[Music]
my name is Taylor I’m a filmmaker and a
photographer and a storyteller and
tonight I want to talk to you a little
bit about my own transformation and
metamorphosis and what I’ve discovered a
story to be and also how they come
together and are created so we’re gonna
jump right into 2014 I was just out of
grad school and I had an opportunity to
be a part of a filmmaking team that was
going to go to Burma
to solve a great geographical mystery at
the moment it’s still undetermined what
the highest peak in Southeast Asia is
and in order to determine that you have
to stand on the top with the GPS so this
was a new for a and storytelling for me
and I was with five climbers and my now
husband and I we’re the were the film
team and we began our journey so we
walked 150 miles through the Burmese
jungle on our way up to Huck acaba Razi
which was the mountain and along the way
I you know was learning how storytelling
happens and so you know where you point
your cameras and what types of things
you focus on we’re a really big part of
my learning experience in those years
bug bites were a big one as we made our
way up towards the mountain I became
more and more curious about the people
who we were with the the porters and the
cooks who joined our team kind of on and
off as we moved through nineteen
villages and the northern Burmese Kachin
State eventually we got to Basecamp
after 150 miles and very quickly the
team of five climbers left they left to
go climb and I stayed back to manage
Basecamp and my sole job was to charge
the satellite phone from solar and then
if an emergency I would get a radio call
and radio for help very quickly that all
went wrong
we had storms come in 60 to 100 mile an
hour winds and not only that the 20
Porter’s that were with us at the time
were really unprepared for the
conditions that The Fixer the Burmese
fixer who had set up our expedition had
misinformed us as well as them as to
what this was going to be like so a lot
of them arrived in sandals own pajamas
and it was and I mean I was freezing so
and alone so right off the bat I worked
with the translator and told everyone
who needed to go home or could go home
that they get full pay and that they
should go back down to their villages
and so all about 7:00 left and including
the translator and so for the next two
weeks I lived with these seven wrong
people completely unable to communicate
and we were fighting for our survival we
were building stone walls
battening down tarps I had disseminated
all the clothes that were left from all
the the climbers given away my only pair
of gloves so by the second day I had
like these cold blister chilblains all
the way up my hands and arms and you
know I wasn’t cooking and I wasn’t
gathering wood and what I was doing was
having a transformation about really
what was this narrative that we were
telling why were we in this place you
know this was going to become a National
Geographic feature article as well as a
film and you know being alone and kind
of disconnected from the original
purpose of our journey left me with a
lot of questions and at the time I was
also feeling pretty alone this was our
tent this is kind of where we lived for
those two weeks through storms and
eventually it you know it occurred to me
that one way or another I was going to
have to make friends and so I would sit
around in the in the this tent here in
the evening time around the fire and
these wrong people would sing Christian
songs the missionaries did a really good
job in the 30s and the 40s so everyone
was hooked on Jesus and singing these
wonderful religious tune
and eventually that kind of you know the
circle would come to me and I’m sitting
there you know kind of out of my element
and they’re encouraging me to sing Jesus
songs and of course I don’t know any so
I belted out the only thing that I could
possibly sing with spiritual reverence
which was a I want to be where the
people are I wanna see wanna see I’m
dancing and they didn’t know that and uh
and pretty quickly we all became really
good friends so through song through a
willingness to overcome fear through a
really strong desire at that time to
understand these people and disconnect
myself from this preconceived idea of a
narrative that I had going in I formed
really strong bonds in those two weeks
and I would go up to the top of the
mountain and practice yoga when the Sun
came out and they would come with me and
we would end up doing handstands and
just you know being human beings in the
same place at the same time so after the
two weeks the felt the climbing team
descended down the mountain and they
came back with having not succeeded in
their summit and a bit of drama had
occurred on the mountain as well and you
know my my boyfriend at the time my now
husband came down he’s like you’d never
believe it
we didn’t stem it and all of these
things went wrong and you know and I
just like I couldn’t talk I had had the
biggest culture shock of my life I was
so connected to what these people were
going through that this idea of a
mountain summit seemed really foreign
and you know difficult to kind of wrap
my mind around and re-engage as a
filmmaker but eventually I did and we
started our 150 mile walk out and took
the opportunity to use a translator to
host knowledge exchanges every evening
in all the different villages and so
they would all get a chance to ask us as
many questions as they wanted and we
could learn a little bit more about what
was
with them media’s
power you know being able to create a
story share a story about another place
of the world that’s often not
represented is power and I wanted
nothing more in those moments than to
figure out how to share that power
fairly and so we we took a lot of notes
that there were wrong in that region
don’t have any representation and their
central government there is tourism and
pending tourism coming up the valley
they’re not sure exactly how they’re
going to benefit from that economically
education is a challenge but mostly just
connecting with the people again and
completely falling in love through that
process of friendship at the end of this
trip the film and the magazine article
came out and it was about to climb and I
think adventure stories are wonderful I
think that they inspire us all but
personally I knew that it was my life
commitment basically to find ways of
co-creating narratives with the people
who are often the subjects or the
