So… at the break of the New Year I am going to STOP writing this blog. You have been incredibly loyal and thoughtful followers over the past three years as I started a mid-life college career, traveled through India, Guatemala, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, and the US. Had sorrows and successes, rises and falls, gallery shows and rejections and finally, just a few weeks ago, graduated with a BFA from the 7th highest ranked Art School in the country.

I will START writing a new blog (actually, I’ve already started) and invite you to follow it (link below) . It’s in conjunction with my new job as Director of Photography on a film about revitalization and renewal. We are 9 months into it and just started the formal filming process… and we need to get our first trailer out in 4 weeks!

The project is slated to continue for three-five years and the blog will 1 – follow the film’s progress as well as reveal new developments ( like an upcoming transmedia collaboration… shhhh) and 2 – morph into a full-on website for the movie.  As DP as well as a partner in the film company, my focus now is all about getting this fascinating story out to a wide audience.

I will CONTINUE to work on my photography, write updates to the new blog, Tweet and Facebook… and film and edit and color-correct and interview and schedule and dance and travel…. and eat and sleep…  and maybe, just maybe, START dating again. Seriously.

I invite you to follow me here at the new address http://www.urbanstreetfilms.com/ and I wish you the happiest, most joyous and prosperous New Year

With Affection

Robert

Why you ask, would I be looking for work  since I have chatted, emailed, blogged, spoken to many of you about an African adventure that I was considering – well, after more serious consideration, I decided against it. I’ll be staying around for a while.

We received some additional grant funding for the film… my photo work is getting positive attention… I’m developing relationships that can’t be maintained from afar and on and on… Too much is happening in other areas for me to ignore the messaging.

So back I go into the workforce ( it’s been almost four years! ). Of course the economy being what it is, I’m being cautiously optimistic and want to find something that not only pays the bills but is inline with my passions and direction (and doesn’t take 4 more years)

Here is a link to the new site… comments welcome. http://www.robertcortlandt.com/

View from Spituk Monastery, Ladakh, India 2011

“A photography exhibit by 19 Bay Area artists focusing on various subcultures opened this month in the basement of San Francisco City Hall, and much of it is lovely, including the large black and white photos of Alameda teenage baseball players by Lisa Levine above.” Read the full review here 

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]]> http://robertcortlandt.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/we-dont-sell-luggage-now-has-its-own-blog/feed/ 0 37.780934 -122.432500 37.780934 -122.432500 Robert Cortlandt screen-capture-1 screen-capture-2 http://robertcortlandt.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/film-receives-nod-from-the-san-francisco-film-society/ http://robertcortlandt.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/film-receives-nod-from-the-san-francisco-film-society/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:21:19 +0000 Robert Cortlandt http://robertcortlandt.wordpress.com/?p=2178 Continue reading →]]> Some of you know that I , together with my co-Director/Producer Dan Goldes have been working on a documentary film that chronicles the re-vitalization of the blighted mid-market area of San Francisco.

Today we received word that the film has been approved and accepted into the San Francisco Film Society’s Project Development and Fiscal Sponsorship Program. We are overjoyed about being selected to participate in this very prestigious program.  It will allow us to receive some very valuable mentorship as well as remove the financial limitations as to how and where funders can contribute to the film. More information
about the program is at this link: San Francisco Film Society 

Here is a brief overview and synopsis of the film. We are hoping to get an initial trailer out within the next six months – the project however, is slated to continue for about five years.

“We Don’t Sell Luggage”

Political and ideological enemies try to forge an alliance to revitalize a blighted “no man’s land” on San Francisco’s central Market Street, but success is by no means certain.

Synopsis
“We Don’t Sell Luggage” [working title] illuminates a “once-in-a-generation vision”. It shows how San Francisco city officials, together with arts organizations, property owners and residents, unite, after years of contentious debate and mistrust, to transform a neighborhood through the confluence of art and technology while creating a model for community revitalization. Told through compelling first-hand accounts, “We Don’t Sell Luggage”, an hour-long broadcast documentary, chronicles the journeys of several individuals over a multi-year period as they cross paths in the area around the Luggage Store Gallery (whose marketing tag line is, “P.S. We Don’t Sell Luggage”.) Weaving through the arts-induced regeneration and revival of the neighborhood, we gain an intimate portrait of how lives of those working on the revitalization are affected and intertwined. Each brings a distinct and compelling perspective, whether artist, building owner, elected official or neighborhood activist. “We Don’t Sell Luggage” is the story of renewal and rebirth.

What a trip it’s been… I leave Guatemala for San Francisco in the morning – I made the mistake of checking the NYTimes online today and a picture of Rick Perry was the first thing that came up – how I dread returning to another year of deception known as the US Presidential election. Maybe if I didn’t care it wouldn’t be so nauseating. In Guatemala the elections will be over in a few weeks, so the free chickens and goats and promises will end here soon…

My final image is the central park in Antigua. When I look at this idyllic setting that harkens to another time and place – the quaintness – the nostalgia–  it’s hard to imagine the underground economy and the stories just lurking below the surface. It’s been a powerful and sometimes difficult experience for me. Coming from a world of privilege by comparison, the income and living condition disparity is unnerving. The last time I was here and just before returning to the US, I was lucky to spend a day in cultural re-immersion to help readjust. Ten years later, not much has changed except that I don’t have the benefit of a formal session. So…

I’ll always remember ;

The beautiful Mayan women in her handmade huipil who tried to sell me a woven bracelet for a couple of Quetzals. She spent last night in the homeless shelter with her son because, after a full days work, she didn’t earn the 25Q (about US3.00) that it would have cost her and her son to catch a bus home. I know -  I was there – I saw her. The boy is told that they missed the bus. She shares how difficult it is for a mother to tell her child that they can’t afford to go home and that they don’t have money for food.

and ;

The teenage girl living in one room with her five sisters who was beaten since birth by an abusive father who killed one of her sisters. She returns home to find her mother, who recently filed a criminal charge against her father, gone. The children, none over 15, are living alone and seemingly abandoned by both parents. She was making a pot of rice that night but would have no other food.

and ;

The family of ten who offered a safe space to house and care for a 7-year-old boy that was found abandoned at the bus station and an 8-year-old boy picked, parentless and hungry, out of a garbage dump.

and;

The mom who makes tortillas for 10Q a day (a little over one US dollar) so that her boy can take the bus to school at 6Q a day and get an education. He wants to be a teacher ( or an architect or an engineer), He’s in the sixth grade and has time to decide.

and;

The three girls rescued from forced labor on the coffee plantation now living with their grandmother who is given medical care for her pneumonia

and ;

The 14-year-old girl rescued from kidnapping, gang rape and prostitution who is starting school for the first time. She is in the first grade with the mental capacity of  a 5 year old.

and;

The director of the homeless shelter who started out shining shoes on the street , battled drug addiction and alcoholism and became a social worker to give back to the community that saved his life.

and;

The worldwide community that has come together here in Guatemala to make life a little easier for these kids and others like them.

Until next time…