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One early spring morning in my Philosophy and Literature class, I was calmly trying to awaken myself to greet the morning’s gray slideshow of rain clouds when suddenly I heard a question. It was a simple question, read during the morning announcements. What is your life purpose? The answer seems impossible to find, but for some, it is a mission statement. Thus, my exposition is this: From the age of eight years old I have known that my life purpose is to change the world through the power of cinema.
I believe that cinema is a huge force in our world today. Cinema changes lives. Everyone has been inspired, moved, touched, and brought to joy and sadness at the movies. Movies change thoughts. They change emotions. They have the power to alter your life and the lives of others in need. I don’t do drugs because of the movie Requiem for a Dream. When I don’t have enough endorphins in my brain, I put on a film that helps me release my emotions and heal myself.
This is the path that I seek: the path of truth, told through an illusion of moving pictures. We all know that society doesn’t like the cold, hard truth. Most people are not willing to look behind the camera. Through cinema, subtle messages of truth, beauty, and wisdom can be revealed. This is how I have decided I will change the world.
My collage incorporates my passion for film and my hunger to change the world by placing a golden-tinged camera, flowing and blossoming with ribbons and flowers, in the center of our earth. I imagine the ribbons as strips of film, a medium that ripples and thrives. The film is running out into the universe, sending thoughts of truth and goodness intertwined with the alluring beauty of the moving picture itself. Behind the earth, I placed on a red om, but you can only glimpse the edges of it. If you are not familiar with the insignia of om, the holy vibration that begot the universe in the Hindu religion, it looks somewhat like a three with a curved hook on the right and a dash near the top. I used this symbol as a metaphor of truth and beauty, as well as subtlety.
I feel that through my collage I have presented my mission statement: I was born to be a filmmaker. My passion is undying for the art of the moving picture, and nearly everything I do somehow relates, in the long run, to creating the kind of film that changes people’s hearts and minds. Yet, I am at peace with my chosen path, and I do not look down on others who have not found their own. I sincerely hope that one day you will view one of my films and it touches your soul. If it does, then I have fulfilled my life purpose.