Radically expressed

When Graeme confided to our breakfast group that he was hoping to get into documentary filmmaking, I did not expect this. I didn’t expect ACTV8R. I didn’t expect him to already be filming things that arrested me.

I asked him how ACTV8R came about, and he said he ran into the guy right as he was thinking about seeking a subject. “Artists tend to say yes,” laughs Graeme. They are doing what they’re doing in public for a reason, and they want you to know why. At first, Graeme meant to schedule the interview. But on second thought, he asked if ACTIV8R would wait. He ran home to grab his camera, and it all came together in one shot 

These interests led Graeme to take a documentary film class a year ago, and the video below, “Molecules of Redemption,” is what came of it. I have to confess, as a longtime San Franciscan, I’ve never encountered the bubble man, yet here is Graeme, a Torontoan, showing me glimpses of life here I’d missed.

Graeme has other videos, and he’s seeking more stories. What I so love about his growing collection is that he’s capturing something of the soul of this city by shining a light on the souls of the city. We get to know these streets through its people; get to inhabit this storied peninsula through new eyes—and come to know why it has always celebrated its misfits. I’m trying to feel into what it is like to be Graeme and not pass these people by, but inquire—who, why, and what for? I’ve recently picked up a camera and it’s caused me to see my neighborhood anew—those lime green eaves here and this gothic spire there. In similar fashion, Graeme has me overturning new details in my environs and seeing them as uncut stories.