16 Jun momentum

momentum, n.

/mōˈmentəm/

the impetus and driving force gained by the development of a process or course of events

I’ve been thinking about doing this film for about a year or so, but in the late winter of 2015 I realized that if I wanted to include the amazing event that was the Sixth Language Creation Conference (LCC6) in the film, I would need to get into high gear much earlier than I had originally planned. The LCC events happen roughly only every two years and missing that would have been a huge loss. So, I began reaching out to the pedigreed language creators whom you see on our About Page in the hopes that they would join up in an official capacity. To my shock and delight, they’ve all been enthusiastically supporting our documentary as producers from essentially day one of my having reached out to them. As the director, I’m sometimes tempted to refer to it as “my” film, but the truth is that without them it would not, yea, COULD NOT have the incredible momentum that it does. I’m simultaneously humbled and emboldened by our team. But, the “good vibrations” pointing towards this turning out to be an amazing piece of filmmaking certainly don’t stop there.

We’ve been getting tremendous enthusiasm from “everyday conlangers” from all over the world to participate. Not everyone will create languages for TV and movie screens in their lifetimes, but that in no way detracts their jaw-dropping talent and commitment to their art. For example, in a conversation with a new participant interviewee just this afternoon I heard an absolutely fascinating etymology (word origin story) for a term for “bacteria” that I can’t wait to share in the film. The creativity abounds almost beyond our ability to convey it in a documentary of only an hour and a half in length. One of our producers, Paul Frommer, articulated it very succinctly when he said, “We have an embarrassment of riches to present.”

By my current estimates we’ve likely already shot 35 to 40% of the total number of interviews that we will end up with in this production. The journey is far from over, yet we’ve already proven (to me, at a minimum) that it’s going to be fantastically interesting.

Please join us. Sign up for the mailing list if you will. We promise not to spam you or sell your contact info, but we will let you know when we hit important milestones, etc. Many things about the film and how it will be distributed are still in flux, but the entire team is completely confident that this is going to be good.

I personally welcome your inquiries and thank you in advance for your patience if it takes me a day or more to get back to you. This film has made me a very busy individual for 2015, and for that, I am profoundly grateful.