My friend Nenko Genov of Bulgaria made a short film recently about our mechanical way of life, where we do things without using our heads.
Where Is Your Head from Nenko Genov on Vimeo.
A little dinosaur sketch that I sent him makes a cameo appearance in the film, pinned on the refrigerator door at 2:59. Thanks, Nenko!
That was pretty good. I notice the little shout out to you. I'm the same way when it comes to ties. I still have to look up a guide on the internet and keep one already tied hanging in the closet.
ReplyDeleteAh the daily routine, I don't think I can ever be content with having one.
Not sure I should mention I watched this on my laptop while eating a bowl of cereal and drinking a cup of coffee.....
ReplyDelete"Where is Your Head?" was featured and screened in many international film festivals, got about a dozen nominations and even won an award here and there. Sometimes I play it for my students who have no idea I used to pursue a careed in film. Since I became a dad my cinema aspirations have been put on hold (I just can't bare to be away from my kids), but not my passion to tell stories. I became a teacher and a writer, and I still spread my love for Dinotopia and James Gourney on every occasion. The books are always present on my most presentable shelves. And my latest novel "The Adventures of Captain Claude and the Sky Scoundrels" (published in Bulgarian, original title: "Приключенията на капитан Клод и Небесните негодяи" - https://artline-store.net/priklyucheniyata-na-kapitan-klod-i-nebesnite-negodyai-1.html ) features a full chapter, dediccated to Dinotopia. It's a novel about the power of words and storytelling, the importance of imagination and creativity, the power and the responsibility when you create. The main character, teenager Matt Robins, is an aspiring writer, who gets visited by his own fictional character, Captain Claude. Claude enters our reality in order to push the boy to finish writing the novel about him. At some point this triggers a conversation about the link between reality and fiction. Matt's friend, an old antieque books dealer by the name of Mr. Brown, shares a flashback of his meeting with James Gurney and learning about the aquiring of Arthur Denison’s journal. My book treats the April 1st 2008 post on this blog as truth (
ReplyDeletehttps://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/village-books.html ), posted on purpose on Fools Day, as most adults probably wouldn't believe the story anyway, unlike kids who keep an open mind and believe in the unbelievable. The chapter also features a quote "The key to inventing Dinotopia was believing that it already existed beyond the confines of my own mind. Even if I couldn’t tell the the latitude and longitude, I believed it was out there somewhere beyond the reach of my senses." from Part 12. The Creation of Dinotopia: Book Launch (https://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2011/12/part-12-creation-of-dinotopia-book.html). Except Dinotopia, other chapters discuss Alice, Winnie the Pooh, Narnia, Peter Pan, Neverending Story, etc. - all stories that seem to merge bits of reality with fantastic fiction.
I was very happy that the editor and the publisher didn't go against the Dinotopia chapter, especially since Dinotopia is not so well known in Bulgaria and the entire chapter is a very deep cut reference. The Dinotopia series and the movies have been aired more than a decade ago, and only Hand of Dinotopia and Journey to Chandara have been published in Bulgaria so far. Both of them were published a long time ago and are now rare and out of print. Except a published writer, I'm also a translator these days, and my ultimate goal is to translate the Dinotopia books into Bulgarian one day, I always hope that a publisher will eventually pick them up. It's a shame readers in my native country can't enjoy them in their mother tongue, but I won't rest till I change that! :)
Thanks, Nenko for keeping Dinotopia alive in Bulgaria. Maybe one day you will translate all the books into Bulgarian. Speaking of Arthur Denison's journal, did you see this listing?
ReplyDeleteP.S. I would love to send you a copy of my book too and I'll do my best to provide an English translation of at least the Dinotopia chapter. :) Just let me know where to post it to. You can reach me on nenkogenov at gmail
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