When I began writing movies, I had a hard time getting to the 90-pg. mark. My scripts were tight, well edited, and well structured. However, they were too short. I thought of it as a length problem at the time. I felt that I needed to come up with more ideas.

I was looking for that hidden gem somewhere in my clever writer’s mind, a treasure that I could uncover and, in turn, share with the world. But the issue with my writing was emotional, not intellectual.

I couldn’t afford “The Character Map” book when I first came across it. I didn’t even have room in my budget to eat more than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day and simple meals cooked at my apartment.

When I finally bought and read the book, I learned about myself in each of the six areas described on the map. For example, I wore a mask when I was around the girl who I was dating. I also realized how my brother’s gift of encouraging people that I wanted was already a nascent seed in myself. And I had a fear of being considered unlovable. True feelings don’t always feel good. But they are true, and a true foundation is the only kind that can be built on successfully.

I felt that I couldn’t focus on the principles that I was learning in the book at first. They brought up emotions about my self that seemed to distract at the time. The book’s character insights were helping me to face my true self, as I acknowledged the feelings that I had buried deep down because of pain I experienced in the past. Interestingly, I periodically met with a counselor during this same season of my life. The Character Map allowed me to take what I was learning about the depths of my self and to understand that characters on the screen could be just as complex.

At first, it was an exercise to think through the different aspects of the Character Map. I asked myself the questions outlined: what is my character’s mask? Greatest fear? Dark side? In time, I was pleasantly surprised how my characters began to come alive on the page.

The best moments in the new draft of my script were no longer the clever moments, carefully crafted with smarts (my “strongest trait,” as the character map describes it). Now there was a new layer to my script. It came out of my instincts, my emotions. And with practice, less of my emotion was stopped up between my initial gut instinct and the character’s lines and actions on the page. My characters began to express their passions, becoming alive and active in my imagination. The mask over my True Self began to crack, breaking apart.

I was given a way of structuring the emotions that I gave my characters. The Character Map gave me a way of charting my course, marrying the craft of screenwriting with the characters’ raw, uncharted desires.

As I have continued to grow as a screenwriter, I have applied the questions of the Character Map. They are ingrained in my process. And with my most recent screenplay, I have found that my characters are both bursting with emotion and acting according to a logic that is consistent with their personalities. There is a freedom in charting the depth of a character (their mask, their fears, etc.) because this depth of understanding allows me to improvise my characters’ actions in a scene. Knowing my characters as well as I now do, I can imagine with clarity what it is they might do in the situations that they are in.

“The Father” is the most recent film that I have written, and after eight feature-length screenplays, it is resonating with its readers in a deeply emotional and meaningful way. The main character, Jack, wakes up on a public sidewalk, wondering how he got there. He realizes that he has lost his memory. He wants to get back home. So much of this story takes place in Jack’s head, as he remembers, so there is a danger of losing the audience with the meticulous nature of putting the expositional puzzle pieces together.

However, with the Character Map questions there becomes an opportunity for writing a character that is so deeply known by the audience that the story can turn with the rising or diminishing of his greatest fear.

There is also the new and dynamic nature of an antagonist who has his own character map. This character is no longer a “bad guy,” with two or three dimensions at best, he is now a full-fledged and intricate enigma with his own greatest fear, weakness, strongest trait, and of course, a dark side. As Hitchcock said, “If I have a great antagonist, I can make a hero out of a milquetoast.” This is crucial to writing a great character-driven film.

The minimalist screenplay that I am now writing tracks the inner journey of a character with success. The antagonist can now affect the protagonist by bringing out the protagonist’s greatest fear. The protagonist can be hindered in his quest by his own strongest trait. And so a whole host of wild and engaging possibilities arise that I couldn’t have hoped to wrangle in before.

The bottom line is that the emotion of my characters is colored vibrant on the page by their masks, fears, traits, and dark sides. The short film version of my project is impressing readers, the premise is holding the attention of strangers, and the concept trailer just released is getting emotional responses and audiences are watching it multiple times because of its intriguing characters.

