There is no greater gift in this world than the ability to dream…
whim·si·cal/ˈ(h)wimzikəl/
Adjective:
- Playfully quaint or fanciful, esp. in an appealing and amusing way.
- Acting or behaving in a capricious manner.
“When I was a little girl I would marvel at cinema. I once saw Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in films and it launched my imagination into such a space of infinite beauty that the writer was inevitably born. Something about the cinema - the way we are free to dream; The way we can see a simple light post and see an awakened being skipping through the rain or the blanket lying on the bed and imagine it dancing in the darkness. There are no greater moments than those that allow our imaginations to soar.
Tonight I watched “Hugo”. A film that allowed me to breathe in the sweet intoxication of innocence. While the subject was one I could relate to as a girl no longer able to hug my mother because death took her far too soon, I know that each of us are invariably part of something truly magnificent. I don’t mean something that propagates violence or hate - I mean something that can take the idea of dreams, beautiful wonderful, whimsical dreams and give them flight. I became a writer not because I believed stories should be told - I became a writer because I realized I am a writer. It took me over like a welcome virus and I knew words and story and dreaming were the tangible “possibility” I needed to exist. In this day in age it is so rare that there is a film that embodies this notion of nostalgia - this idea of ole that dreams can be powerful. The belief that film and story can transform the human heart and give it wings. HUGO, in my opinion, is the reason we make films. The reason any one of us should dare call ourselves artists. If you’ve never sat down and watched films like Battleship Potempkin or Gold Rush or The General or Singin’ in the Rain or Cabaret or Breakfast at Tiffany’s, you are missing the most exquisite part of filmmaking: the ability to dream infinitely. I have often sat and marveled at the construction of an old Bell & Howard Super 8mm camera (I own two). The mechanics, the raw footage, the sheer idea that a stopped frame, when strung together, could make a symphony so melodic, so transformative, so sublime that one’s mind could be instantly transported into a world of an artist’s creation. THAT is the beauty of why I do what I do. There is no greater vehicle to imagine than that of an artist. The way we see the world is often misunderstood. It is rarely embraced and yet - in a moment - an artist like Scorsese can take the sheer organic quality of our dreams and emotions and emit them onto a screen that takes hold of our spirit and allows it to fly…
This is why I’m a writer. This is why I struggle to bid farewell to my adaptation and hand it over to be realized. It is a product of my entire drive to dream but - there is no sense in holding onto a piece of work that was never intended to hide in the shadows - and so, I edit in haste and take in the satisfaction that a story so profoundly written by an Author I have always been drawn to (Oscar Wilde) deserves a little immortality. THIS is why words and dreams are the only reality worth having.” - Dawn Garcia, Writer | Screenwriter
