Director Joanne Nerenberg brought me on to Produce Body Job mid-steam. In addition to sucessfully raising funds, approaching potential participants, and organizing the materials related to the film, I have been a key player in the creative process. Body Job is slated for completion in early 2008.
Body Job is a documentary film about bodies at work. It highlights three individuals--an organic farmer, a preacher, and a research scientist--who all possess a unique physical consciousness around their work. Filtered through these three occupations, and the commentary of noted mind-body experts, the film explores deeper themes of the body from the perspective of nature, religion, science, and art.
Physical expression is viewed as a continuum in Body Job. From stillness to constant motion each main character inhabits a different place. Dr. James Levine, a research scientist whose job is completely sedentary by description, works in a state of near-constant motion, and has utterly shifted the paradigm of an ordinary desk-job. Reverend James Forbes has a job with physical demands, but it is his exceptional awareness of the body that transforms his preaching into an enlightened physical and spiritual performance. Bill Kazokas, an organic farmer, has the most overtly physical job -- a job that requires manual labor -- but it is his knowledge of ergonomics combined with years of farming that have lent him an unusual grace in breaking down the physical mechanics of his trade.
Each of these characters uses their body in radically different ways and each are compelled to move for different reasons. What they have in common is an inspired dedication to their work, a sense that what they do is part of a larger social mission, and a contagious level of joy that stems from and feeds their physical passion on the job. We observe, through their actions and words, how physical integration leads to happiness, spiritual growth, greater productivity, and social change. The farmer aims to spread the gospel of organic farming to a national audience; the scientist works to alleviate obesity on an international level; and the minister uses his powerful pulpit to urge congregants to "listen to the body."