The intricacies of a character — living or fictional — can be mesmerizing. The Character Map has helped lead me to those hidden gems somewhere in my writer’s heart, a treasure that I can uncover and, in turn, share with the world.

Evan Atwood is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, who lives in Milwaukee, WI and works as a photojournalist to pay the bills. He has written, produced, and directed the short films “Forgiven,” and “The Neighbor,” which have both won awards for excellence. He is currently developing his first feature-length film, “The Father” (igg.me/at/thefatherfilm).

Links to short films:

“The Neighbor” — https://youtu.be/9RozideZw-s

“Forgiven” — https://youtu.be/gwPtvDM2a_0

Fund Raising for The Father –  igg.me/at/thefatherfilm

Movie Franchises Done Right

Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of a decade of films, with probably a hundred-or-so Characters from all across the universe. Chances are, it’s going to break box office records, and join the likes of Toy Story 3, Fast & Furious Seven and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in the billion-dollar club.

What do these four movies have in common? They’re the conclusion to long-running franchises, and the end of the story for Characters that audiences will have grown up with. We have watched these Characters grow- Captain America, Buzz Lightyear, Harry Potter, Brian O’Conner- and evolve as they face the events from multiple stories. Each time, they learn something new, they experience loss, their appearances change. As we grow up, so do they.

Time And Care Pay Off

Harry Potter was always going to have an end, and judging by the success of the books, it was always going to be a hit at the box office.

J. K. Rowling and Warner Brothers worked hard to tell eight excellent movies, and every time it paid off. They could have been unremarkable films and made decent money, but the creators put in the effort to make an exceptional product, and this series will be remembered forever.

When Pixar started out, Toy Story was a huge gamble but it paid off. A few years later, Disney announced a sequel going straight to DVD. The studio wrestled back control, told a story worth telling and the results spoke for themselves- it helped Pixar become the animation powerhouse it is today. Years later, they decided to end the Toy Story franchise and take their care making a perfect ending. It grossed over a billion dollars and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Developing Organically

Marvel Studios risked everything with Iron Man, and it paid off. They slowly started introducing Characters like Thor and Captain America, letting audiences get to know them. Four years after Iron Man, Marvel released The Avengers and it became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

The studio continued the pattern- introducing more Characters to a movie at a time, then bringing them all together. Each time, the box office improved. Some were more successful than others, but audiences got to know Characters as they appeared more often.

The Fast and The Furious started off as a generic car-racing movie. It limped on for a few more installments with different characters, never quite capturing the magic of the original. Then the studio decided to change gears, hire a new director, and crucially bring back Characters from the first four movies. Somehow, this worked and with every new Fast and Furious movie, featuring Characters that now had a chance to develop, the movies became more successful.

When you have a plan, and it shows that you really care about these Characters, it pays off. It doesn’t matter if you planned it all out from the beginning, or it happened organically and you maintained the quality of each sequel. When you realize you have something special that people connect with and you work hard to nurture these Characters, the aforementioned examples prove that it will often result in success.

Forcing It

The previous examples, across multiple movies, make you care about their characters and developed a rich, ongoing story. Yes, even The Fast and The Furious did this. They all took their time to build a universe and didn’t rush their storytelling.

However, they are the exception to the rule. More often than not, in the case of Avengers and Harry Potter, competitors thought in the short-term and wanted what these franchises had worked long and hard to achieve. They wanted the same success in a much shorter space of time, and it didn’t work out for them.

DC Comics

DC, the comics studio that owns beloved Characters like Superman and Batman, altered their plans after the Superman movie Man of Steel and released 3 films in the space of fewer than 2 years. This enabled them to release Justice League, their own equivalent of The Avengers. When they finally released Justice League, a team of 6 heroes, we were introduced to half of the team for the first time. They lacked Character development, and they had no chemistry as a group.

