Context: Find This Letter

1 December 2011

I'm here to give a little background on this video.


Back before I left for London, I came up with this idea to hide letters all over Europe.  The letters would be written to specific people in my life, saying things that I felt I could not say to them personally.  Nice, mean, accusatory, praise, PROFESSIONS OF LOVE--what have you.  Letters of honesty.  But I wanted someone to know besides me.  So I'd write these very personal letters and place them randomly in hopes some stranger would pick it up and read it.  And keep it.  And wonder who I am.  And whom I'm talking about.

I only wrote one letter.  To someone I had been wanting to write to for a while.  My concept for the video was to have words that reflected my past and images last displayed my now.  There is much more in the letter (complete sentences even!) than I let in the video.  And when I was reading it out loud for the voiceover, so much of what I had written just felt no longer relevant.  It described a me from six months ago maybe, and there was this sense of relief at how much I had moved on from some of this "hurt."  Which is yay for me.  Moving on, letting go is good.  It's so nice when you can experience that right in front of you.

Is this video supposed to be sad?  I'm not sure.  I was sad about this for a while.  The music does set a pretty sombre mood.  But the videos are from my birthday weekend in the Netherlands.  With some of my closest friends.  Is it nostalgic then?  No, because I really don't want to return to a time when what I wrote had so much weight on me.

And if you're a tl;dr visitor:  I hid a letter in London I wrote to someone in hopes a stranger would find it.  I cut out all the good stuff from the video because I'm mean.  The visuals are from my October birthday extravaganza in the Netherlands.

8 comments

  1. I have always wanted to be able to express my deepest thoughts in letters and hide them- but I am so paranoid someone will see me hide it, or that just by sheer misfortune that person I write about will find it that I have never been able to pluck up the courage and do it.
    I'm glad you have!
    I live in London so I'll be looking out for it!

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  2. I like your idea a lot! I've always admired your ability to edit videos (I really love your video from your time in France!). This one was really moving for some reason and the music paired with the voiceover was somehow really beautiful. Thanks for sharing it.

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  3. The letter thing sounds like a good way to get out things you have to say. I'm going to do that and I hope you don't mind. I'm not trying to "steal your idea" or anything like that but you inspire me and I do have a lot of things to get off my chest. Thank you for sharing your beauty with the world.

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  4. You are SO inspiring. Every video, every word.

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  5. Ideas are meant to be stolen. Meant to be used and explored and adored.

    Life is nothing but an exchange of ideas, and hopefully our ideas are beautiful and enriching.

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  6. have you read the Perks of Being a Wallflower? since I read it for the first time, I've wanted to write letters to a stranger. personal things. I think that on some fundamental level, we want to share our problems and our heart with strangers so that we know we're not alone, even if they never know us.

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  7. I love letters, both writing them & receiving them.
    They're so intimate & show that the writer has truly put their heart & soul into their writing.

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  8. I love this. I need to do this. Thanks.

    <3 Seriously, this is wonderful.

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