  Dog lovers beware:  This film is a tough one, but an important one to see.  Nobody should buy their dogs from pet stores and the inhumane puppy mills that supply them. Adopt!

Strangers No More - This is the most uplifting doc I've seen in a while, about a truly remarkable school in Tel Aviv, Israel. Just do yourself a favor and see this.  It will restore your faith in humanity. 

The Kaizen of Storyhunter

The time has finally arrived.  Storyhunter launched this week, and I can not express how excited I am. For those of you know me well, you know that this has been many, many years in the making.  About five, to be exact.  I have had countless investor meetings, hundreds of rejections, four intro videos, three company names, and a handful of people who have called me insane.

I long ago embraced the Japanese concept of Kaizen (改善), "improvement", or "change for the better".  I have always been fueled by rejection, and in a strange way, I have come to enjoy it.  It forces you to tweak your concept and business model to make it stronger and more foolproof.  It toughens you and makes you fearless.  Kaizen has become a life practice.  When you know that change is constant and possible, it makes you less critical of yourself and others, and more likely to adapt for the better.  For both my new job as CEO of Storyhunter, and in all my relationships, I constantly ask myself, "How can I be better today than yesterday?" 

Storyhunter started out as an idealistic dream: to empower my heroes, the freelance video journalists of the world to tell important, entertaining, and true stories. 

But to make ideals turn into reality, I had to morph them into a realistic plan.  As my team and I have tweaked our business model, we have had to re-tweak it to the quickly changing video technologies and web video distribution tools.  Internet video audiences have also matured quickly, and now people are watching a lot more than pornography on line. I believe we are entering into a golden age of web video, for both information and entertainment.
 

This is a good thing.  Politicians and the old media have been misrepresenting reality for too long, and it's time for the entire world to have access to more truth.  We hope to be on the vanguard of this fight.  So yes, we are still idealistic, and we will either succeed or fail with our ideals intact.  We are fighting to change perceptions of reality, to make people care more about the planet, and to bring people together through internet video. 

We want to help lead the transition from the age of information to the age of wisdom.  We live in a world over-saturated by content.  Just like we watch what we eat, we need to watch what we watch.  Ask yourself before re-tweeting, "Is this content really good for me? For others? For the planet?"  Your clicks are your votes, so clicking on something means you're likely to get it again.  Equally important is watching what you comment on, share, tweet, blog, pin, or whatever the next social media verb is.  Media companies call this engagement, so don't engage with bad content or you're going to be married to it for life.

 

As globalization and tech innovation drive people towards global sameness, we want to help make video journalists the ambassadors of this new digital world.  We want to empower the men and women risking their lives and limbs to help us understand the world. Storyhunter was created to help such people, who I still call my heroes. So if you're a video journalist, multimedia storyteller, or documentary filmmaker, who wants to help spread global truth, whether you've made 1000 videos or just a few, come join us at www.storyhunter.tv And yes, you may re-tweet this. 

Storyhunter's New Intro Video

Open Letter to Video Journalists

Dear Potential Storyhunter,

Storyhunter is a group of video journalists, multimedia storytellers, and doc filmmakers that felt frustrated because too many of the world's most important stories are left untold. We believe the reporters on the ground should be dictating the news of the world, not the editors in major media capitals.

We’ve set up a system where video journalists from around the world can easily pitch us stories and we make sure the best ones get out to a global audience. The pieces will either be distributed by us or by some of the world's leading digital publishers.  Basically, we handle the hassles of selling the stories and getting them out there, so you can focus on producing the work you love.

We are very selective about who we work with, as we take our commitment to high quality and ethical journalism very seriously. Membership is completely free. If you have a few years of professional experience under your belt, and feel that you are qulaified, apply here or learn more at www.storyhunter.tv

We can't wait to see your stories,

Team Storyhunter

High Tech High Life

Another 3-doc day and I'm pooped.  Today I saw films on beauty pageants in India, fishermen in Kenya, and wrestlers in Seattle.  

There were some AMAZING docs this year at Tribeca, and I'll be writing about some of them on the Storyhunter blog.

The real highlight for me was meeting a citizen journalist/blogger in China who goes by the name Zola.  After watching the documentary by Stephen Maing, "High Tech Low Life" about Chinese citizen journalists, I feel like I have a new appreciation for what journalism is.  In China, there's no such thing as freedom of the press, and before it was something that most Chinese people didn't even realize they're missing.  But I get a sense that the genie's out of the bottle, and the Chinese internet police will never be able to put it back in.

