This week I was “feeling all the feels.” It’s FilmFest week, y’all! Kansas City FilmFest International, like so many of us, had to adapt to strictly online offerings but you can still see some awesome films, and All-Access Passes are a mere $10! The festival only runs through Sunday, April 19, so if you’re feeling stuck inside and need to mix up your Netflix routine, PLEASE consider buying a pass and check out as many films as you like, from local as well as international filmmakers. From shorts to features, documentaries to narratives, even films made my kids/teens, this festival offers something for everyone.
As most of you know, one of my many “gigs” before yoga was making media, both film and radio. Now available via KC FilmFest, is the musical feature film for Suneaters II: Loving Relationship, which stitches together several music videos for the album of the same name. I had the privilege of helping direct and produce several of the videos (and even made a few cameos!) because my husband Michael is a guitarist for Suneaters. It’s been several years since we began work on the first video, and as I streamed the 40-minute film on Wednesday, I found myself tearing up at times, laughing out loud at others, and feeling overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude for all the friends, family, and creative connections who helped make the movie possible.
So much has happened during the five or six years since we began production. I’ve changed jobs (a few times!) and made major renovations to my home (which also makes appearances in the film). There also have been major family changes for several band members; kids have grown by leaps and bounds and some have even leaped right out of the nest and flown off to college. Strangely, those who had left the nest are now back home unexpectedly early and sheltering-in-place after a brief taste of independence. Band members with school-age kids are now adding home schoolteacher to the list of roles they play.
What hasn’t changed is how much I truly love this community of creatives! I am missing them, as well as my Kansas City Symphony Chorus friends, and I am missing YOU! This semi-quarantine has made me appreciate how much I enjoy activities that require group collaboration. Filmmaking, like choral and symphonic music-making, is not easily translated to a video chat platform. These artforms require different people doing different jobs to work TOGETHER to create a whole that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
I hope you’ll take time this weekend to catch the end of the festival and take in what so many have worked so hard to create. I promise your $10 will be well spent!
A few of my yoga practices this week cook “LOW & SLOW,” a phrase this pescatarian learned from transcribing an interview with Lindsay Shannon from BB’s Lawnside BBQ for a film made by the late Fred Andrews, founder of the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, which is now the KC FilmFest International. I look forward to the day when I can gather with you all again, either in the yoga studio, at the movies, or at a concert, whether at the grand halls of the Kauffman or a classic KC BBQ joint. In the meantime, below are this week’s yoga offerings. THANK YOU, as always for your practice!