Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1446843
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JANUARY 2022 8 ALMANAC My essentials REBECCA CREMONA 38, filmmaker Currently living between Malta and Washington DC, I'm a filmmaker who has spent the pandemic years writing internationally commissioned scripts. With the pandemic abating, I look forward to getting back on set with a host of projects I have in the pipeline. Malta's depleting natural beauty keeps me up at night, and my nephew and niece make my heart skip a beat. 1 2 4 5 1. Book 3 2. Film/TV 3. Internet 4. Music 5. Place THESE days I'm watching more TV than film, partial- ly because of the pandemic and my preference to watch films in the cinema. Perhaps because I wasn't able to trav- el as much as I usually do for work, I got sucked into Call My Agent which is a fun and insightful French series about the behind the scenes of being in the filmmaking business. A wonderful bal- ance of drama and comedy, with great cameos - I'd defi- nitely recommend it. LOCALLY I have been par- ticularly struck by the im- mense value of the Facebook page 'Women for Women' which is a crucial resource and safe haven for women, sometimes in very dire sit- uations, who unfortunately still don't find adequate sup- port from more formalised platforms in our society. Al- so on Facebook, the recent movement ĊelebrAZZJONI is bringing together a com- munity of local audiovisual creatives in an unprecedent- ed way at a time when immi- nent action is needed in the sector. I tend to listen to a cluster of singer-songwriters over and over again. My staples would be Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, Leonard Cohen… Tori Amos's Cornflake Girl, Gianna Nannini's Bello e Im- possibile, Dolly Parton's Jo- lene, Joan Baez's Diamonds and Rust…I'm currently re- ally enjoying Aurora's new al- bum, Tunisian folk duo Ÿuma and Brahms (especially his 3rd symphony). I think my subconscious priority in the past was lyrics, but now it's shifting more to the non-ver- bal. I enjoy traveling immense- ly. Although there's so much more for me to explore, I would love to return to Lis- bon. I find its mix of Con- tinental and Moorish influ- ences to be both familiar and exotic. Its eclectic historical textures, mix of sea and hills, relative un-gentrification and greenery, make for a very spe- cial combination. I particu- larly love the way they respect and embrace their heritage, not only when preserving the past but most especially when forging forward. YUVAL Harari's Homo Sa- piens theorises as to why, out of so many different human species, it was Homo Sapiens – that is, us – which prevailed. He argues that it's because of our ability to invest in stories – religious, pagan, nation build- ing, folk narratives etc – that we were able to coexist in larg- er numbers than other human species, and ultimately sur- vived. I found this "brief his- tory of humankind", asserting that storytelling is intrinsic to our very survival, compelling.