inhabitants of the landscapes in which
our mainstream stories are told that
process for me is a lot about friendship
and play and then recognizing that if
you were ever gifted the opportunity to
tell a story about a friend you would
never tell it in a way that harmed them
you would only want to share their story
in a way that was most beneficial so
that’s kind of the guiding principle
that I took away from that trip in 2017
and 2018 we got an opportunity to
participate in a film project with the
native tribes here in this country and
the film projects documenting how the
genocide has been perpetuated through
time up till today and in many ways by
removing people from their food systems
and thus from from life from culture and
I was sitting with the director of the
film and the early stages of this
project thinking like how can we do this
better how can we make this more
inclusive what does it look like when
you share narrative power what does it
look like when you
CreateSpace an opportunity to co-create
like what that story is and so we asked
the tribes specifically like what would
make sense for you and the answer we got
was find a way to pay native
photographers in need of journalists to
tell all of the stories that the film
was telling at each of the locations and
you know get those published in
magazines and in newspapers and rather
than just this one single narrative
about this one thing create a whole body
of work where multiple people’s
perspectives could could come into play
this is my friend Ally she’s in the Hupa
tribe this was on a one of the projects
this is Adams things in the timber the
photographer that day photographing
salmon that we had caught on the Yurok
River and along with that we actually
put a call out on Instagram just to the
country and just said you know we’re
organizing these workshops if you have
cameras you’d like to donate please do
and we got 50 DSLR cameras just from
people around the country so in each
place we went to we also set up
workshops photography workshops and you
know left full kits of cameras and
computers with no strings attached no
follow-up needed just you know these are
the tools to share your stories and and
we’re excited to to hear them
and so these are a couple of the
photographs that the students took just
a perspective on what what food meant
that I I don’t think I could have ever
quite captured empirical evidence has
shown that seriousness does not actually
help us whatsoever
in understanding the human condition and
the human heart and that play can
actually do a lot to help us and that
play can help us form those bonds of
friendship and reach over those language
barriers and you know we’ve got quite a
few barriers in our own country right
now that I think we could find ways to
reach over and so I’m gonna bring out
one of my biggest teachers and this come
hi-hi vine and oh yes hmm
Baloo has shown this is Baloo and you
know when I when I think about
communicating across language and
communicating with with nonhumans
maybe someday communicating with aliens
you know sometimes you just got to work
with what you have and so I’m gonna see
if Baloo will sing with me and maybe invite you guys to sing with me too
my name is Taylor I’m a filmmaker and a
photographer and a storyteller and
tonight I want to talk to you a little
bit about my own transformation and
metamorphosis and what I’ve discovered a
story to be and also how they come
together and are created so we’re gonna
jump right into 2014 I was just out of
grad school and I had an opportunity to
be a part of a filmmaking team that was
going to go to Burma
to solve a great geographical mystery at
the moment it’s still undetermined what
the highest peak in Southeast Asia is
and in order to determine that you have
to stand on the top with the GPS so this
was a new for a and storytelling for me
and I was with five climbers and my now
husband and I we’re the were the film
team and we began our journey so we
walked 150 miles through the Burmese
jungle on our way up to Huck acaba Razi
which was the mountain and along the way
I you know was learning how storytelling
happens and so you know where you point
your cameras and what types of things
you focus on we’re a really big part of
my learning experience in those years
bug bites were a big one as we made our
way up towards the mountain I became
more and more curious about the people
who we were with the the porters and the
cooks who joined our team kind of on and
off as we moved through nineteen
villages and the northern Burmese Kachin
State eventually we got to Basecamp
after 150 miles and very quickly the
team of five climbers left they left to
go climb and I stayed back to manage
Basecamp and my sole job was to charge
the satellite phone from solar and then
if an emergency I would get a radio call
and radio for help very quickly that all
went wrong
we had storms come in 60 to 100 mile an
hour winds and not only that the 20
Porter’s that were with us at the time
were really unprepared for the
conditions that The Fixer the Burmese
fixer who had set up our expedition had
misinformed us as well as them as to
what this was going to be like so a lot
of them arrived in sandals own pajamas
and it was and I mean I was freezing so
and alone so right off the bat I worked
with the translator and told everyone
who needed to go home or could go home
that they get full pay and that they
should go back down to their villages
and so all about 7:00 left and including
the translator and so for the next two
weeks I lived with these seven wrong
people completely unable to communicate
and we were fighting for our survival we
were building stone walls
battening down tarps I had disseminated
all the clothes that were left from all
the the climbers given away my only pair
of gloves so by the second day I had
like these cold blister chilblains all
the way up my hands and arms and you
know I wasn’t cooking and I wasn’t
gathering wood and what I was doing was
having a transformation about really
what was this narrative that we were
telling why were we in this place you
know this was going to become a National
Geographic feature article as well as a
film and you know being alone and kind
of disconnected from the original
purpose of our journey left me with a
lot of questions and at the time I was
also feeling pretty alone this was our
tent this is kind of where we lived for
those two weeks through storms and
eventually it you know it occurred to me
