Real People | Real Stories

Today’s work has fulfilled yesterday’s optimism. The looming cloud of scribble remains unformed, still fleeting around as loose vapors. More about today, tomorrow. But as to yesterday….

The thing that give us this blithe ability to be happy when stuff’s going pear shaped all around us is simply this: The Gift of Time.

Our work, to do it right, requires just a few things. Time, access, gear, and relative freedom from the distraction of money stress. When we have these things, we are in heaven. 

RIght now, we are in heaven. 

The reason is that our clients–The Little Sisters Fund–are making sure we’re not going broke while we are doing this work we’re doing. And that’s pretty much all we ask. Give us that, and point us at a good story, and we’ll work ourselves to the nubbins for you (and yammer on about how lucky we are to do it)!

As documentary filmmakers, we’re acutely aware that there’s not a lot of money to be made in the field. Sure, you got your Michael Moores and your… Hmmm, let’s see… Errol Morrises and your Ken Burnses. Those guys are probably not having to split the check when they take each other out for tapas and drinks. 

But for the most part, nobody makes any serious money doing this. If you’re not deeply in debt, and you’re making things that don’t embarrass you, you’re winning. 

Not for the first time here, I’ll say it: I love my job.

Today we asked a couple of our subjects the question, “Do you like your job?” One is a peon at a crummy private K-10 school; the other hammers and files and polishes brass Buddha statues for a living.

Amy asked one, and I asked the other, kind of independently. We each realized as we spoke, how peculiarly American (or at least ‘Developed World’) a question that is. Not many people around here have the luxury of liking or disliking their jobs. 

The fact that we don’t have to go all zen and develop some transcendent contentment about some job that’s just a job? That, right there, is the reason for yesterday’s optimism. That and the fact that we don’t have to leave for a few more days.