Metamorphosis: A Visual Poem for a Wounded Planet

An amazing documentary with no preaching and no talking-heads. 

The subtitle truly captures it: It's poetry in shots so a big screen is a must to enjoy and soak it in deeply! I am so glad that I got to see it in Victoria where nature is loved and respected. My own small acts of recycling in life and other contributions to our patient planet felt empowered by the art of documentary making. Best of luck to Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper in their next project on refugees. Maybe we'll cross-path!

 

June 18, 2018 

by Katy Weicker, staff writer for http://www.nexusnewspaper.com

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Filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper got inspiration for their new film Metamorphosis from wanting to create a poetic love letter to a planet rocked by climate change. Ami says it all started just over four years ago when Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, killing over 6,000 people. Due to her close connection with the country, Ami couldn’t help but be affected by the tragedy.

“It really got us thinking,” says Ami. “We started talking about how an event like that could change somebody. That led to questions about how humanity is changing as a result of this climate crisis that we’ve created. So then we started talking about, ‘How do we deal with change? How do we adapt? How do we resist change? And how do we move through it?’ That really became the catalyst for Metamorphosis.” 

The filming of Metamorphosis took the couple around the world to film various effects of climate change in California, Mexico, Milan and beyond. Their now three-year-old son, Phoenix, who was born during production, accompanied them on their travels. The family hit the road to film in Vanuatu when Phoenix was four months old—an experience the couple admits was both challenging and inspiring.

“We carried him on our bodies when we filmed, and it was a really wonderful experience to be able to make a movie, especially Metamorphosis, with a baby,” says Ami. “It really reminded us of our mission. We also questioned what our role was as parents as well as filmmakers in terms of, ‘How do we protect him for what’s coming next?’ And also, he’s a symbol of hope for us and for the future.”

Another symbol close to the couple’s hearts is the butterfly—a metaphor used throughout the film. In their journey to capture the evolution of the creature, Ami and Ripper found their family of three at El Rosario monarch butterfly sanctuary in Mexico, an experience Ami says was life changing.

“To be immersed in that environment with millions of butterflies waking up and sleeping… Just to see where they rest, it was really quite a magical experience,” says Ami.

Ripper echoes her sentiment, recalling a moment when Ami was holding a then-one-year-old Phoenix in her arms. The child slept in his mother’s arms, both cocooned in a blanket of butterflies.

“At one point a butterfly landed on his nose and he woke up,” says Ripper. “The look of wonder in his eyes captured the beauty in the natural world.”

Metamorphosis4:45 pm and 7 pm Sunday, June 24 (filmmakers in attendance)
cinecenta.com

Hanging out with Septuagenarians

It wasn’t planned at all. Before I knew it, I crossed paths and built friendly relationships with people aged 70+. Initially, it felt a bit unusual to be befriended with people of my parents’ age (not to have peers around, physically) especially after living in Berkeley where a hyper-invigorated youth who are swerving between breakdowns and ecstasy 24/7, experiencing the world’s highest possible competitions in campus setting and job market. Although the Bay Area and Silicon Valley setting might sound pretty exciting for the adrenalin-addicts, it cannot be good for one’s psyche or overall health in the long run. I highly doubt that scheduling mini-sessions of mindfulness workshops, yoga retreats or other spiritual practices in one’s busy life are doing any good. In fact, it is probably confusing the body due to the opposite signals that the body keeps receiving all the time: party hard, work hard, signup for the Burning Man, check out the latest vegan and cannabis clubs of SF, always think positive and keep the action and fashion going etc).

There is also the middle-age adult crowd who are trying to adapt to the vibrations of the Bay Area youth, especially single tech guys or the partners and the parents/in-laws of the married tech-guys whose working partners/sons/daughters are hardly visible to them during the weekdays. But I won’t go into them since I know that my observations will verge on being cynical whereas this essay is about wellness, in the true sense of it as far as I have observed in the past 3-4 years in the same individuals whom I became friends with both in New Mexico and the Bay Area: Let’s call them Fab-7 (fabulous seventies and on).

