This year, I begin something new, something I've wanted to do for some time. This year, I help promote the artistic endeavors of the hard-working creative folk which dwell in this fine city by the sea.
What? Haven't I been helping all along, perhaps more so these past four years? Hasn't being part of the audience always been my dominant form of support? Hasn't responding to the art in a visual and audible way been reward enough for the efforts of those enriching the culture of this town?
Well, maybe it has been sufficient reward for some, and it has certainly been rewarding to me as well (by enhancing my enjoyment of life and allowing me to experience delight!). But times they are a-changin', as a song once said, and I'm changing, too. Being part of the audience and passively waiting for new ventures to come forth simply isn't enough anymore. I want to be PART of the forces bringing new art, new tales, new viewpoints to my hometown.
That said, I still prefer to be part of the support group, not one of the players. Perhaps my experiences have led me in that direction. After all, I have had an audience to "perform" to for the past eighteen years and currently do so five days a week for most of the year. So, allowing others to take the foreground for enlightenment and entertainment is preferable when I am out and about.
I have been blessed to find a new way to be in the background of these events I so love: angels. Specifically, the angels in my life: Mama, Frank, Grandmama, Daddy, Grandpa, and others who have taught me their love of the creative spirit. This new group of angels, known as "fliss", are taking on projects in film, theatre, art, and music, not only here in my fair town, but elsewhere in this country. Film Lovers In Scenic Savannah are not limited to cinema efforts, having their first engagement with a theatrical project last May - but film is certainly a primary focus of the group.
Why film? Film allows many people to share a life-changing, life-engaging, and life-affirming experience within a small time frame. Film allows many people who don't have the time to devour the knowledge in books to still gain the benefits of that knowledge. Film allows many people to realize they are not alone in dealing with a particular problem, a type of person, or troubling experience - films show the methods of others tackling, and perhaps solving, the same issues as those of the film-goers. Film allows many people to travel to other towns, other countries, other worlds - and all you need is the cost of admission to the cinema.
I'm looking forward to sharing the efforts of this group. I'll try to document some of their efforts here along the way, as I attempt to pay it forward for the years of delight I have already enjoyed from others.
