Telling Beautiful Stories, Beautifully –
An Interview with Green Renaissance

Sifting listlessly through the morass of gossip, celebrity scandal, and political bad news videos on YouTube, I wondered to myself, “How many of these videos are worth anything?” According to Google, there are more than 30 000 hours of video content are uploaded every minute. The vast majority of which is, in my experience, shallow at best, and in most cases quite negative. How often do we open the site and see the thumb nail for a video with some good news? How often do we watch a video which adds something to our lives? How many of millions of collective man-hours spent on creating these videos result in lasting, positive, uplifting of man-kind? How many serious journalists and reporters make use the platform? How many of these videos will have longevity? I’ve found very few videos of which I can honestly say that spending the time to watch them enhanced me in some way.

These thoughts were running through my mind when I stumbled across an interesting looking video called “Tinkering with Intent” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NA6lX6OglY&t=50s&ab_channel=GreenRenaissance), and clicked on it… A series of images of strange looking wooden toys; dolls, trains, cars, big buttons with big labels as though made for children attached to a mysterious wooden box, a mismatched assortment of naked light bulbs that look as though they’re 100 years old mounted neatly with electronic cables twisting and curling from the bulbs to another box. An old green bus with the words “The Lost Gypsy Gallery” painted in white, a miniature tableaux of the same bus in tiny sculpture form. An archway entrance to a garden with the words “The Winding Thoughts Theatre”, written on it. A wonderland of curiosity and beauty. A man appears, middle aged by my estimation, grizzled, a little loony looking, with warm, lively, bright eyes. We see him in his tiny workshop, every shelf crowded with oddments and knick-knacks. He uses bric-a-brac and scavenged materials to make wooden statues with moving parts, he uses electronics and mechanical designs to add light and movement and sound to his statues. It’s clear in each piece that we see, how much affection and love he produces them with. Every piece is beautiful and more than that has little something in that asks to be fiddled with, that seems to say, “Look a little closer”. Calls himself a ‘tinkerer’ and populated his gallery of wonders with beautiful artworks, with the intent of adding joy and beauty to the world, in the spirit of playfulness; he is “Tinkering with Intent”. He punctuates almost every sentence with a low, soft laugh which lights up his face. He is lovely and his wonderland is lovely. It was glimpse of a tiny, indoor and outdoor gallery, tucked away in New Zealand somewhere and a glimpse of the artist behind it.

Well, I was hooked. The video was only about 5 minutes long, but watching it made me feel joy, whimsy, delight, made me feel good. I wanted more. The channel on which the video was posted is called “Green Renaissance”. I checked it out and found an entire library of short films. I chose another video randomly; (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NA6lX6OglY&t=50s&ab_channel=GreenRenaissance) this one featured a South African farmer, an ordinary looking fellow with a big belly and a green and khaki safari suit, short shorts, knee-high socks and all. I confess I made a snap judgement of this fellow. He looked like a typical rough-hewn, salt of the earth type of guy. I thought I’d have no interest at all in what ‘a man like that’ would have to say. Then he started speaking, slowly, deliberately and the wisdom of his words revealed a deeply introspective and contemplative nature. Ashamed of my snap judgement, I listened on and grew stiller and calmer as he spoke; his peaceful aura stole over me. Near the end of the video, gazing into the distance, he finished with, “It’s all about being, I suppose. Just being. Being in the now”. It was a very different video from the one about tinkering with intent, less whimsical, but no less affecting and it lingered with me for days.

I found myself returning to the channel again and again. Each video was as beautifully shot, edited, and scored as the last. Each featured one or more people, usually in their homes, the spaces which reflect their personalities, sharing their thoughts. The people featured look absolutely ordinary, some shy, some confident, some beautiful and some plain, but their insights and their outlook are anything but ordinary or plain; sensitive, positive, secretly wise, secretly beautiful. We so seldom take the time to look a little deeper and miss out on the best parts of most of the people we encounter, and most of what we see on the internet is so negative that channels like Green Renaissance are like a breath of fresh air, doing work what The Awakening Times considers to be invaluable.

We had the opportunity to interview Mike and Justine, 2 of small team behind the channel. The following are excerpts from the interview, which they gave from their off-grid home on a nature reserve near Hermanus, in the Western Cape of South Africa.

