Film Courage: Why do philosopher’s love death?
Robert Rippberger, Filmmaker: It’s a good question as to why philosophers love death and it’s essentially because it’s a main orientation point for meaning because faced with ultimate loss it then asks you What is important while you’re alive? So facing death, facing finitude or your own mortality then becomes a central way to frame What is a good life? I think certainly a lot of people are curious about that. What does it mean to have a good death? It’s a good question about what it means to have a good death. It’s been a fascination of a lot of philosophers to be surrounded by people and it’s to have a legacy. There’s a book about all of the ridiculous ways that people have died. I think that largely has become more of a joke within philosophy that there’s all this obsession about having a good death and ultimately what does it amount to? What does it really matter? Why does it really matter? I forget who it was but there was a general who was trying to have this good death and he was bleeding out and he was trying to get all of his men to come together before he passed and they weren’t coming together fast enough. He knew he was going to die and he just blurted Tell them I said something great and then died! I think stories like that seem to have taken the lead that it’s like Let’s talk about life itself rather than what it is to die because you really have no control over it.
Film Courage: If someone has a story idea and they never write that story, does their story idea even matter?
Robert: It’s a good question, if somebody has a story idea I would say…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Robert Rippberger is a filmmaker with a broad array of creative and executive experience. He most recently directed and produced the film “Those Who Walk Away” starring BooBoo Stewart (Descendants, X-Men) and prior to that directed and produced the Harlem drama, “Strive,” with Danny Glover. Both were released theatrically and received dozens of accolades worldwide. Directing and producing documentaries, Robert released in 2019 ‘Public Enemy Number One’ from Executive Producer Ice-T about the U.S. war on drugs. Prior, Robert directed/produced the documentary “7 Days in Syria,” a look at the human side of the war in Aleppo, Syria. The film was championed by Angelina Jolie, screened at Britain’s House of Lords, to senior members of the U.N., and was released on Hulu and Amazon. As an executive producer, along with Jason Blum, Robert did the feature doc, “Alive & Kicking.” The film was sold to Magnolia Films after its debut at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival where it received a Grand Jury nomination. The film is available on Netflix. Robert received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from UC, Berkeley in 2012 where he was awarded the Eisner Prize for his film “In the Middle.” It is considered the highest achievement in the creative arts given on the UC, Berkeley campus. Robert is a member of the Producers Guild of America and is on the PGA’s Social Impact Entertainment Task Force. In addition to SIE Films, Robert is also the founder and co-executive director of SIE Society, a leading global alliance of Social Impact Entertainment filmmakers.
His latest film is Those Who Walk Away (Now in theaters and on VOD) starring BooBoo Stewart, Nils Allen Stewart and Scarlett Sperduto.
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