Customer Reviews

1000 Journals

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Andrea Kreuzhage checked into the 1000 Journal Project and became fascinated with it before she met Someguy, the project's originator. Her documentary is an amazing story of collaborative art with all the tears, joys and stories intact.

Here's the story: In June of 2000, a graphic designer, known in this project as Someguy, had an idea for a collaborative art project. He would distribute 1,000 blank journals, allow people to fill them in any way they wanted to, and return them to him.

According to Someguy's story, "In August of that year, I began distributing blank journals around San Francisso. I left them in bar bathrooms, at cafes, and on the bus, and gave them to friends and strangers. Each journal contained instructions inviting participants to contribute something to the journal, and then to pass it along to someone else."

He had no idea if the journals would ever return. But he started a website on which people could post their journal artwork and sign up to have a journal sent to them when they returned. The documentary tracks the story of the journals that have been returned or have known whereabouts.

People who found the books eagerly looked forward to leaving their mark. Faced with filling a blank page, some filled it eagerly, some couldn't decide how to fill it. Many had trouble sending the journal onto the next person. (Artists frequently have trouble letting their work go into the world without adult supervision.)

Because the books traveled to every state in the union and into 53 countries worldwide. People began to add rules to the journals. "Finish them in 24 hours and pass them on." "You have two weeks." And then, some artists decided they didn't like the writing of others, painted over the pages and added their own artwork. Some people who got the journals wrote angry, damaging entries to previous artists and sent the book back to the original artist. The documentary covers it all--the joy, the sadness, the weird rationalizations.

You meet the woman whose husband died the day she received the book, and the memorial she made of her page. You see the book having cross-cultural stumbles and snags. You visit with the woman who received the book back, and the cruel drawings of her that a collaborative art project risks.

The documentary is best savored with the book, but it does a great job of exploring our culture and the control we want over our writing and our lives.

If I call this film "inspirational" I hope you won't think it's somehow not entertaining. It's extremely entertaining, a good story, well told, populated with interesting characters and fascinating scenes. And blissfully, it's not all vanilla and upbeat either -- as you would expect, some of the people who got their hands on these journals didn't necessarily like some of the entries that came before them. From the haunting music of the opening credits to the vivid pages of the journal pages themselves, it's a delight from start to finish. One of the best documentaries I saw last year.

This is the message Brian (Someguy) sent into the world by way of 1,000 hardcovered, black art journals. How many, after the full 1,000 went out into the world, came back? How long did it take before he began receiving any completed journals at all? How could he afford to do such a thing?
With clear instructions to create a personal art work on one or two pages (called a "spread"), Brian left "his" journals in public places. Bus stops, restaurants, busses themselves. Any place his day took him. This film documents the journals and the people who received them. Some people kept them for a year. Some kept them longer. Some journals have not returned at all.
Andrea Krueghage's film documents the people who received them, and someguy who conceived and carried out the experiment. Now, an exhibit at MOMA in San Francisco, do NOT miss this extraordinary film. I dare you to sit through it and not need kleenex. What do you suppose would happen if someguy or somegal sent 1,000 journals into the world and asked people to write their formula for peace in its pages? Would YOU be able to "Pass it on" or return it to the originator?

Someguy, a man in San Francisco, created an art project entitled 1,000 Journals. He sent 1,000 blank journals into the world with hopes that the pages would be filled by millions from all walks of life, living in all the far reaching corners of the world. With this project, a website tracking the journals was born, thus creating a sense of community and dialogue among the participants and aspiring participants. Despite this sense of community, only 1 of the journals has returned and Andrea Kreuzhage sets out to find the others. In her quest to track down the remaining 999 journals, Andrea travels and interviews participants all over; from Australia, to Singapore, to Croatia, to France, to Finland, and more. Meeting the whimsical characters behind the journal entries and hearing about their experience and what it meant to them is extremely fun and interesting. You can't help but be fond of the people, their entries, and the project in general, ultimately leaving the viewer with an urge to create and collaborate. The exploration of a creative, digital, world-wide community and the responsibilities they entail is also very interesting.

This astonishing film begins with the story of Someguy and his journals, but expands to stories of art, creativity, passion, attachment, letting go, selfishness, sharing, pain, waiting, memory and acceptance. I thought it would simply be a lovely film about journaling, creativity and art. And it is.

Andrea Kreuzhage literally takes us on the global journey with the notebooks, and we meet people who feel passionately about the journals and their responsibility to and for them. It was entertaining and enlightening and captured the attention of our entire family, including the teenagers.

