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| David Whalen on Mt. Baden-Powell |
I was reflecting today about the years since. It was a difficult few years making the movie, economically and emotionally. This year I am finally doing well again as I have gone back to the practice of law full time and put filmmaking on the back burner for now.
Indie filmmaking is for dreamers, and I am a dreamer. I am glad I made this film, Men of La Mancha, as well as the others. But in terms of making a living, it is nearly impossible. Take for example the statistic, Sundance Film Festival gets nearly 15,000 submissions every year for just 70 films shown, and only a handful of those make money. Those are extremely hard odds, you will have better odds being a D- student, who did poorly on the LSATs, getting into Harvard Law, then getting your film shown or bought. Morevoer, only a handful of generous people have donated to LMM, despite thousands of people all over the world watching the charity videos we provide.
Thankfully I have another career to fall back on and I count my blessings today, happy to have taken the crazy trail of Don Quixote for a while, but also happy now to be normal and ordinary again. In the movies, the end is often beautiful, when all comes together and things are perfect. Unfortunately life is not like that, and we simply carry on after the beauty is over. We may have terrible trials but also simple and good success. We don't need to reach the stars, we just need to be at peace. Health is part of that; though I could not walk for nearly a year after the accident--a head-on collision that should have killed me instantly--now I am alive and well, having today hiked up the 9400 foot peak of Mt. Baden-Powell, on a glorious day in Southern California. Thanks to God above for all the dreams I have been able to live, and thanks to everyone who has followed this blog from the beginning. Peace.
