"A Candle Lights the Heart" Director Talks Lanterns & Inner Peace

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Friday, 09 December 2016 05:43

Written by Brad Balfour

The film A Candle Lights The Heart  documents The Floating Candle Ceremony — a yearly event that takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii, every Memorial Day where thousands of people come together on a beach to float candle-lit lanterns as an homage to loved ones who have passed away. While the ritual originates in Buddhist tradition, the event is for people of all beliefs. 

Against the backdrop of this highly emotional event, A Candle Lights the Heart follows five families whose stories tell of their experience with loss, grief and, finally, redemption, which leads them to peace, partially by participating in this memorable and compassionate event.

Directed and produced by first-timer Shinji Kondo, this full-length documentary feature based on the Lantern Floating Ceremony held from 2012-2014 not only tells of the event but also shows how families who are coping with tragedy attend and find a community with whom they help share their loss.

Once the film was completed, it entered the festival circuit and then landed VOD distribution through Gravitas Ventures to begin early next year.

After a theatrical debut in Los Angeles, the inspirational documentary, A Candle Lights The Heart, is having its East Coast theatrical premiere in Manhattan in the Helen Mills Theater (137-139 West 26th Street, NY NY) on December 13th, 2016. Admission is free and open to the public. A Q&A with director Kondo will follow.

It will also screen at the Magno Screening Room (729 7th Avenue 2nd Fl.) on December 15th at 8 pm as well. Admission to the event is also free and open to the public.

Born In 1969, in the Tokyo, Japan, suburb of Kodaira, Kondo is the second son of Akira and Tsuruko Kondo. His father has been a civil service worker for Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government and his mother was part-time worker. From primary to middle he attended the local public school and graduated from Kokubunji High School. He then attended the acclaimed Sophia University graduating in 1992 with his area of focus, studying and practicing Buddhism. 

After graduating he began working at Koa Fire & Marine Insurance Company and continued his Buddhist training/studies. In 2001, he married a Japanese woman, Tomomi, who was raised in Hawai'i so they moved there 15 years ago with their daughter and son.

He had become involved with Shinnyo-en through his mother who become a member in the early '80s; she had turned to the practice because his father had suffered from a drinking habit and that influenced his whole family.

In the process of filmmaking, he first had to learn how to edit, so it took him two years. As a longtime follower of Shinnyo-en who became a Reverend, he took his passion for the movement to such lengths as to create this film.

Q: Why did this appeal to you?

SK: When I went to Shinnyo-en for the first time, I was 12 years old. Somehow I felt my heart become warmer and felt more comfortable by visiting the temple.

Q: How did it affect your personal, professional and creative development?

SK: In Buddhism, they teach that even after people have passed away there is still a connection between us. That is one of the most basic concept of Buddhism. When I see lots of people gathering at the shore of Ala Moana who are not Buddhists, I’ve found out that everyone can share in this concept. 

Q: What was the first time you attended the ceremony? 

SK: In 2001. That was the year I got married and then moved to Hawai'i.

Q: How has it affected you personally emotionally?

SK: Every year I feel the spirit of my grandmother who I was very close to, and even after the ceremony, I feel her presence daily.

Q: How many times have you attended the event?

SK: Every year since that first time in 2001. This year will be my 15th time.

Q: Do discuss the ceremony with people?

SK: Because I work at the temple in Hawai'i, we get many phone calls and emails asking questions about the ceremony throughout the year. I talked about it often — especially with those who is suffering by losing someone.

Q: What did you think of it spiritually/philosophically?

SK: I believe that spirituality is at core of the event. If people float lanterns without the chanting, prayers and ritual, people will not feel spiritual comfort that is possible.

Q: How did you first get the idea to document this ceremony; when did you first think it could be a feature film?

SK: We interviewed Greg Weger in 2007 for our TV commercial series which promoted this ceremony to the local community. His story was very moving and touching. That made me realize that this event affected many non-Buddhists, so if we could find more stories, it could become a documentary feature film.   

Because we broadcast the event live since 2006 on KGMB (a local Honolulu TV station), the cameras are mainly for TV broadcast. In 2011, KGMB became equipped with full HD, so we had to use all HD cameras. Next year 2012 I recorded all single cameras which gave me lots of event footage. Then I added the five stories to form the film.

Q: How did you find the people in the film?

SK: Greg Weger was working for the event as a security monitor provider. He emailed that wanted to share his experience at the beach after the event.

One of our producers found out that Anita Weger had lost her son to cancer and was struggling. The producer felt this event had helped Anita spiritually.

