“Some
people say that when they are happy they sing and dance.
But I say: when I sing and dance, I am happy!” - Jim Haynes
Many people call him the inventor of
the social network, the real-life version of Facebook; his world famous open
Sunday dinners in Paris are a must for "off the beaten track" lovers
and his life story is the real proof that a life based on the good side of humankind
is actually possible. Meet Jim Haynes in the film of the extraordinary journey
that, in summer 2016, will take him to the cities of Paris, London and
Edinburgh. Because "Meeting Jim is meeting people".
Synopsis
Meeting Jim is a feature
length documentary about a journey back to the lifetime of Jim Haynes, an
extraordinary 83-year-old man who grabbed with heart and soul the spirit of the
60s and continued to carry it throughout his life. This journey becomes also a
physical one when he takes a train from the city of Paris, where he lives, to
London and Edinburgh, the cities where he left his unique mark. A journey that
will not only bring out his past and memories, but also his carefully preserved
collection of human interconnections. An unusual network he managed to create
by realising the needs of a society that desperately longs for more humanity
and collaboration. By establishing social hubs and creative centres for
artists and art lovers to express themselves and show their work, Jim Haynes
made a strong contribution to the artistic and literary scene of the time and
became a key figure in the counterculture movement during the 60s.
Who is
Jim Haynes?
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Jim
Haynes established the very first paperback bookshop in Britain;
co-produced the 1962 Conference on the Novel and 1963 Drama Conference in
Edinburgh – which inspired the current Edinburgh International Book Festival;
co-founded the Traverse Theatre, was a catalyst for the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival, established the London Traverse Theatre Company, co-founded the
newspaper I.T., the underground pop club U.F.O., and the London Arts Lab. He
taught Media Studies and Sexual Politics at the University of Paris VIII for
three decades, co-founded the sexual freedom newspaper Suck, and directed the
Wet Dream Film Festival in Amsterdam. In his Paris atelier, he created a salon
tradition with open dinners every Sunday evening for some 38 years and over
150,000 guests to date – and counting… (1)
(1) from Jim Haynes’
memoir Thanks for
Coming! Encore!, published
by Polwarth Publishing, Edinburgh 2014
The Journey
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In the film, the camera
follows Jim in his daily life in the city of Paris, to some of his regular
spots and activities and into his home: a parisian atelier where he
has lived for the past 43 years. There, he is always hosting a friend or
someone new and every Sunday evening welcomes between 40 to 100 friends and
strangers for dinner, creating an ideal environment for people to connect with
each other.
Then the journey begins. The
destination, the worldwide famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which this year he
will be attending for the 60th time. A long voyage he has been doing by
train for more than 40 years, including a traditional stop in the city of
London for a special dinner party in his honour. After spending 20 days in
Edinburgh, the trip will bring us back again to London, where he will be
attending both the private and public opening of a collective exhibition he
will be part of, at the Victoria and Albert Museum. All the way throughout this
amazing journey, the camera follows Jim as he encounters the friendships and
relationships of a lifetime and interacts with the hundreds of people who
always seem to surround him no matter where: restaurants, cafés, book fairs’
stalls, or theatre venues. Any place is ideal to meet someone new, any place is
just perfect for a new human connection.
Meeting
Jim is
a documentary film aiming to be shot through Jim’s way of perceiving people,
social missions, life. The journey of Jim and of the film -which will take
place in 2016 between Paris, London and Edinburgh- is just an ordinary journey
of an extraordinary man.
Director's Statement -
Why am I making this film?
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After meeting Jim in March 2015, he became one of the
closest people to me during my stay in Paris. The friendship of a filmmaker at
the age of 26 and a 83-year-old philosopher-artist who had managed to actualise
his principles and ideals along his life, was for me an extraordinary and
colorful one from its nature, and still continues to be so. As I started
spending time with him, I observed that people’s lives around him were going
through a noticeable transformation process, in which they started to create a
new fruitful network of human relations and professional collaborations through
him. It seemed very clear to me that the reason behind this collective
transformation was him naturally adopting the role of a catalysor. In his world
people are not defined by their beliefs, origin or age. Everyone is equal, no
one has any privilege. He has this unique way of perceiving the world that is
not easily witnessed in practice. Anyone who has ever been involved in his life
still continues to be a part of this endless human chain, of this
big family.
