My name is David Serota and I am a documentary filmmaker. As a storyteller I am drawn to the hopeful nature that is found in all struggles but particularly as it relates to the marginalized and disenfranchised. Their lives are often their only currency and I try to serve them with a filmic voice. I focus on the emotional landscape of faces and places by holding on shots so even in a short period of time, you feel connected. That is my intention anyway…
A few weeks ago I was driving down Pacific Coast highway singing along with Bob Dylan. “Pistol shots ring out in a bar room night…” As an artist he was compelled to write a song about the wrongful murder conviction of boxing legend, Rubin Carter. Their fight was not lost on me or on the day.
April 4th.
41 years ago that day, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee. All three of these men did more than follow their passion. They spent a lot of time with something, got really good at it, and then used it as a battle cry for issues much larger than themselves.
I had just agreed to take my second trip to DR Congo, the first being 3 months previous for the non-profit, Children Mending Hearts. They facilitate art exchanges with at risk children in the United States and their counterparts in war torn regions around the world. Previous to that I had spent time on the Thai/Burma border shooting a documentary about sex trafficking and prostitution.
My life was becoming much more adventurous than I had anticipated. See, last December I married my longtime girlfriend, Kathy. We have no children other than our beloved dogs, Djembe and Georgia, who might as well be our kids. Still, a family was forming and I began to need to justify my risks. Not to Kathy, to myself.
Can storytelling move mountains? Is a film bigger than the filmmaker?
As my plane took off last night I felt… heavy. I already missed my wife and the pups but as we made our descent into London, something shifted.
The thousands of rooftops began to take the shape of an answer. Few images truly make you realize how many people there are in the world as when you are flying over a city.
I thought about Rubin Carter, and Bob Dylan, and Bobby Kennedy and Barack Obama and I realized…
The singular voice can be heard. It can make a difference, even in one lifetime. It can move mountains. It can create social and political change that re-directs our resources and influences our policies.
We are the new philosophers. The Change makers. You are.
Do something.
David Serota is an award-winning filmmaker and the owner of Dokument Films (DF). Read full bio.