my friend told me about a meme that said:
me: i have no words
also me: 10 minute rant
(lol me describing a meme)
but really i'm into not talking right now. there's a brutal war that's raging on in a post-trump area of misinformation, anti-semitism is going wild, social media is a messy void...and not to mention all the personal stuff that goes on behind the screen. meditation has been helpful- as hard as it is to sit with pain and the feelings of helplessness, it's so important to check in with the feelings behind the opinions. i found tara brach guided meditations really gorgeous as she suggests ways to dissolve the us vs them paradigm. i always urge people to ask themselves quietly: who is your us? and who is your them? maybe we can soften those lines?
in the meantime, i'm drinking amaro at night, reading everything about Priscilla until it hits the big screen, reciting poems, and sitting gently with friends. those are my main self care practices. any suggestions for how to calm the nervous system?
with that said, i'm happy to present to you a radical person who lives, thinks, and works in remarkable ways. without further ado meet lina lyte plioplyte.
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Lina Lyte Plioplyte {linna – light plyo-pleet-eh} is an Emmy, Clio and a Silver Lion winning director and camera person. Lina’s passion for moving images started while studying journalism in Lithuania and later at the University of Colorado Boulder. The best film school has been New York city, where Lina established herself in 2008 making films for NYLON magazine and fashion brands. For the past 12 years, Lina has been working as a freelance director & cinematographer, making numerous documentaries, commercials, travel content and short films that have been shown on MTV, PBS, in Venice Biennale, and various film festivals, including SxSW and IDFA. Lina’s feature-length directorial debut was ADVANCED STYLE, currently streaming on Amazon, after a successful run on Netflix. She just premiered PERIODICAL, a feature documentary about menstrual cycle produced by XTR, at SxSW, to stream this Fall on MSNBC and Peacock, – and is developing her third feature.
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what kind of life do you want to live?
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My favorite days are the ones with my feet in the grass (I live in the mountains of Topanga, so I have many of those days), when I live without having to lock my door, when I awake with the sunrise and go to sleep listening to coyotes and owls. In the last few years, being cyclically aligned with nature became priorities of a good life, as well as living close to good friends, being engaged with my local community, finding time for a daily connection with this incredible being we live on (or in), and creating impactful work that I believe in with all of my soul.
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I have just released my latest documentary PERIODICAL - it's all about the menstrual cycle. We looked at science, politics, culture, activism and magic of menstruation, from menarche to the menopause and beyond, and I must say it came out fun, empowering, enabling. We flip the script on "the curse" and find ways to see the cycle - and the cyclical living - as a superpower. It's coming out in theaters in LA, Los Feliz October 13th for a week, New York at IFC for a week on October 25th, Miami, a few other key cities, then we show it on MSNBC November 19th and stream on Peacock from November 20th. You can follow the Instagram page @periodicalmovie about the screening dates.
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I started running Filmmakers' Accelerators, and it gives me so much joy. It's a 2-month boot camp for people with documentary concepts, who don't know where to start, or want to understand the current filmmaking landscape and how to get in. In an intimate setting, we walk their ideas through concrete steps to make it a reality. We analyze and tackle the story, audience, the documentary and film landscape today, the pitching process and what it takes, as well as limiting self beliefs, and how to address them, creating a new mindset and approach to documentary filmmaking, using entrepreneurship principles for launching projects. I get to nurture other people's creative babies, and that is such a special feeling. Our next Accelerator starts in November.
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I am still radiating from the inspiration that is Moonage Daydream, Brett Morgen's creative documentary about David Bowie. It's technically a biopic, but really it's about Bowie's madly artistic brain, his process, his search, his expression and philosophy. Every artist's must watch!
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lina's article of the week
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Since I am fully in a research mode for my next documentary about modern masculinity, this article has been a great and eye opening read, I think it's a useful food for thought.
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Let it be a humble avocado with olive oil and salt (sometimes I think I could survive on avocados alone!). Let it be the local fruits in the farmers' market this weekend. And let it be the first tomato I have ever grown, here in Topanga - the most delicious and precious little yellow cherry tomato! For me the most joyous food is directly from the ground, the most simply prepared, grown lovingly somewhere not too far from here.
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I don't discriminate, I do love them all - I love spring blossoms, I love the late fall beauties, I love flowering nature in its myriad forms. Flowers give so much joy, and I am so grateful to live in Topanga, surrounded by nature's beauty every day. I currently have a Dahlia on my altar, roses by my bed and on a kitchen counter, lavenders just finished blooming outside, my orchids are in between blossoms, oleanders are in a full rage by the pool, and a sweet little bougainvillea is offering its beauty to my little garden... I don't know what each flower means - for me flowers are a reminder of the divine in every day.
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of Light
Against its Being.
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened.
- Hafiz
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Dark, nutty, seedy, earthy, crunchy Eastern European bread with too much butter. I really do love butter. I am dreaming of making my own bread. One day! I just grew my first tomato here in Topanga, so I feel everything is possible.
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and a few picks from push...
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i'm still very skeptical of AI, but this is an opportunity for it to be beautiful: researchers believe that artificial intelligence may allow us to speak to other species. what would you say to a whale?
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may i introduce you to the restorative majesty of the russian banya? this article on care of chan shines a light on one of coney island's most magical places, mermaid spa.
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summertime gallery's radio show
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if you don't know summertime gallery, this is your perfect opportunity to learn more. summertime champions an art world where artists with and without intellectual disabilities create and display work alongside one another. one of their most recent residents created his dream radio show, which you can read more about here!
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everyone knows how much i love green-wood cemetery (we even featured vice president for education and public programs, harry weil on push picks!) they just announced a beautiful program on funereal rituals around the world.
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california friends! mishmish is a vegan palestinian food pop-up in oakland. i just bought the breakfast pdf.
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I cried during the clip i saw when i went to omega to hear ruth reichl speak!
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we hope you are keeping cool and that you enjoyed another installment of push picks. as always, if you like what you read, forward it to someone or encourage them to sign up. it would mean the world to us 🌎
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