A month after meeting Jim, I
asked if I could make a documentary on him. He said “yes!”, since he has this
habit of saying yes to everything. Perhaps he thought that my question was just
a rhetoric way to verbalise my admiration for him. Now I’m afraid it’s too late
to say no (sorry Jim!). There are a number of interviews with him as well as
short/medium-length documentaries on Sunday dinners. There are even some
popular advertisements that he stars. However, there is no film about the
essence of his life, of himself. As soon as I discovered that Jim was much more
than just Sunday dinners and his network, I realised that these dinners and
social gatherings were the side effects of his whole philosophy of life. Along
the documentary, his intellectual background and lifelong achievements won’t
remain in the background eclipsed by hundreds of people appearing in the film.
In today’s world, as a
filmmaker, I feel I have the responsibility to show hope instead of violence.
As violence is everywhere, hope is getting less and less visible. Therefore, I dream
of working towards building hope in people’s hearts as an alternative way
of fighting against war and violence. Jim devoted his whole life to
seizing the needs of society and satisfying them through his innovative
enterprises and work. Why not doing the same
Ece Ger
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Goals
Jim Haynes is a man whose
unique personality, lifestyle and compelling story have already inspired,
influenced and changed thousands of lives around the globe. Our aim with this
film is to continue spreading his spirit and hopefully get to inspire many more
along the way.
One of Jim Haynes' goals in life has always
been to bring people together and create change in the community around him. Meeting Jim aims to take this philosophy
to a bigger scale, showing people that a more peaceful, collaborative and enriching
way of living is actually possible.
To achieve this, one of our main objectives is
to make this film visible. We are currently working on a creative distribution
strategy that would allow us to reach as many people as possible all around the
world. We would like to make sure that anyone can have access to this film,
regardless of their origin, age or background, with no distinction or privilege,
since this film aims to be a loyal reflection of Jim's philosophy of life.
Therefore, we plan not only to try to take this
film to the most renown independent film festivals around the world and
organise mass screenings in prestigious venues, but also to small local
festivals in remote places and more humble projections for all kinds of
audiences. As we stated earlier, our ultimate goal is to reach and inspire as
many lives as possible.
Behind the camera
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Ece Ger –
Producer/Director Ece is a filmmaker who finished her Masters
Degree in Film Studies by the University of Kent in 2015. This Masters
programme took place between the UK and Paris. A few years earlier, she
graduated in Film Studies by Bilgi University (Istanbul). Ece has made a number
of short films, music videos and a short documentary as well as participated in
an international medium length film and a feature film. Her short film Ten (2012),
was screened and awarded -including Best Woman Director- in various film
festivals around the world and showed at the Turkish film corner in Berlin and
Cannes Film Festivals in 2013. Nowadays she is based in Istanbul where she
works as an independent filmmaker on her own film projects.
Marta Benavides – Producer Marta graduated in
Computer Engineering by the University of Almeria, completing one academic year
at the University of Edinburgh from 2003 to 2004. Later on she did her
Masters Degree in International Business Management, also at the University of
Almeria. Since 2015 she has been travelling and working as an independent
artist on her own projects and in collaboration with other artists in different
fields.
Gilliam de la Torre – Director
of Photography Gigi is a Director of Photography who studied
cinematography at the Art Institute ISA in Havana and completed most of the
cinematography workshops in EICTV International Film School San Antonio de los
Baños. She has worked as still photographer for feature films and publicity, as
photographer for theater magazines and as cinematographer for short films, music
videos, and mostly for documentaries. Her passion is traveling around the world
documenting places, people and animals in a poetic mixture of sounds and
images. Originally from Havana, she lives and works in New York City (for now).
