Cinema
_I: We build our home from painting, music, literature (along with poetry), sculpture, dance and architecture. What art do we have left?
_AM: The Seventh Art.
_I: Cinema…
_AM: Which means “movement” in Greek (kiné), it is the last of the fine arts to appear, the most recent and the only one that is contemporary, since it was not experienced at any other historical moment, unlike the other arts. . That is why it could lead us to the controversy of whether it is really part of the Fine Arts, although there is no doubt that it is an art extended today to the hands of each individual with a filming device.
_I: Personally, I adore this art, being able to bring to living images, with movement, the ideas that only exist in the imagination, thus allowing us to project thoughts, emotions, sensations, messages and entertainment...
_AM: It is clear that it is one of the most direct forms of communication of this time.
_I: Why do we talk about Cinema in the Ankle chakra and not in the Eyes?
_AM: Because cinema is movement, and it is forward projection. The main idea is to put ideas into action and mobilize a person to live their dreams. Cinema is made up of projections, that is, launching forward (pro-jectare), it is a visual literature that mobilizes people internally, and in several cases, externally. Today, cinema is the most widespread art and the one that reaches the most people, so it is a window to the past, the present, and above all, to the future, where we can see the ideas of what is to come, expose the problems to be solved.
_I: Cinema manages to launch us into the future…
_AM: That's right.
_I: And what is its past? To understand the future…
_AM: The idea of putting moving images was designed in both France and the United States. In the latter case, it was Thomas Edison who created something called a “kinetoscope,” a machine that, like a kind of microscope or telescope, by placing your eyes over a viewfinder and turning a crank, you could see images move in a circle that gave the appearance of having movement. But the real image of cinema was originated by two brothers named Lumière, sons of a photographer from Paris, who managed to generate a roll with a succession of photographs taken within a short period of time of the same situation, which, being placed consecutively on a roll that was rotated rapidly in front of a light source, the images could be seen projected on a wall in apparent movement.
_I: Ingenious…
_AM: The first screening took place in a small bar in Paris, in December 1895, where very few people attended, distrusting what it could be. But it didn't take even a day for the word to spread until having to perform consecutive performances, with long lines, just to see soundless projections of everyday images without narrative. Although the Lumière brothers believed that this would have no practical future, word spread throughout Europe, even crossing to the Americas. In the United States, several interested parties proposed making the so-called “cinematograph” cross the ocean. It became popular, having thousands of spectators who watched everyday images, and an enemy...
_I: Edison, sure.
_AM: That's right.
_I: When isn’t he? This man who was previously an idol in the history books, has become the villain of the movie today now that all his business and economic tricks are known to keep all the rights, leaving several inventors, like Tesla, in trouble, poverty and being awarded their patents…
_AM: It was a natural struggle in a constantly developing world. Suddenly, there were a lot of people doing a lot of interesting things, and those who had a little power couldn't tolerate so much competition. Cinema spread throughout New York and the east coast of the United States, generating several film producers, until Thomas Edison decided to mount a legal persecution against all of them. This made all the producers decide to move away from Edison's jurisdiction, all moving to the recently pacified west coast, where in a small town called Hollywood (sacred wood), they founded the first film companies, near the Mexican border, to be able to escape the law in case Edison came after them.
_I: So Hollywood and its almost magical greatness arose from people escaping the law and Edison's persecution... I can't believe it, haha.
_AM: Every darkness has its light. And Edison's lights lit stars on Earth. At first, cinema did not have an artistic objective, but rather an economic one. It was the only means of communication capable of reaching the thousands of immigrants who arrived in the States without knowing English, which is why it became a very important means of propaganda. Economy and Politics were key for those who directed this still unrecognized art. The actors and actresses were all white, Caucasian, and considered permanent employees of the production companies, which meant that the same actors were constantly seen designing the Star System, the birth of the Hollywood idiosyncrasy. But with the expansion of cinema, actors began to come together to represent each other and defend their rights. This awakened the spirit of cinema as art, directed by those who thought artistically, not by those who wanted to sell, but to show, to tell stories.
_I: Awaken the soul of cinema.
_AM: Exactly. Literature began to move to the screen, and theater began to be projected. By adding these two arts, the first styles of cinema emerged, which would soon diversify, when the first color film was made in London, which brought the art of painting to the big screen. At this time it was necessary to paint each of the frames by hand, as was done in the first exhibition with sound, at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Although it would not be until 1927, when finally, after arrangements by the engineer Forest to the adaptation of sound recording on the same tape, that Warner Brothers would make talkies famous, which would put an end to silent films, incorporating the art of music into projection. Dance, scenography with its architecture, all the arts were useful in the development of this Seventh Art that integrated all the others, unifying artists and engineers from all areas.
_I: That's why I find it fascinating, because it's the way the world can look at all types of art. Since I was little I always saw all my memories in the form of movies, I always saw myself designing these movies for the world, and I always knew that in some way or another, my stories would be seen one day on the big screen. Because I like a bit of all the arts, I always considered that one of the areas in which I would have liked to work if I had not done what I do would have been cinema.
_AM: And it almost was like that.
