Nine Films That Spark Creativity

Welcome PE Nation!

Today I share nine creative documentaries and series that fueled my teaching and creative work, from sushi perfection to sky-high walks, rock faces, pyrotechnics, street art, chess, and reopening an elite dining room. The thread is obsession, process, and building something that lasts.

• Spinning Plates 
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi 
• Skywalkers and Man on Wire 
• Exit Through the Gift Shop 
• Skyladder 
• Free Solo 
• Magnus 
• Seven Days Out 

Let me know what you think,

Dave

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Chapters

• 0:11 Welcome And Why Inspiration Matters
• 2:28 Nine Creative Works To Learn From
• 3:35 Spinning Plates And Chef Innovation
• 6:41 Jiro Dreams Of Sushi And Mastery
• 8:36 Skywalkers And The Lure Of Risk
• 10:48 Man On Wire And Audacious Goals
• 13:19 Banksy And Exit Through The Gift Shop
• 16:29 Skyladder And Building The Impossible
• 18:28 Free Solo And Fearless Focus
• 21:43 Magnus Carlsen And Competitive Calm
• 24:21 Seven Days Out And Pressure Prep

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Hello, and welcome to the Super Size Bizette podcast. My name is Dave, and today I want to talk about some fun things. I'm going to talk about nine creative documentaries, films, whatever you want to call them, those kind of things that have inspired me over the past few years. And I think they could inspire you as well. They're a lot of fun and they're really cool. So without further ado, here we go. All right, welcome in PE Nation. Uh for starters, I just want to make this a fun one. I uh this is the day after Thanksgiving for me. You're gonna hear this probably a couple weeks later, but you know, I just want to do something fun, something different, something um that I really believe in, which is looking at different things that aren't necessarily education or PE related, and you know, getting ideas from them. And that's one of my main in my book, uh, one of my main principles is inspiration is everywhere. And I really believe that. I don't think you need to just read, you know, education books forever and ever and ever and ever. That's that's good. If you're but there's other ways to find inspiration and you know, just look around you. Look around. And so for this one, I want to do, I picked nine. Uh, some are documentaries, some are uh brief like series on Netflix, and some are uh movies that I've drawn inspiration from in the past uh, I don't know, 10 years. I think I said five or so years, but whatever, 10 years, and just the implications there. I don't have a lot of notes. I just wrote down these films and I just want to talk about them and uh yeah, have fun today. And as far as boomers, I usually I would definitely do a boomer on this one, but it's kind of windy out and a little cold, and I'm doing this outside. And I think what happened in one of my recent ones uh podcasts was um, and when it's windy out, I put in there's like an AI kind of cleaning up mechanism kind of thing. I don't know. I just I'm just saying that. But it is something in the buzz sprout, which I I do uh for my podcast that cleans it up, and I think it cleans up the boomers. It it thinks that's kind of a I don't know, a bad noise and it takes it out completely. So I might have to do this on this one because it's a little windy out. Not gonna do boomers, although I want to do a boomer because it's it's nice, it's fun. But uh yeah, I think that's why it got taken out once or twice. It almost got taken out in one of my recent episodes, but I went back and re-listened to it. I'm like, wait a minute, it's all of a sudden there's no noise there. So I had to redo that as well. That all being all that being said, let's get going. So, number one, my first one, this is in no particular order. I'm just listing nine creative films or documentaries or series that you can watch and draw inspiration from. And with all nine of them, I will tell you where I watch them or what platform, but sometimes they change, as you know, or definitely I know. Like you can all of a sudden be watching something on Netflix and then it'll be gone, and then it'll show up on Amazon Prime, or it'll be gone completely. So I'm just gonna tell you these films and things and where I found them. So let's get going. How about that? So the first one is Spinning Plates. And that one I just re-watched recently on a what kind of an app I have. It's semi-legal app I have. Um don't call anybody on me, but uh, it's hard to find now. Sometimes it's on Amazon Prime. It's been on some other ones as well, but Spinning Plates follows three restaurants, and they're very different restaurants. This documentary was uh about 2012-ish, I think, was uh around there, 2010 to 2012, some somewhere around there, and it follows three restaurants. One is a struggling, um, like a Mexican restaurant in Arizona, one is a like a family restaurant in Iowa, and one is a superstar three, you know, Michelin star chef, uh, or you know, um restaurant um Alinea in Chicago, which I really want to visit. And it just it's it really interesting showing uh not only the uh the struggles of of the restaurant industry, but also