Water Time, Part Two is well into post production...
A GRIN OR A GROAN?
No matter what sort of person you are, you’ll have a reaction to this: You’ll either grin and nod or groan in dismay. One or the other. Unless you have no sense of... subtext.
What I used to have on this page was an offer to send to anyone a dvd of Water Time, no money down but they’d owe me $5 for the expenses of making the dvd/label/shipping (no mention of my time and effort). I got over two hundred emails asking for dvds.
I figured many would send more than $5, since according to almost everyone the movie is really good. Important, even. See Pulitzer-nominated Jon Rappoport’s Review.
Long story short: At least seventy percent (70%) did not even send back the five bucks, or answer my mellow email asking, What’s up?
We're all used to seeing free stuff on the Web. But it's a different situation when you send your address to someone and ask them to provide you with – in this case – something worthwhile, the product of six and a half years of hard work, the theme of said product being the lack of self-reflection of many of us...
And all I wanted was to have my film seen, and get back a bit of my expenditures. What happens? My finishing Part Two of Water Time is set back by the loss of funds.
Irony? You bet.
So I can't send you a dvd with an envelope in there to return my expenses, much as I liked the idea of it. I will send you one, though, for the minimum donation (to the making of Part Two) of $15. Use PayPal and put your mailing address in the 'Instructions to Merchant' in the PayPal. If the form is somehow missing, email me at allan@banditobooks.com with your address. I'll sign the dvds.
In fact, for a donation of $15 or more, I will send you TWO dvds, both signed, so you can give one as a gift. I want my film to be seen.
Always send me an email if you donate (even by snail mail) and I will ship your dvds ASAP. I'll trust you that you sent the money (but please send the email after you mailed to my box): I've decided to do the sending myself, from the road. Expect some weird postmarks...
If you donate $100 or more, I will send 6 dvds plus a signed copy of my last book (a memoir which is closely related to Water Time), Can't You Get Along With Anyone? A Writer's Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer's Paradise. And for a limited time, I will also send you a book on tape (cd) of either In Search of Captain Zero or Cosmic Banditos. You must say which you want in the PayPal instructions and/or email, or I'll hold onto it for someone else. (These are 30 bucks retail!)
If you'd rather use the U.S. mail, checks/money orders go to: Allan Weisbecker P.O. Box 395 Montauk, NY 11954. Remember I need your mailing address.
Any donation gets you an eBook of CYGAWA. I will send the eBook to the email address in your PayPal form.
IS IT WORTH IT?
Based on the formal and audience reviews, Water Time is a worthwhile film. Check the Youtube page and notice (as of right now, early June) the 112 to 2 Thumbs Up, a ratio that is hard to find on any Youtube offering. The 80-plus comments are virtually all raves. Here’s an audience review I’m particularly fond of:
When presented with a work of art so uncompromisingly genuine as this, I feel the least I can do is craft my review of it with equal, spirited honesty. So allow me to do just that:
The difference between a true person of honor and a person living in falseness, is that the former takes themselves and their life seriously. And I don't mean seriously in some obsessively anal, self-restricted or overly disciplined way. Rather, the genuine human being recognizes the sacred nature of their life-journey, and knows that approaching such with anything less than their fullest integrity is both a disavow to the journey itself and a willful rejection of the vast opportunity for conscious growth that it provides.
To me, this film is about a man who upholds such honorable ideals, and documents himself in the genuine act of becoming who he really is; this, despite the unfortunate resistance that arises from the collectively entranced individuals he encounters along the way. In a unique expression of this process, Water Time provides invaluable insight into the mechanisms of social control, and the effects of these mechanisms on the minds of individuals who blindly and staunchly uphold the consensus, reality construct; not by a forced or laborious description of such, but by presenting their collective resistance tangibly and in real life, for the viewer to witness firsthand. In this way, the film reveals the reality of society's collective entrancement in the most direct, authentic and revealing way possible; by allowing the interviewees to display such for themselves by their own actions and words.
Water Time is a beautiful and genuine work of art that chronicles the sacred and very natural process of truth seeking in a modern, unnatural world, a world that has tragically forgotten the deeper meaning of what it means to lead a human life. It too is an inspiration for others attempting to walk their own true path, encouraging them through example to be relentless, undoubting, and uncompromising in their quest to know and be what is real, regardless of the inevitable resistance and alienation they receive along the way. Because being true is the only true way to be...and only by being true can one expect to find any real truth in this world. So I thank you for this brave film; it was a magical, brilliant work of art and something you should be truly proud of. I look forward to part two and any future work you may create.
Sincerely,
Jarrod Schneider
After six and then some years of work and of worry that the work may not be meaningful, do you know what a message like that means to a guy like me? Can’t describe it, but... thank you to all who have written in response to Water Time.
Anyway, the dvd solves the problem of the film being blocked in some countries. Also, having a dvd you’re more likely to view it on a nice big wide screen TV rather than your two-inch iPhone or whatever. Hey, it ain’t Lawrence of Arabia, but it is a movie.
Read more at the Youtube page. (Get to the Youtube page via the directions on the site – it’s free but I ask that you sign up for my On-the-road-with-dog blog -- you can easily unsubscribe later, if you don’t like me.)
MY BLOG
If you liked In Search of Captain Zero and/or Water Time, you will likely love my Road Blog, since I will be combing whatever talents I have at writing with those of filmmaking and photography: The blog will be replete with photos and short custom videos of my Road/Dog/Interview/ adventures.