Interview: Buck Brannaman, the Real Horse Whisperer

Posted on June 23, 2011 at 8:00 am

I loved “Buck,” the new documentary about Buck Brannaman, the real-life horse whisperer who inspired the book and movie. The film is extraordinarily moving. Buck’s gift for animals is a wonder, but it is his understanding of people and his own inspiring recovery from abuse that make it so stirring. It was a genuine privilege to speak with him.

You were training the people on how to deal with the horses, not the horses on how to deal with the people.

Sometimes they don’t realize that when they come to the clinic. They think we’re going to fix the horse. But pretty soon they realize the problem is not really about the horse. It’s really about them.

I love the appearance by your foster mother.

She’s the best. I can hardly watch the last few minutes of the movie with her in it without crying. She’s 88 years old now. And then when there’s a Q&A after the screenings I always go up there crying. Her and her husband moved to the ranch after WWII. It’s a small ranch, nothing grand, and they struggled for many many years from one month to the next. I don’t think they ever had any money to speak of but they always had an open door for kids, long before there was a formal foster care program. They were the place where people dumped their kids off when they couldn’t get along with them, when they couldn’t get anything accomplished with them, like you might dump off a kitten at a ranch because it could turn out to be a barn cat. They had four kids of their own and then 17 other boys they raised over 40 years. I was the last one.

You tell a very moving story about how much it meant to you the first day with your foster parents when your foster dad handed you a pair of work gloves.

I was scared when I met my foster dad because of the horrible experiences I had and the best thing he could do for me was not to put a lot of time into feeling sorry for me. He knew I needed some direction and a job to do. I needed something so I could move on. He knew if we dwelled there too long it was going to be nothing but negative for me. He did the same thing for me I tell people to do with the horses that are troubled. We can’t do anything about what happened yesterday or last year but we can live in the moment and do something about it right now. So we give him a job to do and pretty soon he has something else to think about.

My husband and I are both old enough to remember the TV commercial you made when we were kids.

It’s amazing how many people our age still remember that! In those days you looked forward to watching cartoons Saturday morning all week long.

Has there ever been a horse you couldn’t handle?

I’ve never found one I couldn’t handle, or couldn’t help. But occasionally someone will bring a horse to the clinic that is so far out of their league based on their experience. If they had another couple of thousand horses under their belt than maybe you could do this horse some good. Sometime the human doesn’t have what they need to help the horse. It all comes from the horse. Tom Dorrence, who really was the godfather of this kind of horsemanship, he spent his entire life studying horses and trying to find a way to work with the horse as if he made up the rules how you’d help him to understand, to teach a horse what you’d like him to do. And being real, it’s not always going to be fuzzy and warm. Sometimes there’s going to be trouble and struggles but that’s true in all relationships. It’s true in raising kids. It’s not always going to be Mayberry RFD. But you do the best you can. You try to be as engaged as possible so that when they’re ready for redirection you are there to put them on the right path.

I get everything from Olympic riders and dressage to ranch cowboys to people who ride for pleasure. The demographic of horse owners spans from one end to the other. There are places in the country where people still make their living on a horse. Sometimes the cowboys are the least likely to listen or get advice. Whatever you’re talking about, the male ego can kind of get in the way. All of us men have to deal with that one time or other.

And all of us women have to deal with you men dealing with that! I love the scenes with you and your daughter. You’re clearly so close and have such a loving, trusting relationship.

I never get tired seeing that. I always had an idea of the dad I hope I would turn out to be, nothing like my own dad, and I always figured these things applied to people as well as horses. Even before I had kids I would draw that analogy to people because they could relate to it. In the back of my mind I always thought, “I sure hope this applies the way you say it does!” And sure enough it did.

What do you hope people will take away from the movie?

The big picture is that these things apply whether you’re talking about people or horses. It’s about taking responsibility rather than shirking, that’s true whatever you might be talking about. And, to be honest, I’m hoping that of all the people who might be seeing this, maybe there will be a handful that might get the idea, “I don’t care so much if I can be like Buck, but I sure would like to be like Betsy and step up and give a kid a home, someone that nobody cares about and nobody wants.” If that came of it, wouldn’t that be cool?

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Interview: Sue Bourne of the Irish Dance Competition Documentary ‘Jig’

Posted on June 17, 2011 at 10:14 am

Director Sue Bourne talked to me about her new documentary, “Jig,” the story of the Irish dancing world championships. It is thrilling, touching, and inspiring, with unforgettable characters and stories and dancing that would make Michael Flatley stand up and cheer.

This is your first feature, right?