Official Movie Art "High Tech Low Life"

Enter a young twenty-something former vegetable hawker from the Chinese countryside named Zola, (Real life name is Zhou Shuguang 周曙光) who has discovered a passion for journalism . He refers to himself as a blogger to sound less serious. He changes the DNS server to a foreign host in order to get around the "Great Firewall" of China.  He becomes a voice of the poor who faced the destruction of houses in Beijing just before the Olympics.  He investigates an alleged murder by a Chinese official that was labeled an "accident."

Zola says at one point in the film, “The truth is, I don’t know what journalism is. I just record what I see.” And that's what is so endearing about him; how natural he is about his work.  It seemed like he was born to be a reporter, and that nothing in life could give him the satisfaction it gives him (I know the feeling).  He disobeyed his family and traditions and the law to do a job that he didn't get paid for. But he sees himself as a patriot responding to the call of duty, putting civic responsibility ahead of his own personal safety.  

It made me wonder about the nature of this thing we call journalism.  What is this need to know the truth and to share that truth with others? If it doesn't exist, would we need to invent it? Perhaps it is as natural to humankind as love, war, and civilization itself, a necessary byproduct of community?  Or is it simply a natural reaction to corruption and crime?  If a society was perfect, then journalism would not need to exist, right?  But of course that's impossible. 

Zola did face repercussions for his actions.  He wasn't allowed to leave the country at one point.  And now he is based in Taiwan, where he can work much more freely.  I told him after the movie that he is a hero for doing what he's doing.  Knowing that people like him exist make me feel better about the state of journalism, and humanity.  

Me and Zola after the film

60 Minutes Christians Controversy

As a huge fan of Bob Simon and 60 Minutes, I was a bit surprised at the focus of his story on the Christians in Holy Land.   The disappearance of West Bank Palestinian Christians is a well known tale, done by nearly every reporter who's ever stepped foot in the West Bank, including yours truly.





Simon's Story


I don't really have any issues with the content of the story, including his grilling of Ambassador Michael Oren for trying to interfere with 60 Minutes editorial position before the story was published.  I thought that was fascinating.  Simon revealed the prickly relationship between the "Mainstream media" and the Israeli government.  Nothing he said in the report was untrue, but perhaps it's what he left out of the report that is the problem.  His critics are correct to point out that you can't do an entire report blaming Israel for its West Bank policies without showing that Christians in Israel proper are doing pretty well.

As a religious Sunday night viewer, I have definitely come to expect more from 60 Minutes.  Why not use the budget and production potential of the program to explore the plight of Christians in the Greater Middle East?  60 minutes needs to be at the vanguard of journalism, not recycling the same old story. While people are still obviously suffering, nothing really new has happened since the wall went up 7 years ago, which is a prerequisite for using the word, "news" to describe your program.

I wholeheartedly empathize with the plight of Palestinian Christians AND Muslims who are suffering more or less equally under Israeli occupation.  It's true that there were incidents of Muslims harassing Christians in the past, they are not really occurring today with any frequency.  The reason Christians are fleeing is the Israeli Occupation, and mainly, because of its economic impact.  They leave the West Bank because they are used to living better, and are more likely than Muslims to have relatives abroad who they can join.   But what about the troubled Christian populations in Syria, in Egypt? What does the world know of them? Not much.  Which is exactly why we need great journalism programs to go to these places.


In case you're curious, here's my story on Bethlehem's complications, from a few years ago.  I had a slightly different angle, but ended up telling the story on the plight of West Bank Christians, Muslims, and Jews who all try and come to worship in Bethlehem.  My most horrendous memory from that report, which didn't make the final cut since I had no footage to show, was riding in the bus along with the Jerusalem-based choir after Midnight mass.  We were stopped at the main Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint by the IDF, and then harassed and threatened by the rudest Israeli soldiers I ever came across.  I pretended not to know Hebrew, but of course understood every nasty word they used to describe a church choir on their holiest and most special night of their year.  I was frisked from head to toe despite showing my journalist credentials, and was nearly assaulted for trying to film.  When they finally let us pass, after an hour, at 3AM, some of the choir members were heaving hysterically, broken down, in tears.  They had gone from pure ecstasy to pure misery, ion Christmas Eve.  Yes, this is what the West Bank Christians often must go through, which makes Simon's story important, but certainly not the whole story.

