Chloe's Blog

I AM….

February 19, 2011 at 1:35 am (Uncategorized) (Change the World, Documentary, Human Race, I Am, Movie Review, Portland, Tom Shadyac, World)

Yes, it’s an existential statement, but it’s not MY existential statement.  It’s Tom Shadyac’s.  He was in Portland earlier this week promoting the exclusive US opening of his new film I Am right here in Portland.  I got to watch an early screener, and I got the chance to talk with him while he was in town.

Tom Shadyac, of Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, and Nutty Professor directorial fame, found his life at a crucial turning point when he was severely injured in a bicycle accident a few years ago.  Tom found himself with a broken wrist, and post concussion syndrome, a condition that left him with persistent ringing in the ears, a constant headache, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.  The injury was a catalyst for a dramatic life transformation, Tom found himself asking “if this is it for me, if I’m going to die, what do I want to say before I go”?  The result of this soul searching is the film I Am.

At the heart of the documentary are two questions: “What is wrong with the world”? and “What can we do to fix it”? Armed with a small camera crew, Tom traveled accross continents, searching out world, spiritual, and scientific leaders who had influenced his own transformation.  It is from these interviews that the film is shaped.

With thoughts from Desmond Tutu, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Lynne Mc Taggart, Coleman Barks, and Thom Hartmann to name a few, Tom discovers what he considers to be a few undeniable, but revolutionary truths.  The first and foremost being that we are all connected on a level deeper than we may understand.  He finds that there are more examples of cooperation in nature than we might expect, and he compares the effect of negative versus positive emotions on our own bodies and on other living organisms.  The film starts out examining what is wrong with the world, but at the heart, it is a positive film, finding much right with basic human nature. 

From Tom’s discoveries he concludes that a societal shift is needed; a transition to a global think, an embracing of all mankind as a universal “US”.  I Am calls for a fundamental change to the way we interact with eachother.  The goals should not be to amass huge fortunes and amounts of stuff, life is not a race, not a competition.  Once our base needs for shelter and food are met, Tom asks us to examine how much more we truly need.  He asks us to look at what we can do for others, what we can give back.  These are not new ideas, but the conclusion is, that if we as a species do not change, the human race is not sustainable. 

I Am is a thought-provoking journey.  There are two quotes in the film that stayed with me long after the credits rolled: “In nature, something that takes more than it’s share is called cancer”… and “(we are) greedy aggressive creatures destined to become extinct”.  I Am may not completely change the way you live, but perhaps it will change you in small ways, and for Tom, that’s the beginning.  He hopes the film will raise conciousness, because if we start to question the way it’s always been, the beliefs we’ve always held about our interaction with the world and with the human race, then perhaps we are, collectively on our way to change.

I Am opens in Portland this week and rolls out nationwide through March.