Why Man Creates is a marvelous short film by Saul Bass (famous mostly for title design) and Elaine Bass. It won the Best Short Documentary Oscar in 1969.
My art teacher in high school was a huge fan of the film, as was his buddy, the English teacher. I’m sure I saw it in high school at least five times, maybe more. It was also shown a couple of time at early Starwoods, so I saw it again then.
It’s a beautiful film, hard to find now, but a true cult classic.
There’s a sequence where scientists are interviewed about their research. Many have been working on the same problems for 10 or 15 or 20 years, and feel a solution is only a few years away. There’s one scientist who worked on a problem for 20 years, and failed. His project for all those years was now over, and it was sad to see him pack up and walk out of the lab, not knowing what was next.
But in truth, success would bring the same empty space. You work on a thing for 20 years, and you succeed, you’re done. Now what? It’s a good thing, a wonderful thing, but it’s also a hole. It’s a loss.
For twenty years or, not to put too fine a point on it, for eighteen years.
What has happened in my life this week is a good thing, a joyous thing. But it’s also a loss. Motherhood has been eighteen years of a science project. And I know I’m not done. I also know it’s now, quite suddenly, different than it ever was, and it’s not ever going back. Like a scientist packing up a lab, I don’t know what’s next.
