The Wisdom Project, by Andrew Zuckerman

Filmmaker and photographer Andrew Zuckerman thinks hard-won insights should be shared. That’s why he’s releasing The Wisdom Project, a one-hour documentary film and companion book that share the collective experiences of 51 luminaries over age 65, including authors, artists, and world leaders from Willie Nelson to Nelson Mandela.

Inspired by the ancient African concept of ubuntu, which emphasizes human connectedness—I am what I am because of who we all are—Zuckerman set out to gather and communicate the lessons his extraordinary subjects have learned about love, work, the environment, and conflict resolution. “We live in a confusing and fast-changing world,” says the filmmaker. “It’s a great time to look to our elders, to see what they have to say that can help us.”

With a grueling production schedule and interviews conducted around the world, Zuckerman and his team needed the right tools to help bring everything together. An all-Mac studio and a fleet of Mac laptops on the road allowed them to plan, capture, review, and produce the project’s video and still images, and communicate easily with one another from New York to Los Angeles, Sydney, London, and beyond.

Because Zuckerman and his team all had the same Mac equipment, trading materials back and forth was seamless. The tight integration also meant that when Zuckerman returned to New York to begin the real editing, there were no surprises. “Final Cut Studio and the other Mac tools gave us a kind of insurance policy,” he says. “We knew we had what we needed to create the look I wanted in the final piece.”