Łukasz Maciejewski recommends I AM REN

Łukasz Maciejewski recommends I AM REN

Łukasz Maciejewski recommends I AM REN

I am very proud to announce that one of the leading film critics, Łukasz Maciejewski recommends I AM REN. Here is the video of his recommendation.

 

Mam wielką radość podzielić się video-rekomendacją jednego z najbardziej uznanych krytyków filmowych w Polsce, Łukasza Maciejewskiego. 

Latest News

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more
Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more

Storygeist blog

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

I think there will alwayas be a public for sensitive cinema made as an art-experience, as there will always exist a public for fine literature. But I also see the emergence of a few trends which might change the way we make movies in the coming decade. And I believe this coming 10-15 years will bring forth new ways to tell stories, unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it will be more accessible than it has ever been before. All of this will have a major impact on the Auteur Filmmaker/Storyteller. In the most profound way.

read more
Rene v3.2 – part 2

Rene v3.2 – part 2

“Rene v3.2” – a short story about a female robot companion. A woman made only to fulfill other’s needs. Seen through Rene’s eyes, the story takes the worn cliche of the dangerous Artificial Intelligence, and turns it on its head. It asks if A.I.’s will be able to replace true human relationships? Especially the ones of the intimate kind. How might we treat them? How will the Robot Companion react emotionally? What rights will she have if abused? And is she less of a human if artificially made?

read more

Films & Books

Łukasz Maciejewski, one of the leading Polish film critics, reviews I AM REN

Łukasz Maciejewski, one of the leading Polish film critics, reviews I AM REN

Łukasz Maciejewski, one of the leading Polish film critics, reviews I AM REN

I am very proud to announce that one of the leading film critics, Łukasz Maciejewski, has reviewed my film I AM REN. Here is the review, and deep appreciation for such kind words to Łukasz Maciejewski.

 

Latest News

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more
Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more

Storygeist blog

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

I think there will alwayas be a public for sensitive cinema made as an art-experience, as there will always exist a public for fine literature. But I also see the emergence of a few trends which might change the way we make movies in the coming decade. And I believe this coming 10-15 years will bring forth new ways to tell stories, unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it will be more accessible than it has ever been before. All of this will have a major impact on the Auteur Filmmaker/Storyteller. In the most profound way.

read more
Rene v3.2 – part 2

Rene v3.2 – part 2

“Rene v3.2” – a short story about a female robot companion. A woman made only to fulfill other’s needs. Seen through Rene’s eyes, the story takes the worn cliche of the dangerous Artificial Intelligence, and turns it on its head. It asks if A.I.’s will be able to replace true human relationships? Especially the ones of the intimate kind. How might we treat them? How will the Robot Companion react emotionally? What rights will she have if abused? And is she less of a human if artificially made?

read more

Films & Books

“I am REN” wins the Festival Director’s Award at the 45th Boston Sci-Fi Fest

“I am REN” wins the Festival Director’s Award at the 45th Boston Sci-Fi Fest

“I am REN” wins the Festival Director’s Award at the 45th Boston Sci-Fi Fest

I am very proud to announce that I received the 2020 Boston Sci-Fi Festival Director’s Award at the longest running genre film festival in the US – 45th Edition. It’s with deep gratitude I especially thank the Festival’s Director, Garen Daly, for his belief and support for our movie. Heartfelt appreciation goes also out to the festival’s organizers, especially to Marta Calderón Quiñones, Miriam Olken, Leandra Sharron and the rest of the Boston Sci-Fi Fest crew for your warm reception.

Also many thanks to Reel Suspects for their great festival work with our movie.

It has been a fantastic pleasure to visit Boston and take part in this event, and I send out greetings to all the other filmmakers and festival reps I’ve had a pleasure to meet and talk to. Sean Olson, Aleem Hossain, Troy Bernier, Rob Jaret, Eric Bromberg from Dust, Noah Wagner and many others.

