I’m extremely ecstatic, bordering the state of euphoria, to tell you what’s going on and what’s to come.
At the moment of writing this I’m in southern Finland, to capture some important moments of a man’s story, which has been in the making for a year now.
It has been a great honor to work with this man, to witness the depth that his work touches. Through him and his work, I have seen beautiful growth in people. Letting go of old pain and fear, filling it up with brotherly love and support, to become a whole person. To love and accept yourself in totality.
Overall I feel that his work touches the essence of what he says it to be:
“The most natural version of yourself.”
Below you can see a brief “teasing” teaser of this man, Teemu Syrjälä.
It humbles me to be sharing these moments and voices. And what makes me even more humbled and grateful, is the growth that this man has evoked in me.
For many years I have fought with the shadows of my past and their crippling grip on my psyche. At times I run from them and at times I fight them head on. At times I fall underneath them and shatter into a thousand pieces of mental and physical pain. Teemu has been a phenomenal part in my journey of becoming a whole being again. But of course, this could not be just because of him, but for him creating and upkeeping a space for brothers to meet and reflect. To feel a kind of space that we have felt for the near complete existence of humankind, except of late. A tribal community.
For all the growth, and all that we have shared, in light and darkness, I thank you Brothers.
Teemu works mostly with men, but his work and words touch everyone. If you are from Finland and speak finnish, and this woke something in you, I personally, highly recommend you to get to know Teemu and his work.
teemusyrjala.com
Instagram @Teemusyrj
facebook.com/rakkaudensamurai
His story will be published in late 2019 / early 2020.
I’ve given some hints along the way that this interest in sharing through video has grown additional branches. But I’d like to make everything clearer for you.
In the past 3 years I’ve been learning and fine-tuning the skills I need for this storytelling journey. It has been a longer process than I initially thought, as I realized that I demand quite a lot from myself before I feel comfortable in sharing the fruits of my craft. And working my ass off to finance all the equipment has been quite a task. But all of this makes me even more excited and happy to share it all with you.
Along this path of learning, I’ve jumped at different opportunities and challenges to further my skills. I’ve been working as a freelance videographer along my studies, and it has brought me to meet exciting new themes and people.
Through these meetings with my discomfort zone, I’ve come to find a deep yearning to share even more. As since my teens I’ve been fascinated by the universe, about us in it, and everything that both of these hold, and how they interact with each other. I’ve been diving into the microcosmic, with the science of quantum physics, study of religions with all their beliefs and through the guidance of some of these beliefs, diving into the inner space, and to the macrocosmic with academic science, and especially astronomy, with my love for the wondrous infinite outer space.
It was at Midnight Sun Film Festival, hearing Barbet Schroeder talk passionately about cameras and capturing stories, was when I got the final dot for the inner conversation of my ponders. I realized that I already have the skills and motivation within me, and I was working alongside it.
I decided to start making my own full length documentary movies. A lot of fear crept through my spine, but it subsided quite quickly as excitement took over the entirety of my being and consciousness. The same feelings that this project, Humane Story, evoked in me in the first moment of eureka.
At this moment I’m working on one feature length doc. I don’t like to discuss ongoing projects too much, so I’ll just say that it touches the way creatives of today and tomorrow work. I’m discussing on an idea for a documentary series with a friend and I have more than a few dozen topics and ideas etched in my notebook, but I still need to do plenty of work on those. In essence, there’s a lot that I feel the need to share and bring up for collective discussion.
And as silly as it might sound, my name, Jaan, in finnish means, I am sharing. Nomen est omen?
All of the documentary productions and the Humane Story series will be published under the production name Jaan Hanson Documentaries, JH Docs.
The productions will be published for free on several platforms.
For starters, you can keep up with everything on:
Facebook, Youtube and D.Tube. (More info on d.tube below.)
Now.. why free?
One of the absolute core motivations I have for nearly every endeavor that I set myself on, is the advancement of humanity. I hope to see, or if not witness with my own eyes, then at least nudge our collective growth towards our greatest potential. To sum up everything as short as possible, I think “Star Trek” comes the closest. To be a space faring society who has overcome our differences and divisions. To be one people, humankind, of one planet, Earth. To embrace our differences, yet unite in compassion. To emphasize our greatest qualities and overcome our shadows. As the late and great Bill Hicks said: “Explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”
I see knowledge and information to be a crucial part for humanity’s exponential positive growth. Which is why I take steps towards this direction, to have information available and accessible to all whom seek it. With my actions, I hope to invite others to do so as well.
And with that, I want to share with you the new methods for supporting this project and its future.
Patreon is a monthly payment type of support platform. There are different tiers which you unlock depending on the amount you wish to support with. Each tier gives you some extra internet goodies. You can get behind the scenes materials, e-mail updates, video-calls with the creative team and the people behind the stories, and much more. You can start supporting from $1 or increase it to any amount you wish.
Funding for these types of projects has traditionally consisted of a few patrons with great amounts of support. The future, as I see it, consists of many patrons with varying smaller amounts of support. So I want to emphasize that even the $1 support helps greatly, when you count them all together. As a friend of mine said: “True power lies within the community.”
D.Tube on the other hand. Is a social media platform built on blockchain, the same technology behind cryptocurrency.
When you interact on traditional social media, say facebook, instagram, reddit, etc. When you like, comment, post or do any action on the site, you create value for the company and get internet points in return. How D.Tube and their “mother platform” Steemit works is that, for every one of these interactions that you create, you gain cryptocurrency in return that is defined by the weekly pool.
This is but a short layman’s version of it all. But if it piqued your interest you can check it out more on Steemit.com.
So if you’re on D.Tube and Steemit, just like and share the videos to support. So simple as that.
The current schedule is to release 2 videostories within winter ’19/’20. Also during the same time period there will be an intro video, which will explain a bit more in depth this whole endeavor, but I think you’re starting to get the gist of it all.
That’s it for today.
A humble and grateful thank you for you time.
– Jaan H.