Wonder Woman is the only fleshed-out Character of the Justice League. Audiences responded well to her solo movie, released several months before. It was a huge hit and the most financially successful DC movie. But Justice League made less money than any other DC film before it. A movie featuring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman together was less successful than Marvel movies featuring superheroes most people had never heard of.

Young Adult Series

After the Harry Potter series, movie studios were desperate to copy its success. They bought the rights to many Young Adult book series and rushed them into production. But The Hunger Games and Twilight, whilst successful, completed their series in less than a decade, and each successive installment made less money than the previous one.

Rather than learn from these popular franchises, rivals wanted to copy them exactly, and put less time and effort into them. Even if they were relatively successful, their attempts have less of a life beyond the opening weekend. Audiences stop talking about their movies pretty soon after the credits roll.

What Writers Can Learn From Franchises

People cry out about “the death of Hollywood”, and how sequels and comic book movies are ruining Cinema. In fact, Franchises, if done right, present a wonderful opportunity for writers.

They are able to take their time developing Character arcs and storylines. Franchises that take their time and spread themselves out end up being more like long-form Television series.

Our culture has changed, and Television has become the storytelling medium of choice. Some stories can be told in 2 hours or less, but some need longer. They can connect with audiences for longer, and don’t need to rush things. Shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad have captured the public imagination and remain talked about to this day.

In certain circumstances, if properties are going to create multiple installments of their movie franchise, then they might as well treat them like long-form television. The four successful examples prove that this is one of the best ways forward, as Hollywood relies more and more on expensive blockbuster franchises.

Power of Idealism Month

This month is Power of Idealism month. We’ll be examining the type of Character who strives for excellence and never settles for second-best. Life is grand opera, where every emotion is heightened. They can’t just feel pain, they feel extreme pain. A romantic gesture isn’t enough, it has to over-the-top. “Complacent” or “satisfactory” isn’t in their vocabulary.

Throughout April, we will look at epic heroes, separated lovers and those coming of age. These Characters are dramatic types who are never satisfied and treat life as a never-ending pursuit of something better. They are passionate, intense and will never settle for anything less than the best. Even then, they will keep reaching for something better.

Hamilton

Hamilton is the musical portrayal of the life of Founding Father, First Secretary of the Treasury and face of the $10 bill, Alexander Hamilton. In the musical, at least, Hamilton is a Power of Idealism Character. His best friend, Aaron Burr, is Power of Truth.

Their conflict lies in Burr’s jealousy- he spends the musical asking “how could a bastard orphan” achieve everything that he does? Unlike Burr, who plays it safe, Hamilton always succeeds. Their argument lasting decades reaches its tragic end when Burr shoots Hamilton dead in a duel.

Every one of the songs that Hamilton himself sings relates to his relentless pursuit of crafting America in his own image. Everyone suffers for him- his wife Eliza, her sister Anjelica, his son and his political rivals. Hamilton breaks hearts and creates enemies as he embraces his epic destiny. It is not until later in his life, as the War of Independence is over and Thomas Jefferson arrives at the White House, that he faces defeat.

Everything that Hamilton does, he does for the American Project. Nothing else matters to him, because ever since his impoverished childhood, he’s had to write his way out to thrive. Talent serves him well, up to a point. His loss of a normal, happy life was America’s gain. In this musical, at least, it could be argued that Hamilton couldn’t have asked for a better death.

Epic Hero Stories

There are three Power of Idealism stories- Separated Lovers, Coming-Of-Age and Epic Hero. Hamilton is the latter, as is the 2004 historical film Troy. These stories follow legends, warriors, and icons who are doomed to die in a noble cause- often in war. In Hamilton’s case, it was his refusal to back down. His greatness cost him his life, but he will always be remembered for his achievements.

Other Power of Idealism Characters in Epic Hero stories are Colonel Robert Shaw (Matthew Broderick) in Glory, King Leonides (Gerard Butler) in 300 and William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart. All these Characters sacrifice themselves for glory and honor, and their stories will live on.