Jestem bardzo dumny aby ogłosić że film “Jestem REN” i ja otrzymaliśmy nagrode 2020 Boston Sci-Fi Festival Director’s Award na 45. Edycji festiwalu Boston SciFi który ma najdłuższą tradycje kina gatunkowego w Stanach Zjednoczonych.
Serdeczne podziękowania szczególnie dla Garen Daly za jego wiare i wsparcie dla naszego filmu.

 

Latest News

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more
Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more

Storygeist blog

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

I think there will alwayas be a public for sensitive cinema made as an art-experience, as there will always exist a public for fine literature. But I also see the emergence of a few trends which might change the way we make movies in the coming decade. And I believe this coming 10-15 years will bring forth new ways to tell stories, unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it will be more accessible than it has ever been before. All of this will have a major impact on the Auteur Filmmaker/Storyteller. In the most profound way.

read more
Rene v3.2 – part 2

Rene v3.2 – part 2

“Rene v3.2” – a short story about a female robot companion. A woman made only to fulfill other’s needs. Seen through Rene’s eyes, the story takes the worn cliche of the dangerous Artificial Intelligence, and turns it on its head. It asks if A.I.’s will be able to replace true human relationships? Especially the ones of the intimate kind. How might we treat them? How will the Robot Companion react emotionally? What rights will she have if abused? And is she less of a human if artificially made?

read more

Films & Books

“I am REN” premieres at three more festivals around the world and wins an award.

“I am REN” premieres at three more festivals around the world and wins an award.

“I am REN” premieres at three more festivals around the world and wins an award.

Mam wielki zaszczyt poinformować że mój pełnometrażowy debiut fabularny “Jestem REN” miał trzy kolejne premiere festiwalowe zagranicą. W tym Cottbus International Film Festival 2019, Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival 2019 i wkrótce Boston Science Fiction Film Festival 2020.

“Jestem REN” i główna aktorka Marta Król została wyróżniona na festiwalu Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival za jej wybitną rolę w fabule.

Serdeczne podziękowania dla organizatorów i ekipy za tak nezwykły start festiwalowy dla naszego filmu.

 

I am proud to announce that my feature film debut has had several more festival premieres around the world. The festivals are Cottbus International Film Festival 2019, Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival 2019 and soon Boston Science Fiction Film Festival 2020.

“I am REN” and the lead actress Marta Król was awarded with an Honorary mention at the Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival 2019  for her performance in the movie.

It’s both an honor and privilege and my gratitude goes out to everyone involved in the film, as well as to the festival’s organizers for such a fantastic world premiere of the film.

 

Latest News

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

CINEUROPA director’s interview about I AM REN

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more
Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

Festival Wiosna Filmów screening I AM REN in Poland

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more

Storygeist blog

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

The future of the filmmaker Auteur

I think there will alwayas be a public for sensitive cinema made as an art-experience, as there will always exist a public for fine literature. But I also see the emergence of a few trends which might change the way we make movies in the coming decade. And I believe this coming 10-15 years will bring forth new ways to tell stories, unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it will be more accessible than it has ever been before. All of this will have a major impact on the Auteur Filmmaker/Storyteller. In the most profound way.

read more
Rene v3.2 – part 2

Rene v3.2 – part 2

“Rene v3.2” – a short story about a female robot companion. A woman made only to fulfill other’s needs. Seen through Rene’s eyes, the story takes the worn cliche of the dangerous Artificial Intelligence, and turns it on its head. It asks if A.I.’s will be able to replace true human relationships? Especially the ones of the intimate kind. How might we treat them? How will the Robot Companion react emotionally? What rights will she have if abused? And is she less of a human if artificially made?

read more

Films & Books

The emotional core of the story – part 1 of 2

The emotional core of the story – part 1 of 2

The emotional core of the story – part 1 of 2

Should we write only what we know? Play it safe and approach matters that we have lived through. Or should we take a wild chance, put everything on some fierce card, anything to blast our way out of the safe and comfy shell of ours. Out of our comfort zone. And what does that mean? Might it bring something deeper with it? Something which will bubble up from our subconscious, our heart(?), and attempt to enlighten our essence? To expand our inner cosmos?

