CREATIVE WORKS:
Films:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Dramatization by Ronald Gerard Smith, 1993
A note to scholars:
“Specifically, my proposition, here, is that the visual image from the video ( as metaphor via an art piece) is better than Heidegger’s explanation in capturing Nietzsche’s idea because it enacts, demonstrates the idea (puts us within the moment) rather than talks about it (keeping us outside it, thus limiting our understanding).” – My Zarathustra and Beyond: Art (Metaphor) as the Only Post Modern Articulation, Page 199, Nietzsche, Postmodernity – and Beyond? Endre Kiss, Uschi Nussbaumer-Benz (Hgg.)-Cuxhaven; Dartford; Junghans, 2000.
Distribution: Alexander Street (2026)
The Holy Family, 2015
A Christian and a Nietzschean raise a girl during five stages of her life
“We appreciated its qualities.” – Alberto Barbera, The Venice Film Festival, 2015.
To find out about availability for viewing, go to the Original Players website or contact me.
Hopi Suite, 1990
Terrorism and the creation of a new society
Excerpt (Edits: Edna Roelofse)
Based on the theater production 1989, San Francisco.
To find out about availability for viewing, go to the Original Players website or contact me.
After the War, 1988
The 50’s and the 80’s
Excerpt from PBS broadcast (Edits: Edna Roelofse)
Based on the theater production, 1987, San Mateo, San Francisco.
To find out about availability for viewing, go to the Original Players website or contact me.
Screenplays:
To Make A Fire, 2022-2025
Intimacy changing over 30 years in a fluid context
The Marshall Plan or Foodies in a Time of Big Data, 2012-2016
Satire about food, computers, consumerism, judgment on everything, and the search for something absolute
Utopias, 1993-2001
Building on the Nietzschean challenge of balancing perspectivism with overcoming nihilism
Past Theatrical Productions (my work):
Altimira, 1988, 1984
San Francisco; the founding of the last California mission
. . .
To Bury V., 1982
Sonoma County, California; issues surrounding incest
Past Theatrical Productions:
No Exit, 1986
Northern California; I produced and directed Sartre’s play
Wild Duck, 1983
Sonoma County, California; I produced, directed and acted in this Ibsen play
What I didn’t know, when I did Ibsen, then didn’t see, at first, when I later took Nietzsche seriously, is that both critique the idea of “truth at all costs”. This is the point of the Wild Duck, as such an attitude destroys a family. In Nietzsche, he speaks of other values also at play, not just rationality, and opens the door to psychology. Truth requires discernment between rationality and psychology.
Plays:
Rickie, 1991
gender creation of three adolescents in 1970
The “Bear” Has Gone, 1978
the difficulties of aging parents
Children’s Story:
The Mother Tree, A Tale with Roots, 2023
Story of a tree who nourishes her children in a surprising way
CRITICAL WORKS:
“Nuclear Realities as a Ground for Modern Morality.”
1987
American Philosophical Association. I delivered this paper at the organization’s annual meeting.
“Nietzsche, the Apollonian/Dionysiac Distinction, and the Drama”
1990
Paper presented, 1991, The Graduate Faculty, The New School for Social Research, NYC
My Zarathustra and Beyond:
Art as the only post-modern articulation, 2000
A Careful, Limited Try
A Critique of “All Things Shining”, 2011
USA Election 2016
A Critique of Kakutani’s “The Death of Truth“
2019 – see EVENTS page.
Philosophy and Film: Director’s Note of Intention
“The Marshall Plan” 2020
Poem – The Failure of Philosophy
November, 2023
FUTURE PROJECTS:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra –
Part IV (screenplay)
Zarathustra IV will be the completion of my dramatization (in theater and film) of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the 4th and last part, after my 1993 film of Parts I – III. As with Nietzsche, the style of this part will be different than the first parts (and is artistically supported) and, as a piece, can stand alone or be taken as the end of an ensemble.