Categories
Arts Photography

Vivian Maier Documentary Photographer

Vivian Maier was born on February 1, 1926 in New York City. Around the age of 25 or 26 she started taking photographs, about 100,000 or more pictures by the time she died on April 21, 2009, ninety-nine percent of which she never showed anyone. She worked as a Nanny and/or Housekeeper most of her life using her spare time to photograph in New York City, Chicago, a village in France, and on an eight-month world tour accompanied by her trusted twin-lens Rollie camera hanging from her neck. Her work was discovered two years before she died but she was unaware of it. It included documentary style photography, 8mm film and audio recordings.

Two years before she died, on April 21, 2009 in Chicago, storage lockers where she stored her work and other things were sold at auction for non-payment of the monthly fees. John Maloof bought boxes of negatives and went on to buy more boxes of negatives, undeveloped rolls of film, 8mm and 16mm movie film from other bidders later on. He discovered the inspired work of Vivian Maier and ultimately brought her photography to public attention.

dvdcover
Finding Vivian Maier Documentary. See trailer at JRMartinMedia.

There are currently two documentary films about Vivian Maier.  1) The Vivian Maier Mystery, fifty-three minutes, released in 2013 by BBC.

2) Oscar Nominated, Finding Vivian Maier, 84 minutes, released in 2013/14 by Sundance Selects, directed by John Maoof and Charlie Siskel.

Go to JRMartinMedia for entire article and to view trailer for Finding Vivian Maier.

 

Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.

Categories
Contemplation Life Reading

LISTEN LEARN SHARE by James R Martin

Listening mindfully is a different type of listening than what we may hear with our ears. In fact our human sense of hearing is subjective and filters out much of what might be heard if we pay attention to the sounds around us.

Mindfulness involves, being aware of what is happening now, in the moment in four areas. First we are aware of our body, movements, sensations and posture. We listen to our breathing and to our hearts. The next aspect of mindfulness is to listen to and be aware of what we feel is pleasant and unpleasant. Being aware of feelings is important because it shows what we may be clinging to, judging or condemning. The third thing we listen to is our consciousness. We are aware of all of our mental states like anger or fear and their impermanent nature. The fourth aspect of mindfulness is awareness of the cosmic order and/or the Dharma, life and the true nature of our existence.

To listen mindfully is to be aware of our environment, our bodies and minds in the present moment. Being mindful in any of these areas brings clarity and balance to the mind. Being mindful is listening and being aware in the present moment.

 

Available on Amazon

 

 

 

Categories
Film News Reading

Directing Documentary Productions

Interview at Shaolin Temple, China

Documentary Directing and Storytelling by James R (Jim) Martin

The best directors understand the traditions and aesthetics of the medium in which they are working. They also have an understanding of the crafts involved and may have worked at some of those jobs themselves. The focus of Documentary Directing and Storytelling, is on directing, but also includes information that experienced directors should know about the process of constructing a documentary story.

New Book

Documentary Directing and Storytelling, written by James R (Jim) Martin offers a learning experience and an exploration into directing documentary story projects.

The book looks at fundamental and advanced ideas about actuality documentary filmmaking and nonfiction storytelling of all types using film, video, multimedia and other mediums.

 Documentary Directing and Storytelling is a great read for anyone with a strong interest in documentary or nonfiction storytelling. There are many critical reviews of documentary films and the stories they tell from a directing and filmmaking perspective.

Available at Amazon.com  Print and/or Digital

Available at Apple iBooks

“I’m a filmmaker. I’m an artist. I’ve chosen to work in history the way someone might choose to work in still life or landscapes.” — Ken Burns

“I think it’s inevitable that people will come to find the documentary a more compelling and more important kind of film than fiction. Just as in literature, as the taste has moved from fiction to nonfiction, I think it’s going to happen in film as well. In a way you’re on a serendipitous journey, a journey, which is much more akin to the life experience. When you see somebody on the screen in a documentary, you’re really engaged with a person going through real life experiences. So for that period of time, as you watch the film, you are, in effect, in the shoes of another individual. What a privilege to have that experience.”  — Albert Maysles

Categories
Observations Politics

Each Political Party Has A Story — by James R Martin

“Stories do not materialize from a void but grow out of materials already in history and human experience.” Reading this sentence written by Robert McKee, who is writing about constructing screenplays, reminded me that in the real world there are stories that we live each moment of our lives. These stories have structures, events, beginnings, middles and endings. The outcomes of our personal stories don’t usually break the rules of probability. We always look for positive, happy outcomes for our stories, but in reality happy endings are not always likely outcomes in the actuality in which we find ourselves living. We make decisions and choices but they are often following a pattern, of which we may not be aware. One may dream of being a concert pianist, but without ten thousand hours of practice, study and some natural talent, the probability of that performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC is remote.