_I: Yes… Almost… And all unintentionally. In 2017, after my considered failure of the path of the Dragon in which I entered a huge depression that led me to a month of autistic state, the day I said: “I put myself at the disposal of the Universe, because my will has not been worth it.” , I received a call from an actor who had worked in a Hollywood movie. He told me that he wanted to find a way to tell my story, but in his own way. For this, he introduced me to an Argentine producer, with whom I set out to live various adventures. He asked me to write a movie idea, and I wrote a script, almost finished. Another famous producer from Argentina said that it lacked arrangements, but that it was very original content, although more typical of Hollywood. The problem was to attract the attention of such giants, so we finally decided to make a Documentary Film. I called it “The Rememberer,” and in it I would introduce the philosophy of my memories and my history as I remembered it. Filming it for me was a pleasure. Seeing the cameramen how they worked, the logistics, the direction, the production, the sound... And, although it was not a large production with actors or scenery or scenic art, there was camera art, photography, and I was like " actor” at all times. In any case, most of the things recorded were in moments when I was in a very different mood than the performance, perhaps, connecting, talking to myself, moments when I really never knew they were there recording me. The material was so much that they were even able to make a Documentary Series with it. As excited as I was about everything, there was something that kept me uncomfortable.
_AM: What?
_I: Exposing myself to the world in this way, almost as if I were acting. It was difficult to determine if it was a documentary narrated in first person, or science fiction. In fact they couldn't catalog it. One moment, on Mount Tabor, Israel, I had a moment of losing strength at this, and I told myself that I didn't want to continue. I sat in the forest, next to a cow that was grazing, and I could feel the presence of a teacher in front of me. I told him: “I don't know if I'm willing to expose my life like this, as if I were a fairground clown.” To which the teacher responded: “What you are today is not real. You do not exist, Matías is a tool for your mission. Detach yourself from the idea of believing that it is your life that you expose, when it was you who designed this life as a tool of exposure.
_AM: Sure…
_I: At that moment I understood that Matías is ephemeral, that he is a tool, he is a mask. He told me: “You were the producer of this life, the director of your actions, the scriptwriter of your story. Your eyes are the cameras that show your path, your imagination is the direction of photography. Your body is the costume art that covers the actor that lies in your personality. You are the editor of your reality, the art director who manifests the scenography, you are the creative who proposes new routes of narrative or image, the writer of your own destiny. So don’t be afraid to act in your own movie.” That reminded me of this image: “When you have an awakening of consciousness and you realize that you are everything.”
_AM: Because that's how it is. Life is art, and that art arises from the observing mind that projects itself to be able to take action on what it has written through vibration through time and space. You produce your own performance, and within you have the ability to be creative, writer and director of this reality. Life is like a big film set on which each individual acts. Try to imagine your life as if it were being filmed, with soundtracks in the background. You are a character in the story you have written. Restricting the artistic potential of your personality out of fear is what prevents you from living the movie of your life, and it ends up being simply one of the Lumière brothers' first films: a simple recording of data from an everyday and monotonous act.
_I: At that moment I understood that I could give more, that many stories live in me, that should be told, and that my personality is just a tool in motion, in the cinema that is life. And I prepared to be registered. This generated a beautiful documentary that I deeply appreciate. The one-hour film was shown in several theaters, and the 13-episode documentary was purchased by National Geographic, where it was broadcast in several Latin American countries. This generated a lot of excitement, leading us to sit down with Disney Latin America in Miami. Disney wanted to present my stories from Atlantis, tell my memories of other lives in an epic way... But something happened: not only did they want to tell it their own way, but there were interests behind it that I didn't like at all. Beyond the fact that cinema has managed to become an art, producers are still, in a way, businessmen who must sell an idea and buy everything. This made me discover situations that I didn't like at all, in which, due to Disney's interest in me, the producer of my own documentary did things behind my back, lying to all of us in terms of rights, contracts and things that I didn't understand. Upon hearing this, I closed the door. I don't want to be lied to, and what I do, I do it because I like it, I have fun, for art, to tell a story, and not to belong. So, in a subtle and kind way I could say, “I sent everyone home,” and I went to mine. Cinema ended there for me. At least for now.
_AM: The stories had to be established in the same way as their writer and main actor. You. There was another story to deal with first, for which you had to expose yourself: this Path.
_I: Yes… the IAM…
_AM: This path will give you the energy for everything else. Exposed every day to a camera that films your discursive “performance,” living a constant movie with thousands of spectators, you recognize yourself as the producer, director and artist of your own reality.
_I: Understanding life as a film, as a work of art being recorded, helps us understand that what we live is not a question of survival, but of transcendence, of understanding ourselves as actors of reality, directors of destiny, producers of our existence.
_AM: The seventh art builds the future from the projection of a narrative. Observe yourself living your own movie, remember, imagine, when and how you wrote the script of what you live. Discover the style you want to give to this filming, take the reins of directing your stories, learn to direct your artistic personality, awakening the talent to live the adventures that arise in your life.
_I: I recognize myself as the Star of my existence.
_AM: Awaken the Soul. Shine, and get moving.
_I: I am ready.
_AM: Light, Camera… Action!