the the innovation, I guess. I really, really, really um would love to meet Grant Akitz, I think that's how you say his name. He's the head chef in of a linea in Chicago. He's been on The Bear, if you watch The Bear. He's um I watched a documentary on him with on uh Chef's Table. He's absolutely my favorite chef to watch, draw inspiration from. So I'm mainly gonna talk about him. So he he does what's called uh molecular gastronomy or something, something like that, where he does all these creative things with with food. Um, and he uses the you know, the high-tech, most high-tech stuff. He uses like he freeze-dries stuff. He does like uh, you know, I don't even know what I'm talking about when I'm saying this stuff. He he's created like a an edible floating balloon. Um, he does things that are just magical on a on on a plate. Um is one of those one of his most famous desserts, which I again I would love to experience this, is they basically turn your table into a canvas of dessert. And they they just make your table, yeah, it looks like artwork. And then they bring out this ice cream or some kind of meringue and they they crush it right in front of you and explodes because of the freeze-dried nature of it. Um, it's just amazing what he does with food and desserts and things. And um, so that's what I got basically from spinning plates. Um, the whole thing is really good, but definitely his story. Um, I mean, he almost died. He had stage four uh like tongue cancer, like in his in his throat or maybe throat cancer. They had to remove his tongue or part of it. He lost his sense of taste for a while, which for a chef is like, you know, the worst. Um I don't want to go into everything because I have nine to cover, but spinning plates is just amazing, and definitely check him out. Um, he's absolutely my favorite uh chef to to watch and find things on. So uh yeah, spinning plates. All right, the next one, again, no boomer, um, is I don't know how to say his name, but the it's spelled J-I-R-O. Like, I don't know if it's Hyro or Hero Dreams of Sushi. And that's an oldie but a goodie. Again, it's that's another um, you know, 2012-ish, I don't know, um around or maybe yeah, around there documentary. And it follows um him. Again, I don't know how to pronounce the name. I guess Hiro, Hyro. And he's I mean, I guess right now, I looked it up. He's like uh he's like late 90s right now, and that's how old he is, or the mid to late nineties. And so he's semi-retired, but he perfected and he and uh speaking of Michelin stars, um, they had um uh at least one or two Michelin stars in Japan, his restaurant for uh just the perfection of sushi. And I don't even like sushi. I like California roles, I guess, but uh that's not even the point. It's the point uh for me is he dedicated his life to one thing, uh perfecting sushi and teaching his son, both his sons, and you know, passing that on. And it also talks about the sacrifice he made of being the best in the world at something. I mean, can you imagine being the best in the world at something? That that to me is like the ultimate. Like just being the best, being known for one thing that you are the best in the world at. And that is about that, that's the story of the high road dreams of sushi. That's that in a nutshell. Again, I don't want to spend a lot of time on each one of these because I have a lot to cover, but that's it just it's amazing to watch one person obsess over something like that. And uh, it's just a great movie. Again, um, I'm trying to think it's been on a few different platforms, so I'm not sure which one's on now, but definitely look for that. Um, recently I saw it on I don't know if it's on Hulu. Um, I don't know. But check it out. Hyro Dreams of Sushi is number two. Speaking of obsession, most of these are about obsession. They really are, and about focusing on one thing and being the best in the world at. I'm gonna go two in a row. Now it's gonna be numbers uh three and four on this, but it's basically about being way up high, and that is your obsession. So the first one is Skywalkers. It's kind of new, it's uh maybe a year old around there. It's on Netflix, and it's about um a guy and a girl that kind of meet as they're doing these crazy um things way up high. They they they basically are taking pictures, um, I know it's kind of ridiculous, like selfies and stuff like that, on these really high structures. I mean, like ridiculously high structures, like if you fell, you'd die in two seconds. No, it would take you longer to fall. But you they there's no way they'd survive these heights. And they're not strapped in. They're not, you know, nothing. They're just way up high taking selfies and videos and stuff. And that's, you know, they get sponsors and um it's it's amazing. And and it's very illegal too. They do this mostly in other countries where they have. And I I forgot which country it's based on. I saw it one time, um, again, about maybe about a year ago, maybe a little less. And I believe they're they might be Russian. I'm trying, I'm trying to think of what um nationality they are. I'm not sure. Um, or somewhere in that, I guess, area of the world, or one of the, yeah. Um, so anyways, they again, it's