A Producer’s Inspiration
February 25, 2008 by Laura
The other day Pablo asked me what it was about the story that spoke to me, or rather, burrowed within me and drove me to throw my weight and determination behind Project Libertad to fight for its realization.
After some reflection I came up with a few ideas, one about the heartbreaking character of Isango, the orphan boy in the story whose ache for kindness has not been altogether blighted by drugs or spending his days stepping among trash to find salvageable items to sell. Isango needs more than just the awareness of a select few. He, and all the other children he represents, deserves the help of many.
I can go on about the specifics of the story and the individual characters, setting or context, but the bottom line is that in the months since I first read the script, what has surfaced as its most impressive feat is how it so deftly and truthfully reveals the many coping barriers of aggression, sarcasm, or emotional isolation behind which an individual tries to protect against hurt and fear.
Libertad portrays its characters as people are and can be, given a particular set of circumstances, but most importantly, as the story made me realize, anyone can be. It reveals the universality of how people cope when on the run from a painful reality, and the methods its characters use crystallized an aspect of human nature that had always fascinated me.
It was discovering that kernel of common truth through the myriad ways the script took a central idea and expressed it, each one as coherently and believably as the next, that made me want to jump into action. Because any art that clarifies something in me that I had never been able to express, and as such, any art that can expose a truth about being human that applies across the board, is the type of art I want to see and the type of art I want to get made.
Because the more we see how alike we all are underneath all the distracting differences, the more we will want to reach out and care for that stranger in need, because seeing ourselves in another means they aren’t a stranger after all.
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