Team ENVY was happy when a fellow filmmaker shared this article from the Psychiatric Times. It’s a great analysis of ENVY from a scientific point of view and asks: What is really going on deep inside the mind of an envious person?
Thank you, Katie Cadigan! Check out Katie’s work at http://www.imagereal.com
One thing Team ENVY has learned so far is that everyone has a story about how ENVY has affected their lives and relationships. And it isn’t just limited to adults either…
The creation of ENVY the documentary recently led us to a local elementary school where we spent some quality time with a third grade class. The kids provided us with some great insight and priceless reactions.
We love this drawing and essay by one of our third grade artists, who was able to capture honestly what so many of us often feel but are afraid to express.
We’ll be sharing more of these wonderful pieces soon!
Team ENVY was lucky enough to connect with Seema Goswami of the Hindustan Times who wrote a great article recently about ENVY and the mid-life crisis. Here’s what Seema had to say about ENVY in India:
Envy is a four letter word. And like all rude words, it’s not one that we like to use in polite company. And yet, there it is, lurking just beneath the surface, rising like bile within us, though we hurriedly bite it off before it emerges on our lips. No, envy is not a character trait that any of us is proud of. It’s not a feeling that we like to own up to. But however much we can deny it, it is an emotion that is deeply rooted in our psyche and near impossible to be rid of. Living in Delhi, the capital of India, I find that envy is endemic. We envy our neighbours; their herbaceous borders, their new BMWs, their bright, shiny children. We envy our friends and colleagues; their raises, that brilliant new job, that great break in the Maldives, their stock portfolios, their proximity to powerful bureaucrats or politicians. In other words, we envy pretty much everyone who is richer, more famous and more powerful. Sadly, in some cases, that means we envy pretty much everyone we know!
Take a look at what Seema had to say in her recent Hindustan Times article.
Seema Goswami is a weekly columnist with the Hindustan Times, India’s leading English language daily. Her bestselling book on women at the workplace, Woman on Top (Random House) has been translated into several Indian languages. Seema lives in Delhi but enjoys travelling the world for both work and pleasure.
How does one show ENVY, visually? It’s a rich question as we continue on with the ENVY project. Right now, we’re seeking visual inspiration for ENVY.
Recently came across Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” Scrapbook.
We especially love this photo. Simple, but tremendously haunting and great visual analogy for ENVY. We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments!
-Team ENVY
Yesterday I awoke with a horrible pain in my back. I could hardly walk. I felt that this kind of pain must be stress related. I sat down, trying to think what might be causing me stress. I come up with one idea but it did not really warrant this kind of pain. It was a stressful situation that I was recently in but I felt it had been resolved. Then I thought a little more and a thought came into mind that I did not want to have. I was envious!?!! I was envious of my husband’s success in his career. We are in the same career
At one time I was the one with the successful art career. I had lots of shows in this country and Europe, reviews in the art magazines and newspapers, sales and collectors. Eight years ago things changed for me. I no longer had a gallery and the number of shows my work was in dwindled. I don’t really know why this happened but it did. I, however, kept on making work.
Now it seems that my luck is changing. My work has been in a couple of nice group shows recently; a collector bought a piece last month; and there are more group show coming up.
So why did I have all this envy yesterday? I not only was feeling envious of my husband’s successes but I went on to have some for another artist friend. It was the blinding kind of envy. The kind that wanted me to hate my husband and think my friend was an asshole and not a very good artist. For those eight years when I was out of the game, the envy was different; it was more distant. Now that I starting to show my work again, the envy was huge. I suppose I was comparing the specifics of my husband’s resume with mine. His were better.
But I also thought that there was something in my studio to consider. My work is usually part of a series and each series is a distinct body of work. Since I had not had a one person show in all those years, things were backing up in the studio. It looked confused to an outside visitor. There was too much to see. I needed to focus the recent work and edit things in the studio.
When I first had those envy feelings yesterday I did not like then. But then I thought of Barbara’s project. We have been having conversations about envy over the past months. I knew I loved to talk to her about the project and the idea. Just the idea of the project has made me edit my thoughts less about envy. Thanks.
Another birthday came and went this weekend and ever since I became an adult, this time of year brings a lot less joy and excitement and a lot more anxiety, stress, and (especially this year) ENVY.
