2009 recap

Last year i did a recap blog about 2008, I described 2008 as the best year of my life. It truly was... and it was the best year of my life by a lot! What is amazing to me though is that 2009 could be so much better then 2008 - and also by a lot! I wonder if i can keep this going for 2010 and for every year there after? Although i think the only way to top 2009 would be to die and go to heaven - or maybe I just need to go back to Africa.

In the spring of 2008 I started working on what I thought would be my first film, a documentary about my effort to lose 200 pounds in less then a year. No surgery. No drugs. No fat camps. Just diet and exercise. It's called down 200. But it's not going to be my first film.

The most beautiful thing in all of filmmaking is something that occasionally happens in live event documentaries, like Down 200. You start out with a vision for a film and something happens and the film heads in an unexpected direction. You start out shooting in your own back yard, thinking it a wise choice for your first film (low lying fruit) then magically or more likely via divine intervention you find yourself shooting in Casino, a slum in Molo Kenya... This is the power of filmmaking, it's the power of art and the power of love.

My first film will now be "The Road to Punda Milia" it's about the concept of international volunteering. I spent a month in Molo Kenya this last summer and met some incredible people. My role (as a volunteer) was with respect to fund raising for the Chazon Children's Cenrtre. I was originally trying to get into Watoto Wa Baraka in Makuyu, Kenya, where my friend Jarka Bedranova was serving. I mentioned Jarka in my recap from 2008 - her influence in my life was even bigger in 2009 - it's too complicated and I don't have time to explain it - but thanks Jarks :) - 2009 was amazing!