This is the movie trailer to One Peace at a Time, an inspiring look at the possibility of providing basic rights to every child. Directed by Turk Pipkin, it was shot in 20 countries on 5 continents, and features the insights of Muhammad Yunus, Steven Chu, Helene Gayle and Willie Nelson. Also, great music by Ben Harper, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, The Band, Explosions in the Sky, Jack Johnson, Bob Schneider, and more. Also a great original soundtrack by David Rice.
Turk Pipkin is a regular contributor to www.www.dogcanyon.org, and posted recently:
Ha Ha – the joke’s on us. When you look at a news cycle that’s dominated by music video award scandals, by health care discussions driven by big money manipulation of small-minded politics (gee, I thought it was supposed to be about healthcare); by the murder of a pretty college girl whose tragic death will receive ten thousand times the coverage of a child dying of malnutrition every 6 seconds throughout the day, week and year; by deep division over whether it’s proper for an American President to speak to American school kids; by the demonization of immigrants by a nation of immigrants… And by the total absence of any mention of billions wasted, terrorism stoked and American and Afghan casualties in a war that offers nothing to win.
When you look at the new normal, sometimes you just have to laugh and hope that a few deep guffaws will recharge your spirits. With that in mind, I introduce the following evidence: a silly music video made by a 76-year-old man on a bus. Fifty years on the bus, for the past twenty he’s sung across America to support small farmers, to promote peace (and a U.S. Department of Peace to help us gain it), to reduce America’s dependence on imported oil, to support American Indians in their search for justice and equality, to decriminalize “herbs and flowers” as he puts it, to commemorate the heroes of 9/11, to remind us in the deepest parts of our hearts what it truly means to be an American who believes in freedom for all. Fortunate to have been his friend for thirty years (and his sometime co-conspirator), I can only conclude that Willie Nelson is made of something we could all use a great deal more of — laughter and love.
To read the entire post by Turk Pipkin: visit
http://www.dogcanyon.org/2009/09/20/shoeshine-man/
Turk Pipkin is an Austin-based writer and filmmaker. He has published ten books of fiction and nonfiction. including the NY Times bestseller, The Tao of Willie, which Turk coauthored with American music legend, Willie Nelson. He is also the author of the novels Fast Greens and When Angels Sing. Turk also directed the feature documentary, Nobelity, and is the co-founder of the education and action nonprofit, The Nobelity Project, online at www.nobelity.org. Turk’s Nobelity Project blog is at: nobelity.blogspot.com. As an actor, Turk played that idiot narcoleptic guy in HBO’s The Sopranos. His feature films include Waiting for Guffman, The Alamo, Friday Night Lights and Rick Linklater’s Scanner Darkly.