Their background differs immensely: from the racist southern state families to violent family members, to awful eating habits, years spent in NY or other big cities (Istanbul included). Rich or middle-class with college education, usually more than 2-3 siblings etc. In short: Don’t put the blame on your family history for who you or your body have become. Clearly, phoenix is more than a mythological bird! If you have seen only a few videos of the wonderful Prof. Neil Barnard, you know what I mean by this. He always jokes about his place of birth (Fargo!) and their eating habits.

The Fab-7s current life styles are amazingly similar, and that is what matters:

Most  live in nature, not in cities (by choice), they have a deep connection to plants and animals which makes their vegetarianism and recycling more than just fashionable, politically correct and cool. They have become relatively wealthy after their thirties if not earlier so currently, they don’t worry about poverty. They feel each & every aspect of their oneness with the universe and EACH of them has created or ‘learned’ one language or another to express it in their spiritual roots and practices: Be it in Pantheism, Buddhism, Shamanism or Islam. The ONE-ness with the universe, each and all being. Along with this strong spiritual connection comes the belief that your body is a gift like all other creations of the nature. A gift needs to be respected, cherished and taken care of. There comes their diet and exercise habits. Eating healthy, simple yet ritualistic (no fast food,  packed and microwavable stuff can be ritualistic)  becomes a form of maintaining the gift (body) and keep it as long as it lasts. This approach makes one content and in peace, and you want to do more and more regardless of what diet trends comes and goes.

They quit drinking coffee long time ago simply because it no longer agrees with them (sleep or palpitation, very common among elders). They are okay with green or herbal teas. No processed sugar, no alcohol. Most of them are going along with the gluten-free trend since the products are available almost everywhere in the States. I don’t know what they do when they travel abroad but I imagine it being challenging.  

They are great travelers. 1. Because they are healthy, 2. They are very eager to learn and be a life-long student, almost with a child’s curiosity but they are not nomads. They are very conscious about their habitat/house and they care a lot about it: they own one house in a clean, quiet neighborhood in nature, and always with a garden. The size differs greatly though.

Their positive attitude is not without care or concern about the world matters. In fact, quite the opposite. They read a lot, they meet new people, and they travel SO they are aware of what is going on in the world. BUT they created their haven (or heaven) on earth so they realistically know that the only way to contribute to the world affairs is in moderation: Donations to people or NGOs, writing letters, going to community meetings, voting, recycling, helping poor students etc. the whole time knowing that unless they themselves are healthy in body and mind, they can’t really contribute much. and writing a check is not necessarily the way to feel content about “contributing the world.” There needs to be a human connection, a face, some real interaction btw people.

They mostly do what they preach: In other words, in the years that I have been friends with them, I have not encountered contradictions or hypocrisies in their actions. They have enough sense of humor to point out their own conflicting actions and are comfortable joking about them. Of course, these small things are okay to joke about. They drive electric or hybrid cars so that they can joke about driving but at least they are not contributing to the fuel consumption or wars on oil!

They are physically active but they do it with pleasure or with a spiritual perspective: there is a big difference between them and the people who are trudging themselves to the gyms or Pilates studios just because some experts told them that ‘it is good for you’ and keep the body going.  Like going to church on Sundays to please others but also hope that it indeed is good for you if there is an afterlife.

No, the Fab-7s physical activities are fun and spiritually fulfilling too. The big combo menu: the Physical needs to be Spiritually satisfying. Ask them the details😊 but what I have observed is either the pet-combo (training a dog or even a horse, or watching birds, keeping the ‘learning’ going somehow?) or walk ritualistically (observing God’s creations in a constant state of genuine gratitude so it comes a worship, not a sport!)

Family-Friends: I am not sure about their family bonds BUT I believe they do their best to keep them based on our conversations. Some of the Fab-7s are/have been rebels in one way or another at some points in their lives but all experienced love. I don’t know much about their families or other friends so I need to skip this part which most longevity experts highlight repeatedly. 