A Perspective on #StopKony Campaign

         

I’m one of the few people who didn’t find out about the Kony video through social media. My girlfriend nearly attacked me as I walked in the house one night last week.  “You have to watch this video on Youtube right now!”

I could tell from the tone of her voice that this was something important, and not “David After the Dentist,” the sequel.

So I succumbed and watched the video.   Here’s the conversation that ensued between me, my girlfriend, and my internal monologue:

Me: 30 minutes? Are you kidding me? I don’t have time for this.
Girlfriend: Argh. Just watch it. You’ll like it.
Monologue: If I do this now, I may not have to do dishes later.
Visuals: Outerspace shots of earth with melodramatic music and bold type font stating, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Monologue: You mean like Mark Zuckerberg’s idea to rate girls from his college dorm room?
Narrator: We share what we love and it reminds us what we all have in common.
Me:  Am I insane or are these are the exact same visuals used in those soppy Google commercials?
Narrator: The next 27 minutes are an experiment but in order for it to work you have to pay attention.
Monologue: (Bemused, I proceed to close my other 10 windows, turn off the TV, IPAD, Iphone, and stop fantasizing about the IPAD3) Wow. Incredible. They just have to ask for my attention, and they get it.  Am I that easy?
Video: Shots of a child being born.
Me: Oh, this is that Ricki Lake documentary you’ve been begging me to see.
Girlfriend: No, that’s our Friday night plan.
Monologue: Darn
Video: Shots of what we presume are dead Africans with Schindler’s List style music in the background
Monologue: How did we go from Ricki Lake to dead Africans?  Wait, I just saw one move. They’re not dead.  Why am I starting to get emotional over sleeping Africans? It’s the music, silly. It gets you every time.

What proceeds is a propaganda film so great that Leni Reifenstahl just saluted Russel from her grave. It tells not a story about Africa, or Uganda, or even Joseph Kony, but of filmmaker Jason Russel and his highly marketable and downright adorable kid.  I won’t bore you with the details because chances are if you’re reading this online, you’ve seen the video.  Kony 2012 has precious little to do with what’s happening in Uganda today.  That would be way too boring.

Russel constructs a narrative so simple that his toddler could even understand.  Good American (White) Man tries to save Poor African (Black) Kids from Evil African (Black) Man because Good American Man had the realization that his Privileged American (White) Kid could have also been a victim of the Evil African Man if he was born in Africa.  So Good American Man makes a video which he puts on the Internet and hopes Good Internet People of the World will share it.

The real success, however, came by taking a page right out of Steve Jobs marketing playbook.  If you want to reach millions of slacktivists, tweeps, and meme spreaders (yes, baby boomers, these are real words now), you better make something that is not only user friendly, but looks really cool.  It doesn’t matter if the idea’s time has come, the idea won’t be so powerful if it’s not in the right packaging. The fonts, cutting edge CGI’s, and the hot, new Kony logo all contribute to the success.  The video ends with a best practice well known to internet marketers, a call to action.  Once you’ve engaged someone, you must get them to buy something, click on something, or do something.  Otherwise you’ve lost an opportunity.

Share this and you too can save Poor Black Kids.  Along with countless others, I responded to the call:  I bought the product that should be named “Guilt Alleviator (Intended for White People but Suitable for All).”  And why not? I don’t have to donate a penny or pull a trigger.  With just a click of my mouse, I can do something important today.  I can instantly and virtually help stop an evil man.  Isn’t social media grand?

It would be interesting to know who really wants to stop Kony and who is doing it just to trend on Twitter, so I have devised a test. I will launch a Kickstarter campaign to help fund a vigilante group that will go after Kony and bring him to justice and/or kill him.  We can call the group the Kony Cyber Commandoes (KCC). Sounds intimidating, right?

Now here’ the kicker.

The prize for donating 100 USD to the campaign, Official #Kony2012 handcuffs.

Ok, here’s the real kicker.  The prize for donating more than 1,000 USD to Kony Cyber Commandoes:  If we catch Kony and he gets the death penalty, you will be eligible to participate in the first ever crowdfunded execution!