Lyrics

Some of these lyrics from various Hamilton songs sum up Hamilton’s attitude and the Power of Idealism mindset. They also demonstrate how Hamilton is part of an Epic Hero story:

You could never back down

You never learned to take your time!

Alexander Hamilton

[King George] ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free

So there will be a revolution in this century

Enter me!

[…] Don’t be shocked when your hist’ry book mentions me

I will lay down my life if it sets us free.

[…] I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory
When’s it gonna get me?
In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me?
If I see it comin’, do I run or do I let it be?
Is it like a beat without a melody?
See, I never thought I’d live past twenty
Where I come from some get half as many

[…]I’m past patiently waitin’. I’m passionately
Smashin’ every expectation
Every action’s an act of creation!
I’m laughin’ in the face of casualties and sorrow

Hamilton, My Shot

I may not live to see our glory!

But I will gladly join the fight!

And when our children tell our story…

They’ll tell the story of tonight

Hamilton, Story of Tonight

HAMILTON: If they tell my story

I am either gonna die on the battlefield in glory or Rise up!

WASHINGTON: Dying is easy, young man,

Living is harder.

Hamilton and Washington, Right Hand Man

ELIZA: Look at where you are
Look at where you started
The fact that you’re alive is a miracle
Just stay alive, that would be enough
And if your wife could share a fraction of your time
If I could grant you peace of mind
Would that be enough?

CHORUS: How do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive?
How do you write like you need it to survive?
How do you write ev’ry second you’re alive?
Ev’ry second you’re alive? Ev’ry second you’re alive?

Full Company, Non-Stop

Power of Idealism Month

Power of Idealism characters believe that life and love should involve a grand passion. They see the world in terms of sweeping epic poetry or as a struggle of operatic proportions.

Intensity of feeling (good or bad) makes this character’s life worth living. Power of Idealism characters feel it is better to be in pain than to be content or complacent.

These characters are willing to suffer for their art, their iconoclasm, or their noble or romantic gestures.
They believe that what is perfect but unavailable or unattainable is infinitely more desirable than what is flawed but possible or achievable.

“I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.” Shelby Eatenton Latcherie (Julia Roberts) in Steel Magnolias

Throughout April, we will look at epic heroes, separated lovers and those coming of age. These are dramatic characters who are passionate, intense, and will never settle for anything less than perfection.

Separated Lovers

One of the three Power of Idealism kind or stories is are Separated Lovers- the romantics who are separated from one true love.

This character’s love is destined not to be joined in a lasting physical union on this mortal earth. Instead, theirs is a love that transcends time, distance, age, or death.

Nicholas Sparks is a pop culture master of this romance and tragedy form. His best-reviewed film, The Notebook, is a sweeping love story read from a faded notebook by a man to a woman in a nursing home, The story follows the lives of two North Carolina teens from very different worlds who spend a magical summer together before they are separated, first by her parents, and then by WWII.

Other classic examples are:

Romeo + Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) is the quintessential story of star-crossed romance. The teenaged lovers from warring families take their own lives to be together in death.

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca. Rick, send his lover away to continue their separate roles
in the resistance movement during the most desperate days of World War II.

Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) in Out of Africa, sends her lover away in order not to trap or cage his wild and free spirit.

Zhivago (Omar Sharif) in Doctor Zhivago, sends his lover away in order to save her life and the life of her child.

In each case,  love is transcendent because it will always live in their hearts— neither time, distance, or death will diminish it.

A darker take on ill-fated romance is Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) in Natural Born Killers.

Mickey and Mallory rebel against what they believe is a morally bankrupt society and the rapacious celebrity-crazed media which created them (and which they taunt and scorn). As the pair continue their killing spree, they always leave one witness to “tell the tale” of Mickey and Mallory Knox to the rest of the world. They know they only have a future together in legend and death.

Get the Power of Idealism eBook HERE.

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Non-Linear Stories

They might not be particularly common, but stories that are presented out of chronological order can be fascinating exercises in audience manipulation. If you pull it off, a non-linear story can really keep your audience engaged, working out the mystery that unfolds, searching for the clues that they find as we are presented with each fragment of time, leading to that great pay-off.