that one way or another I was going to
have to make friends and so I would sit
around in the in the this tent here in
the evening time around the fire and
these wrong people would sing Christian
songs the missionaries did a really good
job in the 30s and the 40s so everyone
was hooked on Jesus and singing these
wonderful religious tune
and eventually that kind of you know the
circle would come to me and I’m sitting
there you know kind of out of my element
and they’re encouraging me to sing Jesus
songs and of course I don’t know any so
I belted out the only thing that I could
possibly sing with spiritual reverence
which was a I want to be where the
people are I wanna see wanna see I’m
dancing and they didn’t know that and uh
and pretty quickly we all became really
good friends so through song through a
willingness to overcome fear through a
really strong desire at that time to
understand these people and disconnect
myself from this preconceived idea of a
narrative that I had going in I formed
really strong bonds in those two weeks
and I would go up to the top of the
mountain and practice yoga when the Sun
came out and they would come with me and
we would end up doing handstands and
just you know being human beings in the
same place at the same time so after the
two weeks the felt the climbing team
descended down the mountain and they
came back with having not succeeded in
their summit and a bit of drama had
occurred on the mountain as well and you
know my my boyfriend at the time my now
husband came down he’s like you’d never
believe it
we didn’t stem it and all of these
things went wrong and you know and I
just like I couldn’t talk I had had the
biggest culture shock of my life I was
so connected to what these people were
going through that this idea of a
mountain summit seemed really foreign
and you know difficult to kind of wrap
my mind around and re-engage as a
filmmaker but eventually I did and we
started our 150 mile walk out and took
the opportunity to use a translator to
host knowledge exchanges every evening
in all the different villages and so
they would all get a chance to ask us as
many questions as they wanted and we
could learn a little bit more about what
was
with them media’s
power you know being able to create a
story share a story about another place
of the world that’s often not
represented is power and I wanted
nothing more in those moments than to
figure out how to share that power
fairly and so we we took a lot of notes
that there were wrong in that region
don’t have any representation and their
central government there is tourism and
pending tourism coming up the valley
they’re not sure exactly how they’re
going to benefit from that economically
education is a challenge but mostly just
connecting with the people again and
completely falling in love through that
process of friendship at the end of this
trip the film and the magazine article
came out and it was about to climb and I
think adventure stories are wonderful I
think that they inspire us all but
personally I knew that it was my life
commitment basically to find ways of
co-creating narratives with the people
who are often the subjects or the
inhabitants of the landscapes in which
our mainstream stories are told that
process for me is a lot about friendship
and play and then recognizing that if
you were ever gifted the opportunity to
tell a story about a friend you would
never tell it in a way that harmed them
you would only want to share their story
in a way that was most beneficial so
that’s kind of the guiding principle
that I took away from that trip in 2017
and 2018 we got an opportunity to
participate in a film project with the
native tribes here in this country and
the film projects documenting how the
genocide has been perpetuated through
time up till today and in many ways by
removing people from their food systems
and thus from from life from culture and
I was sitting with the director of the
film and the early stages of this
project thinking like how can we do this
better how can we make this more
inclusive what does it look like when
you share narrative power what does it
look like when you
CreateSpace an opportunity to co-create
like what that story is and so we asked
the tribes specifically like what would
make sense for you and the answer we got
was find a way to pay native
photographers in need of journalists to
tell all of the stories that the film
was telling at each of the locations and
you know get those published in
magazines and in newspapers and rather
than just this one single narrative
about this one thing create a whole body
of work where multiple people’s
perspectives could could come into play
this is my friend Ally she’s in the Hupa
tribe this was on a one of the projects
this is Adams things in the timber the
photographer that day photographing
salmon that we had caught on the Yurok
River and along with that we actually
put a call out on Instagram just to the
country and just said you know we’re
organizing these workshops if you have
cameras you’d like to donate please do
and we got 50 DSLR cameras just from
people around the country so in each
place we went to we also set up
workshops photography workshops and you
know left full kits of cameras and
computers with no strings attached no
follow-up needed just you know these are
the tools to share your stories and and
we’re excited to to hear them
and so these are a couple of the
photographs that the students took just
a perspective on what what food meant
that I I don’t think I could have ever
quite captured empirical evidence has
shown that seriousness does not actually
help us whatsoever
in understanding the human condition and
the human heart and that play can
actually do a lot to help us and that
play can help us form those bonds of
friendship and reach over those language
barriers and you know we’ve got quite a
few barriers in our own country right
now that I think we could find ways to
reach over and so I’m gonna bring out
one of my biggest teachers and this come
hi-hi vine and oh yes hmm
Baloo has shown this is Baloo and you
know when I when I think about
communicating across language and
communicating with with nonhumans
maybe someday communicating with aliens
you know sometimes you just got to work
with what you have and so I’m gonna see
if Baloo will sing with me and maybe invite you guys to sing with me too
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