Hideko is a one of my old friends. She is also a member of Shinnyo-en in Japan and I knew her for 25 years. When I moved to Hawai'i, I didn’t know Hideko had moved to Hawai'i in 1999. Because she’s a Buddhist, she often comes to the temple and we started talking. One day she shared that she runs in marathons for her friend who had died in the Tsunami. Then I became interested in interviewing her.

Kathy Steinhoff is a friend of our producer. When she lost her son by a skateboarding accident, it became big local news. The producer encouraged Kathy to go to lantern-floating ceremony for her comfort.

Alica was not our main focus. Actually Bob is a friend of one of our camera crew and he was worrying about his kids who were internalizing their sadness. He was looking for some kind of ceremony or program to help them let go of their pain. 

We interviewed Bob and it was okay. But we found out that his daughter Alisha had changed so much after she participated the ceremony. So we then switched the focus to her and followed her graduation and college orientation.

Q: What was your criteria for inclusion that decided it for you?

SK: How strong was the connection between their loved ones.

Q: How did you settle on this number of stories?

SK: I almost lost Hideko’s story because her husband does not like Shinnyo-en. After Hideko explained the concept to him, he agreed to have her share her story.

Q: How hard/easy was it to persuade people to be in this film — it touches on very sensitive aspects of people’s lives…

SK: I wanted to show the event as soon as it was possible to have them in the film. So I added production manager Alan Hochfelsen to show what happens the morning of the beach event and the process of setting up to make them everyone feel they were participating as well. 

Q: Were there other options you considered to documenting the ceremony other than the way that you did it?

SK: I considered hiring a professional director to make this film but I found out about the high cost. So I considered I should do this myself because the main focus of this film is spirituality and that’s an element I am sure can be addressed by me.

Q: Why did you decide on this  length?

SK: It was much longer, like 120mins. After first screen test I cut 30 mins out of it so as not to make audience bored.  

Q: What was the production process since you were doing so much of it yourself — directing/producing/editing?

SK: First I hired an editor. But I wanted to try every option I had at hand to make it a good film. Because I have tons of footage from various shoots of the ceremony and the interviews, I wanted to edit it with love and care — not just do it as a job so I did both editing and directing. I hired out the writing to Robert Pennybacker from PBS Hawai'i.

I learned that documentary filmmaking is very difficult. Many times when you got good story, the shots aren’t good. If your shots are good, then the stories aren’t. I had five more stories that I couldn’t use for the film. There are some areas you can control but it really depends on your luck to make a good film.

Q: What about the ceremony helps people develop hope/closure; how do you feel people cope with death?

SK: We can’t avoid death, but we don’t realize it until it happen to us. But people have to cope with the sadness of it, because life goes on. 

Q: How did the Lantern Floating ceremony affects them/you as you made the film?

SK: I found many positive energy like “hope” they got from the ceremony.

Q: What did you add/subtract in the process of production? 

SK: We added music, b-roll shots, and some ceremony shots from ceremonies from other years.

Q: How many hours did you shoot?

SK: I hired multiple camera crews. They shot at least 100 hours I think. 

Q: How long did it take to edit and how long were the editing sessions? 

SK: It took two years to edit and two months for color collections and graphics. Because I learned new skill (editing and directing), it was very exciting. I was able to know many film industry people who I did not have chance to meet, because I am clergy. I enjoyed whole process very much.

Q: What did you feel about the music/sound design?

SK: I wanted to have Hawai'ian music for this film. I contacted many professionals who had participated the event before; they were really open to help me. 

Q: What is the future for this film?

SK: After getting it distributed in USA, I have talked to Shinnyo-en Japan to see if they are interested in distributing it in Japan as a good promotion for the movement. And I will sell the DVD to our members. We have sold 30,000 DVDs of the 2011 ceremony. It was really just a film of the live event, very simple content, but our members love this “lantern floating.”   

Q: Do you hope to make other films?

SK: If the idea is spiritual enough, I would love to make another one.

Q: Do you plan to develop further materials related to this film like a photo book and more?

SK: No. We made a beautiful picturebook last year for our members in Japan. 

Q: Are you planning to develop an educational guide for the film and the ceremony?

SK: We can do that — I will have to think about it further.

Q: What is your personal philosophy?

Every day is a blessing.

