Two days ago, I got an email in my inbox from Donald Miller. You know, an email newsletter sort of thing from his people. Sometimes I read them. Sometimes I don’t. For some reason, I read this one, and it kind of blew me away.
If you’ve read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, you know that Don was working with some filmmakers to turn Blue Like Jazz into a film. Along the way, Don got better acquainted with the elements of a really compelling story and realized his life didn’t actually contain the points necessary to carry a great plot. So, he went about writing a better story with his life, and then he wrote a book about the whole process. Smart and good. I’ve read the book twice now, and it is an inspirational awakening that sort of stays with you.
Along the way, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years releases and kicks butt, but the movie of Blue Like Jazz keeps stalling due to lack of funds. So on September 16 (here comes the news I read in the email newsletter I received), Don posted on his blog that the movie was dead. After four years of trying to raise the money, the movie wasn’t going to happen after all. Even though they had a great cast and a compelling script.
HOWEVER, the story doesn’t end there. Two fans from Nashville got this news, and decided that they were going to find a way to raise the money so the show could go on. And, as of this week, they’ve done it. They raised something like $150,000 in a matter of days! They just put out a plea and people all over the world responded. Most of them with just a dollar here and a dollar there.
Here’s an excerpt from Don himself on the subject . . .
It’s Saturday (I’ll post this on Monday morning) and football is on television and I’m sitting at my computer, reading pages from the four-year old screenplay that we’ve edited and gone over a thousand times, laughing at scenes and wiping tears away at others, and while I think our screenplay is great, I have to confess it’s not as great as the story you are currently telling about raising money for the film. You are living proof that the telling of the story is even more fun than the story itself, that it’s better to produce than consume.
Wow. I just wanted to pass this story-about-a-story along . . . and ask a couple of questions for the sake of dialogue because I feel like this is somewhat of a phenomenon.
What is it about Donald Miller that would compel people to give money from their pockets (in these economic times) in order to see a film made (not orphans saved or animals rescued or houses built)?
What is it about Miller’s writing that we love? What it is about him that we feel connected to?
Oh, and if you’d like to join the movement and donate to the cause, you can go to www.savebluelikejazz.com.
I can’t imagine how overwhelmed Don must be feeling today, like the whole struggle mattered, and that is was worth it. I’ll take that with me into my day.
