Every artist has an influence or a number of influences. I’ve always felt that I have a poetic spirit—maybe its my romantic Italian roots, but with experience I see my art going in the direction of the understanding of the soul and the meaning of humanity. So its no surprise that two artists I greatly admire are Leonard Cohen and Wong Kar-Wai.
I will write two entries one dedicated to the world’s best known poet, Leonard Cohen and one dedicated to cinema’s best know poet Wong Kar-Wai.
Maybe I feel a special connection to Leonard Cohen because he is a fellow Montreal native. Maybe its because, deep down, his words, both in songs and on paper, bring such vivid imagery to mind. I first discovered Leonard Cohen in my mid-teens just as he was releasing his album The Future. I has known of Cohen, but never experienced his work first hand until I bought the album. I was blown away by every aspect of The Future. When I entered college, there was a plaque commemorating Cohen. I had a number of professors who had known Cohen—at the time they had lost touch with him because he had gone into seclusion to become a Zen Buddhist monk.
Cohen’s work is marked by themes of love, sex, religion, psychological depression. Most music, of course, is about these things. But the way Cohen writes and presents them is much deeper and more complex. He is a story teller as much as a poet. He, like all writers, writes about what he knows and what he has experienced. He knows heartbreak, from his many relationships and affairs—including one with Janice Joplin. He knows about depression—true psychological and unsentimental depression. He suffers from chronic depression, though less so in his old age. His early work is marred with references to suicide and loneliness—his later work is less depressed, however has many references to social justice to the chaos that fills life of most American and North American cities.
I can relate to a lot of his references, almost six years ago while in post production of my second film Truant Café I suffered through a depression. While recovering, I was commissioned to produce a TV pilot for LIFE Network. While making the pilot, I almost slipped back into my depression because I was under an enormous amount of pressure and severely tight deadline. Humanity was slipping away and I did not like the person I had become. Worst of all, I was no longer having fun with my productions—I think the fun stopped when I was working on Truant Café, I was obsessed with success. Like Leonard Cohen said: “Life got a whole lot easier when I no longer expected to win.” His comment, full of joy and lamentation, which can only come from him, can best describe where I am now in my life. I want to explore the human soul. I want to explore the things that made me depressed and the things that remove joy from people’s lives. I want to explore the dark places people hide their worst thoughts. Why do people hurt each other when they know what pain does? Why do people lie when they know it is futile? Are humans foolish or innocent? Why are we frightened to admit we’re lost? My hope, is that Ashita explores some these questions and provides its own unique perspective on them.
Thank you Mr. Cohen.
I will write two entries one dedicated to the world’s best known poet, Leonard Cohen and one dedicated to cinema’s best know poet Wong Kar-Wai.
Maybe I feel a special connection to Leonard Cohen because he is a fellow Montreal native. Maybe its because, deep down, his words, both in songs and on paper, bring such vivid imagery to mind. I first discovered Leonard Cohen in my mid-teens just as he was releasing his album The Future. I has known of Cohen, but never experienced his work first hand until I bought the album. I was blown away by every aspect of The Future. When I entered college, there was a plaque commemorating Cohen. I had a number of professors who had known Cohen—at the time they had lost touch with him because he had gone into seclusion to become a Zen Buddhist monk.
Cohen’s work is marked by themes of love, sex, religion, psychological depression. Most music, of course, is about these things. But the way Cohen writes and presents them is much deeper and more complex. He is a story teller as much as a poet. He, like all writers, writes about what he knows and what he has experienced. He knows heartbreak, from his many relationships and affairs—including one with Janice Joplin. He knows about depression—true psychological and unsentimental depression. He suffers from chronic depression, though less so in his old age. His early work is marred with references to suicide and loneliness—his later work is less depressed, however has many references to social justice to the chaos that fills life of most American and North American cities.
I can relate to a lot of his references, almost six years ago while in post production of my second film Truant Café I suffered through a depression. While recovering, I was commissioned to produce a TV pilot for LIFE Network. While making the pilot, I almost slipped back into my depression because I was under an enormous amount of pressure and severely tight deadline. Humanity was slipping away and I did not like the person I had become. Worst of all, I was no longer having fun with my productions—I think the fun stopped when I was working on Truant Café, I was obsessed with success. Like Leonard Cohen said: “Life got a whole lot easier when I no longer expected to win.” His comment, full of joy and lamentation, which can only come from him, can best describe where I am now in my life. I want to explore the human soul. I want to explore the things that made me depressed and the things that remove joy from people’s lives. I want to explore the dark places people hide their worst thoughts. Why do people hurt each other when they know what pain does? Why do people lie when they know it is futile? Are humans foolish or innocent? Why are we frightened to admit we’re lost? My hope, is that Ashita explores some these questions and provides its own unique perspective on them.
Thank you Mr. Cohen.
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