To Be Enjoyed
A career musician reflects on a lifetime of creativity, and an incredibly lucky break.
Why do some creative works become huge successes, and others sink without trace? That’s the question at the heart of Derek Thompson’s excellent book, Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular.
The answer, he claims, has very little to do with the quality of the thing itself. He interviews an expert in chaos theory, and concludes, “The same product can become a smash hit or a dud in nearly equivalent circumstances. It’s just a matter of math, timing, and luck.”
He goes on, “There is no antidote to the chaos of creative markets, only the brute doggedness to endure it.”
Stephen Stinson’s To Be Enjoyed (2023) is a film about that brute doggedness, and the happenstance that might – but might not – grace a creative person at any given time.
It tells the story of career musician Thad Cockrell, who for 20 years has been making music without any significant success. And then one day, TV host Jimmy Fallon hears one of his songs playing in a hardware store, and changes Thad’s life.
What I love about Stephen’s film though is that Thad’s incredibly lucky break isn’t really the point. It’s a great twist, of course, but this is a film about perseverance, and creative integrity, and doing things you believe in.
Stephen’s deliberately slow, meditative style fits the story (the first two minutes is Thad alone playing piano in an empty church). There’s another version of this film which is zippier, flashier, more sensational. And nowhere near as good as this.
I spoke to Stephen over Zoom from his home in Nashville. You can see more of his work on his website.
Why did you want to tell this story?
Any time I take on a project like this, I always say there's a bit of selfishness in it. I get to use documentary as an avenue to build a relationship with someone that I admire. I can ask all the questions that I have about my life to someone who I think may have answers.
Thad has been putting out the music that he has wanted to put out for two decades. And I just admire that. I've been making films for 10 years, and I know how much of a slog it can be.
We hung out a few times before we started shooting, and I immediately saw these parallels with my own life. I struggle with all the things that he struggles with. Trying to make art that you're really proud of, never wavering when people are telling you to do it in a different way.
So the process of making the film is therapeutic in three ways.
I feel like it's therapy for me, because I get the opportunity to have a conversation with someone that I admire, and we get to have a back and forth conversation about some of these bigger ideas, about art, about creativity, and about life.
In that process, I think the subject also benefits, because now you have someone intentionally asking questions that maybe they think about, but have never talked about.
And then when the film comes out and the viewer has the chance to experience it, my hope is that the same thing applies, where it can feel like a therapeutic experience.
What was the biggest challenge?
Patience. We first started talking about the idea in May of 2021. We scheduled some shoot dates and for a lot of reasons it ended up getting pushed, which was hard in the moment for me.
If I get super passionate or curious about an idea, all I want to do is go out and make that thing. And so when the dates got pushed, it was like, settle down. Be patient, it's going to happen.
We ended up shooting a few months later and it was the perfect timing. It was early November in Nashville and the weather was beautiful. Some of the scenes that we shot outside would have looked completely different if we would have shot it four months prior.
Same thing for the release. The film was done and edited in summer of 2022. And then it was released in November of 2023.
I think anytime you work on something that you put your heart and your soul into, and so many people have put their heart and soul into, all you want is for it to be out into the world.
I need to learn that everything happens when it's supposed to happen. But I don't learn. Well, I’m trying.
What would you do differently if you made the film again?
I don’t think there’s anything. I remember watching it the night before it was going to go live, and I just had this overwhelming feeling that this is the film that we collectively, me, the crew and the production company, set out to make.
I left that viewing really proud of myself, and really proud of the people that helped make the film.
What are you most proud of?
It’s certainly special when you get to work with the same people over the course of five years – the same DP, Logan Dillard, the same composer, Sanders Bohlke, the same sound designer, Cody Twitchell.
And you get to see those people grow, and get better, and make better films. I feel a lot of pride and thankfulness that they continue to say yes to these types of projects.
And I feel proud because it's really hard to make films. Especially in this weird format.
It’s 17 minutes, when the whole world is saying it needs to be shorter and faster. How does it apply to TikTok? I'm the antithesis of TikTok. Whatever TikTok is, I’m the opposite.
I get so frustrated that everything has to be bigger, and faster, and louder, and more builds. And the 60 has to be a 30, and the 30 has to be a 15, and the 15 has to be an eight.
When I started making films for myself, I wanted to be the opposite of that. I want it to be slow and methodical. And I know it takes a bit of effort from the viewer, but I think what these people have to say has so much value.
So I’m proud of myself for continuing to stick to my guns. These are the types of films that I want to make. Not every film is for everybody. That’s something that I have had to learn over the course of the last decade.
How did making this film change you?
It gave me a tonne of confidence. When you're around someone like Thad, who is so confident in who they are and what they're making, it propels that in yourself.
Stop worrying about what other people are doing, and what other people are saying, and make the art that you want to make. Put it out into the world, and realise that you don't control the outcome.
I think I left the film more empathetic. And with more of a passion for what I'm doing. Like, what you're doing matters. You have to continue to do it.
Thanks to Stephen and you for reading. We’ll have one more issue before Christmas so see you in a couple of weeks.