Dr. Maya Angelou reciting her 2008 Olympic Poem Amazement Awaits

Big City Pictures recently produced a two-camera film shoot of the world-renown author and U.S. Poet Laureate Dr. Maya Angelou at home in her Harlem brownstone reciting the poem Amazement Awaits (full text below) which she wrote specially for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing China. The piece is intercut with archival footage of great moments from Olympics past and will screen on NBC during its August coverage of the games. Also, we’re thrilled to find out that the Olympic Committee will be distributing copies of this inspiring video to each and every athlete to view while they travel to Beijing to compete — we’re terribly honored to in some small way touch the lives of the 2008 Olympians.

Dr. Maya Angelou recites Amazement Awaits for an NBC Olympic short film

Executive Producer and Creative Director for Big City Pictures George Spyros and Dr. Angelou.

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As a Greek-American, I was pleased to have the opportunity to help spread the true spirt of the Olympic Games. In fact, Dr. Angelou’s last name is taken from her first husband surname was Angelopoulos. It was quite an experience speaking with the amazing Dr. Maya Angelou who is in person sincerely lovely, generous, imaginative and outspoken. Without prompting, she provided copies of two wonderful children’s books which she had written and autographed each to one of my twins Sophia and Hudson.

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Team Maya Angelou 2008 Olympic Poem "Amazement Awaits"

Client: McGarryBowen Agency

Client: United States Olympic Committee

Katya Bankowsky, Director

George Spyros, Executive Producer

Tracy Zukowski, Line Producer

Kat Uhlmansiek, Production Manager

Kira Kelly, B-Camera Operator

Jeanne Lipsey, Director of Photography

Jon Montgomery, Gaffer

Justin Lundstrom, Production Coordinator

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Amazement Awaits
By Maya Angelou

Sheer amazement awaits
Amazement luxuriant in promise
Abundant in wonder

Our beautiful children arrive at this Universal stadium
They have bathed in the waters of the world
And carry the soft silt of the Amazon, the Nile,
The Danube, the Rhine, the Yangtze and the Mississippi
In the palms of their right hands.
A wild tiger nestles in each armpit
And a meadowlark perches on each shoulder.

We, the world audience, stand, arms akimbo,
Longing for the passion of the animal
And the melody of the lark
The tigers passion attend the opening bells,
The birds sing of the amazement which awaits.

The miracle of joy that comes out of the gathering of our best, bringing their best,
Displaying the splendor of their bodies and the radiance of their agile minds to the cosmos.
Encouragement to those other youth caught in the maws of poverty,
Crippled by the terror of ignorance.

They say Brothers and Sisters, Yes, try. Then try harder.
Lunge forward, press eagerly for release.
The amazement which awaits is for you.
We are here at the portal of the world we had wished for
At the lintel of the world we most need.
We are here roaring and singing.
We prove that we can not only make peace, we can bring it with us.

With respect for the world and its people,
We can compete passionately without hatred.
With respect for the world and its people,
We can take pride in the achievement of strangers.
With respect for the world and its people,
We can share openly in the success of friends.

Here then is the Amazement

Against the odds of impending war
In the mouth of bloody greed
Human grace and human spirit can still conquer.

Ah … We discover, we ourselves

Are the Amazement which awaits
We are ourselves Amazement.

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Our good friend Katya is a documentary filmmaker and commercial director.

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Maya Angelou Olympic Poem "Amazement Awaits"

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While boxing was once an exclusively male sport, that’s not longer the case, and filmmaker Katya Bankowsky offers an inside glimpse at the small but growing world of female boxing in the documentary Shadow Boxers. Bankowsky starts by following a group of aspiring female pugilists, eventually centering on two: Jill Matthews, a tough and quick-witted Golden Gloves champion, and Lucia Rijker (MILLION DOLLAR BABY), a high-ranking European kickboxer who has come to the United States hoping to a pursue a career in sports (or the movies). Rijker became the first female fighter to sign with promoter Bob Arum, and Bankowsky documents both her skills in the ring and her effortless charm and intelligence. Shadow Boxers was well received in its screening at the 1999 Seattle Film Festival.
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