The Awakening Times (TAT): What was the inspiration for Green Renaissance? How did it all start?

Mike (M): Like most filmmakers and storytellers, you do paid work; you work for corporates, you work for NGOs… We had to do that to start with. It doesn’t matter who you work for, you always have to tell the story of your client, the story of the NGO, story of the corporate. Often as a story teller, you don’t get to tell the story that you want to tell; that authentic human narrative, because it’s not what the client wants. What we felt was that a lot of these universal truths about what it means to be a human and the stuff that we all relate to, wasn’t something that the client wanted us to tell, because there was nothing to sell; like, “What you feel about love, or loss, or what the purpose of us being here is..?” Over the 15 years of making films, we got a point where we were frustrated that the real stuff, the stuff that meant something to us, wasn’t being captured and we kept dreaming about how amazing it would be if we could find a way to tell the stories that we want to tell, but there no money to do that, so we started to do these passion projects. In between client’s jobs, we would spend an extra 2 days at a place, or we would meet someone on our paid job and spend an extra day filming with them. We started, telling the stories that we really wanted to tell and when they started getting traction, we thought, “Shucks, we could do this full-time. We could connect with people that would resonate with what we do. They would be able to chip-in a cup of coffee every month…2 dollars a month… and cover the costs. Now, 4 years later, we are getting to a point where the costs are covered: the equipment, the travel and that sort of thing. It was born out of the necessity to fulfil the need in us, the stuff they made us happy. We wanted to tell the stories and they brought a huge amount of fulfilment to us and when we found a way to get the costs covered, we said, “Goodbye,”  to all the clients. We no longer do paid work for anyone, we focus on the passion project, which is sharing the human stories.

Justine (J): We told the stories for ourselves; it enriched our lives and started to shape the way we chose to live our life, and the way we saw the world around us. It was what we loved and I don’t think we realised that it carried this much value for so many other people. We hoped it would, but we didn’t know whether it would. What’s been inspiring for us in the last year was to see just how desperately people need to hear these stories. How when they’re having a bad day, or a really bad week, or really battling with something in life; so many people write us and say, “I turn to these stories that you share, to bring a little bit of hope or inspiration into my life.” It’s reassuring to know that what it’s done for us, it’s now doing for others all around the world, which is incredible; we never dreamt it would be like that.

TAT: Was the film project it entirely for you, or was there a service oriented motivation as well?

M: It’s a bit of both. I always used to ask the people with whom we filmed whether they were NGOs, or working with animal shelters; humanitarian stories… I asked, “What brings you the most fulfilment in life?” What is abundantly clear is that you get more from giving then you do from receiving. Whatever your gift is, whether you are a creator or whatever it is; if you can give of your talent, or your passion, you receive so much from that giving. I met an amazing yoga teacher who gives yoga lessons in prison; an hour once a week or once a month, which brought him huge fulfilment.

So, we thought, “What is our talent?” We aren’t classically trained filmmakers, we’ve just kind of done it, but this is what we can give and yes, it brings us huge fulfilment; we’re doing it for ourselves first, because if you don’t look after yourself then you can’t look after others. It’s nurturing your soul, it’s nurturing who you are, but then it had this massive knock-on effect and meant a lot to other people. Once we’ve made our film we’re on to the next one, but that film lives on in perpetuity and people are watching 4 or 5 years later and still finding that connection ways. We are on to the film of that week and sometimes we forget about that lesson.

TAT: How do these connections happen? How do you find these hidden gems?

M: There are no secrets, if you open to listening… With Justine, somehow people tell her their deepest darkest secrets in 5 minutes: we’ll go to a shopping centre and the checkout lady is telling her about this dog or the problem she has with an animal or her mother… She’s open to that, she’s not closed off and with me, I’m there to listen and if people are willing to share how they are feeling then we resonate. We’ve all shared universal fears and doubts and depression, and often I will share stories that I’ve gone through; what I’m struggling with or stuff that doesn’t make sense to me and they’ll resonate with other people, then they’ll share their story, and you’ll know within five minutes of meeting someone whether your energies connect. Sometimes it will be someone sitting on a road, who’s hungry and your eyes meet, and you just connect, and there’s a smile; something deeper and you want to explore that.

