I found this video one day when I was
procrastinating on stumble upon (which if you don't know about this website
thing-y then you have to go look it up) and I got interested in it because I
was wondering if it was from the Festival of Colors that happens in Spanish
Fork. Which I turned out it was, and then I was really intrigued with the title
of this documentary. Optimist is not only the name of the song that is being
played during the video but it’s also what these people are gathering together
to be, to gain optimism from the simplest act of throwing colored powder. The idea of throwing colored powder into the
air is such a strange concept when you don’t know anything about Hindu
festivals or Holi. But yet it is
beautiful and it draws happiness from people, coming together to get dirty with
colorful chalk. I’ll bet that some
people that go to this festival don’t even know what they are really
celebrating and what it really means but yet they are celebrating. They gather
in optimism to celebrate life and being alive and doing something that they may
never do again. It’s a beautiful
metaphor. The innocent celebration of life.
The story of this celebration could have easily
been done with the medium of photography but then you lose the music that is
being played during the film. You lose
the whole experience of knowing that the picture express optimism but so does
the music. The music could easily be
taken away but you lose that feel of calm simple happiness that it brings. There are many types of optimism and forms of
happiness but the music narrows down that spectrum and gives you that calm
happiness. The simple optimism of
celebrating life with complete stranger and colored chalk.
This video was beautiful. I remember going to the Festival of Colors last year as a Freshman and I had an absolutely marvelous time. Just as you said that there may be people who go and do not know the meaning of the celebration, I was one of those people. I am glad that I was able to mingle with some of the people at the temple there and they told me about the celebration and why it is so beautiful. It was a great experience and this Optimism video captured that beauty of life. It is simple and it is to be cherished. Thanks for sharing this.
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