Just imagine Brian Williams on the nightly news: “Tonight at midnight 100million people around the world simultaneously clicked “Dislike” and injected .00001 milliliters of poison per click into Joseph Kony’s veins, ending his life.”

To be honest, I’m not sure I’d participate in that campaign.  Death penalty qualms aside, as critics and Ugandans have stated, what Uganda desperately needs right now is post war economic recovery, not vigilante squads tracking down a washed up warlord who’s not even in the country. Sorry KCC members. You can extinguish your Twitter torches now.

While I doubt this video will affect foreign policy in Africa in the short term, and I really do wonder what will happen with this Kony campaign when Kim Kardashian gets married again, the truth is that after watching the video, I became a fan of Invisible Children.  Not just on facebook, a real fan.  Yes, I willfully drank the Kool Aid. While I disagree with the timing, tactics, and action plan, I believe in the message. African kids matter, and we should all be more conscious of atrocities abroad, whether they happened in Uganda five years ago or are happening in Syria right now.  #StopAssad2012, perhaps?  Anyone know a good logo designer?

Russel must feel giddy that he got millions of people to  watch a video on Central Africa that isn’t the Lion King.  What’s even more remarkable is that he successfully tapped into the heart of internet culture, and found that it was not so dark after all.  So what if he used his cute blond toddler to do so?  I guess this is the magic that Russel alludes to when describing his company as the “Pixar of Human Rights videos.” If that’s what it takes to get millions of people to pay attention to human rights violations, then the end justifies the means.

My greatest hope for the Kony video is that it will lead to a larger media appetite from the darkest corners of the world, before the killing has been done.  We have the technology now to transmit reliable, local knowledge and share it with the world instantly.  We clearly have a network of social media activists who can serve as a mouthpiece for getting out the information.  We need Kony-like campaigns to occur in real time, supplemented with more truthful video journalism and viable, locally sanctioned action plans for people worldwide.  Yes, I was serious about #StopAssad2012.  There are invisible children being killed there right now.







KONY 2012: CHARACTER ARCHETYPES

Good White Man

Evil African Man

Poor African Kids

                               Privileged American Kid

My Perspective on Kony Video

I’m one of the few people who didn’t find out about the Kony video through social media. My girlfriend nearly attacked me as I walked in the house one night last week.  “You have to watch this video on Youtube right now!”

I could tell from the tone of her voice that this was something important, and not “David After the Dentist,” the sequel.

So I succumbed and watched the video.   Here’s the conversation that ensued between me, my girlfriend, and my internal monologue:

Me: 30 minutes? Are you kidding me? I don’t have time for this.
Girlfriend: Argh. Just watch it. You’ll like it.
Monologue: If I do this now, I may not have to do dishes later.
Visuals: Outerspace shots of earth with melodramatic music and bold type font stating, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Monologue: You mean like Mark Zuckerberg’s idea to rate girls from his college dorm room?
Narrator: We share what we love and it reminds us what we all have in common.
Me:  Am I insane or are these are the exact same visuals used in those soppy Google commercials?
Narrator: The next 27 minutes are an experiment but in order for it to work you have to pay attention.
Monologue: (Bemused, I proceed to close my other 10 windows, turn off the TV, IPAD, Iphone, and stop fantasizing about the IPAD3) Wow. Incredible. They just have to ask for my attention, and they get it.  Am I that easy?
Video: Shots of a child being born.
Me: Oh, this is that Ricki Lake documentary you’ve been begging me to see.
Girlfriend: No, that’s our Friday night plan.
Monologue: Darn
Video: Shots of what we presume are dead Africans with Schindler’s List style music in the background
Monologue: How did we go from Ricki Lake to dead Africans?  Wait, I just saw one move. They’re not dead.  Why am I starting to get emotional over sleeping Africans? It’s the music, silly. It gets you every time.

What proceeds is a propaganda film so great that Leni Reifenstahl just saluted Russel from her grave. It tells not a story about Africa, or Uganda, or even Joseph Kony, but of filmmaker Jason Russel and his highly marketable and downright adorable kid.  I won’t bore you with the details because chances are if you’re reading this online, you’ve seen the video.  Kony 2012 has precious little to do with what’s happening in Uganda today.  That would be way too boring.