This story appeared originally on my blog focusing on Narratives in technology and spirituality shaping our future:  Storygeist.

Confronted with the unease within

When asked about my novel “A child made to order”,  I would summarise it was a psychological drama/thriller about a woman’s inner struggle with her infertility. Upon this statement, I would mostly receive blank stares, followed by an uneasy silence, and the person in question would hurriedly skip to the next subject at hand. Anything which would brush over this anomaly.

Though sometimes, and maybe lucky for me, the more honest ones would spit it right out: “What (the fuck) do you, a 40+ year old male, think you know about infertility?”

Yes, what do I know about something as serious and life-debilitating as the Mitochondrial disease?  A rare genetic disorder which renders a woman’s offspring crippled. But even more to the point, what do I know about the long-term repercussions this disease has on these women’s psyche?

Although this question stung right at my insecurites, being as uncomfortable as it can get, it was also necessary to hear it. This was not only a perfectly valid question, it was a question which struck right at the heart of what we storytellers are trying to do. It demanded answers, why am I doing what I do, writing what I write and telling this story, instead of any other story.

And ultimately it also pushed me further into a confrontation with something which most of all attempt to run away from. Our inner unease.

The inquiry

So with this in mind, I would like to circle around the following questions.

Should we write only what we know? Play it safe and approach matters that we have lived through.  Or maybe it’s the other way around? We should only write what we don’t know? Take a wild chance, put everything on some wild card, anything to blast our way out of the safe and comfy shell of ours, out of our comfort zone.

And if we choose to go down this troubled path, why do we do it in the first place? What drives us into this great black, yawning chasm of this unknown? Why do we write about something which we have no emotional prerequisite to understand?  Is it only naive curiosity driven by our sheer stupidity, or is it some random chance? A quantum crap shoot of the universe?

And then maybe, just maybe, it might be something deeper? Something which bubbles up from our subconsious, our heart(?), and attempts to tell us something, to comprehend ourselves better, to expand our inner cosmos?

“It’s a myth that writers write what they know. We write what it is that we need to know. What keeps me sitting at my desk, hour after hour, year after year, is that I do not know something, and I must write in order to find my way to an understanding. This is the essence of all writing, to find a way to an understanding.” – Marcie Hershman

Digging for the core

It is easy as a writer to get caught up in the bells and whistles of the story.  The exquisite intricacies of the thrillerish plot, the suespenseful twists and turns, the amazing hook at the beginning, and the stunning revelations at the end. Or even the beautiful theme which might become the inititating point of the story. I certainly do it more often than not and get so fired up, it becomes notorieusly difficult to drag me down to mother earth.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying these skills manifested in our stories. All of them are able to add up to some nifty storytelling. They are the muscles, tendons, eyes, even intellect of the story told. But to get at the core of the story, that part which will not only flabberghast the recepient, but wrench their heart inside out, I believe we need to do some heavy lifting inside ourselves.

We need to dig for the emotional core of our story.

We are all broken

I used the better part of writing my novel  to come to terms with why I was writing it in the first place.

There was the initial infatuation with the theme of the current state of Genetics. And it still is. After all, we have a revolution in the making. We are right on the brink of a mile stone in humanity’s history, a point where we will be able to rewrite the most basic fibre of our existence, our DNA.  This theme sparked off the idea for the book. But this theme, or any other theme ofr that matter, won’t cut it for 80.000 words which have to push and pull the reader into a trance-like emotional rollercoaster.

So the writing process ended up being a journey, a self-ransacking. What did I have emotionally in common with such a protagonist like Viola? What was the resonating frequency between us?  Or to be more exact, what kind of flaws did I share with my character? What conscious wants did we have in common? And what uncioncious needs overlapped in our characters?

And most of all, why did the writing process about such a woman come so naturally for me? What issues were bleeding over from my personality over to the fictitious universe of my protagonist?

