I promised myself earlier this week that I would spend some time immersing myself in the work of Debora Prado. She started following me recently on Twitter and from there, I found their website. She’s a really talented visual artist.

I watched all the video clips she has of her film work. It’s unabashedly conceptual and visually striking. I watched U for Una who Slipped Down a Drain and Janela a few times. At first, I was trying to parse them with my ‘rational’ film mind – where’s the story, what’s the point? Then, after the 3rd or 4th viewing, I reminded myself that it’s meant to be conceptual. I actually found that upon this realization, I felt my mind ease, as if a nervous grip on a steering wheel relaxed, and I could just appreciate it for what it is.

Beautiful imagery of a young woman in Janela.

Deft lighting in the opening frames of Una.

After a while, working in the film industry as an entrepreneur dulls your senses; you think in terms of good story, good action, and good production. Going through her work encourages me to get back into a routine that I had last year of visiting art galleries every Saturday morning to train my artistic eye.

I just need to think of a concept…

A very well-written article about one of my favorite female acctresses, Jennifer Connelly about her new film with Joaquen Phoenix, Reservation Road.

” Most young mothers can’t even contemplate their children’s death, let alone spend weeks acting out the scenario under hot lights with a film crew watching. “I absolutely thought about it,” she says, “especially when I was about two days into it and I was like, What am I doing? Why am I here? What was I thinking making this film, this subject matter? I guess it’s like why we watch horror films or films that scare us. I’m not even going to pretend to know why we put ourselves through such things, but I suppose it’s a controlled environment in which to experience emotions that come up, unfortunately, in life. This film looks at the fallout of grief and loss and the need to act out, and revenge and where that comes from. Who responds that way. I thought that part of it was interesting.”

It’s fascinating and inspiring at the same time. And I feel when I make it slowly into the acting game, I want to work on the same intellectual and cognitive level she seems to do.

Do read the article, it talks about Joaquin Phoenix dubbing Jennifer “an actor’s actor” because of her deep technical knowledge and methodology for going about her work.