'The music is all around us..."

Family and Film

Greetings, friends and fellow storytellers. It is autumn again, and the holidays are approaching—whether with excitement or trepidation, they're coming fast. It makes me reflect on the threads that hold us all together—family, friends, acquaintances—all important and all fragile. Especially nowadays, when we so often feel we must tiptoe around one another. So I’d like to talk about how we don’t all have to be the same—we can be very different and it can still work—and the magic and power of cinema.

Movies and Music Unity:

Each Instrument, Each VoiceImagine an orchestra tuning before a performance: the plaintive call of the violins, the jovial breath of French horns, the thunder of

timpani—all striking their notes in seeming disarray. Then, quite suddenly, through mutual respect, these disparate sounds find each other, becoming the sum of all possibility. E pluribus unum: from many, one.

The Universal Orchestra: Each Instrument, Each Voice

It’s a metaphor fit not only for music, but for filmmaking and every gathering of souls. It’s tempting to wish that others would simply echo our own melody, to stifle difference in the name of ease. Yet we are not alone, and the good thing about that is we are not alone. In a world increasingly divided by grievances and misunderstandings—where differences of opinion, habit, or heritage too often ignite dissension—let’s appreciate our commonalities.

Family—whether inherited or chosen—is not a chorus of uniform voices. Every member has their place, their tempo, their unique timbre. The richest symphonies are those that honor the orchestra as well as the soloist. It’s the same with making a film—and even seeing a movie.

Unity Through Storytelling

Independent filmmaking is, as John Hammond says in Jurassic Park, “an act of sheer will.” Everyone has to be on the same team.

Our latest film, The Psychodynamics of Modern Theories of Acting, is all about finding family. It’s the story of a woman searching for her real father, and of two people searching for honesty—which ultimately brings them closer. In Foley Marra Studios, we try to make our studio very much like a family, and we find genuine connection through filmmaking. We’re a group of passionate, strong-minded individuals. That passion, those strong-willed personalities could easily splinter the group—but we’ve all agreed that none of us has to be right; all of us have to make the best film we can. In a sense, we hear each other’s music.

An Invitation to Make Harmony

It’s an old ritual, quietly observed: a dark room, a shared bowl of popcorn, the hush before the opening credits—the power of a movie night tradition to bring us closer together. Let film be your invitation. Consider the possibility that there’s a bridge to unity with someone you may have lost touch with, or perhaps someone you share a disagreement with—a sibling, a parent, a friend. “Come over and watch a movie” can be that bridge.

Our shared humanity is music; it is a symphony. And as August Rush reminds us, “The music is all around us; all you have to do is listen.”