However, there is the risk that you confuse the viewer and lose their interest. A central mystery, about why the story is told out of sequence, isn’t enough. You have to justify telling a story in this way through the arc of your Character, or Characters.

Will we learn of shocking or vital personal revelations by watching the story’s end at the beginning of the movie? Do we learn to empathize with a Character, or Characters, by first learning about their future? Some great examples that show how this can be done well are Memento, Pulp Fiction, Back To The Future, Looper and Timecrimes.

Memento

Memento is the first great example of a non-linear narrative that come to mind. Christopher Nolan’s breakout hit, based on a short story written by his brother, tells the story of amnesiac detective Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) as he tries to find his wife’s killer. He has to tattoo clues onto his body, and takes polaroids, because he keeps forgetting what he had previously discovered.

The film takes place out of order, representing Leonard’s patchy memory. As the film progresses, we learn of vital clues that will help the audience solve the mystery. We also find out that Leonard is being manipulated. The film’s structure is vital to how the plot unfolds, and how Leonard changes as a person.

Christopher Nolan loves telling his stories in a non-linear fashion- Dunkirk, Inception, Batman Begins and The Prestige all employ this technique. It always works because Nolan, despite his love of spectacle, puts Character first.

Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino’s most famous film features a wide variety of characters, all with different arcs, intersecting with one another as the complex script jumps backwards and forwards in time.

One of the most famous moments, presented out of chronological order, is a flashback to Christopher Walken’s soldier telling a young Bruce Willis about the history of his late father’s wristwatch during their time together on the battlefield. It tells us about Bruce Willis’ character, and this also pays off later in the film.

Tarantino is a huge fan of structuring his films in a non-linear fashion, most notably in The Hateful Eight. As the writer of his films, as well as Director, he always justifies the use of this style of filmmaking because it is always done in service of his Characters.

Justify Your Method

Back to the Future, Rian Johnson’s 2012 film Looper, and Nacho Vigalondo’s 2007 Spanish film Timecrimes (Los Cronoscrimines) are both high-concept Science-Fiction films that are centered around Time Travel technology. They can justify the use of a non-linear narrative even more than the aforementioned examples.

The fact their films have a non-linear narrative is central to the film, as opposed to a gimmick. Their Characters experience events in a non-linear fashion and it shapes their evolution throughout the films. These films have both Story and Character reasons for being non-linear.

Structure of A Character’s Journey

You better have a good reason to tell your story out of order. If you just do it as a gimmick, your story is confusing and unsatisfactory for the audience. But, even worse, you’ve betrayed your Character. Even if your film’s structure is out of order, before you put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, you need to map out your Character’s journey from start to finish. 

One method is to plan out your story, and therefore the Character’s arc, in chronological order. That way, you know where you character starts and where they end up. Then, as you rewrite, you can begin to move all the plot points into an order you feel will benefit your story and your Characters.

If you know your non-linear structure well enough, you can plan out your character’s arc this way. That way, audience and Character experience the same arc at the same time, and only you know how it truly ends. Think about why you’ve placed this flash-back, or that flash-forward, on page 24 for example. Are you hitting a story beat? Do we need to know this revelation about the Character at this exact point for maximum impact?

The Character Map

When you use a Character Map, it doesn’t matter what order your story is in. The film examples above show you how different writers and directors approached this kind of narrative, and that they had a good reason to do it. 

You can write your non-linear story any way you want, but it’s going to be a lot easier, and your Characters will be much better, if you use a Character Map first. It will help you work out what your Character is like at the start of the story, and who they are by the end of it. You’ll know how they present themselves to others, what they’re afraid of, what traits they rely on, what traits get them into trouble and what they have to do in order to change.

The order in which you tell that Character’s journey is up to you. But have your Character mapped out first so you don’t have a nonsensical mess with no emotional anchors. My Character map eBook can help you. It’s available at my online store.

