“The World Before Me” is a Cinematic Poem Short Film Featuring Poet Walt Whitman Directed By David Bryan.
Filmed, Edited and Directed by: David Bryan
Original Music by: Lynnae Gryffin and David Bryan
Narrated by: Arpita Patnaik
“The World Before Me is a modern-day round the world trip, set to the words of a 19th century poet.
‘Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.’ 160 years have passed since Walt Whitman penned this text, but feelings about travel remain the same. We’re still inspired by the open road and still excited by discovering the unknown.
In the fall of 2015, while preparing for a trip that would take me literally around the world, I couldn’t shake the desire to share the experience of travel, which for me is a very personal one. This film is the culmination of that desire. I carried my camera for 5 months through 15 countries. The endless metropolis of Tokyo, tiny islands of The Philippines, busy streets of India, the Swiss Alps and the Scottish Highlands. They’re all right here, for you, in 6 minutes.”
Excerpts from “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman
1
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)
2
You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial,
The black with his woolly head, the felon, the diseas’d, the illiterate person, are not denied;
The birth, the hasting after the physician, the beggar’s tramp, the drunkard’s stagger, the laughing party of mechanics,
The escaped youth, the rich person’s carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,
The early market-man, the hearse, the moving of furniture into the town, the return back from the town,
They pass, I also pass, any thing passes, none can be interdicted,
None but are accepted, none but shall be dear to me.
Website: http://dcbryan.com/
Cinematic Poems 