Falling Forward | Therapeutic Creativity | Week 2
The weird thing about brain cancer recovery is that you can feel completely fine… and still feel completely stuck.
A few days ago, I was venting to my best friend about how frustrated I was. I feel healthy enough that my brain wants to go back to work, but reality is that I’m basically a part-time patient right now. Between radiation, appointments, and everything else, I can’t commit to working on set.
So I’ve been doing what I can do: applying for grants, fellowships, and writing. Productive? Yes. Emotionally satisfying? Not always. It still feels like my career is sitting in neutral.
Then Mai looked at me like I was an idiot. 😂
She said, “You literally have a free apartment next to your treatment center… why aren’t you just shooting Tumi & Me?” You can even start this coming weekend!
Proof of concept poster “Tumi & Me” - click to learn more about the project
…
Well.
When you put it that way…
One of the few unexpected perks of brain cancer is that my radiation treatment came with temporary housing—and somehow I completely overlooked the fact that I have a perfectly great location and a few fairly simple scenes I could shoot in it.
Sometimes you need your best friend to point out the obvious.
Then this weekend I watched The Odyssey twice (yes, twice 😂)—once at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre as an Academy member and once at the DGA. Between Christopher Nolan making me want to immediately go make movies and Mai giving me the kick in the pants I apparently needed, something clicked.
Me and Zucena at the AMPAS “The Odyssey” premiere!
So today I got to work.
I launched the crowdfunding campaign for the Tumi & Me proof of concept. Ironically, the campaign platform is currently having technical issues (because apparently every hero’s journey needs another obstacle 🙃), but if you’d like to support the film, you can donate directly at TumiandMe.com.
For the first time in a while, I don’t feel like I’m waiting.
I have something I can build.
I can’t control my diagnosis. I can’t control radiation. I can’t control when I’m allowed back on a professional set.
But I can make a movie.
And honestly? That feels pretty incredible.
So… let’s do this.
Thank you to everyone who’s been following this journey, cheering me on, and believing in this story. I have a feeling this little proof of concept is going to become something much bigger. If anything, it sure is emotional therapy through creation.