Yes. I’ve been making films for British television for a long time, won some awards, but this is my first feature and it has been a very interesting journey to go on. Once we heard that 6000 dancers from all around the world were coming to Glasgow for the Irish dancing world championships, I pitched the idea to the BBC. They said, “That sounds interesting,” and I said, “I want to make a feature film,” and they said, “Why?” I said, ” I don’t want to make a film about an Englishman, and Irishman, and a Scotsman going to Glasgow — that’s dull as ditchwater.” If we’re going to make a film that shows the true international scope of Irish dancing then let’s be ambitious about it and raise a big budget and do a big proper feature film. So it began with me being a bit big for my boots and saying, “I want to go around the world! I need a big budget!” and it escalated from there! I could see it would have international appeal and a cinema audience. Very few documentaries have what it takes for a cinematic theatrical release but I knew this was one.

How did you know?

My key thing in the films I make is finding the extraordinary in the apparently ordinary. Everyone’s got a story to tell and I am always keen to show that it’s not about dance; it’s about people and their stories and their lives and what they are passionate about. I just sensed that there would be great stories and great characters, that it would be about much more than Irish dancing. And you throw into that that it’s got great music, great dancing, children — I thought, this could be like “Spellbound,” plus “Mad Hot Ballroom” with a dash of Riverdance thrown in as well.

Those children are amazing, not just in their talent but in their determination and maturity. When the two top competitors hugged each other, it was a stunningly moving and powerful moment.

And they’re just 10! We knew that one of the stories we would have to find was a ten year old coming to the World’s for the first time. We looked for a long time, and many of them were shy. But then I saw Brogan and she was so remarkable. I said, “Who’s that!” I thought, “I’ve got to find out more about that wee girl.” She could talk for Britain and she was a 10 year old with a sense of humor. She’s remarkable. Yes, it’s about dancing, but it’s about much, much more than that.

We live in a world of “do your own thing” and yet this incredibly rigid and formal style of dance that is so particular and unchanging attracts passionate devotion from people around the world.

After two years, I’m none the wiser about that as to why they all love it so much. As one said, “It’s the shoes and the rhythm.” The closest I’ve got is that it casts a spell and you’re hooked. Something inside them connects with the rhythm or the music or the dance.

One of the most fascinating parts of the movie is how many people overlook their own cultural and ethnic traditions to devote themselves to Irish dance. You have a group from Moscow, Americans, and a Dutch kid originally from Sri Lanka.

Only about three of the dancers are Irish! Even little Brogan, her family never did any Irish dancing. And people said, “The film is going to be filled with pushy parents.” On the contrary, we found bemused parents who’ve been dragged into it by children who have been captivated by the dance.

It is as engrossing to watch the parents as the children, though. You have a couple of shots where you can tell everything just from the way they tense their shoulders and life their chins as they watch their children perform.

As with all sport, the teachers and parents live a little vicariously through their children and it is so beautifully manifest in that moment. I had to ask myself as a mother if I would be willing to make some of the sacrifices the parents in this movie make to support their children — to move from California to Birmingham! If you’ve got a tennis or golf prodigy you might movie because they could make millions. But here, if you are the world champion, you get a little bauble. They’re not motivated by celebrity, they’re not motivated by money, they’re not motivated by anything other than the goals they set themselves to be the best.

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Interview: the Brother and Sister Behind ‘Discover the Gift’

Posted on May 27, 2011 at 8:00 am

“Discover the Gift” is an extraordinary new documentary, book, blog, and CD that reaches from the broadest universal dreams to the most intimate, personal insights, with appearances from powerful lessons from authors, educators, activists, artists, and icons including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Jack Canfield, Janet Attwood, Terry Tillman, David `Avocado` Wolfe, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Mark Victor Hansen, and Niurka and more.

It is the passion project of a brother and sister, filmmaker Demian Lichtenstein and educator Shajen Joy Aziz. Part of the pleasure of speaking to them was the way they brought all they have learned about recognizing and respecting the gifts in others as well as ourselves to the conversation. And it is impossible not to feel privileged by the way they have opened up their own lives as a part of their quest to bring this message to everyone.

This movie is unusual because you shared your personal story to illuminate and demonstrate the broader themes. What made you decide to do that? How did you decide how to balance the two?

Demian Lichtenstein: The entire project began with a question from my sister: “When is the man I know going to match the work he is doing in the world?” So from the beginning there was a personal, family reality to the project. When we began making the movie our thought was to interview and speak with many of the great teachers, luminaries and masters that had influenced our lives on a global and personal level. But as we progressed something became very evident — when Shajen and the editor and I sat down with the rough cut and realized the movie didn’t work. Suddenly you’re like — wow, everything we were working on isn’t working. It was because there was not enough of our true story in it. At that point we realized we needed to open ourselves up to sharing our personal lives on an even deeper level.