Crisis of Faith

There are plenty of movies like Silence, The Last Temptation of Christ and Noah that tackle characters experiencing a Crisis of Faith. They work because they address something most of us will face in our lifetime, whether or not you are religious. We all face cliff-edges in our life, and can either stay where we are, or take a Leap of Faith.

Characters like Noah (Russell Crowe), Jesus (Willem Dafoe) and Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) find that an event comes along with makes them question everything they thought they knew- in this case, their relationship with their God.

However, these examples are either fictional, biblical or historical. In the last few years, a brilliant TV series has shown a man of God in the modern world. This man faces constant Crisis of Faith, but when he overcomes his doubts, he is a better person for doing so.

Rev.

This BBC sitcom starring Tom Hollander depicts the Reverend Adam Smallbone (Hollander), married to an ambitious and talented solicitor, Alex (Olivia Colman). Despite reluctance from Alex, they leave their cushy country parish in a well-to-do area to go and run a parish in one of London’s poorest areas.

His best friend is an alcoholic homeless parishioner he shares beer and cigarette breaks with. His family is harassed by a clueless drug addict who is always trying to scam them.

Adam faces constant threats of his church closing down, a faith school that has little to do with its parish, and the bureaucracy of the Church of England. Adam, not only experiences challenges on a daily basis that make him feel as though his church is irrelevant.  The strain it puts on his marriage and the kinds of tragedies he witnesses within inner-city London make him also question whether he truly believes in God.

We always hear him talking to God throughout the show’s quieter moments, but he’s always wondering if God is listening to him.

Empathy

Rev. works so well because our lead character, who preaches the word of God, is just as flawed as the rest of us are, regardless of our faith. Everyone who believes in some sort of God places their love and trust in this faith. It is only natural they would doubt themselves, and feel all sorts of emotions if something terrible happens. If their faith is not rewarded when they feel they need intervention, they can feel abandoned.

Despite preaching the word of God, Adam struggles on a daily basis as he attempts to hold together his marriage, his community, and his church. At one point, he seriously considers abandoning his faith forever. If you want to know whether or not he takes the Leap of Faith required to keep everything he holds dear, you’ll have to watch the show!

Leap of Faith

I often talk about Characters having to take a Leap of Faith detailed more thoroughly in my Character Map eBook and available in my online store. It takes courage to overcome the leap in the face of our fears. Characters will go on a journey throughout a novel, or a film, or a TV series, to discover what they want vs. what they really need. And if they have the courage to live an authentic life. By the end of their journey, they face a choice– to live in fear or to live in faith.

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Faith, Belief, and Religion

Taking a respite from the usual format for Types Tuesday, as I found this brilliant video essay and just had to share it.

Faith and Belief are unique to every person, whether they are religious, spiritual, agnostic or atheist. It is a universal struggle, whoever you are, and it is something so nuanced that it can make for excellent drama, and create rich, empathetic conflicts for your Characters. It makes for such interesting and engaging stories.

Video Essay

I’ll discuss this in a little more detail on Thursday, but for now, I hope this video essay, by 21st Century Cinephile on Youtube, gives you something to think about:

Power of Reason Month

This month is Power of Reason month. We’ll be examining a type of Character that know exactly how the world should be. Power of Reason Characters solve problems with a sense of detachment. These Characters are precise, seeing the world as complex puzzles to be solved. When their own personal logic is challenged, they can turn to the dark side as they try to revert any deviation. Nothing distracts them from their singular view of the world- emotion does not factor into their actions.

Throughout March, we will look at Scientists, Serial Killers and Strategists and try to understand why these Characters are so rigid in their logic and reasoning. Power of Reason Characters may seem one-note and unwavering, but their detachment and problem-solving can be as fascinating as it is horrifying.

Power of Reason Detectives

By their very nature, Detectives that adhere to the Power of Reason Character Type have no time for the consideration of others- they can be blunt and rude, because other people and their feelings get in the way of logic and solving the puzzles that need to be solved.

