Story Frame 19 – Kissing the Leper

A few days later, on a bright sunny afternoon, Martin suggested we drive over to the Basilica and scout potential shoots for the as-yet-to-be-titled documentary about the creation of the large sculptural wall. It was just the two of us since nobody else wanted to work on the film.

As we walked around the grounds surrounding the massive building, I took photographs of the Basilica’s distinctive mash-up of Neo-Byzantine and Romanesque Revival architecture.

“I don’t understand why no one wants to work on this documentary,” I said, looking up at Martin, who at 6’4” was a foot taller than me.

Even he didn’t seem too enthusiastic, despite it being a completely and generously funded project. At the time, he was consumed with his own documentary on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer – the German Protestant theologian from Wroclaw Poland who, despite his religious beliefs, participated in several assassination attempts on Hitler.

Thoughts swirled in my head. Might this unloved project somehow be an opportunity?

We stopped our walkabout beside a tree across the street from the sprawling entrance steps to the Basilica. I turned and looked at Martin, who still wore a doubtful expression on his face as he stared at the massive structure.

“Let me do it!” I said impulsively. “I realize I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but I’ll find a way. And you can help me figure it out, without it distracting you from your other projects!”

Martin continued to say nothing. I scanned my mind for an image to express how I would take the project on, love it and make something of it.

“It’s like kissing a leper!” I exclaimed enthusiastically, grasping for a visceral image to express my compassion for this unwanted film project.

Martin recoiled visibly at my words.

“No, really!” I babbled on. “Nobody wants it. For reasons I don’t even understand, nobody wants to touch this project. But I’ll work on it, find a way to love it and make something of it. Trust me!”

Martin didn’t say anything for a few more moments. Then he nodded. Not exactly a match for my knows-no-bounds-enthusiasm, but at least it was something slightly closer to yes.

Here’s a lesson worth remembering, I thought: When faced with something that appears to be unappealing, walk around it – just as Martin and I had literally circumnavigated the Basilica – and look for your point of entry. Something, anything that makes it appealing enough you will take it on, despite the negatives. Even if only in your mind, walk around it and ask yourself – how is this an opportunity?

In the short time I’d been at the documentary workshop, I’d often been asked how to get a job in the film business. My advice was always the same: 1) ignore the help-wanted ads (the line’s already too long); 2) instead, decide where you’d most like to work; and 3) volunteer or be an unpaid intern while doing a side hustle to pay your bills. Once inside, 4) find something no one else wants to do, and 5) do a really good job with it. When a job opens up, you’re already on site and you’ll be at the head of the line of applicants because they already know you.

This advice was based upon my own experiences. It was how I got the gig at the television station and how I got my first actual experience as a documentary film co-producer and scriptwriter. There was never a posting for this. But here I was with my dream job because I’d already been part of the team, working more or less unpaid as I tried to find funding for the series, News & The American Character. Having actually brought a project into the workshop also helped, of course, but that wouldn’t have happened had I not already been working there.

‘Kissing the leper’ – insensitive as the words may strike some folks – would become a powerful visual metaphor and inner mantra for me over the coming years. An inner challenge to find a way to embrace things that appear to be unappealing but still need to be done – and done with compassion and a positive attitude. Words said for the shock value, to startle the head open and catapult the mind into new ways of thinking. Embracing what might at first seem onerous or negative or unappealing and still finding some way to like it.

(Many years later, I would encounter an actual leper on a dark road in the middle of the night in my travels in Ethiopia. Seeing him, I thought of my mantra and wondered, with some contrition, could I find a way to actually embrace this man in rags who was missing part of his leg and arm? I tell that story in my memoir, Lions, Peacocks & Lemon Trees.)

In the days to come, however, that phrase and attitude would serve me well, delivering me to a mystical moment atop a minaret on the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, tea with a Lord in London, and to a marble carving studio in northern Italy where the artisans wear newspaper hats as if they’re a discarded lyric from a Beatles’ song.

I would still be struggling somewhat financially, but I would be rich with new ideas and film-making adventures. Most importantly, I would have my name on a film and the beginnings of a real career.

And all because I had listened to a friend when she suggested I see Dr Paul Peckar, and because I’d had the thought to ‘kiss the leper.’

Coming up next … Ex Nihilo – Out of Nothing

Kristin Fellows photography, arte urbano by mr.skelleton
San Miguel de Allende 2016