Shajen Joy Aziz: We had multiple reasons for choosing to share that much. One was because authenticity is the key to everything. We needed to be authentic and real and share what was really happening in our lives. And we’re a metaphor for everyone’s life. We’ve all been there in some way or another. People could access their own learning by being engaged in someone else’s process. As an educator and a mental health professional, we think a lot about the best way to share what we have to say to everyone.

In the film, you put your findings into eight steps. Did those steps become a part of your film-making as well as in other parts of your lives?

Step #1: Receptivity
Step #2: Intention
Step #3: Activation
Step #4: Infinite Feedback
Step #5: Vibration
Step #6: Adversity and Transformation
Step #7: Creating a Conscious & Compassionate World
Step #8: Love

DL: Every day! For me, it’s like, “Oh, no, that’s step 4!” or “I’d better go back to step 1!”

SJA: Yes — it all informed the book, the film-making, and our lives. Demian and I and all our crew sat down to ask ourselves, and we really looked at what really happens to us in our life, what needs to happen, what needs to change. We really hashed it out. What needs to get clear? That’s receptivity! You have to be open before anything else can happen. It came about through the real conversation about what had to happen before we could become the best selves we could become at this point in our lives because we’re always a work in progress.

Why are these concepts so scary for people?

DL: I have an answer and then my sister will probably give you a better one. We become so stuck on a particular paradigm. The fear of the unknown is so much greater than what we’ve got. So we remain so closed off to what’s possible because there’s an identity that’s running the show. That is not our higher self. If you’ve ever been driving home and gotten off the freeway and looked up and found yourself in your garage and can’t remember even getting off the freeway? So who’s driving? There’s an identity that is not that interested in a higher state of consciousness. It likes the status quo and being open to what’s possible is not what it wants.

SJA: Language really creates much of our world. The old paradigm tells us to face our fears. The shift that has worked for us is rather than facing them, we think we should step through them. Instead of “I’m afraid and I’m facing them, good for me, ” you’re still there, facing them. That’s where people get stuck, on taking that step, shifting that gear. What people really lack and need is permission — it seems so silly and simple. The thousands of people people I’ve talked to tell me over and over again that they want to know it’s okay to change, to go deeper.

Where do those messages come from?

SJA: From our parents, society, school, conditioning. We focus so much on what we do wrong, and so we become a fear-based, crisis-driven society.

Did you find that the experts you spoke to used different language to express the same kinds of insights?

DL: They all had different vocabularies based on their background and culture, religion, race, creed. But we found as we literally traveled the world that underneath it all human being share the same underlying principles and desires. We all have unique and individual gifts seeking to express themselves, but it often boils down to a past-based paradigm that does not give permission for someone to discover what it is they have to share with the world. Many cultures demand a certain way of being that does not support who we are at our highest levels.

SJA: Agreed. And for me as an educator and school-based mental health professional, we focus on what’s wrong with our kids, how many answers they got wrong instead of what they got right. We want to show people what is right about them, those pieces that want to emerge. The possibilities seem endless if you focus on what’s right about you.

What led you to present this in such a multi-formated way, with a book, movie, workshops, soundtrack?

SJA: There are so many different learning styles: visual, tactile, auditory, kinesthetic, through emotions, spirituality, nature, Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory. We wanted to make access possible for anyone who wanted it.

DL: A great way to say it, Shajen. Everyone we spoke to had an opinion about where they felt they were best able to learn. On a global level, the motion picture is the greatest collaborative art form on the planet today. Though we are the leaders of a team of unbelieveably passionate and creative people from all over the planet in the support of the creation of a multi-media project. We’re also going to do “Discover the Gifts of Kids” for and about the children of the earth. People learn in a multitude of ways and there are many ways to reach people.

So you are saying that it is incumbent on each of us to be receptive but it is also incumbent on us to respect and try to respond to the way that those around us are most receptive.

DL: Watch the video we did at Agape. In the Agape space there are drummers and dancers and color and light and sound — a shared communal experience connecting people on a spiritual and inspirational level. And then we have the movie and we’re open to the tears and laughter and hugs. And then we have a panel and then the experience of photography and interviews. People had so many ways to experience “Discover the Gift” and our intention is not just to deliver you a book, and a movie, and a web portal, but to engage people in every way possible to help people discover the gifts in themselves. As much as we share of ourselves, the focus is on you.

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Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

Posted on May 10, 2011 at 3:42 pm

Things for the young fans of Justin Beiber to think about as they watch this film: He is cuuuuute! Hair! Smile! Voice! Dancing!I am so lucky to have a talented, unassuming, nonthreatening, hard-working, scandal-free performer to test my still-developing sense of what love is all about.