Creator Anna Deavere Smith's Notes From The Field Tackles Issues Through Many Voices

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Thursday, 03 November 2016 19:51

Written by Brad Balfour

With a raft of accolades in her resume, American actress/playwright/professor Anna Deavere Smith produces work that highlights the plight of the underclass, the unvoiced and those overlooked by entitled society. In her most recent one-woman production — “Notes From The Field” which opened November 2nd at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street, NY, NY) — the 66 year-old creator continues her fascination with what’s been called “documentary theater.”

Through a set of passionately expressed portraits — based on actual news events and her own interviews — “Notes From The Field” crosses generations and poignantly renders complex issues of race, disenfranchisement, mass incarceration and discrimination as something in our faces; it’s  not just to be viewed through the gauze of electronic media. 

Though these people aren’t necessarily making statements through their words, this veteran actress brilliantly brings to audiences these voices asking questions and, in some ways, demanding responses. 

Interspersed with video footage, comic-book illustration back drops and Marcus Shelby’s on-stage cello riffing providing a robust yet subtle jazz-inflected lament, completes the effect of there’s much more going on her than just one person on stage.

Somehow, just by changing her garb, vocal tonality or regional accent, Deavere Smith creates 17 unique portraits — with the help of director Leonard Foglia — that constantly question the powers that be. 

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Deavere Smith got an Acting M.F.A. from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. After that, she went on to create numerous productions (Fires in the Mirror; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; House Arrest; Let Me Down Easy; The Arizona Project), win a plethora of awards (a MacArthur Fellowship; the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show; a Matrix Award; The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, among others) and has been nominated for the Drama Pulitzer and two Tonys.

She’s been an artist-in-residence at the Center for American Progress, and has taught at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as well as at NYU’s School of Law. From 1990 to 2000, she was a drama professor at Stanford University and had taught at Carnegie Mellon U.

But this theatrical chameleon has not only made the stage her home; she has also done television (The West Wing, The Practice and Nurse Jackie) and film (Philadelphia, Dave, The American President, Rent, and Rachel Getting Married) as well. 

In February 2014, “Anna Deavere Smith: A Young Arts Masterclass” was part of the HBO Masterclass documentary series. And Smith has published two books: “Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics" and “Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts – For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind.”

In advance of her current show, she conducted this exclusive one-on-one shortly before previews began.

Q: How did you get all these interviews down and select the characters who ranged from Congressman John Lewis to inmate Denise Dobson.

ADS: The job of selecting characters is always hard. I did over 250 interviews to get them… It’s a process of trying a… I hate to call them characters, I like to call them portraits. I think of them as real people. Making an assemblage of them, bringing them into rehearsal, hearing from the dramaturge, hearing from the director, hearing from other people around and then going home and writing a different play and then bringing that one into rehearsal until I find out who’s going to work together. Because these fragments of things… are people speaking in their real life.

Q: Where does the journalism end and the creation begin; how did you draw the line between one versus the other?

ADS: I don’t really think of the things as “versus” in a way. [The author] Studs Terkel was a mentor of mine and his book [structured with interviews], “Working,” had a huge effect on me. It also became a Broadway show a long time ago as you know. 

I always had been attracted to documentaries. I think there is something in truth that you can’t make it up, and I believe people, when they express themselves, are making a kind of art. That’s one of the ways I pick who ends up on stage, people who are doing something really artistic just by nature by the way they move and express themselves.

Q: What were your conversations like with the great civil rights advocate and congressman John Lewis?

ADS: I went to see John Lewis because I had heard he had gone back to Montgomery and the Police Chief made an apology to him for the things that had happened during the Civil Rights movement and had offered him his badge. So as soon as I heard that I went rushing over to his office and he was kind enough to meet with me and a tape recorder and tell me the story.

Q: How did you find the other people? How did you choose them such as NAACP legal counsel Sherrilyn Ifill and Freddie Gray beating videographer Kevin Moore?

ADS: It’s like selling Girl Scout Cookies. You knock on the door and somebody lets you in, and they feel they like you because you’re a nice kid and they say, “The lady across the street likes the mint cookies, why don’t you go sell some to her?” You meet one person and they say you should meet that person or they introduce you to someone and before you know it you went to a town with one lead and you have ten interviews before you leave.

Q: Which character was the hardest to construct or edit and were the male characters harder than the female ones? 

ADS: No, it doesn’t have anything to do with that. I think about it as singing songs that people are composing as they talk to me. I wouldn’t say anybody is more challenging than another. Everybody deserves the attention that I and my coaches give them as I try to respect what they said to me.

Q: Do you think creating work like this which provided an alternative to conventional structured drama; have you changed the face of theatre in some way?

