I’ve written before about the joke that surfaces each time I tell people what A Life’s Work is about and how long I’ve been working on it. The punch line: Am I going to finish this in my lifetime?
Friday I had dinner with J., a friend from D.C. who I hadn’t seen in forever, and when I told her how long I’d been working on the film, she said, “Well, that makes sense though, it should take you a long time.” Saturday afternoon I visited an acquaintance at her open studio in Brooklyn and when I told her how long I had been working on the film, she said, “Of course. I mean, given the subject, it shouldn’t take you six months. That wouldn’t be right.”
Now, many times, from people in the know, I’ve heard, “That’s par for the course on a project like this.” And that’s true. Documentaries take a long time to make. But believe it or not, no one has ever weighed in the way these two friends had, and within 24 hours of each other. And to be perfectly honest, I never thought of it that way either. At some point I became aware that it was going to take a long time, but I never thought it should take a long time. And they’re right, it should. It was a strange and uplifting coincidence. Thank you J. and Crystal.
See also: The Agony and the Ecstasy.