Lucky 13 & Thoughts About CANNED
We bagged our 13th laurel last week when we were listed as a semi-finalist for the Oslo Independent Film Festival. I keep waiting for us to cross the premiere threshold so I can post the film publicly, but we’re not quite there yet. It’s okay, the film isn’t tied to anything newsy. It would just be so nice to share it with, well, everyone.
This film remains the single most delightful project I’ve done in recent years and folks seem to like it. A lot. I’ll be minding my own business and Producer Amy will drop in my Slack messages with yet another award. May your work bring you such ongoing delight, whatever it is.
Carol, who plays the laundry lady in our film, was our guest on CANNED: Conversations about Getting Fired. In addition to being the perfect unflappable face behind the counter at the laundromat, Carol is a career coach and shares insight into what such a human can do for you if you’ve been canned.
Yesterday I chatted with a friend who told me she found the voice behind E15 to be deeply profound. And having been canned, I loved the walk off in E17 about how if you’ve been fired, it’s probably because… well, just listen.
If you’ve been fired and want to talk about it, do get in touch. I promise you a completely judgement free place in which to tell your story. Unless you were clearly fired for cause in which case, OMG, would you please let me talk with you? I’m dyin’ to get someone on who’s all, “Oh, I totally deserved it.”
Speaking of day jobs, I had to quit mine. I was hired to build out an oral history program for a small historical society. This project checked all kinds of boxes for me and was a near perfect match for the nexus of tech and story skills I bring to the table.
There’s no diplomatic way to tell you what happened and it’s not nice to share the details. I will share two telling things. One is that I was the 5th person to walk out of this place in a year, no one has been employed more than six months for some time now. The other is that senior leadership, upon hearing I was throwing in the towel said, “Again? Really?”
They asked me what it would take to stay, but I’m not evolved enough to turn the other cheek. I took a full week to think about it because oh, I really wanted to do this work and I’d have been great at it, but I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work.
I am considering setting up Season Two of CANNED to focus on people who have fired their bosses.
I’m a demoralized about my employment situation of late. I quit my tech job about a year ago when my boss told me that in spite of my excellent work and increased responsibilities, I could expect no promotion or raise. (Really.) I got canned from my agency job when I refused to work with a client that was shockingly petty and unpredictable. (Again, really. A guy I worked with complained to his boss that I got up to let out my dog, and that was escalated to my boss because why? And that’s just one example.) And this week, I fled my non-profit job when I encountered a culture of naysaying and distrust — and learned it was a known problem, long ignored.
CANNED really speaks to my dissatisfaction with the way we are not allowed to be humans in our jobs. How we are in service to a whimsical and frequently cruel system. How the people who make things have the least amount of protection when it comes to their jobs.
All this is a woefully indirect lead up to asking you to share CANNED with folks you think will enjoy it and to encourage your fired friends to get in touch. We haven’t hit the download threshold to turn ads on — and that will help us earn a little money.
I remain tremendously hopeful Amy will find a financial partner for the screenplay we wrote together based on my memoir, The Same River Twice. It’s a really good screenplay with its own pile of awards — and given the geography, it’s a relevant story for our time.
Until then, onward. And in that direction ever with gratitude for your support.
Oh, and vote blue, obviously. Obviously. The alternative is bad for art.
//Pam