I know it is kind of rude to repost something here. But alas of all the things I've posted here this is close to my favorite, so I don't mind so much.
This documentary, which I know you will have to look long and hard for on our local PBS station, is the best hour of TV I've seen in the last few years. Maybe the last decade or so.
The just of it is this. They sent out 22 camera crews to film folks for one day in Calfornia. 24 straight hours. What they get is staggering. You come film me for 24 hours and you won't get much interesting. Even if I knew there was a camera crew coming I am not sure I could be interesting.
Well it appears other people are actually interesting. Really interesting.
About my favorite part of the film, and you don't see it in the trailer I included below, is when they interview the two folks that live like a 100 days a year in Redwoods. Asked what she does for a living the women pauses for a long time and then says:
We're tree geeks .... we study trees.
That is an understatement or very accurate, take your pick.
Or maybe the best quote, from the dude that has a skateboard ramp in his backyard the size of three football fields:
If there is anything I have not done in my life I'd like to try it.
I do a fair number of "neat" and/or "cool" things. These folks make my life look boring. They make me want to do more. Below the fold my Diary on this, with only a few minor edits.
I flat out love documentaries. Nova, Frontline, and Independent Lens on PBS are all recorded in my household.
But honestly, but about 90% of the documentaries I watch are about war, death, poverty. Depressing shit. So when I come across something that is literally the exact opposite I am a "happy camper." Well I came across one of them the other day (trailer above), which I am betting almost nobody here has heard of, much less seen. It was produced by American Public Television (APT) and showing now on PBS at like 3 AM. I'll let the production studio that filmed Dreamland explain:
California has long been known as a land of dreams–a place irresistible to visionaries from all walks of life who come to innovate, create, entertain, and accomplish feats that, in turn, go on to change the world. But dreams don’t just happen–they are made. Built up piece-by-piece, day-by-day.
Dreamland tells the story of one day in California. Filmed simultaneously from dawn until dusk on November 19, 2010, it follows a remarkable ensemble of Californians who are pushing the bounds of the possible.
I have a Category of posts on my personal blog called "People Are Amazing." I actively try to find these people and those posts of people doing amazing things. From TED videos, to extreme sports, to a single person trying to change the world when everybody and everything seems to be against them. I need a category for each of the people in Dreamland cause they flat out rock!
Dreamland will make you feel good to be apart of the human race..
First why don't we start with the musician featured in Dreamland, Liz Phair, so you have a little soundtrack for this Diary, cause her song Avalanche she records that day they were filming kind of serves as just that for the documentary. I'd heard of her, but honestly can't recall a single song she's done.
I now own four of her albums. At the start you see her driving to the studio and telling her producer she has an idea for a song. She plays a few cords and sings a couple lines and honestly I thought to myself, "well that sucks, how is she going to get a song out of that." By the end, well you get the above, which I can't stop listening to.
Then you have rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson. In Dreamland they are attempting to do something nobody has ever done before–free climb El Capitan's Dawn Wall in Yosemite Valley. In case you don't know what that is, well it is this.
The point where they are listening to their weather radio and learn blackout, zero visibility conditions are coming, they decide to, well of course keep climbing. In the end they don't make it, but as one of them says, we'll try again.
We also have skateboarder Bob Burnquist. When he found out the folks that live next door to him were selling like 25 acres of their land he bought it, and then built his own 360-foot long, 80-foot high personal mega ramp. I am a huge fan of the "Big Air" skateboard stuff in the X-Games, but what he does for Dreamland makes that look like nothing. It is staggering. I can't even wrap my mind around it.
Even if you don't know anything about skateboards what he does will leave your jaw on the floor.
Maybe my favorite part of Dreamland is Sarah Gerhardt. Shows you can "have it all." A scientist and chemistry professor. Sarah has wonderful husband and two children. In her free time, when she isn't teaching or in the lab, she likes to surf "big waves." The first women to do it, heck one of only a handful of people that do it in the world regardless of sex. Cause well, you can die (and many have) when you try to surf a 75+ foot wave. The first time she did there were people taking photos, and as her husband said when she pulled it off:
She was famous the world over before she even got to shore.
Oh this is what a "big wave" looks like.
Then you have Steve Sillett, who might have one of the "coolest" jobs in the fucking world! A botanist that spends around 100 days a year living in the canpoys of Redwoods, 350+ feet up studying the effects of climate change on the centuries-old tree.
Steve tells a story that 800 years ago a Redwood was a seed, or just a little plant you could step on, and then well you have this. Too often in our world we take the "short" view of things, not the "long" view of things!
Here is Steve doing what he loves (he is in the middle).
Kevin Johnson is a former NBA All-Star that is now the Mayor of Sacramento. His segment starts with him talking to his senior staff that his single goal is to make Sacramento the world leader in clean energy. That his state and town have the resources to do it, so lets do it. They could follow, or they could lead. He'd prefer to lead.
There are other folks featured. Like Yvon Chouinard, avid environmentalist, rock climber, reluctant businessman, and owner of the outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia. Heck I am wearing one of his pullovers. His company moto is literally:
Go surfing ....
He doesn't want them to work any longer and harder then required. He wants them to enjoy life.
Or the Ceja family, which they need to film an entire documentary on. They came to the Napa Valley from Mexico with nothing but the cloths on their back as migrant farm workers and transformed themselves from grape-pickers to Vineyard owners in a single generation.
Dreamland is extraordinary people doing extraordinary things!