2.10.2022
The 33 Project
Good morning. It’s been a complicated week for me personally. In times like this, when things are unsettling and I feel disoriented, I’m thankful for creative outlets like my substack. Just a brief thank you to the people that read and share this project. It’s small, but meaningful to me.
Ok, on to the recs for the week:
1/ My favorite filmmaker, Céline Sciamma, was profiled in the New Yorker recently and it was a wonderful read, of course. The piece by Elif Batuman does an excellent job exploring Sciamma and art impacting sexuality and sex.
A few takeaways for other artists:
Pay more attention.
Be strong enough to not do what you don’t want.
Knowing something is possible is enough. We can change.
Change things from the inside - be bold and different and make your reality other peoples reality.
Pics or it didn’t happen.
I also loved these two passages:
It was revelatory, Sciamma explained, to learn that her own grandmother had first been “struck by female desire—by her own desire,” not just in a movie theatre but “in front of a film made by a woman.” Carla had been “a woman really connected to her own desire,” and there was no doubt in Sciamma’s mind that this early encounter at the cinema had been formative: “The female gaze saved that little girl.”
and
She went home, feeling strange, troubled, troublée: “Why am I feeling so torn by synchronized swimming?” She thought it was because she had “missed her life.” Clearly, her true calling had been synchronized swimming. Now it was too late. You couldn’t start at fourteen—not if you wanted to be like those champions. After a few days contemplating the ruin of her life, Sciamma realized, “O.K., I’m gay.”
It’s really a wonderful, thought-provoking read that I’m sure I’ll be revisiting time and time again.
2/ A friend recently share the Deliciously Ella podcast. I’ve been really enjoying her “bite-sized” episodes about food and health.
More on Deliciously Ella, here.
3/ Finally, here’s a cool visualization of all the languages of our world. There are 7,102 known languages! Very cool.
Thanks for reading and feel free to share.