Paul Hunter Zaid #5

Oscars and the Environment

     This past Sunday I watched the 2014 Oscars for 7 hours. I poured myself a mimosa at 5pm and watched the celebrities parade down the red carpet and stayed immersed in the awards until the very end. I will admit that I am a celebrity news junkie and I was drooling over Liza Minnelli and Ellen to say the least. I've noticed over the years of my Oscar Award show viewings that there is usually, if not always a documentary that relates to the environment or nature in one way or another. After reviewing the contenders for Best Documentary Short Subject, I discovered CaveDigger, produced by Jeffrey Karoff. This film is the story of Ra Paulette, a man who obsessively digs massive, ornately carved sandstone caves in Northern New Mexico as art. This artwork is commissioned by members of the public, who envision smaller scale projects, but Paulette often takes years to finish, and artistic conflict ensues over money and the scope of the project. All of his caves are created by using just hand tools. The story is the classic battle of how one knows when an artistic project is finished. At the end of the film, we see Paulette start his magnum opus (great work), a cave he expects to take the last 10 years of his life to create, on unauthorized land, and in secret. 

     Although the film did not win the Academy Award I felt it was a vital tidbit to post to our class blog as it relates to the course theme of environment and nature. My reasoning for blogging about CaveDigger is that we always seem to find ourselves looking at the destruction of the environment and here is an artist and filmmaker who have shown us how art, film, and appreciation in the most simple form as sandstone can be recognized by Hollywood and those who view this documentary. We all may view our talents, goals, and dreams as small commissioned works, but we must know that we have the power to create cathedral size outcomes. 

"Dream on it. Let your mind take you to places you would like to go, and then think about it and plan it and celebrate the possibilities. And don't listen to anyone who doesn't know how to dream." 

-Liza Minnelli

cavediggerdocumentary.com