From my experience, only through this uncomfortable digging into our own psyche, do we have a chance at creating a story which will reverberate in someone else. In other words, have a shot at becoming universal. Or to put it in in a different manner: The more I write, and make conscious why I write, the more precise and pinpointed my underlying message becomes.

There are some people, writers, artists, etc, who, in a self exclamatory manner, claim they’ve conquered their demons. They’ve become their own Supermen/women, the master’s of their own universe.

And it might even be true, I wish that for them.  But personally, I believe this process, the confrontation with what’s inside us,  is never finished. Not because I enjoy the anguish it brings, but because it carries with it a constant self-inquiry. And this is what makes us grow. This mental destress and misery is what pushes us to transcend beyond what we are now.

For me Ernest Hemingway’s words bring with them a deep psychological and spiritual truth. They strike right at the heart of the cracks which never quite mend inside us, but intead help us evolve and ascend.

“We are all broken, that’s how the Light gets in.” – Ernest Hemingway

Please come back in two weeks time for the next installment of this article.  I will touch more upon the process, my conclusions and what kind of healing role art is able to fulifll.

Finally, I would also like to extend deep gratitude to Laura Makabresku for letting me use her photos for this story. For me personally, few others epitomize the psychological anguish which lurks just beneath our surface.

Latest News

Łukasz Maciejewski recommends I AM REN

Łukasz Maciejewski recommends I AM REN

I am proud to announce that the well-known french Film Sales Agent outfit Reel Suspects has taken on our feature film project I am REN (Panacea). Reel Suspects will be responsible for the world sales and will already start with private screenings of a rough-cut of REN at Festival de Cannes 2019.

read more

Storygeist blog

Storygeist – a bird’s eye view

Storygeist – a bird’s eye view

As the Sciences plunge into the impossibilities of Quantum physics, decipher the world of vibrations and frequencies, technology closes in on the ancient truths which the mystical traditions have spoken to us from the dawn of time. And as our world is hurled into a wrenching acceleration of change, we believe that stories are essential to our inner development. A ritual which passes timeless values from one generation to the next. And encapsulate not only intellectual meaning, but also a beating heart which can feed our souls. Join us and read this to get a bird’s eye view of our stories.

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Agatha unravelled – part 2 of 2

Agatha unravelled – part 2 of 2

What if the current multi-million venture to break out of the Matrix succeeded? What if we got our answers during a world upending event named The Fissure? But they turned out to be not the ones we wished for.
“Agatha Unravelled” is a short story which revolves around one man’s need to come to terms with his grief, while he attempts to unravel the secret behind his wife’s death and how it connects with the Fissure.

read more
Agatha unravelled – part 1 of 2

Agatha unravelled – part 1 of 2

What if the current multi-million venture to break out of the Matrix succeeded? What if we got our answers during a world upending event named The Fissure? But they turned out to be not the ones we wished for.
“Agatha Unravelled” is a short story which revolves around one man’s need to come to terms with his grief, while he attempts to unravel the secret behind his wife’s death and how it connects with the Fissure.

read more
Venture me out of the Matrix

Venture me out of the Matrix

Two of the Silicon Valley’s moguls latest project is to break us out of the Matrix, which they strongly believe exists and has the humanity enslaved. This is a perfect opportunity to look at the intersection of Technology and Spirituality and identify why these tech-billionaires have come to such a conclusion and what lies behind all of this, according to several ancient spiritual traditions.

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Virtual Reality and the reimagining of Story – part 5

Virtual Reality and the reimagining of Story – part 5

So you grab his hand, and scramble for the sliding doors. You shoulder your way across the jeering crowd. You are almost there, the way out to freedom, but as you reach the doors, they are gone. You whip your head around and realize you’ve been pushing the wrong way. But you are 100% certain the doors were on this side. No matter. So you make a valiant effort, and crash your way onto the other side of the subway. All this time Markus begs you to hurry. He is about to capsize, and every second counts. It’s your son goddamnit, and those bastards are everywhere, standing between you and your son’s life.

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Films & Books