The Nomad Trilogy
Journey Updates
April 6, 2019 - The other night we headed down to a late-night Banda club. Rail (Train), Mitra (Emily) and I. A fantastic scene. A Mexican Banda group on stage, almost 15 pieces, dressed in black with the gold braid look. Loud and occasionally in tune! Perfect. Swinging spotlights over a packed house largely young working guys and gals, a storm of dancing, talking, flirting, laughing and general partying. We sat at a table off to the side and I discretely took out the iPhone and started firing. We had been searched and patted down coming in, but my Zoom mike was not even examined. They were looking for pistoleros and not cinemaleros. But I saw I wasn't even the only one with a cell phone, so stayed in place and shot Rail and Mitra at the table and up dancing with the others. The sound was deafening so I didn't even bother to use the Zoom, but the iPhone picked up the sound just fine. And the footage was exactly what I had hoped for, movement, color, energy fueled by passion and tequila and two young lovers laughing and dancing. A great shoot. Thanks to Train and Emily. We had tacos in the Mission at 2:00 AM and toasted a great evening. This was the last major piece I wanted for ARID CUT.
And now it's continuing on with shooting CENTER DIVIDE. That's been going slowly because of the time needed in editing... valiantly coming along great with Will, Cindy, and Emi doing their magic. We owe them a great deal for their commitment to coming up from the Peninsula every week and also thanks to Milena Grozeva Levy from De Anza College who has sent us so many talented people.
In short, I feel lucky to know all of you engaged in this ongoing mission. All I can say is this is the kind of cinema I believe in, and you are folks I'm honored to know. I don't know anyone who has been able to do so much working this way... except for filmmakers Jeff Kao, Daniel Kremer, Penny Werner, Josh Peterson, Deniz Demirer, Aaron Hollander, Kris Kaltigirone and the players, shooters and others in the Bricolage group, our friends and collaborators in their own unique and individual ways pursuing a similar goal. I'd call it simply "the way things seem to be," from many perspectives.
~Rob