A lot of our meeting are random, serendipitous moments, you stop on the side road and talk to a lady in a rose garden and it turns into a film. Sometimes it’s a lot of research; meeting 10 people to make 1 film, but all you can do is trust your gut and say, “There is something that resonates with me,” and maybe because you’re open in that moment to talking about death, or love, or there’s something in your mind and you seem to attract that sort of story… If we’ve just done a cancer story for example, we might not be straightaway open to another story like that do not mean that kind of casual everyone has a story like…

J: When people ask us what we make films about, it’s a difficult question to answer, but we came up with 4 short words that are: “Exploring our shared humanity”, which at the heart of it, is about recognising that everybody has a story to share, if you take the time to sit down and truly listen to what they have to tell you. We’re so busy racing around these days that we don’t really take time to properly connect and talk about your life, other than the weather and what movie you watched last night. The challenge for us is that we’re not just writing an article; because we are capturing them on film, there does have to be a spark in their eye, or a slight poetry to the way they express something. They need to be able to quite easily and freely, open up emotionally and explore how they’re feeling about something, or how they’ve been battling with something and that is a dimension that Mike and I are both quite good at picking up quite quickly; whether somebody is open to sharing from a very authentic and honest place quite quickly, because we need for the film. Everybody has something to share, it’s just that for film we need them to be able to express it quite quickly; within a day or 2 days. That is something that you can gage quite quickly. You have coffee and you ask a simple question and if they get deep quickly and express quite emotively, then we follow those roads.

TAT: There is an incredible level of intimacy and vulnerability in the films. Is there a way that you approach people to make them feel at ease?

M: It’s a little of what we just mentioned, but we also normally show them a film so that they know that they’re not the only one who’s done this, they know there are 100 or 200 people that have also share this and there is a level of trust; they know it’s going to be authentic. They know it’s going to be their film, they’re going to see the film 1st and if they like it, then we share it with the rest of the world. If at any point if they feel uncomfortable, or don’t resonate, or they think we portray them in a different way, it’s never happened, but sometimes people will read article about themselves, not having seen it until it’s been published and there’s a fear about how they come across. We don’t work like that. We really are open to say, “This is your creation.” I’m also pretty emotional. I end up crying more than the person on the other side of the camera which is pretty ridiculous, so if there’s a slight bit of emotion about life or a challenge, then I’m in tears behind the camera and maybe that also sparks some emotion.

J: As much as we can, which is 99% of the time, we do the interview in that person’s home space, so they’re comfortable; in their lounge or kitchen. There’s nobody else around for those two hours, so they’re super relaxed and by that stage Mike has already been filming for about day, so they are feeling quite comfortable.

M: Another thing is that we don’t plan what we are going to talk about, so I don’t know the person’s going to going to get emotional about their grandmother who passed away or because they lost their child… We normally ask generic questions like, “What has the most difficult moment in your life been,” and someone might say, “Dealing with Corona virus,” or, “Dealing with whatever,” and then we explore where that goes, so it’s not a rehearsed thing, we don’t know what is going to be, but when we see that a person starts to get emotional about a certain subject, then we explore that theme, but sometimes we read an article about someone, or see some little film online about someone and that gives us a sense of the person. For example Craig Foster, who did “My Octopus Teacher”, we know that he’s passionate about being under the sea, sea so we could talk about his connection to nature because we knew little bit about him. It really depends on the character.

TAT: You are taking a big risk each time you attempt a film or take an interview…

M: Well it’s not for anyone, it’s for ourselves and some films are better than others, but it’s just a conversation in time, it’s not that person’s life story, it’s just a moment; a little vignette about how they’re thinking on that day, in that moment. That’s all it is and we don’t need to be that hard on ourselves. It doesn’t have to look completely amazing, to be earth-shattering. It’s just as a conversation…

J: Some are deeply philosophical and others are more light-hearted and gentle and nothing deep and meaningful: Why it is important to laugh, even through 60 years of marriage; a gentle, sweet little story that might make someone smile.

