The Sacred Puzzle

Happy New Year!

Name Days celebrate the name with which other human beings, no different than you and I, come to recognize and name their contribution to a shared reality. This past Saturday, January 6th, was my Name Day. It is my favorite time of the year, one of deep retrospection and gratitude. While I cannot include all the wonderful humans who enriched and continue to inspire my life, here are a few glimpse of the year that was and what that meant in a clockwise story following the photo collage. Some more photo updates after that…

No endeavor would be possible without adapting an attitude of playfulness. Immersed in Life you get muddy, your concerns magically turn into solutions. Your anchor is your family. You grow because of who they are, you grow because of how deeply they root for you. Their smiles elevate your game. When your game happens to be searching for meaning through a film camera you soon come to realize you are just another Action! of a sacred puzzle.

A handshake in the old word meant an unbreakable bond. Destiny gifted me such a handshake. A creative bond which birthed my fifth documentary. A vision for cinema which took me to my homeland to work with many kindred spirits who make movies there just as we do here...

The clockwise journey continues through the number 8, which happens to be 2024, in a classroom where the next generation of thinkers await the manifestation of your passionate heart.

The year ahead takes me back to Dublin where I happened upon the words of poet Kerry Hardie:

"To remember in a time of forgetting..."

Thank you all for helping me remember, on this day, who I truly am!

Now to some updates in text and photo

First and foremost, Happy New Year! Be blessed, be brave, move in faith, rise through inspiration and SMILE.

Since my last newsletter on December 2nd so much transpired...

DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES

We completed successfully principal photography on the feature film “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” The director, who wishes to remain anonymous still, is hard at work editing the film. We plan to have it completed by July.

At one point the cops tried to haul the producer off the set, but they were laughing and I realized they were just actors…

Bulgarian Christams Concert & BANSKI STARCHETA

Once upon a time I used to act. It was way back then, when I attended acting school in the late 90s. Three days after returning from Bulgaria, on Saturday, December 9th, was my first time back on the stage in a grand fashion. It was the annual Bulgarian Christmas Concert in Seattle and my teeth tingled from being nervous.

Dress rehearsal on Thursday was a disaster. I stayed up into the wee hours writing down text variations and practicing. Tech rehearsal on Friday was better. BTW, I had a chance to design the stage lighting which left me creatively charged. When the big day came and the "curtain" rose, all nervousness evaporated, my teeth stopped tingling, the words came naturally. It was magic, it was joy, pure celebration of our culture. Every moment will stay with me forever, but the biggest highlight was bringing my step-daughter on stage who was five when she started to dance with Radost Ensemble under Sidney Deering.

Sharing the stage with master musicians Banski Starcheta was a dream come true. I spent a week with them singing and filmed them for my film “There” back in 2018. Thursday after the concert we flew to LA where they made another concert appearance and we improvised a music video.

We plan a one week summer camp for fathers and sons to bond and learn their style of singing! We will share more information here.

Another favorite moment was the photo bellow…

SPOKE

While in LA I spent two days working on my new documentary “Spoke”. Editor Fred Beahm and I worked first in 2010. I had some fun taking a few photos for him. We lit him with my phone and the brightness turned to the max on the monitor.

I am currently doing a pass of the film in a healthy obsession fine tuning the visual structure. If you try to reach me, please be patient since I turn my phone off for long periods of time and editing continues as I lay in bed or take a walk with the dog.

I WATCHED a doc on Netflix “American Symphony.” It’s a wonderful, wonderful film to experience with the family! This year we will spice up things here with some anonymous polls…

Here is to a beautiful 2024! May we navigate the puzzle in the most sacred and harmonious way possible. Thanks for sharing this space with me!

Bogdan