Losing everything David Hoffman
I had a fire nine days ago my archived
175 films my 16-millimeter negative all
my books of my dad’s books my
photographs I had collected I was a
collector major big-time it’s gone I
just looked at it and I didn’t know what
to do I mean this was was I my things I
always live in the present I love the
present I cherished the future and I was
taught some strange thing as a kid like
you got to make something good out of
something bad you got to make something
good out of something bad this was bad
man I was I I coughed I was sick that’s
my camera lens the first one the one I
shot my Bob Dylan film with 35 years ago
that’s my feature film King Murray won
Khan Film Festival in 1970 the only
print I had that’s my papers I was in
minutes 20 minutes epiphany hit me
something hit me you got to make
something good out of something bad I
started to say to my friends neighbors
my sister by the way that Sputnik I ran
it last year Sputnik was downtown the
negative it wasn’t touched these are
some pieces of things I used in my
Sputnik feature film which opens in New
York in two weeks
at downtown I called my sister I called
my neighbors I said come dig that’s me
at my desk I was a desk took 40 years to
build you know all the stuff that’s my
daughter Jean she came she’s a nurse in
San Francisco dig it up I said pieces I
want pieces bits and pieces I came up
with this idea a life of bits and pieces
which I’m just starting to work on my
next project that’s my sister she took
care of pictures cuz I was a big
collector of just snapshot photography
that I believed said a lot and those are
some of the pictures that something was
good about the burned pictures I didn’t
know I looked at that I said wow is that
better than that’s my proposal on Jimmy
Doolittle I made that movie for
vision it’s only copy I had pieces of it
idea about women so I started to say hey
man you are too much you could cry about
this I really didn’t I instead said I’m
gonna make something out of it and maybe
next year and I’m appreciate this moment
to come up on this stage with so many
people have already given me so much
solace and just say the tedsters I’m
proud of me that I take something bad I
turn it and I’m gonna make something
good out of this all these pieces that’s
awful Leipzig is original photograph I
loved I was a big record collector the
records didn’t make it boy I’ll tell you
film burns film burns I mean this was 16
millimeter safety film the negatives are
gone cause my father’s letter to me
telling me to marry the woman I first
married when I was 20 my daughter and me
she’s still there she’s there this
morning actually that’s my house my
family is living in the Hilton Hotel in
Scotts Valley that’s my wife Heidi who
didn’t take it as well as I didn’t my
children Davey and Henry my son Davey
and the hotel two nights ago
so my message to you folks from my three
minutes is that I appreciate the chance
to share this with you I will be back I
love being at Ted I came to live it and
I am living it that’s my view from my
window outside of Santa Cruz in Bonnie
doing just 35 miles from here thank you
everybody
they have names like idle time books and
Panther coffee with free enterprise puns
like hue and cry and smash records and
one Saturday a year
small businesses remind a nation of the
benefits of shopping small like the way
David Kaplan at Shell lumber shows you
how to use a chop saw then invites you
back when the warehouse becomes the
community theater or the way Camille
rustler of Everafter
travels the journey from despair to
bliss with every bride-to-be on just one
day 100 million of us joined a movement
and Main Street found its you might
again and Main Street found its fight
again and we the locals found delight
again that’s the power of all that’s the
power that’s the power of all that’s the
membership effect of American Express
you