What happens when you send something out into the world with good intent? Does only good come back? Not always. The journals somehow bring out emotion and some action that isn't always pure of heart. People hang on to journals and are resistant to sharing and they do questionable things in their entries (and to other people's entries). And for others, the journals bring only joy and delight. Andrea brings the story full circle with themes of acceptance, forgiveness and a quest to carry on with creativity in the world.

It's a film about connectivity and the reveal of emotions--good and bad.

I recommend inviting lots of friends over to watch this, open a few bottles of wine, and have a few blank journals, glue sticks and a box of markers out for dessert. This movie will start something more than you can imagine.

if you are not a journaling artist, or don't collect ephemera, or
don't marvel in the everyday, you can still be moved by this documentary.
one man's project propels art into the hands of ? who know how many
but the trip is world wide. and so then the intrique and mystery following.
plus one of my favorite journal artists Tracy Moore is also on the video
and it was great to hear him speak about it....

1000 Journals
This film is completely facinating! I keep dragging my friends over to my house to see it!
Wonderful story-telling, and a great concept to start out with. Visually moving, and fun. It is a great study in the creative process in general, as well as the unique perspective of individuals caught up in the project of finding a journal and being asked to contribute to it.

The last few years I so wanted to purchase 1000 Journals DVD and since I couldn't find it here in Australia, I approached Amazon and well what do you know in two weeks it was delivered to my house!! 1000 Journals is such an inspiring DVD with so much inspiration. I am so glad I own this wonderful DVD.

Andrea Kreuzhage documents the adventures of San Francisco artist Someguy who in 2000 had an AHA! moment. Curious about the reactions of ordinary people to blank paper, sent 1000 blank journals into the world for discovery, mark making, handing on. His website 1000journals.com was glued to the cover so art could be uploaded from the evolving journals, before they were traded on, and their eventual return when finished. In September 2003 one journal found its way home to Someguy.

The filmmaker chased down journals in Croatia, Finland, Singapore, Brazil, Australia which visited scout meetings, gone to seat mates in airplanes and trolleys, in bars, left in bathrooms, phone booths, handed off to strangers at parties, etc. and heard the stories of foundry workers, thespians, musicians, the shy, the private, some witnesses to 9/11/2001 and Hurricane Katrina. Fortunate recipients were sometimes unable to allow the journal to continue its travels.

Others signed up on the 1000journals.com website to be next in line and never received the book. Others sent it off to the next address, never received a confirming email that it arrived, and the journal is lost to history. One is in Haiti without postage to return home or move to the next person. One is in China. A Different Kind of Luxury: Japanese Lessons in Simple Living and Inner Abundance

One woman bravely revealed herself in artwork which was brutalized by a subsequent contributor. Another woman's poetic calligraphy was obscured by being pasted over.
Creative Wildfire: An Introduction to Art Journaling - Basics and Beyond, Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words, Live & Learn: Real Life Journals: Designing & Using Handmade Books (AARP), Cover To Cover: Creative Techniques For Making Beautiful Books, Journals & Albums.

One young Australian had the fortune to connect with 2 journals, which she shared with her brother an avid diarist. He died less than a month later DVD Departures. Both journals containing his notations have since disappeared. Where are these journals? Watch the credits for appeals from contributors to send a journal on or back home to Someguy if you have one.

Fascinating social experiment in art collaboration among strangers: the comforting, abrasive and gentling interactions. Special Features contains interviews with contributors and a review of annual Artfest in Washington State. Re-view the DVD with Andrea Kreuzhage's voiceover to hear what drove her during filming, the email exchanges between artists and herself, excerpts from the 1000journals.com website.

Someguy patiently awaits the homecoming of more than 900 journals still floating in space. A SF Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and book have been produced.

Someguy began 1001journals.com for those who wish to begin a blank journal project of their own, document by scans the process of page production, alteration, inscription, and sending the book on.

Worldwide experiment in collaborative art, cooperation, mutual respect and trust.

How we behave if something unexpected comes into our lives. Self-discovery of our capacity for responsibility and respect.

I keep hoping one of Someguy's blank journals will suddenly appear in my grocery sack. How exciting!

There's a lot of people who talk about doing good, and a lot of people who argue about what's good and what's not good, but there are also some other folks who just put their lives on the line for what's right.
Robert Coles The Moral Life of Children

I participated in the 1000 Journals Project at Artfest in 2006, and this film definitely captures the energy of that moment. It is amazing to see how directly the journal pages reveal the place and time of the artist's work. I was especially moved by the personal reflections relating to the events of 9/11/2001 as well as artists all around the world.