Marbles with Thoreau

Happy New Year, everyone!

Man, it’s been a long time since I last wrote. 6 months, I think. So much has happened since then and I want to share our continued progress with you.

First draft of script finished

In the last newsletter (way back in July), we were doing a fundraising drive so I could buy some time to write the feature script. You may remember a production company called Reel Life Media had expressed interest in producing the full-length version of Marbles… but first needed to see the story on paper. Collectively, you guys (those of you who get this newsletter) contributed $1839 to the effort… and I can’t thank you enough. Marbles has been an enormous collaborative effort from the beginning and it truly couldn’t progress without your help.

And I’m happy to report that after an intense 8-week push in September and October, Rajeev Sigamoney and I finished the first draft of the script! 99 pages in all. Rajeev is a writer here in LA, best known from his comedic work on the web-series and feature film, “Jesus People.” He’s a talented writer and has brought a lot of great ideas to the table.

Heartland Film Festival

We finished the feature script just in time for the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, where, I’m pleased to announce, Marbles won a major award! On October 14 they flew me to Indy to attend the fest, which was spectacular. The hospitality was over the top. The whole experience of being there and winning a Crystal Heart Award was career-inspiring, and I won’t deny the cash prize was equally helpful.

We screened at four other festivals: San Diego, Boston, La Femme, and Mosaic… winning “Best Short” at Boston.

DVDs for Sale

Professionally printed copies of the DVD are finally available on the website, for $15 apiece. My friend Scott Arany designed the covers and they look fabulous. All the proceeds go right back into supporting Marbles, paying the actors, and developing the feature… so do buy one!

What’s Next?

What’s next for Marbles? We’ve finished the first draft of the script but there are many more drafts yet to come. I’ll be leaving LA for a few months to reduce my living costs while I write. Though it’s hard to leave my friends and my church (even temporarily), I’m looking forward to having my own genuine Thoreau experience living in my Mom’s hometown in rural Northern California. I’ll be phoning home to confer with Rajeev and the guys at Reel Life Media as we make our attempt to do some justice to Thoreau’s classic work.

The Point?

Why go to such lengths, such expenditures of time, money, and energy just to make a film? At the very beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, Thoreau foresaw a society headed toward inner spiritual destruction. He saw the makings of a culture willing to work itself to death and incur massive debt in a state of continual hunger for more and bigger and better things. All at the expense of their (our) integrity, our true callings, our dreams and passions, our families, our health, our earth, our capacity to know our Maker.

If we stop and take a look around us at this current point in history, the effects of our greed are readily apparent. The story of “Marbles” is meant to challenge us to take a look inward, discover our true priorities, and live according to a different narrative. We are called not to conform to this world with its superficial forms of success, but to “march to the beat of a different drummer.”

“Men labor under a mistake,” Thoreau writes. “The better part of man is soon plowed into the soil for compost.” He continues, “I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear… I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

Here’s to true wealth,
Melody