Meet Julie Bayer Salzman

Today we’re excited to be connecting with Julie Bayer Salzman again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Julie, thanks for joining us again. Just to level set a bit for folks who may have missed our last interview together, can you briefly introduce yourself?
Hello, again, Shoutout Community! I’m a Venice-based independent filmmaker and mindfulness educator, with two teenage boys, a hubby and a dog we affectionately call Chunks, as in Chunks of Love (his real name is Thelonious). I am surrounded by testosterone! It can be a bit much at times, but I digress…

I graduated college with a degree in Cultural Anthropology because what interested me more than anything was learning about people from other parts of the globe, and what life looks like for them. With that in mind, I bought my first still camera and worked my way around Europe for a while, thinking that perhaps being a Nat Geo photographer was the direction I wanted to go in. But I quickly learned that as much as I love my solitude, I equally appreciate and crave collaboration, so I began heading in the direction of film production.

Years of freelancing in London, Chicago, and LA, before settling on a full-time gig in the television commercial production world for over a decade was my “education” if you will – it was real life work and living that taught me how to make films, how to tell stories, and led me to be the empathic filmmaker/storyteller/educator I am now. In a nutshell, I make therapeutic films, more or less. I use the medium to teach folks how to emotionally-regulate, how to shift their perspective/perceptions, and generally how to cultivate enough grace and compassion so that we can truly do something good with the time we have on this planet. I’m all for making the most of out this life!

Awesome, so we reached out because we wanted to hear all about what you have been up to since we last connected.
I’ve been chugging away on my Mindful Shorts documentary film series since we last connected. The series aims to give people various mindfulness tools they can use to navigate this human experience we call Life. The two most recent films are: “A Good Day”, which is a day-in-the-life portrait of a mindfulness-based addiction recovery center in upstate NY; and “Broken & Beautiful”, about one woman’s grief journey since the death of her daughter, with the Japanese art of Kintsugi as a metaphor for putting one’s life back together after experiencing catastrophic loss. These two films are the 4th and 5th of what I conceived to be a series of 6 total, so…one more to go! (Or who knows, maybe there will be more?) “Just Breathe”, “Release”, and “Into Light” were the first three films, focusing on Anger, Anxiety, and Depression, respectively. “A Good Day” concentrates on Addiction; “Broken & Beautiful” on Grief. The next film will be on Trauma, and it is being developed at this time so there’s not much I can say about it other than that it will delve into the science of mindfulness.

I’m also working on a photography book project revolving around a solo trip I took to Iceland on my 50th birthday. It was a transformative experience and one that I’m figuring out how to share in a way that isn’t too personal, but rather more universal. The internal dynamics at play alongside the external when traveling solo can be intense, especially when one has some old wounds to heal, or is going through an exceptionally difficult time in life, as I was at the time. How do we transmute our anger into gratitude? How do the environments we’re in either support or suppress our creative expression? What does it take to break through layers of old hurt and pain, and see a situation or person anew? How do we shed old narratives and create new ones? These are the themes I’m exploring all the time in my work. Usually my documentaries involve others doing the talking, sharing their stories; this time I get to tell my own story, in my own words…and that’s pretty horrifying, to be honest. Will be interesting to see how it plays out!

We also want to give folks a chance to get to know you a bit better so we’ve prepared a fun lightning round of questions. Ready?

Favorite Movie: I don’t have one favorite of anything, so I’m going to name two faves: “Bardo”, by Alejandro Inarritu, and “Harold & Maude” by Hal Ashby

Favorite Book: “Sophie’s Choice” by William Styron, and “The God of Small Things” by Arundati Roy

Favorite TV Show: “Six Feet Under”, and the first two seasons of “Barry”

Favorite Band or Artist: Elbow, Anouar Brahem, Laura Marling

Sweet or Savory: Savory then Sweet

Mountains or Beach: I’m a Sea-Goat, I need both!

Favorite Sport (to watch): Baseball

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: I never knew…still don’t.

French Fries or Onion Rings: Fries

Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: Who?

Favorite Breakfast Food: Breakfast Sammy on Sourdough with Egg, Bacon, Spinach, Avocado, and Chipotle Mayo

Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
If a big decision is on the table, I make sure to spend time both in my heart space and headspace, as I’m a pragmatic dreamer. The pragmatic side weighs the pros and cons of whatever the options are; the dreamer imagines the various options playing out, and decides which feels right. Finding the sweet spot where head meets heart is always the goal, although it’s not always easy, especially when other people are involved. How will this decision affect them? What are their needs? Balancing the needs of others with the needs of the individual can be tricky. Sometimes you have to “take one for the team” so-to-speak, even if it’s not what you think is best for you as an individual. Usually in those situations, I’ve found that giving up something in the short-term comes with rewards down the road, so I have to trust that everything will work out in time.

One important thing I remind myself: Don’t get fixated on minutiae. You don’t need to know every who/what/where/when/why before making a decision or starting a new project. A sketch of the big picture (whether it’s the life you want to live or the film you want to make) is all you really need to get started; the details will fill themselves in over time. Even people with their bullet-proof master plans will eventually be sideswiped by the unexpected, and they’ll freak out over it. That level of control is pure illusion. Have a sketch that guides you, and go. I’m a firm believer in leaving room for the unexpected, because that’s when the magic happens.

So I think for me it boils down to this: Trust the Process. I know that if I stay in alignment with my north star, I’ll get to where I need to be. I might not end up where I thought I wanted to go, but the expression “The Journey is the Destination” has always rung true to me. I remember years ago my Chinese medicine doctor telling me something like “If all you are doing is looking up at the mountaintop while on the path, you’ll not only miss the flowers on the ground, you may fall off the cliff”. I feel that in my bones. People who are so focused on the destination can wreak havoc along the way – stressed that they haven’t achieved x, y, or z by such-and-such time. Living in the unknown is not easy, but if you can ease your way into it, you can have a lot of fun, and live a life that is uniquely your own.

Website: https://wavecrestfilms.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wavecrestfilms/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-bayer-salzman-8134239/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@juliebayersalzman

Image Credits
Josh Salzman, Julie Bayer Salzman