ADS: I wouldn’t presume to say [something like that…] You’d have to ask somebody else that, I wouldn’t say that about myself. People say I created a new form of theatre that’s now called “Verbatim Theatre” that I’ve been doing since the late ‘70s. 

People do recognize that I’ve contributed something to the field in that regard. But I also… particularly in my teaching for 40 years and my book, Letters to a Young Artist, I hope that one of the things I do is give courage to younger people that try to do this. It’s very, very hard in any field in the arts to make a mark, as they say.

Q: Selma director Ava Duverney’s latest film, a documentary titled The 13th, complements your show. Have you seen it?

ADS: I saw Ava; I went to a screening of the show here in New York, and I was able to see her at the reception. I hope she can come to this show, I know she’s shooting something else right now. I would really like her to see it, I really admire her and her work.

Q: Do you think you can change people with a show like this, maybe they will change the way they vote by having them see your show?

ADS: I don’t think any of us can change anybody, really. All we can do is make ourselves present and hope that maybe something rich happens by the fact that we’re in each other’s company. We all have mini transformations all the time.

Q: Have you invited President Obama to one of these performances?

ADS: The President is well aware of this project. I had been invited to the White House to address a meeting of people doing work on school discipline. But I’m not bothering the President or anyone around him right now, I think they have other things on their minds. But the President knows about the project.

Q: Maybe they need to get some people down to see this before the election.

ADS: Once we get past this election I’ll do that, but otherwise I think they’re presently engaged.

Q: Do you hope that the audiences that sees this will think about who they’re voting for?

ADS: I sure do. It’s a very critical time right now, I’m supporting Secretary Clinton. I stand for a lot of what she stands for. I stand for justice, I stand for kids, I stand for a country where more of us can strive to love one another, I’m for her. Secretary Clinton and President Clinton have seen another one of my works, Twilight Los Angeles, and I’m hope we’re able to get them here too.

Q: How do you manage to avoid getting exhausted since you play so many characters in one intense two-hour+ performance every night?

ADS: Kale. 

Q: Cooked or uncooked?

ADS: Both. [I like] kale and collard greens.

Master Musician Robert Miller Make Project Grand Slam His Mission

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Monday, 15 August 2016 13:51

Written by Brad Balfour

With his dark shades and black/white garb on stage, master bassist Robert Miller seems like a cool cat out of a 1950s Hollywood casting of a jazz musician. But he’s much more than that. The 60-ish player is leader of Robert Miller’s Project Grand Slam, a band formed nearly 10 years ago to perform a fusion of rock and jazz that’s both familiar and fresh.

“I am as much a product of rock as I am of jazz,” Miller acknowledged in a recent conversation at the Palm Two in midtown Manhattan. “I love them both equally.”

Over a salad lunch, the New York born and bred Miller outlined his valiant effort not only to keep a sound initially made popular in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, but advance it using a young generation of musicians not necessarily schooled on the same influences as he was. He draws on a pool of musicians, what he calls, “my international cartel.”

To that, the plucky player with an energy beyond his years added, “All around the world there are trained musicians who have gone to schools like Berklee in Boston. I just send out an email that I need guys — a great saxophonist say — for a certain date and they give recommendations. It always works out in time.”

Introduced to his enduring ensemble of a sometimes revolving door of members (“I have three or four variations”), the band plays an ongoing monthly residency at a Greenwich Village jazz den called The Groove NYC. There he works out new tracks, or unique arrangements for covers of rock classics done with a unique twist. 

One such cover performed during their July date was the second single off The Queen’s Carnival, their  latest album: a cover of The Kinks’ great rock hit “You Really Got Me,” with guest vocalist Lucy Woodward, is getting attention; Kinks' co founder Dave Davies even lent his support and, “We're still waiting on a reaction from Ray [Davies, the older brother].” [video clip: https://youtu.be/aQ7R83qO2lw]

Miller’s PGS continues to play other NYC venues. In May 2016 the band opened for four-time Grammy Award nominee Boney James at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. In June, the band was the featured performer at the Kirby Center For The Performing Arts in Pennsylvania.

Miller further noted, “Those songs I had played before a rock audience. We played a gig in November at the Gramercy Theater — we opened for Scott Weiland formerly of Stone Temple Pilots a week before he passed. We were one of three other acts — all hard rock bands like Weiland’s. We played before a completely rock audience and it went great. I knew we could play before any audience.”

