this is love: it makes you better

Earlier today if you would have asked me, I would have told you that love is the Beatles song I should've known better or the Lovin' Spoonful's Darling be home soon. That could possibly be what love is. But moreso:

I just came from a screening of a documentary project I've been helping with for over a year. It's the kind of project that gets to the essence of what I love about film. The technology to make a moving picture came around at the turn of the 20th century. There are various pioneers that led to the advent of movie cameras and projectors–Muybridge, the Lumière brothers, Edison. Their first films are called actualities, they filmed a few moments of some activity reveling in the new medium of documentation and not bothering to fabricate any structures or narratives (until Georges Méliès who has lovely little films you might've seen).

Last fall I watched an actuality of a man standing at the base of the Eiffel Tower filming the people who walk past him. Silent and black and white, it takes my breath away. Imagine being there as the first movie cameras are being manufactured, being one of the first to hold and film.

How do I ever forget that breathless joy? For some reason or other film is my undying passion. Moving pictures!