xtcian

9/11/02 Being in a small

9/11/02

Being in a small Southern town on the anniversary of 9/11 highlights just how important geography really is; in New York, we think about aspects of terrorism every day, and here, on the media-saturated remembrance of the day itself, we had to keep reminding ourselves. In New York, we find ourselves in massive anxiety-producing crowds pretty much every day; in Chapel Hill, the only time 20,000 people get together is to eat barbecue and get drunk at Kenan Stadium on football Saturday.

In short, it was perfect. Not only was I not around the relentless sorrow and ubiquitous concerns for our safety, we actually managed to have a good time and stayed busy. I'm noticing my anxiety takes a precipitous fall whenever we're involved in an intense project and when we're surrounded by a commune of friends. Shooting pick-ups with the likes of John Kelleran, Rick Gradone, Liz Mann, Kim Ludlow and our small staff of production assistants all of us holed up in our connecting apartments – is exactly what I needed.

John Kelleran, Tessa, me and Rick Gradone on set

Not only that, but the shots we're getting are fabulous. There's a line in the movie that is so weirdly bad that it is funny, but only if delivered correctly. A restaurant hostess (played by Tessa) asks Windy (Natane Boudreau) if she has reservations. Windy replies, "So many... I'm just not sure about anything anymore." Yep. And it didn't work for a year in the editing booth, but today at the restaurant, donning the purple dress after a year in storage, Natane nailed it. It made Rick and I think about one's ability to change art once it was made; Windy and Murray have a line in the movie about painters who might be frustrated with an early work hanging in a museum and want to break in and change it. With re-shoots, we're basically doing the same thing.

Tonight we shot water, horses and moons at a farm outside town, and it was amazing as always. By 9pm, a panoply of bugs descended on us, all gravitating towards the light, spinning in maddening disarray to their gorgeous deaths against the filament. It was too good not to capture:

bugs race and dance around the movie light at Pleasure Horse Farms in Durham, NC