What of the political party stories in which we live and vote in the United States? While there are other stories, the main two scenarios, are a Republican story and a Democratic story. The outcomes or actions in these two stories are always predictable and do not change. Each party may attack candidates running for office in the other party. Candidates in each party may attack each other. But it really doesn’t matter who the person running is, if you vote for a Republican you are voting for the Republican story. If you vote for the Democrat, you are voting for a Democratic Story.

I saw a woman on a Facebook video talking about loosing her job in a manufacturing plant owned by Carrier. A factory where the Republican candidate for President told her that she and the other workers would not lose their jobs. Vote for him! He would be sure to stop the company from “outsourcing” work to foreign countries. He would “build a wall.” She said she voted for him because of this fact. But now she was loosing her job because the company was moving production to another country. She was practically begging the President, she helped elect, to keep his promise. However, keeping jobs in America is not part of the Republican story. The candidate ran as a Republican. She is a working class person who voted for the Republican Story.

This phenomenon of working and middle class people voting for Republican candidates, who make promises that don’t fit the plot line of the Republican Party’s story, repeats itself constantly. So, of course these promises are not kept. They are improbable outcomes under a Republican administration. The Republican story never benefits working and middle class people beyond a few superficial perks. The main benefits are always directed at the top one percent and corporate interests. Campaigns supposedly directed at curbing “alleged welfare abuses,” are not just about welfare recipients, they are about cutting larger social programs.  When services are cut, the money saved goes to the rich in the form of tax cuts.

All social reform, middle and working class advances financially and socially come under Democratic Administrations. Republican Administrations always try to take away these benefits. Republican conservatives have never stopped trying to undo Social Security, Medicare and recently the Affordable Care Act. They strip services, and give tax breaks to the wealthy. The story never changes. Yet people are manipulated, persuaded, perhaps on emotional grounds or other issues, to vote against their own best interests. In the back of their minds, they must know how the story ends, but they still buy into an improbable fantasy.

The same people would not suspend disbelief while watching a movie, where the main protagonist chose a course of action that doomed her, even though it was obvious to her that the choice was not good for her survival. For example trusting her life to a pathological liar. Falling off the high cliff into the rocky surf, thousands of feet below, always ends up the same way in reality. The story has only one possible ending. This is not an animated fantasy film.

I hope that voters in elections, now and in the fall, think about what story they are actually voting for. You can help write the story if you vote. Ignore all the rhetoric, spin, negative ads and appeals to tribalism. Vote for a story that will benefit your life and keep the story of the United States, one of the ongoing “noble experiment in democracy” and freedom for all.

Books by James R Martin

Available print and digital on Amazon

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

Documentary Directing and Storytelling: How to Direct Documentaries and More!

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)

Categories
Contemplation Meditation News People Reading Relationships

LISTENING IS THE KEY TO LEARNING

 

 

Reviewers have written about Listen Learn Share

“What the book ‘The Secret’ is to intention, ‘Listen, Learn, Share’ is to positive thought process and awareness.”

“Liked James R. Martin new book “Listen, Learn, and Share”. An impressive collaboration of eastern and western thinking, there is much to learn from it about the world as a whole.”

The stated purpose of this book is to share some simple truths to help people along their life paths. The book delivers on this purpose in a clear, gentle, and compelling way, providing many helpful insights into how to think about and consider our thoughts and feelings...”

 

It’s very easy to lose or shut down your learning ability. You can’t grow or make changes to your life if you’re not listening. Without listening and learning you keep creating similar outcomes, which are not always what you desire.

It’s like the sound of a recording, a word or note, stuck on the same glitch in the track, repeating itself endlessly, unable to get passed the glitch.