M: It is a gamble and a lot of them we really love while with some of them I get pretty awkward re-watching, but if they resonate with 1 person, then we’ve done our job. If 1 person replies to that film and says, “I really needed to see this,” or, “This made me think of this,” or, “This helped with my depression,” then it’s worth-while, then it makes sense.

J: The world such a big, wide, diverse place, so different stories resonate with different people along the way. A certain story might not touch my heart particularly deeply, but it will do for somebody living in Denmark; on that day they needed to hear that story and that’s all it’s meant to be.

TAT: I think the fact that you are still making videos speaks to the value of what you are doing.

M: I often get my blue days; get a little bit depressed about why we keep doing this. For a long time we were doing 1 a week, which was a huge amount of work. Now we’re doing 1 every 2 weeks, but it is still work. It’s still discipline to go out and do it every 2 weeks and put it out there and get it translated into all the languages; 20 languages now per film. We also answer every single comment that people write to us and there are hundreds every day, and all of this can really at some time make us think, “Shouldn’t we just run off and go travelling, or do something else,” but the read the comments from people; what it means to a lot of the people, and when you start having relationships with the people you filmed with it really feed your soul and reminds you to keep going. Although the day might come when it all does feel like a little bit too much, as long as we are enjoying it and finding purpose and meaning in it, and it resonates with us, we will keep going.

J: We really are lucky to be able to say that right now we love what we do.

M: If we won the lottery tomorrow, we wouldn’t do anything differently; it’s got nothing to do with the financial thing. There are very few crafts in the world that you can knock on someone’s door and just say, “Hi, I’m Michael can I just talk to you about life,” go into the house and have a cup of tea. People pay to go on these retreats and meet gurus and find enlightenment, but almost on a weekly or biweekly basis, we get to meet these incredible humans and ask them about the meaning of life. It’s this incredible gift; a craft that allows us to explore life which is very special.

J: It always amazes me how open people are to talking and to sharing and, I think, desperate for somebody to listen. We love meeting people and we love hearing their stories and all we’re doing is having a camera rolling while we do it. Even when we go on holiday, the 1st things we pack are the camera and the sound equipment, because we know that while we’re there, we’re going to be making films. There’s no better way to travel.

TAT: Have there been instances where people were surprised about what you brought out in them through the interviews?

J: A lot of people say, “I don’t know why you want to sp[eak to me. I don’t know what I have to share.” Our answer is always, “Just trust us. Let’s just hang out together for 2 days and see what happens.” People often say, “Wow, you dug really deep there,” or, “How did you get me to say those things?”

M: We recently got a message form a lady that we filmed about 2 weeks ago, that said that it brought her a lot of healing; talking about her grandmother passing away. She was surprised that the film brought out all the stuff that she needed to work through. So, there is a therapeutic part of this dialogue and you are quite exhausted at the end of it, because it can get intense; it goes where it needs to go and there is a lot of trust involved. It’s also like, If you went to speak to a priest in catholic confessional, you know that he’s not going to tell anyone else. We go and meet people who will never see us again. We don’t live in their town. In a way they feel comfortable to share stuff with us… There is just a magic that happens. One guy who tried to commit suicide told us stuff that he never even told top his parents…. He knew it was on camera, but it just came out. We are often surprised at what the interview becomes about; like we may have thought it was about gardening, but it was actually about something that else that they may be struggling with.

TAT: Do you think you guys would be doing this if you didn’t have each other to do it with; if it wasn’t a team effort?

M: Often I’ll go out and do the filming, and then I just dump all the footage, and the two hour conversation, or however long it is, with Justine and I walk off and go onto the next film. Then Justine will listen through the whole thing and say, “I think the story should be about this,” then work on the edit. There’s no way that one of us could do this alone. It is a team effort completely. Justine and Jackie, when they do the final edit, they decide on what the story should be. We could make four different stories from one film, but it goes according to what resonates with them, and it’s not for me as the camera man to say, “I think it should be about this.” We allow other people to decide on what they find. I can’t predict what might happen if something happened to one of us. I would hope that that the project is bigger than us and even if something happened to us, somehow it could continue somewhere else, or it could inspire other people to do similar work.

The Interview is Continued in Part 2

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.