About Me
- Barend Lutz
- Cape Town, South Africa
- I am currently employed as a political risk analyst and digital media manager at the British public company, red24, a leading global crisis management assistance company. In 2013 I graduated cum laude from the University of Stellenbosch with a master’s degree in International Studies. During my studies, I was a member of the MIH Media Lab, measuring public sentiment on democracy through Twitter. As part of my university studies, I took part in academic exchanges to the Sciences-Po grande école in Paris and the University of Hong Kong. Prior to my master’s degree, I finished my bachelor’s degree in Value and Policy Studies in 2010. I see myself as a global citizen.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A Dream whithin a dream
Part 1:
Part 2:
Man easily becomes stuck in a habitual world of normality and similarity. Without realising we are trapped in a box, a train, a lifestyle or an exquisitely constructed giant metal apparatus. This is an experimental film inspired by the philosophy of Epicurus and Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “A Dream Within A Dream”.
Edgar Allan Poe writes in his “A Dream Within A Dream” poem that his life is as a dream within a dream. There is nothing real that he can hold onto. And when he enters his dreams he feels as if it is more real than his life. He asks:
“Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?”
In the film I used this dream within a dream idea as a basis for examining the philosophy of Epicurus. I propose that the ancient philosophy of the Greek can pull one from this perpetual dream. Epicurus therefore, with his philosophy of happiness provides us with a cure for the lifeless dream world that Poe explains.
In the film we have a man whose life is also like a dream. He his stuck in “utter reality”. Now we launch a thought experiment and the narrator tells us that the philosophy of happiness of Epicurus will be injected into the man’s dreams. So we enter his dreams.
The philosophy of Epicurus is quite simple. It consists of prescriptive guidelines to a happy life. He believed in a world where pleasure equals happiness and pain equals unhappiness. You gain pleasure mainly in three ways. Firstly, through freedom of thought and personal reflection on your own life. Secondly, through friendship. He believed that you should always surround yourself with good friends. Thirdly, through freedom of person. This is when one can be free to do what one likes and is not bounded by factors such as the state, police, etc. The greatest challenge to these steps towards happiness, is advertisements, according to Epicurus. Advertisements lead one to believe that one can gain the 3 requirements by buying something. This he believes is a false sense of happiness and will soon fade.
This film aims to show, with the help of existential philosophy, a route to escape the normality of life and to gain a sense of person and happiness. At the end of the film the man wakes up again into the “real” world. He now knows that he has had an important dream, but he simply cannot remember what it was about. I believe that many people live their lives like this. The solution to a happier life has been given almost 2400 years ago already. This might not be the full and final answer to happiness, but it should at least be a step towards it.
It was exiting, but challenging to make my first short film. As the film making progressed I realised the errors I have made and learned from them. For example, filming in a mall in Hong Kong, without permission was not the smartest idea. The security chased me from floor to floor. The whole process is much more intricate than I imagined beforehand. In order to get everything to happen on the right time and at the right place was quite difficult. Still it was an immensely pleasurable experience and I am definitely looking forward to make some more movies soon.
Part 2:
Man easily becomes stuck in a habitual world of normality and similarity. Without realising we are trapped in a box, a train, a lifestyle or an exquisitely constructed giant metal apparatus. This is an experimental film inspired by the philosophy of Epicurus and Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “A Dream Within A Dream”.
Edgar Allan Poe writes in his “A Dream Within A Dream” poem that his life is as a dream within a dream. There is nothing real that he can hold onto. And when he enters his dreams he feels as if it is more real than his life. He asks:
“Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?”
In the film I used this dream within a dream idea as a basis for examining the philosophy of Epicurus. I propose that the ancient philosophy of the Greek can pull one from this perpetual dream. Epicurus therefore, with his philosophy of happiness provides us with a cure for the lifeless dream world that Poe explains.
In the film we have a man whose life is also like a dream. He his stuck in “utter reality”. Now we launch a thought experiment and the narrator tells us that the philosophy of happiness of Epicurus will be injected into the man’s dreams. So we enter his dreams.
The philosophy of Epicurus is quite simple. It consists of prescriptive guidelines to a happy life. He believed in a world where pleasure equals happiness and pain equals unhappiness. You gain pleasure mainly in three ways. Firstly, through freedom of thought and personal reflection on your own life. Secondly, through friendship. He believed that you should always surround yourself with good friends. Thirdly, through freedom of person. This is when one can be free to do what one likes and is not bounded by factors such as the state, police, etc. The greatest challenge to these steps towards happiness, is advertisements, according to Epicurus. Advertisements lead one to believe that one can gain the 3 requirements by buying something. This he believes is a false sense of happiness and will soon fade.
This film aims to show, with the help of existential philosophy, a route to escape the normality of life and to gain a sense of person and happiness. At the end of the film the man wakes up again into the “real” world. He now knows that he has had an important dream, but he simply cannot remember what it was about. I believe that many people live their lives like this. The solution to a happier life has been given almost 2400 years ago already. This might not be the full and final answer to happiness, but it should at least be a step towards it.
It was exiting, but challenging to make my first short film. As the film making progressed I realised the errors I have made and learned from them. For example, filming in a mall in Hong Kong, without permission was not the smartest idea. The security chased me from floor to floor. The whole process is much more intricate than I imagined beforehand. In order to get everything to happen on the right time and at the right place was quite difficult. Still it was an immensely pleasurable experience and I am definitely looking forward to make some more movies soon.
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