You can’t reset the recording if you don’t hear the glitch. You can’t move ahead if your tires are spinning.

You need to stop looking in the rear-view mirror, while you try to drive forward.

Listen, Learn, Share is a book that will help you get unstuck. It explores this phenomenon, exposing the causes of not moving forward, as it reveals how to move your mind into the present.

 

LISTEN LEARN SHARE IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND APPLE iBOOK

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

 

 

ALSO BY James R Martin Available on Amazon

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)

 

Categories
Contemplation Life Meditation Observations Reading

Article on Vipassana Meditation

What Exactly is Vipassana Meditation?

Vipassana or insight meditation is a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens.

By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

The distinction between Vipassana meditation and other styles of meditation is crucial and needs to be fully understood. Buddhism addresses two major types of meditation. They are different mental skills, modes of functioning or qualities of consciousness. In Pali, the original language of Theravada literature, they are called Vipassana and Samatha.

Vipassana can be translated as “Insight,” a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. Samatha can be translated as “concentration” or “tranquility.” It is a state in which the mind is brought to rest, focused only on one item and not allowed to wander. When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility which must be experienced to be understood.

More of article

 

What Exactly Is Vipassana Meditation?

LISTEN LEARN SHARE

Categories
Contemplation News Reading

LISTEN LEARN SHARE

Have you ever asked yourself questions like: “Why does this always happen to me?” I’m successful but why am I not happy? Why is life so stressful? Why do certain things make me so angry? What causes rage? This book will help you to answer these questions and others, as it takes you on a step-by-step journey exploring ideas about how the human mind works and how listening, learning and sharing can resolve these issues.

Listen Learn Share is a story inspired by a question. “If you had to choose just one of the things you do, would you choose teaching, making films and documentaries, or writing?” My answer to the question surprised me. I realized they were all the same experience so there was no need to choose. My life was listening, learning and sharing. It did not matter what form it took, it was all the same practice. How did this happen? Was listening the key to learning? What role did sharing play? I found that listening is a state of mind rather than a tool by itself. I discovered that listening is more than what is heard via sound waves entering the ears.

“It seems that there should be one word that exemplifies the concept of listening, learning and sharing. This word should describe a state of mind with a sense that embodies the combined spirit of all three words. I believe the word is “mindfulness.”

“Twenty-six centuries after Buddha taught his philosophy science has begun to recognize that much of what he taught supports their research. Psychologists are now confirming the concept of “No Self” and the fact that “I” and “Me” are just constructs of the mind.”

This story draws from the authors forty-six years of teaching, making documentaries, fiction work, and writing. The book explains how the practice of listening, learning and sharing works and how it is tied in with meditation and mindfulness.

Print version of Listen Learn Share available January 17th.   

 

 

 

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

 

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines by … and Nonfiction Storytelling Book 1)

 

Categories
News Orlando People Politics

Barack Obama in Orlando Florida May 2008 Campaign Stop

In 2008, early in his campaign for President, Barack Obama made a campaign stop in the  Greater Orlando Florida area suburb of Maitland. The event was organized by local Democrats. Excellent turnout.  Listening to Obama’s speech reminds that he did accomplish many of the things he campaigned on and would have done more with the cooperation of the Senate and Congress for all eight years.

Categories
Contemplation Life News

Three Paths

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/patrul-rinpoche-three-paths-enlightenment/?utm_source=Tricycle&utm_campaign=8784f7bbd2-Daily_Dharma_11_24_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1641abe55e-8784f7bbd2-308125153

“One day he said to a small group of his students: “The purpose of life is to help all sentient beings to be free from suffering. In order to do this, you need to cultivate unconditional, unlimited, and pure compassion toward all, without any exception.”

Patrul Rinpoche always encouraged discussion, debate, and dialogue, so after making this all-encompassing statement, he asked, “Do you understand?”

One of the students had some questions. “Are there not three ways to seek enlightenment? Should I first attain enlightenment for myself and then help others to enlightenment? Or should I work on my own enlightenment at the same time as helping others to enlightenment? Or should I assist others first and then work on my own enlightenment? Which is the best way? Please, Lama, would you explain it to us in a way we can’t possibly misunderstand?”