very illegal what they are doing, and they're they're being very secretive of it. And they climb these high towers and they take pictures and whatever videos, and um it's it's just the obsession with that. They that that really inspires me. Um, you know, again, I I'm I'm okay with heights. I've been skydiving before. I I would never do what they do. Like just uh never, because one one little slip and they could be dead. I mean, absolutely. Um, but that's called Skywalkers. Um, really cool. Like again, it's modern. It's it's you know, it's a set. A lot of these I'm talking about are 10 to or 15 or more years old, some of these, and this one's like a year old. It's very modern with the social media stuff and the influencer stuff. And so I think it's uh yeah, it's really it's really good. All right, the one that goes kind of along with this, and it's this is a long time ago, it's called Man on Wire. And this one is again, I saw this a long time ago. Um, this one's basically about a guy in the mid-70s. His name is Philip Petit or Petit. And that shows you what my four and a half years of French did, not much. Um okay, I have it in front of me. It's August 7th, 1974. He went on a high wire, and illegally, he, I mean, he was it's a whole story. It's documented the whole story of how he his ultimate goal was to uh go on the highwire, like walk across the two, the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center, obviously way before 9-11. Um, and at the time they were the world's tallest buildings. So, I mean, it's it says 13, sorry, 1,350 feet above uh New York. Um, it's just it's amazing watching somebody obsess over something like that. And that's that's that's all you want to do. That's his ultimate goal. And again, we're gonna talk about this as um these as I keep talking because I am looking at this list of uh inspirational stories, these movies, documentaries, whatever. And it's all about being great at one thing and obsessing over one thing. And that's not always a good thing, uh obsession. And as a matter of fact, going back to that Hyro dreams of sushi, you know, he his relationship with his uh family wasn't the greatest because again, he obsessed over sushi. He obsessed over the restaurant business. And so obsessions aren't always uh, you know, great, but being great at something is, you know, very noble. And being the best, you know, tightrope walker in the world is something very noble and something I would never do. Um, I think that's why I love these things because I'm like, I would never do this, but it's so awesome that they do this. So again, it's called Man on Wire. I that's another one that's kind of hard to find. I think I at one point I saw it on uh Netflix or Amazon Prime. Um, I don't know what it's on now. Again, I have it on a little app. Uh, anyways, yeah. Um, so again, that is number four, that is Man on Wire. Number five, this is another one that um again used to be on Netflix, Amazon Prime. I'm not sure if it still is. It's called Exit Through the Gift Shop. And again, talking about obsession and just creating masterpieces. Again, this is this is another thing. These these chefs, these, you know, high wire acts, whatever you want to call them, these artists, they're all creating masterpieces. And this is about Banksy. And I know most of you know who Banksy is. Um, if not, he is the British uh artist that's nobody seems to know who he is. He's I mean, there's theories, but they don't really know who he is, and he's he his art shows up all over England and then uh often all over the world, and sometimes it's like political related, sometimes not. He's the one that um I don't even know what year this was, maybe like five years ago. His painting, um Girl with Balloon, um, all of a sudden just started shredding after somebody bit on it at the auction house. Um it just it was so cool. And then it was worth even more money. Uh just had a device inside that basically almost shredded it. Yeah. Uh and um, so he's just very creative. And it's all about this guy who I can't remember his name. Um, he was just filming um the like underground uh scene, like the you know, graffiti scene. And just kind of by accident, he met up with Banksy. And you never see Banksy's face, but you hear him in the documentary talking. And so then he, this guy um starts filming Banksy and you know, again, going around uh in the middle of the night as they're they're doing things and stuff. And um, yeah, it just it's awesome to see somebody again uh creating these masterpieces being obsessed over this. And by the way, a lot of these are illegal, like the Skywalkers thing, that's illegal. Man on Wire, that's illegal. What Banksy does uh a lot of the times as far as the graffiti on the walls and stuff, that's illegal. So people were kind of out to get them as far as the police. Uh, they're always trying to find Banksy. And it's just that's it's that obsession that really, I guess, motivates me. I know I'm talking about all this stuff. I'm like, well, what does it have to do with PE? It just motivates me to do more and to be the best in the world at something. Hopefully, you're the best I can be as a teacher, as an educator, uh, maybe podcaster, writer. I'm