On the 23rd, I'm taking off to Mumbai for a spiritual tour that lasts 6 days. I'm going with my friend Dr. Fung to see about setting up a peace camp for children around the world. India is a place I would like all children to explore for its ancient roots in spirituality and vast genres in music.
Dr. Fung has a friend in Maharashtra who is offering us a building with teachers willing to volunteer their services to educate incoming floods of students of all ages. I also want to see the Taj Mahal and get some cool saris, spices, and music vocals to sample.
After the tour, I'm going to Mumbai to check out Indian cinematography right on location! It's a dream for me! Indian cinema is top-notch and writers in the east are wonderful storytellers. I'll be back in Egypt after my visit to India for the next round of meetings with producers for a film project in development. I've been experiencing a lot of resistance from the Egyptian film commission because they say my views and style are "too American". They fear my involvement in entertainment may influence the Egyptian youth in a way that could harm their confinement by the government. All scripts have to be approved by the film commission before they go into production, as so far I have been on hold for several months. In the meantime, I've been scouting locations and writing extensively from a coffee shop in Alexandria.
In all, I think after this year I'll be ready to settle down. I got a call last night, Egypt time, about returning back to L.A for serious work. To be honest, my heart really wants to tell a story set in Alexandria, and to do so in a way that is authentic to the locale, it can't be in English. Though I love American films, I prefer the depth found in Egyptian and Indian storytelling way better. I left Hollywood because studios don't really want to take chances with original material due to the economy and imited consumer spending. They only feel safe doing remakes, sequels, and book adaptations. I'm not interested in doing my first feature project as an indie project with limited visibility or to recreate something that has already been done before. I have a vision of creating something extremely beautiful, poetic, and loaded with wisdom. Even if it takes me a decade until I'm approved by the film board, I'd rather sit and wait to do the artwork my soul wants to paint, rather than settle for something other than that solely for the reason of maintaining a consistent production record to prove to the critics that I know how to make films.
