I have always been a fan of movie marathoning and seeing great films. Movie marathoning invokes your full senses of awareness, emotions, and sense of clarity after watching powerful films created to educate and move you (most certainly not the boot camp gym workout way - whew!).
Ultimate movie marathoning is:
1) Choose your films wisely. It's like making a career move only it's for a day and not for your next 5 years. What mood do you want to be in afterward? What events in your life require you to make a decision? a change? Find a few movies that help you think about things differently and may help shape your decision. After all these films are out there to send you a message, and many are on topics of life that you're already pondering about.
2) Reflect and write about your recent thoughts and experiences - how you feel about your relationships, how you feel about your accomplishments, and what you can do to make your life and the world a better place even if it means you're a one person act. This really gets you going and stimulates your brain cells - now you're prepared for full throttle emotional mess!
3) Watch your first film - be it a romantic comedy, political documentary, or action conspiracy flick. Just do it!
4) Pay attention to previews. These carefully and artificially edited scenes are meant to provoke your interests. If it provokes you, write the film down and look back upon your list in a few months so it can serve as a reminder of why it was written in the first place(same goes for music, because there are always MySpace pages you can visit to later). That's the beauty of the written word - they serve as reminders recorded for the sake of you amidst a multitude of distractions. And, everyone knows I need fish oils and gingko biloba because I have bad memory :-(. Back to the previews, something I hate to miss. If you can see through a preview and consider it bullshit, don't immediately dispel the film's credibility, because editors of previews will never compare to the thought and vision directors and screenwriters hope to convey.
5) Don't be afraid to cry, laugh, furrow your eyebrows just because you're sitting with strangers (if you're watching these by yourselves). After all, you are in the dark where purpose is so that the screen's only audience is to each individual, separately. So let those tears fall, let those streams of snot run down to your mouth, and maybe drool if you're in complete awe and can't keep your mouth closed :-)
6) After every film, reflect. It's even better to watch films at different theaters because you have time to walk around, reflect, people watch, observe the surreal life that you can get easily distracted by and can't concentrate on your own thoughts. It's a fantastic feeling wanting to learn more if the film isn't enough. The film has a purpose to convey the message, but it's important that a great film feeds the curiosity after it's over. What was that war really all about? Did King ___ really did ____? What was this adapted from? Wikipedia that shit!
7-#) Repeat the process all over again in the next 1 or 2 films and you'll truly have a day of intellectual thought and self reflection as a result of others' cinematic creations. Then if you ever regain your butt muscles, maybe a quick trip to the gym for some cardio will make you feel better about yourself after sitting on your ass all day. That...is a stage I'm still trying to get to.
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