PROBLEMA Berlin Screening….
Joe Holden is an old mate of mine. We met on a gangster movie set in New York 2001. He was hovering around the set speaking with whomever he met. Pouring drinks, observing. He finally approached me with a cup of rum. I was working on some lines of dialogue. He took the script so I could get off book. Very quickly and bewilderingly we ensued in a conversation that would seal our friendship. Topics ranged from world bank issues, the politics of water, consciousness, Hollywood and the Nigerian film industry, our own bumbling careers and what lay across the Atlantic. Very soon he would become my neighbour in DUMBO though I saw very little of him as he was slaving away for the enigma/tyrant film producer Scott Rudin.
We crossed paths again in Paris where Nervous Cabaret was touring. He said he was off to Berlin to work on a novel. He would send me tidbits of info now and then on how he was venturing in other directions. How he was becoming more and more embroiled in a consciousness expanding, global issues think tank, media experiment called Dropping Knowledge.
I took the next opportunity, resolving another end of tour decision of whether to head back to Brooklyn or go else where in search. I went in search. I found Joe in Berlin either buried in research, hosting struggling film makers pitching films for the Biennale or tending to the many duties involved with Dropping Knowledge. Dropping knowledge now had a sister enterprise called Mindpirates.
We ate, we drank, we scored guest passes and snuck around to various screenings and parties. Lars Von Trier held a particularly titillating and ridiculous event at Panorama. I listened as everyone around two-minute-pitch their wares. I wondered off singing quietly and scribbling illegibly in my notebook.
Next time I met Joe he had generously offered me his house for months on end as I decided whether or not to make the move to this fascinating city. At the same time, he was merely grappling with what to do with over a thousand hours of footage recorded for a new film about a gathering of minds around the largest round table ever made, the Table of Free Voices measuring 38 meters in diameter and over 119 in circumference. My mind was tripping over itself trying to make sense of it. The pirates had boarded.
After four years of work, the film was premiered in Berlin last night. Joe had managed to brilliantly adapt this epic venture for the screen. It was directed by Ralph Schmerberg. Melissa and I were there. I was very proud and moved by the work. Please see for yourself. Here is the link for the film in it’s entirety. http://www.problema-thefilm.org/#/film