Why do we need your contribution?
We truly believe in the magic of this film. For
months we've been working non-stop giving it all we've got during the
pre-production process. However, making a feature documentary takes more than
just time and effort.
We've been investing all our savings on this
project and will continue to do so, but to go onto the next step we really need
your support.
The rental and purchase of the professional
equipment, the accommodation and travelling expenses and the minimisation and
prevention of possible risksare the most costly
parts of the project.
We really aim to make a world class film and
its quality will highly depend on reaching the goal for this campaign.
To make this film visible and continue to
spread Jim's philosophy, we really need to make a great film. We're willing to
give it all we've got but only with your contribution we'll be able to make it
happen.
Where will the contributions go?
The total amount of the money raised during
this campaign will be used exclusively to cover some of the costs of the
production stage of this documentary film. This means the shootings and the
expenses they involve. The campaign goal will not be enough to cover post-production
costs.
In case we reach our goal of 35.000$, this is
how your contributions will be used:
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In case we don't reach our goal, we'll still
try our best to make a great film. However, some of the resources and tools
that would allow us to reach the standards we need to become visible for the
film industry and the rest of the world, unfortunately won't be viable. For
instance:
If we reach 15.000$, the storage of more than
half an hour of filming a day won't be feasible. We'll be shooting with a very
high quality of image (4K) which requires 256 GB of storage for every 19 min of
filming plus the daily backup. In addition, the renting/purchase of some of the
professional equipment we plan to use won't be possible either.
We also won't be able to accompany Jim to
London on the last part of the journey and shoot him at the opening of the
exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, or make the interviews we've
planned to make there.
Unfortunately with this funds we won't be able
to have a professional sound technician in our team, which is something crucial
for the quality and future visibility of the film. However, here we'd like to remark that no matter the funds raised, we won't compromise the use of professional sound equipment to record sound during the shootings.
If we reach 25.000$, we will purchase all of
the storage devices that we would need for the project as well as travel to
London with Jim for the final stage of the trip. However we won't be able to
rent some other important equipment or have a professional sound technician.
Risks and challenges during the shootings
As any other project, this one is not exempt
from possible risks and these are the most relevant we can foresee during the
production process.
Permission to shoot in some locations could
be problematic, especially taking into account that some of our shots will be
very spontaneous. We plan to follow Jim wherever he goes during the 45 days of
shooting and this can leave place to many last-minute decisions. To minimise
this risks, we're trying to get in touch with all the places we can foresee we
will be needing to shoot at, and applying for the corresponding permissions.
The use of expensive specialised equipment
will also entail some important risks. Moreover, loss and robbery are some of
the major problems filmmakers might need to face and deal with, especially
while travelling. We plan to address
these by contracting specific insurance for the most delicate equipment and by
keeping a triple backup of the recordings.
We are aware that travelling can always involve
some kind of risk especially regarding health. Despite the fact that one can
never prevent unexpected health issues, we plan to minimise these by adequate physical
training during the couple of months before the shootings, as well as travel
insurance for each of the members of the crew.
Perks
These are some of the amazing perks we have exclusively
prepared for you!!
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Others way you can contribute
If you can't financially contribute to our project,
we totally understand, but you might like to know that there are also many other
ways to support this film:
If you happen to live in London or Edinburgh
and have some extra room at home, you can become our host by accommodating one
or several members of the crew during the shootings in these cities. This generous
gesture would help us save so much money that we'd be able to use for the
making of the film instead.
You can help us find distributors or sponsors
that would be interested in contributing to our project and in helping us with
the design of our marketing and distribution strategies.
Share this campaign and help us SPREAD THE WORD! Use the Indiegogo
tools available on this site to share the campaign with your network, announce it on your website, include it in your newsletter...
Any of these actions is likely to have a high impact on the success of this
campaign!
Thank you for taking part in this exciting
adventure!
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