As we all know, the rhythm of opportunity knocks to the beat of its own drummer. This is certainly the case with a companion promo campaign for the upcoming Angeline Jolie-directed film, Unbroken, about the inspiring true life story of Louis Zamperini. The campaign, evocatively titled “I Am Unbroken”, is a forum through which they invited folks from the general public to share their stories of triumph over trauma either in written or video form (or both). I happened to catch an ad for the campaign online and bookmarked it as a “to-do” thing.

I pushed through all the self-doubt, procrastination tendencies, the shoulder-shruggy “what for?” mess in my mind, and . . .

I did it!

My dearest Brandon had me draw out the shots that I wanted (I dunno how to do that sheeit! But I did it anyway . . .) and then we went downtown to a spot that he had found for one of my earlier blogs (the one about the Mustang). We scouted out the shots, angles, etc that we like best for this one, rushing to beat the quickly closing window o’ natural light that I prefer. We got some fun stuff the first pass, but alas traffic noise and dusk had their own plan for Day #1, so we agreed on a scheduled revisit for the weekend a few days from then. We returned for Day #2 for IAmUnbroken guerilla-style shooting and we let it flow! Some bullet-pointed, planned bits and some great impromptu flow from B’s skillful Q&A vibe . . . and BOOM!

Cut. Print. That’s a wrap! Into the editing room, BB went and a few days later . . . I had the IAmUnbroken video I envisioned! In an insomnia-fueled 2am writing session, I completed the extended written portion that would accompany the vid in my submission. After some editing and tweaking in both vid and prose, I had the final components ready. Nervous, excited, giddy . . . I uploaded it in the wee hours at the end of November. YAHOOOOO! Procrastination conquered! Thought converted to action . . . check! YES!

By the next morning, I went to check back on the site to see if it was there, and to my delight it was right at the top of the story page! With great pride, I shared it with my family and friends via the magic of Facebook and basked in the glow of acccomplishment! I didn’t know what would come of it, who would actually see it, and what impact it might have. But it was there . . . amongst the many other courageous people’s stories who also shared themselves and opened their hearts to give and receive healing. It was beautiful. And that is/was everything it ever needed to be.

So . . . imagine my surprise and jump-up-and-down glee when, on December 9, from the thousands of stories submitted, my #IAmUnbroken story and video had been selected and highlighted on the official Facebook page for the Unbroken film! And they also posted it on their Twitter page! (See the screengrab below of those moments frozen in time!)

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Official FB page for the film UNBROKEN, featuring my highlighted story/vid!

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Official Twitter page for the film UNBROKEN, featuring the “tweet” of my story/vid!

Sooooooo . . .

Go “LIKE” their page and my vid on there . . . and let’s all go see this inspiring, uplifting film together! WOOHOOO!!

Click HERE to see it on the film’s official Facebook page!
Click HERE to watch my story!
Click HERE to submit your own story of triumph over trauma and read other inspiring stories!