Journey With a Chumash Elder

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/29581963[/vimeo]

Sometimes, it feels as though my whole life is one long journey to find and rediscover myself. I am constantly searching for the meaning in my life and my connection to something greater, something “higher.” Along this journey, I’ve sought out psychics, psychiatrists, tarot card readers, priests and shamans. This journey recently led me to a Chumash Native American elder named Art. We spent the day together reconnecting to nature, a loss, which I believe, causes most of the grief in society today. Art taught me a few valuable things, we ended the day with a fire ceremony and I made a new friend along the way. I made some mistakes in the process of making this movie. I shot the majority of it hand-held. Rather than disturbing Art’s busy schedule to re-shoot it more steadily on a tripod, I chose instead to spend hours and hours and hours re-editing it. If I had the chance to start over again, I’d re-shoot it. In the end, I still love what Art has to say and thought I’d see what you think too! This short was made for my final project for my DOC270 class at the Brooks Institute.

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