He Who Has Friends

It’s the holiday season, which in my family means replaying It’s a Wonderful Life, that Christmas classic with Jimmy Stewart.

I used to teach the short story on which its based, way back in my middle-school classroom days. It’s interesting to me that if I refer to "The Greatest Gift,” by Philip Van Doren Stern, most folks don’t realize I’m talking about the story on which the movie is based, but if I say “No man is a failure who has friends,” every single person in the room will know exactly what movie the quote comes from.

Breaking Out of The Zone

I took a break from editing this morning to go for a quick run. I get some of my best ideas while running – my brain seems to recharge itself when I get myself into that zone. On my way back, I ran over a little bridge on a busy highway –

What Did He Say...?

… because we didn’t know. We really didn’t. It was all in Italian, it was fast, and it was an hour-long interview.

Editing a documentary film project in a language you don’t speak is pretty ambitious. Even more insane is to self-fund that project and to travel to a foreign country to complete that documentary… in the language you don’t speak. As one dear filmmaking friend of mine expressed it more succinctly, it’s “bloody insane.”

Forza

We’ve seen the people of the Cinque Terre use the word “forza” – or “strength” – quite a bit over the past weeks. They use it with a definitive kind of solidarity that punctuates the word even more.

But this is nothing new – “forza” has been a theme with the people of the Cinque Terre for well over 1000 years in their struggle to carve a lasting way of life out of this rugged, spectacular landscape.

More Than The Grape

It's been almost two weeks since our return, and today we're editing and reviewing photos for the new photo gallery which will be added to the website next week.


This is tons of fun - we're seeing shots of ourselves perched atop rather dangerous-looking vineyard slopes and scenery that takes your breath away. We're also seeing the faces of our dear friends in the Cinque Terre, both those who worked with us on this project, and those who have become the subjects of the film.

Gambe Grande!

As I laced up my shoes and set out this morning for a five mile run over this beautiful bridge not far from my house, I thought about whether I should pack my running shoes for our Italy shoot this time. I took my running shoes with me on our last trip to the Cinque Terre. While we were there the last time, I discovered a beautiful bridge I kept eyeing as a great potential running route. But between our very tight schedule and all the wine research (yes, I said research! We are doing a film on a traditional winemaking culture, remember?), I never did go for a run. And I didn’t have to. The residents of the Cinque Terre are all in fantastic shape. One local man joked with us about how everyone who lives there has “gambe grande,” or “great legs.”
Here’s why they all have such great legs:

Coffee To Stay

I like my coffee to go. So does Krista.

Consuming coffee at work, while starting the workday, has become a ritual for many Americans, and so it is with us. We’ll each order a tall latte and carry it with us to the day’s location. By the time the real work begins, we’re done and probably ready for another.

Not so in the Cinque Terre.

Domanda, Domenica, Domani!

“I have a tomorrow.”

Nearly ten years ago, I repeated that statement over and over again in my Italian class, an intensive crash course I’d signed up for after deciding to spend a month in Florence.

Domanda. Domenica. Domani.

Question. Sunday. Tomorrow.

For the life of me I couldn’t get the three straight, and even years later I find myself stopping to think before I ask a Sunday.

Sciacchetrà (pronounced shah/keh/TRAH; try it with biscotti)

Sciacchetrà (pronounced shah/keh/TRAH; try it with biscotti)

We’ve often been asked (mostly by people not familiar with obscure, hard to get, Northern Italian, non-Tuscan wines): “Ummm, where does the name of your film come from?” Or, “What’s it called? Chaka Khan?”

Labor of Love

This project has always been about passion, love of travel and culture, and wanting to know more about people who have been carving out life, community and heritage in one place for more than a thousand years.

The people of the Cinque Terre have defied an incredibly beautiful, yet extremely challenging terrain to both maintain and expand their way of life, establishing things that we, as Americans, can really learn from – and hopefully can apply to our own lives and communities. After all, our way of life has only been around for a few hundred years.