Jamie Catto answers our Five Questions…
Just over a year ago, our team sat down together with the aim of conjuring up our vision for the first Wise Words Festival. Anna, John, Jane and myself sat around the table at Art House B&B drinking copious amounts of tea and bouncing ideas back and forth. It was then that Anna suddenly remembered... View Article
Just over a year ago, our team sat down together with the aim of conjuring up our vision for the first Wise Words Festival.
Anna, John, Jane and myself sat around the table at Art House B&B drinking copious amounts of tea and bouncing ideas back and forth. It was then that Anna suddenly remembered a DVD that she had been given for Christmas and together with John had watched over and over again over the following months. She had lent it to a friend but cycled around immediately to get it. That afternoon we were introduced to One Giant Leap and Jamie Catto whose wise words went on to inspire some of our thinking behind this festival…
One Giant Leap & What About Me?
The dream of travelling round the world, meeting people from all walks of life and encountering each culture along the way is probably one so many of us hold in our hearts. Jamie catto and Duncan bridgeman turned that dream into a reality. Both were already established faces on London’s music scene; Jamie as founding member of dance supergroup Faithless and Duncan as producer for the likes of Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Paul Mccartney and Take That.
They journeyed across 50 locations with a small amount of recording equipment, interviewing some of the world’s leading actors, greatest thinkers and some of the most interesting unsung heroes that they met along the way - weaving original musical collaborations with soul-searching conversations and stunning imagery.
Both films (One Giant Leap and the later film What About Me?) are poignant, emotional and entertaining time capsules of humanity at its most inspirational. They are a powerful statement of our ‘collective insanity’, and include insightful contributions from Billy Connelly, Bob Geldof, Noam Chomsky, Stephen Fry, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and Susan Sarandon to name just a few. Artists such as Michael Stipe, Will Young, Carlos Santana, Maxi Jazz, Alanis Morissette and K D Lang among many others, contribute to create what becomes the musical soundtrack to each theme.
We found both ‘One Giant Leap’ and ‘What About Me?’ fascinating, profound but totally accessible and inspiring. A few weeks later (and this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows us), we found ourselves at one of Jamie Catto’s workshops in London - a workshop that promised to ‘Unleash our Creativity’. Particularly John, but perhaps all of us to a certain extent, arrived with a certain amount of scepticism and a whole lot of English reserve - ready to bolt at the first invitation to do anything too wacky.
The weekend was intense and at times demanding but also light, relaxed and great fun. Jamie proved to be down to earth, cheeky and had a very humorous and playful approach to helping us embrace all aspects of our lives and personalities.
Jamie points out the obvious and that we are all a part of our collective insanity…
“We turn up to work every day pretending that we are not neurotic, obsessed, insatiable and full of doubt and we waste so much energy keeping up this mutual pretense for each other because we think if people saw the truth, if people really knew what was going on in our heads, if we were “found out”, we would never be given responsibility and might even be rejected. But in fact the opposite is true. When we dare to reveal the truth we give everyone else the permission to do the same”
Jamie shows us how easy it is to stop holding our breath for a moment and to actually be here, be present, vulnerable and authentic.
During the workshops Jamie suggested that when developing our creative projects we should always ask for our A-List. The worst thing that can happen is that they so ‘no’. We asked for him and are delighted that he said ‘yes’.
We are really looking forward to Jamie’s talk and workshop at Wise Words and loved his answers to our Five Questions.
When you were six what was your ambition?
To be cheeky
What makes your heart sing?
Having my gifts fully received
What makes your heart sink?
Being blamed and criticised
Whose face would you most like to see across the breakfast table?
My partner Raisa and my 3 daughters India Rose, Lola Mae and Memphis
You have obviously gathered so much wisdom from people around the world and have much of your own - but is there one bit of advice or one piece of wisdom that someone shared with you that you find yourself referring back to throughout your life?
Yes, lighten up, we’ll all be dead soon and 99% of all the worry is utterly pointless and exhausting
