My 180: a new, must-see, inspirational video series

My180.org is creating a video series of true stories of people turning their lives around—180°—each story told in about 180 seconds.

The series has 5 videos so far, with a story being added to the series nearly every week. One of the stories is about a fascinating Latter-day Saint in San Francisco, Kristian Marine.

The 3-part series explores how Kristian became the most notorious burglar in San Francisco history.  The police department dubbed him “The San Francisco Spider-Man,” because he would break into businesses by climbing tall buildings or dropping in from skylights. Each part of the series gets more and more interesting, with Part 3 showing how Kristian was able to turn his life around and escape his web of lies.

The videos are produced by Kinima Pictures, a company organized by LDS filmmaker TJ Packer, to proactively produce moving stories. The name, Kinima, is the Greek word for movement, and is the origin for the word Cinema. The goal for Kinima Pictures is to move people to action—to make meaningful changes—through effectively producing and sharing moving stories.

In the series’ first video, TJ explains why he is so passionate about sharing these stories:

When I first started gathering these stories, I was excited to hone my skills as a filmmaker and storyteller. Now, I’m even more excited to organize and present what I’ve learned from these stories. These stories involve amazing people who are teaching me how to turn things around in my own life.”

TJ elaborates on why his motives have moved outward to focus on helping others.

About a year ago, I was hired to produce some videos for a reputable life coach name Bryan Miller. In one of the videos I created for him, he told his own ‘turnaround’ story. He teaches that for him, life is ultimately about 3 main tenets: knowledge, relationships, and experiences. When I first heard him teach that, I thought, ‘Oh, those are nice. I’m going to keep that in mind.’ And then I went on doing things the way I had always done them. Then, as I continued gathering stories, I was surprised to find that those 3 tenets kept appearing in the stories, especially when I asked why or what motivated people to change.

Those 3 things are also the ‘why’ behind me waking up early or staying up late to produce and share these stories. Stories have a powerful way of deepening our knowledge and helping us experience things in a new way. We also connect with people and relationships over stories, whether it be movies, books, or even the news.

The people I’ve met by producing these stories, and the people and characters we ‘meet’ vicariously through stories can bring meaningful examples, and in a sense, relationships into our lives. I’m extremely grateful for the knowledge, relationships, and experiences I’m developing by pursuing this series, and I’m excited to continue sharing this with the world!

Kinima Pictures has been working with professional therapists and life coaches to add powerful insights to the series. A playlist of videos called “My 2 Cents: Keep the Change” will be posted to the same YouTube channel soon. These videos will add commentary and insights to the “My 180” stories to help viewers understand the details behind how people make meaningful changes in their lives.

TJ explains his vision for the future of this project. “These stories are intended to be shared in every sense of the word. We hope that viewers will not only share these videos with friends and family, we hope they will share their insights and comments and even personal experiences in the comments section or on our site. We hope that viewers will share appreciation with the people who have so humbly opened up to share their experiences with the world. We’re excited to continue creating moving stories, which we hope creates a movement of people humbly and honestly sharing goodness!”

Subscribe to the Kinima Pictures YouTube Channel to receive new stories and insightful videos as they are posted.

If you or somebody you know has a story to add to this series, you can submit the story in writing for Kinima Pictures to review.