» JOLT #18 THE POWER OF PERCEPTION Why It Is Just as Important as Reality Science is nothing but perception.—PLATO Ransom stoddard: you’re not going to use the story, Mr. scott? Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. —THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE Earlier I talked about filming at the headwaters of the Amazon River basin in Brazil. What I didn’t mention was the trouble we ran into when we attempted to get our film equipment through customs in the Brazilian city of Manaus. The city is located about one thousand miles upriver from the Atlantic and today is a beautiful city of nearly two million people. When we arrived at the airport, which had been literally carved out of the jungle, I had a three-man crew and a number of large cases of film equipment that had to be cleared through customs. “Can you prove you’re a filmmaker from the United States?” I had my passport, customs documentation, and equipment lists, but I’d never actually been asked to prove what I do for a living.
