I have been asked more than a few times, and recently what with the story published in The Literary Review, how, and why, do I make films and write fiction. How is it that I’m serving two different and demanding masters when serving one well is difficult enough?
They are different, make no mistake, and require different skills and mindsets. They also fill different needs. I’m a social being and I enjoy collaborating with other artists and filmmaking is a very social and collaborative activity. But I also like being alone and creating things only I have a hand in, and nothing fills that need for me like writing. Do I serve them both well is a separate question and not for me to answer. All I can say is, I try.
But the films and the writing are limbs sprouting from the same trunk.
Honestly, this entire post is just an excuse to quote my favorite poet, Rutherford, New Jersey’s William Carlos Williams, born on this date in 1883.
“I have for so many years continued an equal interest in medicine and the poem. They amount for me to nearly the same thing.”
Thanks, Bill Dr. Williams. I may have to have that quote printed on cards to hand out each time someone asks me how is it that I’m a writer and a filmmaker.