01: The Amazing Film Project You’ve Never Seen

An Introduction

In 2010 myself and my writing and producing partner began a ten year journey that took us to thirty countries, meeting hundreds of special people along the way. With individual attention spans waning, and the daily news filled with dread and destruction, we set out to try to find positivity in the world, a common thread that connects us all, and maybe what might be worth putting into a time capsule for future generations to admire. Our mission was to film all of this along the way and a very generous and understanding sponsor gave us the funds and the freedom we needed. Originally we thought maybe this would be a two or three year gig. Never did we imagine that it would continue for ten years and that we would have amassed the library of film, audio and still photographs that we now have.

Covid happened and we found ourselves grounded, just days before boarding flights for Morocco. When people hear about our project, they always ask how did we do it and how did we find the people that appear in the films. During the quiet of these many months, I found myself going through this body of work and thinking that it might be beneficial to write down some of the back story of how this all happened. As you might imagine, it’s been nothing less than crazy and wonderful at the same time.

I have been traveling since I was quite young, sometimes with friends, but mostly alone. The Listen Project is in many ways a culmination of all of the things I have thought about and/or tried to do throughout my life. Although the basic concept of this project is to express without words the feelings of people throughout the world, I will try to use words to describe what it felt like to be around these people and places, as well as some of the factual background. These kinds of things sometimes can’t be conveyed through film, audio or photographs, and especially because we went out of our way to not explain anything.

Right now, this mash up of travelogue, filmmaking ups and downs, inspirational performances and cultural history exists only in my head. I’m not sure if I can, but I’m going to try to share some of this with you.

So sit back and relax. I have an unbelievably crazy story to tell you, and it all started with our concerted effort to try and create something that was a little different than what was already out there.