No. 1 - world

I don't especially enjoy living in this world.

I was once asked why I wrote so much, and read books, and watched movies about far off lands and their peoples, about magic and interstellar technology. I told them that it was escapism and probably resentment for my childhood, but I don't enjoy living here and now. That made this person quite angry and they called me insane, not just for childish fantasy, but it seemed that they were angry that I would suggest that this world was not the preferable one. They said, frankly, some hurtful things to me.

"Environments are not passive wrappings, but are, rather, active processes which are invisible" writes Marshall McLuhan in The Medium is the Massage, and I am truly sorry that I cannot as easily decipher the environment into which I was born. Perhaps there is an intuitive aspect to this world that escapes me, makes it irrefutable.

But I don't pretend that I am living in a magical world, like Christopher Paolini's Eragon, or have the ability to leave Earth like Cooper in Interstellar (2014). 

My horizons are not unbound like the artworks of Mœbius...

Untitled by Jean Giraud / Mœbius

 

...nor are they awash in the dreamlike tints of Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels (1995)...

 

Fallen Angels, dir. Wong Kar-Wai 

 

I don't even know how to fight the good fight anymore.

 

The Lord of the Rings, dir, Ralph Bakshi 

 

But when I write, I do live in those worlds as I craft them - To me, it is just the same as walking through them. My walks take the form of screenplays, of novels, and of short films.

Mind Cute (I Love the Way You Think), dir. CJM

 

Untitled, dir. CJM

 

My name is CJ, and I am a writer and filmmaker from Chicago. I am currently studying film-making at Lawrence University, and looking to pursue a long term career in the film industry. I have a background in nature photography and work experience with advertising and event videography. 

They say that the best journeys are those made with a friend. When I set out to make a film, or pen a screenplay, or write a book, my guiding principle is to create something that encourages the viewer to explore alongside me - If the audience of my work leaves full of ideas to discuss and questions to ask, I have found another companion in this world I have created.

 

Thanks,

CJM