I love telling stories. Be that the story of an entrepreneur and her start up company, or that of a couple's special day, or even just simply that; telling someones actual, real, and brutally honest story. See a story is an indescribable event, we experience it and we can't go back to the time before that event. You feel it, you life it, you grow from it. I love telling stories that are true experiences, real events in our lives. They're not always easy, they're most often not, but to help someone tell their story, one that effects countless others, that's the reason why I do what I do. It's also because of that reason that I am so excited to begin work on Shadow|Shine's next big piece, a documentary series entitled, "Water, Bitter Water".
Now, a little back story- what is Water, Bitter Water? Well you see I went to college with a dear, dear friend of mine who has been physically handicapped ever since she was born. She is honestly one of the strongest people I know today, and when she sat me down in early July of this year to walk me through the story she wanted to tell to the world, her story, the real story of her life and struggles, I sat amazed at the beautiful thing that had just been born- a story. What she wanted was simple- to tell her story and to have me help her do so, and I, obviously I humbly accepted.
The two of us spent the next few weeks really creating the structure for her story, to help give it depth, and really allow her to express the fullness of it's magnitude. What emerged from those few weeks of brainstorming was a title, "Water, Bitter Water" and a four piece series of consecutive chapters that told the overarching story of the life of Marin Hann, a woman braver than just about anyone I know. The title itself, a coincidental translation of Marin's very name, is truly the perfect personification of the story, this brutally honest autobiography, that our team is setting out with Marin to tell.
To try and sum up her story into a brief teaser/synopsis of what we are planning to work on over the next couple years would do it great injustice. So I can't say much about it as of right now, but what I can tell you is that I know none of our crew, or team, will be the same after we have helped tell this story. This four piece series, set to follow the course of the seasons as Hann relives the years of strife, chaos, death, and restoration within her own life, is a beautiful story of humanity and forgiveness, and it is one of the first real stories that I am baffled and exuberantly happy to have the honor of helping craft and tell.
Later this month we begin work on the very first chapter in this story. We're calling it Humidity, the paradox years. There's not much else I can say other than I can't wait to see the event that unfolds in front of our eyes; the story that blossoms and takes shape. I love telling stories, and I can't adequately express how excited I am for our team to be telling this, the story of Water, Bitter Water.
-Matthew