Oooh, Aahhh. Sunrise. For millennia, dawn has been a powerful and rich experience for people around the world, repeated each day. It triggers reactions on many levels, from the genetic to the visual, the cultural to the spiritual. Consequently, dawn has been a popular metaphor for a broad range of human experience. As the producer and creator of the television series Sunrise Earth, my team and I have had the opportunity to witness and record over 60 dawns from around the world (which now air daily for over 30 million people all over the world on Discovery). Along the way, we’ve become attentive students of this unique time of day. How does sunrise differ from sunset? Who shows up? What does it inspire?

From the 6th century Irish monastery of Skellig Michael to China’s Li River fishing community. From the penguins of Patagonia to the midnight sun of Svalbard Norway. Sunrise Earth gives us a focused big picture of the human connection to the natural world. The series uses a format I’ve named “Experiential TV.” Each episode represents a full hour in one location on one morning. No narration. No music. No fast editing. It requires patience, an appreciation for the slow-to-unfold, for the long-term, and for the new which endlessly repeats. Also, among the many dawns, we came across this great word BEHOLD, which means “to look by opening yourself up to all the lessons that can be learned.” More on that soon.

Posted on April 3rd, 2009 in Indie Film