To conclude, I am impressed with their passion to live a quality life with a series of satisfactory activities, to travel, to welcome new people and ideas, and to lead a healthy diet that discarded any heavy food or sugar (or anything that contains sugar). In Turkey, we have a celebrity professor, Canan Karatay, also a proud septuagenarian. She is our female Dr. Oz, a role model for millions despite the harsh criticisms from the others (they’re jealous!) I hope I will meet her one day, give her a hug, and share with her the miracles of my quitting sugar in my body. May God keep her energy along with the other members of my international Fab-7 Club!

Importance of Community and Perseverance While Riding on the PhD Boat

Published by The International Auto/Biography Association, January 15, 2018 SNS Network

 

Ozlem Ezer writes of her experiences of both the PhD process and the post-submission period in Canada, the US, Cyprus, and Sweden, stressing the usefulness of supportive communities in these two periods. Describing her journey through the PhD and “across the void,” she explains that it is okay to stop, to take breaks, to experiment, and to realize in the process what works best for you. 


Let me be clear: I have been skeptical about “support groups” since watching Fight Club (1999) and laughing out loud. I started my PhD at York University (Toronto) in Fall 2002 and became increasingly involved in North American society since then, only to find out that support groups were really part of this culture and their extent still surpassed my imagination. In 2004, my partner and I moved to Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, where he began his full-time academic post at a community college. We didn’t know anybody in the area. I lost my York-based feminist academic circle and felt like a fish out of water. In fact, I remember coming up with a penguin metaphor in my diary. York was the sea, where I could swim fast (I finished my course work and comprehensive exams all in one year), but I was wobbling like a penguin on land in Naperville. One day, I received an email about an ABD [all-but-dissertation] support group, whose members are writing their dissertations in gender and women’s studies programs. I remembered Fight Club. I can’t recall the reasons but the support group wasn’t formed or gathered regularly. However, Michelle Morkert, a young, bright feminist ABD reached out to me, and drove to Naperville to meet me in a coffee shop called Arbor Vitae (Tree of Life), where our friendship began. Her presence and our conversations meant a lot, and made me realize how crucial it was to have people who share the similar experiences with you. We built a strong bond despite the years and we both believe in the significance of women’s support of each other in academia as well as in other fields of life.



Every PhD student has a different story and I can’t tell how typical mine is. Losing my network as an ABD caused me frustration and anxiety. Had I stayed for one or two more years at York, I might not have experienced the alienation  I had toward the whole PhD process because I would be nourished by many academic events, hang out with like-minded people and learn more. Then again, I was never fully comfortable with the idea of becoming an academic in the first place. I love teaching, writing, and research. However, I didn’t enjoy teaching full-time because the workload (three or four courses per term) didn’t allow me to enjoy the privileges of research and writing.

In my third year, I made the difficult decision to write a letter to my committee at York, asking them to pardon me for my desire to quit the program. I had decided to move to Cyprus after securing a full-time English-Language Teaching position at a prestigious university.  My first year didn’t allow me to think of anything but work and to explore the island’s culture and natural beauties. However, my post was more demanding than the faculty’s in terms of teaching hours and it paid less. Along with  pressure by loved ones, my family in particular, this gap between the lives and the working conditions of language instructors and faculty affected my decision to return to my dissertation after a two-year break. In Cyprus, I had a supportive group of colleagues, who were language instructors themselves, and who kept me motivated during my writing process. I spent evenings and weekends working on my dissertation while teaching fulltime. Without the Internet/technology, this would have been impossible. My committee was very detail-oriented and demanded many revisions, more than I want to remember. During the last semester before the defense, I took a leave from teaching. This period was helpful for dealing with the stress and the logistics.

The keys to completing a dissertation are discipline, patience, and concentration. Having applied these three rules carried me to the happy ending. If you have faith and an ambitious plan of getting a tenure-track position in two years, that’s also great. However, I have an ongoing skepticism of people who attribute too much to the PhD process. There is no denying that it is a long and valuable learning experience, which includes coursework, proposal writing, and two rigorous exams, known as “comps,” before you are allowed to write a dissertation in the North American system.