More…

Tibetan Master Patrul Rinpoche Outlines Three Unique Paths to Enlightenment

Categories
News Observations People Politics

Hurricane Coverage — “Just The Facts Mam, Just The Facts…”

I’m in Orlando, Florida. Over the past week or longer I have listened to hurricane Irma news that has become thinly masked hysteria and propaganda. After watching hurricane Harvey devastate Huston and parts of Texas, I decided to be fully prepared for a possible hurricane in Florida this time of year. Having gone through a number of storms including Charley, right here in Winter Park, Florida, I knew how to prepare. Still, I’m grateful for the information communicated on television and online. It is important everyone be prepared and knows what to do.

Except for periodic checks, I am keeping TV news and the Weather Channel turned off. I appreciate this hurricanes severity and I believe everyone should take it seriously. Most reporters mean well, but there seems to be some hysterical reporting of events and tracking data on television. I have watched the predicted tracks of Irma for a week; the European Model, American models etc. and every day they have been predicting an imminent northward track for the storm. First it was up the east coast of Florida, then the center, and now the western coast. But hurricane Irma just keeps heading west. All of the predictions based on the computer models continue to be wrong. The only thing they got correct is that Irma is headed west. If this storm should head west into the Gulf of Mexico, few people will ever trust these forecasts in the future. Even now a well-known AM talk show radio host was claiming it is all “fake news,” before he evacuated the state.

Hurricane Irma is a force of nature and as such unpredictable in a total sense. It is a huge hurricane, 400 miles wide they keep saying, while they show a huge cone sweeping up the Florida peninsula to the north practically to Pennsylvania. Yes the storm is 400 miles wide, but the highest hurricane force winds only extend out about 70 miles from the eye of the storm.   In addition that’s 200 miles on each side of the center. The cone covering the anticipated but speculative track of the storm is misleading.

On Saturday afternoon, September ninth, the storm’s winds dropped to 135 mph and the hurricane became category 3. They are still predicting a northward turn up the west coast of Florida. Currently the storm is heading west, battering Cuba not showing any sign of turning north. Will it ultimately turn north? Probably it will do so, but where and when is not known. What should be said by the coverage is “we really don’t know where this hurricane will go. But here’s our best guess.”

All of the reporters and experts were quick to say that no one should be complacent, the hurricane could still be a category 5 when it goes through the straight and gains strength when it turns North and devastates the entire state of Florida, including Tampa and Orlando. But if the eye of the storm goes over Tampa, there will not be the same impact on Orlando as Tampa.

The governor of Florida is constantly saying “catastrophic,” “life threatening,” and “devastating.” “Worse hurricane in the history of mankind!” And won’t we be grateful and amazed at how well he handled this catastrophe and elect him to the senate. It is obvious that everyone, from politicians to television outlets have decided to purposefully exaggerate conditions in the name of “it’s better to be prepared.” “People won’t take things seriously enough if we tell them the truth or include any optimistic predictions.” It may be true that some “people” will do that. But facts are either true or false. Opinions should be voiced as opinions not reality.

I listened to a reporter on the weather channel increase numbers substantially from what was just reported by the channel’s weather expert. She quickly rounded off the numbers higher. Even the width of Florida shrunk from about 145 miles to 130 miles. Hmm, at the bottom of the peninsula it’s only a few feet! This “spin” of facts is not good. In the end it destroys trust in the reporting. It causes hysteria and panic.

Warnings are fine. But the facts should not be distorted for any reason, however important anyone may think it is to motivate viewers. Distorting and exaggerating the facts causes panic and hysteria. Like people fighting over water and stocking up on enough food for weeks. Of course if you live next to the ocean and a hurricane is approaching you should evacuate of find a shelter. But you need to be able to trust the information is factual and make an informed decision about what you will do. Because of all the spin and hype people just don’t trust what they are hearing.

I am prepared for this storm hitting Orlando in the next couple days. I’ve taken in all the furniture and other things from balconies and front porch. I stocked up on water, spare batteries and food. I am ready. I will work and/or relax. If I need a break read a book or as long as there is electricity find a movie to watch that is not apocalyptic. Definitely do some meditating.

J R Martin