Things for parents to think about as they watch this film: It is wonderful to see my Beiber fan so happy and it brings back memories of my love for (fill in the blank). He’s actually pretty talented! And very cute. His mother seems to have a head on her shoulders and has made sure he has surrounded himself with people who genuinely want what is best for him. It was good to hear his tour manager say that he saw his goal not as making him the biggest star he can be but teaching him to be the best man he can be. Nice to see that he still has good friends — and that he still has to clean up his room. I am so lucky that my child has a talented, unassuming, nonthreatening, hard-working, scandal-free performer to test her still-developing sense of what love is all about.

It really is an astonishing story. As awwwwww-inspiring home movie footage shows, Justin Beiber, the son of a single teenage mother in a small town in Canada, loved music and loved to perform even as a toddler. He came in second in a local talent competition and performed on a street corner. When his mother posted some videos of him singing on YouTube, a young promoter from Atlanta saw them — and saw the astronomical numbers of viewers who were watching them. He flew Justin (then age 14) and his mother to Atlanta, introduced them to Usher, and 17 months later Bieber sold out Madison Square Garden in 22 minutes. And all of that despite the predictions of those who said it could not happen without a machine like Disney or Nickelodeon behind him. This is a typical but still-entertaining concert tour film, with shots of Bieber backstage and in front of the audience, goofing around, getting sick, tweeting, and performing alone and with guest stars Usher, Miley Cyrus, Jaden Smith, and Boyz II Men. Bieber and his entourage come across as sincere, kind-hearted (watch him talk to a young violinist who now performs on his old street corner), and considerate. The 3D effects are excellent, especially when he reaches out, when the audience waves their glow sticks, and when he shakes that trademark hairdo. (more…)

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Interview: Carl Christman of ‘Selling God’

Posted on April 27, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Carl Christman, writer/director of the documentary Selling God, answered my questions about his film, an exploration of the way that fundamentalists market their religion.

How did you come to this project?

My films are a form of catharsis. I have many opinions about the major issues in life and feel the overwhelming desire to share my ideas. In past films I have dealt with War and Patriotism (Freedom Fries) as well as Terrorism and Fear (Culture of Fear.) The topic of religion seemed to be worthy of discussion.

How do evangelicals differ from other religious groups in spreading their religion?

Most religions movements work to spread their message. What sets the evangelical movement apart, and prompted me to focus on it in this film, is the skill with which they do it. They have very effectively used all forms of media and marketing to get their message out.

Are evangelicals successful in converting outsiders? In retaining those who grew up in the faith?

Judging by the continued growth and increased power of the evangelical movement I would say they are very effective at converting outsiders.

What do they consider the biggest threat to their way of belief?

There seems to be a feeling among many evangelicals that they are under attack from secularism. Since secularism is basically defined as being non-religious this means that religion is under attack from non-religion. Since three quarters of Americans identify themselves as Christian, however, I do not see Christianity as being in any danger.

Are they a political force?

The evangelical movement is definitely a political force. Evangelicals make up roughly a quarter of all Americans. This is a highly prized demographic for politicians and has tipped the balance in many elections.

How are some evangelicals like people who market books or music or other consumer goods?

My point in this film is to show how the marketing of religion is very similar to the marketing of anything else. The same techniques are used whether one is selling clothing or cars, soda or salvation.

Who do you think is the audience for this film?

Selling God has different audiences that watch the film for different reasons. Those that are not religious are likely to view it from the outside as a critique on the evangelical movement. Evangelicals are likely to watch the film and relate to the examples I offer, often on a personal level. In talking to people that grew up in the various denominations I dealt with in the film I found that they were amused by my unique take on the religious customs they had often taken for granted.

Did the evangelical community respond?

Most of my evangelical friends thought this was a thought-provoking critique. They did not necessarily agree with all of my conclusions, but they certainly enjoyed the process of exploration.

Do you see hypocrisy in the way that Christianity is marketed?

I do not see the marketing of Christianity as hypocritical. There is nothing that I am aware of in the tenets of Christianity that opposes marketing. Many people will not like talking about Christianity in terms of marketing, because they view it as being above such earthly techniques. I, however, have enjoyed applying the well-known consumer paradigm to the world’s largest religion. Hopefully this film offers a unique perspective on religion.

What good works do the members of this community support (other than trying to make converts)?

The Christian community has established many important institutions that improve all of our lives. I went to Christian schools from pre-school through college and I now teach at a Christian university.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in making the movie? What surprised you?

The biggest challenge in making this movie was trying to get access. Much of the footage I wanted to use was not easily available and many of the people I wanted to interview were not willing to speak with me. When I did have people welcome me with open arms it really stood out. I remember being outside the local Unitarian Church getting some shots from the street. When some of the parishioners saw my camera operator and myself outside, they invited us into their church, allowed us to film inside and spoke with us about their faith. I found their openness very refreshing.

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