I often joke with friends about how difficult it would be to convince a six-year-old that birthdays do, in fact, stop being fun as you get older. Through the eyes of six-year-olds, birthdays look pretty appealing: cake, parties, presents, friends, family, and a whole lot of fun… maybe even one of those big inflatable bouncy castles if they’re lucky. But after the age of 21 or so, birthdays stop being so fun and start to become associated with old age. As the candles get more crowded on the cake, one often begins asking those huge, inevitable life questions: What am I doing? What have I accomplished? What’s my worth? – the questions responsible for the fact that “mid-life crisis” and now “quarter-life crisis” are part of our everyday vocabulary.
From the seeds of self-doubt grow the choking vines of ENVY. But the ENVY that results from aging is especially ugly because it’s the ENVY of the innocent, of youth, of children.
A friend of mine recently told me about one of her co-workers: a musical genius who’s already established, respected, and earning a comfortable living at the ripe old age of 18. He’s not alone either. There have been plenty of “child prodigies” throughout history who secured their status worldwide in arts and sciences before most of us found a prom date. By the age of 8, Yo-Yo Ma had already performed for President Kennedy and on national TV. Blaise Pascal wrote his first scientific treatise at the age of 9. The list goes on…
I was never quite able to put my finger on the emotion that I feel when hearing stories of these Wunderkinds – kind of a mix of disbelief, self-doubt, and anger – until we embarked on this project at Out of The Blue Films. Now, I’m able to recognize it for what it is: ENVY… or, more specifically, that part of ENVY that the Germans so appropriately labeled gluckschmerz – pain at another’s good fortune.
Why is it that these child geniuses make us so full of malice simply by being talented? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never did anything to me personally (I never even met the guy!) so why does the fact that he had his professional debut at 6 make feel so awful?
The funny thing is, though, these kid geniuses don’t just make us feel bad, they make us feel the need to detract from their success. “Anyone can be that good if they can afford all those lessons.” “Sure she knew the periodic table by age 3, but she’ll probably never do anything important with it.”
Around birthday time, when we’re especially conscious of our age and accomplishments, ENVY is more present than ever; ENVY of not only the rare child prodigy, but often of kids in general. Once we have no choice but to come to terms with the fact that our youth is over, we start to feel the need to defend it – to convince everyone that our childhood was best, that it was our generation that overcame the worst odds; and that often manifests itself in attacks like:
“Kids today are too soft. When I was a kid, we walked to school in three feet of snow… uphill both ways!”
“Children today are spoiled. When I was young, we never had cell phones or text messages”
“Teens today are so lazy. When I was in high school, we really knew what rebellion meant.”
And on and on and on…
Statements like these may seem innocent, but they’re actually the symptoms of ENVY poisoning.
We ENVY those who have something we want but can’t have. So considering the fact that time may be the one thing we want the most but can absolutely never get back, it’s only natural to direct our deepest ENVY to those that have it in abundance – children.
It’s pretty despicable stuff, if you think about it – feeling the need to detract something from children, feeling contempt for those who are gifted at a young age. But maybe by acknowledging it, we can move past it and try and focus on the positives of growing another year older.
I know at least for me, this year when I blow out my candles, I won’t be thinking “another year, another step towards un-remarkableness.” No, that’s far too bleak, especially for someone my age. It’s time to stop comparing myself to child prodigies or measuring my success as relative to someone else’s. Sure I may have missed the boat on being a Wunderkind but there’s still plenty of time to be a Wunder-adult!
Drawing by Matt Hoverman
Check out this envious little character drawing by our dear friend & talented playwright, the one-of-a-kind Matt Hoverman.
Matt is one of our valued consultant/advisors on ENVY the documentary (more about that in a later post) and the genius behind our hilarious tagline:
“The move you wish YOU made.”
Nice to have friends in the write places!
Welcome to ENVY the documentary blog!
We now expect to be posting here pretty often about the progress of the latest exciting project from Out of The Blue Films, Inc.
We’ll share the ups and downs behind-the-scenes during the making of this groundbreaking new doc. We’ll also pass on interesting anecdotes from what we are learning about the causes and consequences of ENVY along the way.
And we want to converse with you personally about your experiences with ENVY and this film project as we create it.
Please add us to your rss feed and/or check back often.
I’m Julia, the associate producer and assistant editor on ENVY and I’d like to start by introducing our bloggers on Team ENVY.
This project was launched by award-winning filmmaker Barbara Rick, the director/ producer/ writer. She’ll be blogging on here as we go along…
You’ll also hear from Lauren: the researcher and production assistant and
Hannah: our outreach and marketing coordinator.
And there will be other surprise guests ahead.
Thanks to Hannah we now have a Facebook page devoted to ENVY—so please fan us: http://tinyurl.com/ENVYonFacebook And you can follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ENVYthedoc
We have just completed the first visual for the documentary, our postcard:
 |
 |
 |