Unlike Power of Truth Detectives, they don’t seek to uncover conspiracies, they merely see conundrums that can only be answered logically. Those who don’t think like them are a hindrance to their methods.

Let’s look at two of the most notable of these detectives.

House

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), the titular star of the Fox show,  has a horrible bedside manner. Doctors are often emotionally detached due to the nature of their job.

They see the body and its ailments are puzzles to be solved and can’t afford to become invested in those who might die.But House takes this to the extreme. He is rude and initially unlikeable.

But it is this attitude that makes him a good medical detective. Nothing distracts him from his goal, and it’s how he often gets the job done. As a person, this lack of sentimentality and warmth is a problem. As a detective, it makes him the best at what he does. This is the trade-off for Power of Reason Characters- be great and alienated, or ordinary but loved.

Poirot

Agatha Christie’s iconic sleuth Hercule Poirot, most recently portrayed by Kenneth Branagh, is no less abrasive than House. However, Poirot’s approach is more charming because he realizes understanding human behavior will help him crack his cases. House sees people as problems, whereas Poirot sees them as flawed individuals whose flaws contain the answers to solving his mysteries.

Although not everyone liked it, the recent Murder on the Orient Express film adaptation did a great job of depicting Poirot’s worldview being tested and forcing him to make sacrifices. By the end of the film, in his own way Poirot becomes a little more human.

His methods are every bit as effective as House’s, but Poirot realizes that empathizing with his suspects allows him to understand them and therefore figure them out as innocents and culprits.

Three million years ago, a 3-year-old child strayed too far away from its tribe. A predator grabbed the 25-pound toddler and, near the opening to an underground cave. feasted on its human snack.  Stray scraps fell into the limestone cavern below.

Other hominids, dragged into caves by big cats or falling into grass-covered hidden holes, make South Africa’s caves the world’s greatest source of early human fossils. About 900 important fossilized bones have been discovered in the 180 square miles of grassland and caves known as the Cradle of Humankind. Scientists have identified at least four human-like species in addition to Homo sapiens—us. These humans and pre-humans lived in the area at various times over 3.5 million years.

The story these fossils tell is that we,  Homo sapiens, of all types, are more alike than we are different and that we all started in Africa. It’s a powerful lesson for today’s divisive times

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Thinkpiece Thursday

I Am Not A Witch

In a remote Zambian village, Shula, a nine-year-old girl, is orphaned and alone. Shula is unwanted by everyone and considered a nuisance- so they accuse her of being a witch.  Shula is an innocent easy target.

The villagers gather outside the local police office and demand action. The skeptical policewoman sees a small child. But a corrupt government official, Mr. Banda, who declares himself Shula’s “state guardian,” sees a pay cheque.

Mr. Banda is a sweaty fat verbose conniver, a combination of lethal and ludicrous. He carts his prize to the local “witch camp”. Shula can either join the other “witches” as free field labor or be killed as a goat. Shula and the other women are tethered to their chores by wide cotton ribbons. One end is attached to their backs and the other end wound around enormous wooden spools housed on a large flatbed truck. They are held captive by a light floating “chain” that wafts in the breeze.

The ribbons are a brilliant metaphor. They look like something from a fairy story and seem surreal and silly until you consider how sinister they are. They are the way that men like Banda control the women and he reminds the elder “witches” to be grateful for how much extra ribbon he has given them since taking office. It’s a familiar argument by men who want to restrict women and want women to be grateful for their constraints. It could always be worse, right?

In my experience…

I recently visited Cape Town. The city counts down the days until taps run dry and are closed off. I’ve seen firsthand how life changes in a severe drought. Shula is exhorted to dance to alleviate the local lack of rain and water starvation. In the purity of her innocent heart, Shula dances herself to death and the rains come. This frees Shula from her enslavement and inspires all the “withes” to cut their ribbons and disappear from the camp.

This is a dreamy surreal movie with dark undertones of exploitation and slavery.

drought in cape town