While bandleader Miller is a high-minded jazz aficionado possessed of chops equal to any living jazz great -- having been trained by the likes of Jimmy Garrison -- his influences range beyond the usual that the jazz genre reflects today. That’s because, like it did with so many young people of his generation, the ‘60s British Invasion had a pivotal impact on his musical education.

And, it provided much of the spark that pushed Miller into playing bass guitar rather than a horn or keyboards. Project Grand Slam has, to quote one critic referring to their latest single, “The Rescue” — “a timeless, youthful passion.”  

He laughs, “I became a bass player when I was 16, playing in a rock band formed with friends. We all had acoustic guitars that we were learning to play that we made into electric guitars by taping a microphone from a small reel-to-reel tape recorder onto the guitar. 

“We bought Beatles sheet music and I noticed that there was a line on the bottom for the bass clef. I already played the trumpet so I knew the treble clef while my buddies were struggling to learn it. So I volunteered to learn the bass. And my entire musical career evolved from that!”

In those days, from high school during the ’60s on, Miller played in or fronted bands mostly under his name. Four bassists — Paul McCartney, Cream’s Jack Bruce, BS&T’s Jim Fielder, and  Vanilla Fudge’s Tim Bogert — were crucial inspirations. In the ‘70s he became a fixture in the Boston music scene as a founding member of the jazz fusion band Sagov, playing with acclaimed musicians such as Sonny Stitt, Jaki Byard, and Anton Fig.

In the 1990s, The Robert Miller Group was formed. The band’s first CD, Child’s Play (1994), featured several of self-penned compositions and included guest musicians Fig, Randy Brecker, Jon Lucien, Al Foster, Tim Reis and Tony “Thunder” Smith. The band played the Telluride Jazz Festival, the San Bernadino Jazz Festival, the NYC Downtown Jazz Festival and many well known clubs including The Blue Note and Birdland.

Along the way, he learned the music business, both the legal and label managing aspects, as well as musically, which lent him the confidence to soldier on releasing four other albums on his own terms before this latest one. The band also had a featured role in the hit NBC-TV series Lipstick Jungle starring Brooke Shields, with five of the bandʼs tunes on the soundtrack.

As Miller noted, “The core group of musicians that I work with are still the ones who did this album — and all but one will be there on August 16th when the band officially celebrates the release of The Queenʼs Carnival (Sony/RED).” The new album — which is officially out on the 19th — features nine original tunes written by Miller including the premiere single “The Rescue.” Mostly instrumental, it is textured and diverse, applying influences from Latin to Celtic and everything in between, while staying true to the PGS sound.

The record is a bit more rock while the live show demonstrated more jazz inflections. Explained Miller, “The sax player you saw was the most jazz-oriented one I have had in the group. The other guy — my main guy — plays with effects and pedals. I don’t want people to know he’s playing the sax. I love sounds that make it so indistinguishable — it works great with the band.”

He added, “On the record I have three songs I call my Arena songs; the first track, “Beyond Forever,” is really a tribute to my favorite group, Return To Forever and [its leader] Chick Corea’s a major influence. I love all these guys [identified with fusion such as Miles Davis] but I do not set out reproduce what they do. I combine influences.

“The other two songs — “Gorilla" and “Lucky 7” — I actually wrote imagining them being played in Madison Square Garden where you don't usually find jazz musicians there.”

As outlined in Wikipedia, “Jazz fusion — also known as jazz-rock — is a musical genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined aspects of jazz harmony and improvisation with styles such as funk, rock, rhythm and blues and Latin jazz. During this time many jazz musicians began experimenting with electric instruments and amplified sound for the first time, as well as electronic effects and synthesizers. Many of the developments during the late 1960s and early 1970s have since become established elements of jazz fusion musical practice.”

And that pretty well sums up what one gets either listening to the recorded band or seeing them live in one of their permutations. The only question is, “How much of an audience is there for jazz fusion?” There’s alway been a serious jazz audience, but that’s been for classic straightahead jazz. 

Says Miller, “I know that it has an audience but it’s not my niche. I didn’t want to go down that path. For a number years, I’ve been considered a contemporary jazz artist but that’s very open designation. So many things go into that [label]. I hate smooth jazz; to me, it’s elevator music. 

“And it doesn’t reflect the other aspect of my career — the rock n roll which I played for 20 years like the British Invasion stuff. I took classic rock and tried to reimagine what I grew up with. I looked for a way and went down the middle between rock and jazz. Some have called fusion; there’s no other name I have for it. It has the power and beat of rock but the improvisational complexity of jazz. I’ve looked for the mid ground and in my search for it I’ve come up with Project Grand Slam.”