I don't know. Um, just being the best I can be. So that's number, what is that? One, two, three, four. That's number five. Exit through the gift shop. Number six is really cool. I haven't seen this in a while. I saw it a long time ago. It's called Skyladder, and it is still on Netflix. It's about a guy named, his name is Sai, I believe. He's a Chinese um pyrotechnician, I guess you would you call him, artist. Um, basically think of fireworks and pyrotechnics, and he is just he's the best in the world at it. I mean, like, you know, that that's that's kind of the whole thing. The best in the world at something. He he had it, well, he's done the Olympics before when it was in China, um, just the ultimate, you know, the opening ceremonies. He's done just amazing things all over the uh the world, but definitely in in China. And he's known. Like he's known as the guy. He's the guy for pyrotechnics. And he, this the sky ladder thing, he had an obsession of creating a ladder in the sky that would be uh freestanding and um have pyrotechnics. And it just documenting all his attempts at it. You know, you attempt and fail, you attempt and fail. And then I believe he got it at the end. I don't know. I don't know, spoiler alert, right? Right. But he it just that obsession with being the best and and working your tail off to create something that seems unattainable and impossible. And we'll talk about more of that in a moment. But, you know, Skyladder is something just it's just fun to watch. I I as I'm talking about, I'm like, I need to go back and watch that. I was watching the previews um again this morning just to kind of remind me of some of the stuff. I'm like, I gotta rewatch that. So that's on Netflix right now. It's been on there for a long time. So Skyladder is number six. All right, for number seven, I'm sure a lot of you have probably at least heard of this, maybe even seen it. Free Solo. Man, I love this movie. I've seen it a few times. It is on, I think on Disney Plus now. Yeah, Disney Plus. And it was on Netflix. Free Solo is about Alex Honnold. He is a free solo climber, which means he doesn't use ropes. And he had an obsession with climbing El Cap, which is El Capitan in uh Yosemite Park in California. And it it was it's just an amazing documentary of him just working his tail off, trying to uh do the impossible. Like I just said, with you know, Skyladder and these other things, the he just he's I mean, this talk about dangerous. I mean, again, I I don't know why I'm picking all these things that were that are super dangerous, but between the tight rope walking and the you know social media climbing on buildings and stuff and you know, free solo. I mean, oh my goodness, he's he's he's rock climbing the one of the most impossible structures in the world without ropes. I mean, one slip, and it's like you're I mean, again, he's he'd be dead. Fortunately, he's still alive. So again, spoiler alert, um, he's still alive, which is good, but it's an amazing uh just piece of documentary that just chronicles everything he went through, all the ups and downs, all the emotional uh factors, um, just everything that weighed on him. And then, you know, when he did it, sorry, and I'm spoiling again, um, it was just incredible to watch. I mean, really incredible to watch. And there's one part um that they were really afraid he wouldn't get, and it was really intense. Like, I'm like, oh my gosh, he's gonna make this or is he gonna slip and and die? Um, it just it's amazing to watch. Again, I won't spend a lot of time on this because it's I mean, that's what it's about. It's just about him climbing without ropes and obsessing over his, you know, that's his his his big moment, like going for that, just like the Skyladder. He's got one obsession and he reached it. Um, and then they go on to another one, another obsession, right? And, you know, again, that's just something I'm really in awe of. And I know I'm looking at the time like I thought this was gonna be a short episode. I just keep I love talking about this stuff. So that is free solo number seven. All right, number eight is Magnus. It is about Magnus Carlson, the chess player. Now, I I think it's because I love chess. I love everything about chess. However, I've definitely plateaued where I'm I'm just I'm not getting much better. I know I mostly play on uh against the app or whatever, the computer. But watching him play chess is like I mean, it is like poetry. It's like poetry emotion or art emotion. And it documents um if you if you've not seen it, I believe, and by the way, um, yeah, Magnus, I I think is still on Netflix and or Amazon Prime. It chronicles his uh journey to become number one in the world. And as he's ready to get to play the, I think it's best of seven matches um against at the time the number one uh player in the world to become, you know, number one. And he actually loses the first few matches, and they or f or something, again, I haven't seen this in a while, but he he's down, he's losing, and even the commentators like there's there's just it's almost impossible to come back from this. And it shows it just shows everything about him. It shows him hanging out with his family and