The Life-Light

Jordi Klepper // My personal fight for breakthroughs

Because I’m born with a physical handicap I’m used to having certain boundaries in my life. The facts say I can’t or shouldn’t do certain things because of my handicap. But it’s in my character to not accept these boundaries as limitations. Instead I see them as steps to learn new things and grow as a person. I developed a great hunger for freedom. I‘ve always been someone with a strong vision to go to places where no one think I could go, to accomplish things nobody thought was possible. That’s why I want to take it to the next level: I’m going to make a journey around the world. This will be my greatest victory of my life thus far, something I’ve been dreaming about for years. It will be a leap into the unknown, an adventure, a quest to a new personal freedom.This hunger for freedom is an important part of my character and identity, so as a creative designer and filmmaker I long to take this energy and translate it into my work. While I seem to amaze everyone around me with the things I already do and my ability to think bigger than most of them despite of my handicap, I still experience a barrier when it comes to my creativity. I want to break that barrier so I can truly be free in my work.The journey I’m about to make will not only set me free as a designer/filmmaker, it will also help me grow as a human being. Nothing is more frustrating when your mind wants to do something, but your body holds you back. In this world-trip I shall have to overcome physical boundaries that are (almost) to big to overcome. This is what makes my story so unique, but this also means I can’t make this trip on my own. I have to admit I need help. And just as I need help in my physical battle for freedom, I’m searching for help to break through my creative barrier. In this journey I want to share my story with other creative people, to connect with them, talk with them and learn from their personal experiences. To find the tools I need to grow as a creative person.I know it’s a universal ‘problem’ for every creative person to deal with certain restrictions and limitations. The fact that these limitations are so connected with my physical struggles is what makes my story so unique. I really believe others can help me to grow in this quest, but I also believe I can inspire others with this story.This quest will be translated in a short animation film called “The Life-Light”. I want to show people the real me, this is who I am. These are my weaknesses, but I have found a way to translate these weaknesses to my personal strength. I’m someone who has a lot of physical limitations/boundaries in my life, but I have learned to shape these barriers as steps to grow. To come to places where I would never be able to go. This film will show that process, and I’m convinced it will be an inspiring process for everyone who works in the creative field.

Daan Viegas Damas // A rediscovery of myself and my passion

During my teenage years I struggled with learning problems at high school. All my time and energy went in my homework with a lot of help from my mom. My student coach at school motivated me to keep going despite of my bad grades. I translated the support I got from my mother and student coach as expectations I couldn’t meet, and time after time I couldn’t realize these expectations. I felt like a failure and got disappointed in myself and as a result I did not graduate from high school.The negative self-image I developed drove me to drug abuse and finally even using hard drugs. In contrary to my friends I saw it did not satisfy me as it did for them. I recognized it did not help at all with my situation and doesn’t fit with who I really was. At that point I met a man offered me a way out with a job, I took this chance with both hands and immediately stopped using all drugs. This person motivated and helped me to also get my high school diploma. Finally I had the feeling I wasn’t a failure anymore, I was successful: I enjoyed my job, finished high school and didn’t do drugs anymore. Because it felt so great I fell in love with the feeling of success and wanted more and more, I developed a craving to prove myself. This urgency to prove myself shaped my self-esteem and after I decided to go to college and the school for the arts to get my degree.As a junior student at the school for the arts Utrecht, this continuous urge to prove myself came to a hard stop when I heard my mother was diagnosed with cancer and it wasn’t treatable. I wanted to enjoy life with her and soak up all the wonderful moments with my mom, all the other things in my life were not important anymore all I wanted to do was being with her. My urge to prove myself in my work and passion faded. I only did what was necessary at college to contain my study backlog. My mother lived for 10 months with cancer and looking back on this period I see it changed my life drastically.When my mother passed away and the suffering was over I felt the rest to enter a new phase in my life. The death of my mother changed my perspective of life, the urge to prove myself disappeared and the value of my passion and drive changed completely. For the first time in my life I learned how to make mistakes in college. If something failed I did not feel as a failure, but I could see it as a learning process. I finally learned to be able to let go of my perfectionism. Because I earlier had to learn that I couldn’t be always in control while my mother was sick. It made me feel liberated!I want to take this accelerated process of change where I find myself in since the passing of my mother 2 years ago to the next level. This project and world-trip will put me in a situation where the situation is out of my control. My past proved that I learn the most when I’m in this kind of situations. This will help me in the rediscovery of my true identity and to reach my personal goal to show my identity and emotions in my creative work. In my live I discovered you need others in these learning processes. I also believe that this process of growing and searching is a universal process that every creative person encounters. That’s why I want to show my personal process to the world in a short film to be an inspiration for others: “The Life-Light”.