Despite the above, not putting too much weight on it, perceiving it as just another step in the journey of life, was what allowed me to complete it. Ironically, before I defended my thesis, I was awarded a generous post-doctoral fellowship in Sweden. I remember accepting it very cautiously, keeping in mind that my committee members were very meticulous and the external examiner flying to Toronto for my defense might give me a difficult time. When I defended my thesis and flew directly to Stockholm in December 2010, I felt relief more than anything. My advisor was right: “The best dissertation is the completed one” (something which I kept quoting to many ABDs and also to MA students of the university where I taught). I still can’t believe that in Sweden, I immediately began transforming my dissertation into a book published in Turkey, which I finished in five months. I was very motivated by the fact that a Scandinavian university afforded me this opportunity to focus on writing. As I returned to Cyprus, I was re-appointed as faculty thanks to my new title (an absolute must in their system) so it was rewarding.

Currently, I am working efficiently on the topics I want to write about, which is about Syrian refugee women’s life stories and how stereotypes can be challenged through them. I need to repeat that everyone’s experience with and attitude toward a PhD completion is different. I don’t know where I will be located in the long run (I am currently a visiting scholar at Berkeley), but I have freedom of speech, time to think, to write, and to read, and these are the most precious fundamentals for an intellectual. In an ideal world, I would argue that the same essentials should be provided for graduate students as well. This might mean one or two terms that are still funded but without the tasks of teaching assistants.

This person whom I called an intellectual doesn’t have to be located in academia, but having a PhD definitely makes that person’s life easier when it comes to holding posts in, or receiving invitations from, academia. My advice, if I may give it, is to invest the time and discipline into your doctorate but not overstrain yourself because of it. Balance real life, nature, and academia.  Keep exercising and lead a healthy life even when you are going through the final stages of it. I hear too many excuses for skipping healthy meals or exercise because of the dissertation (sounds familiar?). I’d argue strongly that especially during those stressful times, pre- or post-defense, you need to take care of your body since it’s inseparable from your mental health.  Just remember the cliché metaphor of giving birth whenever one finishes a manuscript after working on it for months if not years. Hold on to this metaphor and now consider how careful pregnant women are from the very first day they learn they are going to have a baby. Contrarily, we (well, most of us) writers and researchers do the opposite during our intellectual pregnancy. We shouldn’t if we want the baby in full form and with the least trouble after it is born.

Discipline, patience, and having a supportive community and partner helped me throughout my PhD journey. Ups and downs were inevitable, but there is light and life at the end of the tunnel, and you will not regret crossing it.

An Open Letter to the PhD Candidates or Graduate Students across the U.S.

After a pleasant conversation with the author and philanthropist Sallie Bingham at Mable Dodge Luhan House in March, one particular topic stood out for me as a blog-entry or e-letter in order to inspire field studies in social sciences about the school shootings in the U.S., which seems quite a unique and unfortunate phenomenon in contrast to the rest of the world. The burning question which surprisingly remained unstudied as far as my online library research showed was: “Where are the fathers?” Ms Bingham wrote: 

“I wonder in the latest school shooting where that young man’s father is—or was. Only the mother is mentioned, implying that she alone was responsible for teaching this tormented soul how to be a man. And she died—mercifully for her—before he committed his crime. (…) In all the school shootings I remember, the murderer is being raised by a single mother. No uncles, no grandfather—and, most crucially, no father. These separations are often caused by spousal abuse, and so the disappearance of the fathers is another terrible consequence of this wildfire problem.”

https://salliebingham.com/guns/

Bingham argues that fathers are the only ones who can possibly transmit a radically new formula for manhood, not defined by violence or even success, and adds that they must assume the responsibility for revising the myth of masculinity.  I am all for collaboration though. Mothers can contribute by not admiring or complimenting the characters of the outlaw and the criminal in real life or in fiction/movies etc. as she also hints. Maybe they should shake the myth of unconditional maternal love and try keeping a distance from their sons when the sons display macho behavior.

For the record, dear researchers and graduate students, please consider a non-conservative perspective on the issue which won’t glorify the importance of the institution or sanctity of marriage or condemn same-sex marriages. I have found few articles on this specific issue but I will not post a Fox-news clip (“Missing fathers and America’s broken boys”) on my blog. Instead check out the following for sound approaches, impressions, and warnings on several major themes in life and in our society.

https://salliebingham.com