Folder: 1-Projects/1.4-Purpose/Background

Josh Safdie's first solo film started with a hustler's memoir his wife handed him in 2018. The real Marty lost his career to a piece of foam rubber, and that is the better story.

Made in Hawaii in self-imposed exile, in three studio rooms booked around the clock, under posted house rules. The method is the argument.

Nolan adapted a biography whose title is already a verdict. American Prometheus took twenty-five years to write, and choosing it decided what kind of film this would be.

A film about a man who wins by attrition, which was then made under attrition. Its financier walked, studios wouldn't touch it, and it came out three weeks before the election.

Chazelle built Fletcher out of a real band teacher and a story about Charlie Parker. The research on how great performers are actually taught says almost the opposite of what the film argues.

A philosopher wrote this project's argument in 1976 and called it moral luck. What he concluded is that the question can only be answered afterwards, by whether it worked.

The ikigai diagram everyone shares is not Japanese. Work-life balance is younger than you think. And the people who measure purpose for a living define it in a way that excludes most of this project.