Behold, Anno domini 2019!
And with this auspicious marking of the Julian calendar, I come bearing announcements–since last October, I have been shooting a new documentary film titled PROJECT US!
The film tells the unexpected friendship and collaboration between Linda Lack, PhD., a dancer/yoga teacher in her 70s and Inksap, a 24-year-old street artist as they venture out to take over the streets of LA with their own brand of “Movement Street Art.”
It started like this.
For about three years, my wife and I have gone to Linda’s studio for yoga classes. It’s not the kind of yoga you’re used to, though. Linda has her own thing going on. It’s called the Thinking Body, Feeling Mind or TBFM, a technique she developed through her years as a dancer on both stage and stream beds, that is part yoga, part movement therapy, part meditation… but all Linda Lack.
One night, a drunk driver crashed into Linda’s yoga studio, demolishing the front of her sanctuary of over 30 years. She was on the verge of giving up and closing her studio when one day, she found someone had put up a graffiti on her building.
And she loved it.
I was there that morning she found it. I remember Linda’s excitement as she led us down the alleyway out to the front of her building where the boarded-up walls where her front door used to be.
And this is what she showed us.
If I was smart I would have taken a video, but nobody could have anticipated the chain of events that this poster would set off. This piece of art reinvigorated Linda’s passion. She fell in love with it and had the entire plywood board with the poster on it moved inside the studio.
With a little help from some of her clients (as Linda would say, she’s an old thing), she contacted Inksap through social media. As he tells it, he was naturally wary. He was used to running from the police and getting irate messages about his art–and here was this old lady telling him that not only did she love it, but she wanted to buy it from him.
They agreed to meet.
Neither of them knew what to expect. It turns out they were both the same kind of crazy. Their initial meeting lasted five hours. Even though they came from vastly differently backgrounds and had fifty years separating them, they were one in their passion for art.
They were kindred spirits.
There’s a lot more to this story that I don’t want to spoil, but suffice it to say, after their initial meeting, they decided they needed to do something together, so they decided to collaborate on a new piece of street art with the ultimate goal of the two of them going out at midnight and evading the police as they TAKE OVER THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES.
It’s at that point, lying on my yoga mat, I realized this was a good story that someone needed to tell. So I asked Linda how she would feel about me making a documentary about her and Inksap. 24-hours later, I was meeting Inksap for the first time. 5 minutes after that, I was scrambling to get my phone to record their conversation.
I went home, excited, sat down and put together an outline for the film. And that’s when it hit me. I was MAKING A DOCUMENTARY. This was going to take A LOT OF TIME. A LOT OF WORK. AND EVENTUALLY, A NOT INCONSEQUENTIAL SUM OF MONEY.
But mostly, I was excited to be making something after months of waiting and waiting for agents and directors and actors to read this script or that script… it just felt good to have a living project that I was a part of. So above all, I feel grateful to Linda and Inksap for inviting me into their world.
Last night, I filmed Linda and Inksap climbing onto the roof of a building to put up their art. Next week, I’m shooting their interviews that will provide the backbone for the film. So far, we’ve all been flying by the seat of our pants, but pretty soon, we’ll have 99% of the footage I need for the film.
Then comes post-production… where things have to get organized. I am planning on raising a fundraising campaign to cover post-production, the same as we did on Kickstarter a few years ago on THE LORD OF CATAN.
So if you like what you’re reading, please stay tuned to hear how you can be part of bringing this story to the eyes and earholes of the world! Or if you’re a wealthy gadabout philanthropist who wants to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening on the LA art scene and you’re interested in becoming an Investor/Executive Producer on the film, hit me up!
I’m not the sentimental type. I love movies like Old Boy where people cut off parts of themselves and scream with madness. But in a time when the world is exhaustingly divisive, I’m happy to be telling a story that reminds us that more connects us than separates us.
For now, I’m trying to stay focused on what this story is about–two unique souls on a surprising journey. It’s a story that crosses generations, borders and time. It’s a story of new beginnings–of a woman in the last chapters of her life discovering a new calling as a street artist, and a young man discovering his own identity. It is a story about two street art revolutionaries taking back public space for the public. It is a story that unites us rather than divides us.
It is Project Us.
