ART CONNECTS PEOPLE

By Laura P. Valtorta

Last week I was editing the English subtitles for a new Indian screenwriter named Amit Mehra, from Mumbai. His narrative short, entitled “Ekanth,” about a prominent Indian businessman who suddenly disappears, kept me and my husband enthralled. We loved the music and the picture of middle-class life in India. I met Amit online on a website – Stage32 – for filmmakers.

           

If I hadn’t begun making films, there’s no way I would have met Amit or discovered that Indian households employ a lot of servants. That you have to bribe the police over there. That Indians have some hot a cappella humming-singing that makes a great movie score.

Art bridges continents as well as mindsets. Two days ago, in New York City, I met the owner of Olive Tree TV – the Roku channel that will broadcast my feature-length documentary, White Rock Boxing. Olive Tree is looking for films that illustrate “life-changing events.” They support a charity called “World Vision.” I may see the world differently than the Olive Tree people, but we both appreciate boxing and what it can do for children.

If you have a Roku box, please sign up for the Olive Tree TV channel. It’s free, and you can watch White Rock Boxing there!

For the past several weeks, I’ve been reading the full set of autobiographies by the marvelous Maya Angelou. Her writing did not come to my attention until she died recently. Maya spends a lot of pages bemoaning the relationship between dark-skinned and light-skinned people in the United States. This soon becomes tedious. But Maya and I are alike. When it comes to reading habits, ambition, natural hairstyle, and spirit, Maya and I are identical. Right around page 650, she starts funding a stage play. We have the same questions. The same problems. Her writing shows me we want the same things.

My stage play – Bermuda – will be performed by New Life Productions as a dramatic table read at the Richland County Public Library – Parklane branch - on August 9, 2014 at 3 p.m. See you there!

Through art we build bridges and discover we all share the same planet.