Russel constructs a narrative so simple that his toddler could even understand.  Good White Man tries to save Poor Black Kids from Evil Black Man because Good White Man had the realization that his Privileged White Kid could have also been a victim of the Evil Black Man if he was born in Africa.  So Good White Man makes a video which he puts on the Internet and hopes Good Internet People will share it.

The real success, however, came by taking a page right out of Steve Jobs marketing playbook.  If you want to reach millions of slacktivists, tweeps, and meme spreaders (yes, baby boomers, these are real words now), you better make something that is not only user friendly, but looks really cool.  It doesn’t matter if the idea’s time has come, the idea won’t be so powerful if it’s not in the right packaging. The fonts, cutting edge CGI’s, and the hot, new Kony logo all contribute to the success.  The video ends with a best practice well known to internet marketers, a call to action.  Once you’ve engaged someone, you must get them to buy something, click on something, or do something.  Otherwise you’ve lost an opportunity.

Share this and you too can save Poor Black Kids.  Along with countless others, I responded to the call:  I bought the product that should be named “Guilt Alleviator (Intended for White People but Suitable for All).”  And why not? I don’t have to donate a penny or pull a trigger.  With just a click of my mouse, I can do something important today.  I can instantly and virtually help stop an evil man.  Isn’t social media grand?

It would be interesting to know who really wants to stop Kony and who is doing it just to trend on Twitter, so I have devised a test. I will launch a Kickstarter campaign to help fund a vigilante group that will go after Kony and bring him to justice and/or kill him.  We can call the group the Kony Cyber Commandoes (KCC). Sounds intimidating, right?

Now here’ the kicker.

The prize for donating 100 USD to the campaign, Official #Kony2012 handcuffs.

Ok, here’s the real kicker.  The prize for donating more than 1,000 USD to Kony Cyber Commandoes:  If we catch Kony and he gets the death penalty, you will be eligible to participate in the first ever crowdfunded execution!

Just imagine Brian Williams on the nightly news: “Tonight at midnight 100million people around the world simultaneously clicked “Dislike” and injected .00001 milliliters of poison per click into Joseph Kony’s veins, ending his life.”

To be honest, I’m not sure I’d participate in that campaign.  Death penalty qualms aside, as critics and Ugandans have stated, what Uganda desperately needs right now is post war economic recovery, not vigilante squads tracking down a washed up warlord who’s not even in the country. Sorry KCC members. You can extinguish your Twitter torches now.

While I doubt this video will affect foreign policy in Africa in the short term, and I really do wonder what will happen with this Kony campaign when Kim Kardashian gets married again, the truth is that after watching the video, I became a fan of Invisible Children.  Not just on facebook, a real fan.  Yes, I willfully drank the Kool Aid. While I disagree with the timing, tactics, and action plan, I believe in the message. African kids matter, and we should all be more conscious of atrocities abroad, whether they happened in Uganda five years ago or are happening in Syria right now.  #StopAssad2012, perhaps?  Anyone know a good logo designer?

Russel must feel giddy that he got millions of people to  watch a video on Central Africa that isn’t the Lion King.  What’s even more remarkable is that he successfully tapped into the heart of internet culture, and found that it was not so dark after all.  So what if he used his cute blond toddler to do so?  I guess this is the magic that Russel alludes to when describing his company as the “Pixar of Human Rights videos.” If that’s what it takes to get millions of people to pay attention to human rights violations, then the end justifies the means.

My greatest hope for the Kony video is that it will lead to a larger media appetite from the darkest corners of the world, before the killing has been done.  We have the technology now to transmit reliable, local knowledge and share it with the world instantly.  We clearly have a network of social media activists who can serve as a mouthpiece for getting out the information.  We need Kony-like campaigns to occur in real time, supplemented with more truthful video journalism and viable, locally sanctioned action plans for people worldwide.  Yes, I was serious about #StopAssad2012.  There are invisible children being killed there right now.

Years ago, I read this amazing book which had a profound impact on my life.  The book is called work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter .Does he have an idea for how we should approach our lives

Csikszentmihalyi once said "Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason."

Flowing up Yosemite

I watched this 60 minutes video of Alex Honnoly climbing in Yosemite a few months ago and haven't been able to get him out of my head.  I never thought I'd see a man climb 2600 feet up a nearly vertical peak without ropes or a safety harness.  But Honnoly does it again and again, and 60 Minutes has more than ten different camera angles to prove it.  According to Lara Logan who made the report, he has done over a thousand "free solo" climbs in his life.  "Free solo" means no safety gear.  On each of the thousand climbs, he had to be perfect.  If not, he'd be dead.