just, you know what, leaving chess behind for one night, just going hang out with his family, have fun, and you know, relive childhood moments and and then yes, go back and dig deep and come out on top. And the guy he was facing was very um computer generate, like just by the book, he knew everything. He's very analytical, and he's still one of the top in the world, but you know, Magnus beat him, and it was just it's awesome to watch. It's really cool. And you could just there's times where you almost see and you could see inside his like his thoughts. And again, just obsessing over one thing and becoming the best in the world is just amazing. And so that's Magnus, that's number eight. All right, the final one today, and I could talk about this all day long, and I'm thinking about other ones as I'm talking about this too. The final one is seven days out, and that is still on Netflix. It is a series of, I don't know, it's about six, five or six different, um, I don't want to say six, seven, I think five or six different um events, and it they document seven days out from this event, then six days out, then five days, you know, and then that day. So it shows all the preparation and everything involved in getting these things ready. Um, some of the things are, let's see, the Westminster, whatever you want to call it, dog show, just getting ready for that. There's a like some kind of beauty thing, like a designer show. There's uh a NASA like space thing, like seven days out from when it's gonna land, and then I think on Mars or something. And then there's a um an esports one where it's like just the tournament, the event itself, which is kind of cool because I don't know, I don't know that much about esports. And then the the one I really w love, which I've watched a few times, is about Eleven Madison Park. And that is a famous uh restaurant in New York City, which again, I wanna I need to, that's one of my bucket list restaurants right there. And it shows them um, you know, they were the best in the world. They were the best restaurant voted best restaurant in the world, and they're still a three-star Michelin restaurant, which is the highest you can be. They were they were already the best in the world, and then they decided to tear it down and start over and just build their own building because they I think when they originally came in, it was, it wasn't, it was already set up a certain way, and they wanted to tear it down and start over. And it's showing seven days from when they're gonna reopen, then six and five. And I love that it the attention and detail. Like I love I love everything about the restaurant business. It's funny because I've never worked in a restaurant and I'm not that good of a cook. I'm okay. I can I can make basic meals, but um, I love everything about the restaurant business, as you can tell, as I've talked about that earlier. And, you know, just watching them, you know, focus on the details, focus on everything, getting the customer experience correct, you know, everything ready for the opening day. See, now I want to watch all these. I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna watch all these now. I want to watch all of them. Um, I might watch this one today. But seven days out, again, Chronicles, I love it because it's it shows, you know, as they're getting closer what they need to do, you know, how it's being built. And um, yeah, you need to see that. It's it's it's awesome to see them rebuilding the best restaurant in the world and making it even better. So that is seven days out, and that's number nine. That's the final one. Hey, I I can probably do a cowbell tip of the day because I don't think they're gonna block that if I do this thing here. So now it's time for your cowbell tip of the day. All right, so your tip of the day obviously is to watch at least one of these, maybe more, and hopefully draw inspiration from them. That's the whole point of this is to draw inspiration from other avenues, from not just PE, not just education, not just classroom stuff, but draw inspiration from other places. And most of the things I've I've listed as I'm looking at my list is they're they're artists in their own way. Like they're highwire artists or they're uh chess artists, you know, prodigies, they're, you know, rock climbing artists, they're uh, well, they're they're cooking artists, they're chefs. And it's just drawing that inspiration of becoming the best at something and being focused on something and putting something out in the world that's a masterpiece. And though that's what I'm drawing from these things. And I hope you do too. And that is your cowbell tip of the day. Thank you everybody for tuning in today. I really do appreciate it. As always, go to supersizefizad.com for more information, and definitely leave a review, hit that button in the show notes. It's real simple. Three and a half seconds, hit that button, help me out, help us out, help us grow this podcast, continue to grow, continue to spread the good, good word of PE and education, hopefully, and hope you had a great time today listening to this little off episode. So with that, have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward.