Ryan Park’s short film, Crescnedo is a highly relatable short documentary. It is so relatable because it involves someone chasing down her dream despite a lot of time passing and despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In watching, we keep hoping for a perfect, Hollywood ending, but, as with so many things in life, not only is there no perfect ending, there isn’t really any ending at all. The story just keeps going and, we must assume, will continue to do so. This is not meant as a criticism of park: this is a documentary and the film would have been less interesting and less thought-provoking if it had ended with the protagonist signing a multi-album deal with CBS.
In the story of Crescnedo, we follow Gretchen, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea and wants more than anything to make a living as a musician and songwriter. Crescnedo focuses on a road trip she takes to Charlottesville Virginia where a music festival is taking place. While there, she enjoyed the music and gets some advice from other musicians – all of whom seem to be hobbyists rather than members of large, successful touring bands. Gretchen has gone in search of inspiration, and perhaps she found some.
But Gretchen also has another difficulty to overcome. She has terrible hearing problems that have required, and will continue to require surgery on her ear. This, it goes without saying, is a major problem for someone striving to make it in the music world. She is, moreover, not as young as the majority of people who really make it big in music.
There is a well-known cognitive bias called Survivorship Bias in which individuals tend to put an inordinate amount of attention on the very small number of people who’ve succeeded in a very difficult situation or enterprise. Youtube is full of inspirational stories of people who’ve succeeded despite all the odds. But far more rarely do we hear the stories of the 99.9 who did not make it. When we see a rock star telling us to never let anyone take your dreams away, the conclusion is obvious: keep going until you succeed. What we often fail to realize is that this rock start might be one of the most talented people in the world and extremely lucky to boot. It’s simply not realistic to take this person as a model. But that’s what we do. I suspect that it is this kind of thinking that is driving Gretchen as well.
But it is not just Gretchen. Today, with the prevalence of social media and what appears to be an infinite number of ways to make loads of money through various self-started schemes, the desire to pursue our dreams seems to be at the end of our fingertips. And that seems to go for just about everyone. So many people have side hustles they want to turn into full time jobs that it’s a wonder anyone even has a regular job any more. I believe this is the zeitgeist that has swept Gretchen up.
In contrast, I don’t think people in the past really thought they had any realistic hopes of achieving dreams such as becoming famous musicians. I remember my grandmother, who grew up during the Great Depression, trying to explain to me that in the past people didn’t have such lofty ambitions. It was enough to live and survive. Bob Dylan also expresses this with his insightful lyrics: “My grandfather was a duck trapper, He could do it with just dragnets and ropes, My grandmother could sew new dresses out of old cloth, I don’t know if they had any dreams or hopes.” Now we all have dreams and hopes, just like Gretchen, and we, like her, must decide how far to pursue them and at what cost.
On Gretchen’s journey, she’s accompanied by her sister, who admires her and her strength. She also sees herself in Gretchen. Their companionship is what makes this journey possible. If Crescnedo had followed Gretchen alone, it would have been quite grim. And perhaps if we’re not alone on our journeys, we can afford to keep pursuing them a bit longer.