Just watching it scares the crap out of me, yet somehow, Alex is the mellowest guy on earth.  It doesn't faze him.  Off the rock, he's super chill.  And while climbing he whistles and smiles his way up the hardest climbs in the world. He's in a total flow state.  Total consciousness.  Using his brainpower to its maximum potential.  Got me thinking of this amazing book I read years ago called, Flow, by the Czech psychologist,

Another cool thing about him  doesn't even pay rent. He still sleeps in his van in Yosemite park.  This guy's a legend in the making.

Free Hug for Storyhunter Alpha Testers

We are nearly done building out our first iteration of the Storyhunter platform and are looking for Alpha testers!

I know this sounds scary, but I promise you we will not need to take your blood or any other bodily fluids. 

This is just a process for us to have a small sample of early adapters in the video journalism/doc film/multimedia space to help us create the best possible product and user experience.  

We will benefit immensely from your participation and feedback, and you will benefit from an enhanced user experience.

Also, as an Alpha user you will get first dibs on producing video journalism for some amazing publishers, worldwide recognition, and a free hug from me should you ever make it to our new DUMBO office space (more on that in a couple weeks).  

Go to www.storyhunter.tv for an invite.

NY Video Journalists

I thought this would be an appropriate first logo

I'm excited to announce the creation of NY Video Journalists.  I decided to create this real life group to because I noticed that my NY based video journalist and doc filmmaker friends were constantly looking for people to collaborate with but had no idea how to find them.  

So I posted this invite on Meetup.com as an experiment to see if people would be interested:

Video journalists, documentarians, and multimedia storytellers, let's hang out one night a month, bring an exotic beverage of your choice and one to share, and talk about the art/profession/hobby we all love. We're here to have a good time, learn some things, screen some things, make connections, collaborate, talk about projects, ideas, or do whatever the hell people want.

First meetup will be in late March.  Send some ideas.  Let's do this !

I was pleasantly surprised to see 31 members join in less than 24 hours without any marketing whatsoever.  In today's virtual world, clearly people see there is value to real-life face to face interaction with our peers and colleagues. So I decided that this is a worthy cause and to go for it, but I want other people to get involved and help shape the direction of the group.   I'd like to make the content of the group an exercise in democracy.  So if you're an NYC VJ, doc filmmaker, and/or multimedia storyteller who wants to help plan a monthly meetup with me or has some ideas for programming, let me know.

You're invited to join the group here:

http://www.meetup.com/NYVideoJournalists/

First meetup will be in late March.  I'm stoked !

Heroes of Journalism

This has been a devastating week.  Two of the world's finest and most courageous reporters, Anthony Shadid and Marie Colvin, are no longer with us.  I saw Marie once in Gaza during the Disengagement in 2005, but never met her.  Anthony I did meet.  We worked under the same roof for about two weeks covering the revolution in Egypt for the NYT.  At the time, the Cairo bureau had so many reporters, photographers, producers, and stringers buzzing through it that it felt kind of like an ant farm.  From morning to well after midnight, we were all so busy with deadlines and writing and editing that we barely had time to eat.  While waiting for a piece to upload to NY very late one evening, I noticed Anthony smoking a cigarette out on the balcony, so I joined him. We chatted about the day's affairs.  I don't remember exactly what we spoke about, but I remember getting this amazing vibe from him.  Sometimes you can understand someone's essence in an instant and  I felt that way with Anthony.  We had just one conversation, but I felt like I knew him.  His voice, which I heard for the first time, seemed eerily familiar.  Maybe its because I have been listening to it in my internal monologue for so many years through his stories.  My gut feelings about  him have since been confirmed by the outpouring of letters from people who knew Anthony well.  I have learned through some of these tributes that Anthony's writing voice represented the man that he was.  Genuine, humble, full of empathy.  He didn't care for attention, but rather used his soapbox to raise awareness for the the ordinary man.  While we can't emulate talent, we can all try to work as compassionately and diligently as Anthony did.  He was a great role model and I  wish I could have known him better.  My heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of Marie Corvin and Anthony Shadid.  Two extraordinary beacons of light may be gone, but their words and examples will shine on forever.