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Production Notebook
There is a garden that haunts me. Unfortunately, its owners have interesting blanket policies about all forms of professional photography. Not that I think the policies are ridiculous: Just because there exists the possibility of exceptions to a rule doesn”™t make the rule bad. We all know, however, that blanket policies don”™t work in life. Otherwise we would not have a court system.
I had talked to the PR person of the organization that owns the garden and, being dissatisfied with the policy in terms of how it didn”™t fit their philosophies, decided that I would drop by their HQ to see what understanding I might gain. I didn”™t have a plan or a date or anything since their main grounds are open to the public during the week. It rained today, blustery stuff, then cleared up and there was weather and everything and enough wind to fill me up for a few hours. The day was such in rarity that I knew it was time to head over there.
I drove up a twisty little mountain until I reached the top.
This is the kind of organization they are:
- Open-minded
- Accessible
- Nonprofit (their many gardens are open to the public for no charge)
So, yes, the blanket policy did surprise me a great deal.
As did that, despite the attempts of the kind, sympathetic receptionist there (a gentle woman who didn”™t seem to understand the uncharacteristic policy or treatment by the bureaucracy anymore than I did), no one would speak with me in person. I didn”™t realize ahead of time that the PR person I had previously spoken to worked on the grounds. When the receptionist called her from her little antique desk in the parlor of the once hotel now spiritual center, the PR person refused me, and said that I could call her at the office number where I had previously called her. And the other person the receptionist tried (Sister Someone) said to talk to the PR person. I wonder: Do many people, much less filmmakers, care to stop in at their HQ? Judging by the lack of any foot traffic I saw? I”™d guess they have few visitors stopping in on business (I saw none come in who did not work there), and zero filmmakers.
Not that that means anything.
After being turned away, I took a walk on the grounds with a German nun called Katraine. I liked her; she was... uncomplicated. She had on navy garb in the tradition of their nuns, but with a white fleece over her clothing because it was cool and windfull out of doors: So often this interesting modernization meeting with old traditions, today in the form of clothes. We talked of meditation and chakra and comparative religion and she told me that nuns don”™t really watch movies except sometimes, and that when she sees truth in a movie she recognizes it. I recommended The Fountain to her. Also, the nuns play tennis.
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