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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Interview: Marc Erlbaum, Maker of Inspiring Films

Posted on November 14, 2010 at 8:28 am

Marc Erlbaum wants to make films that touch people’s souls. He is the man behind Nationlight Productions, a film and television production company focused on creating inspiring, meaningful content for mainstream audiences of all backgrounds and affiliations. He was nice enough to take some time to answer my questions about his company and his films.

How did this project get started?

I’m a film-maker. I had made a couple of small films that I wrote and directed and about a year and a half ago I formed this company, Nationlight Productions, with an explicit mandate to make more positive and uplifting films. That was what I was doing already with my projects but I thought the time was right to create a more structured company focused on that mission. So we went out and raised money from some philanthropists who were interested in affecting the world through positive mass media. We made this film “Cafe,” an ensemble drama that we shot here in Philadelphia, that tracks intersecting stories of the patrons and workers in a little cafe, all of whom are dealing with life challenges. It’s infused with spirituality, but most of my work is about putting that in a subtle way.

One of the characters is a guy who’s always sitting in the cafe on his laptop and a young girl appears on his computer screen one day and informs him that he and everyone else in the cafe are avatars in a virtual world she has created. And of course he doesn’t believe her at first. But then things start to happen exactly as she says it will. Ultimately, it becomes a conversation with the Creator, an allegory. She wants him to do something and he asks her why she doesn’t make him and she explains she has built free will into the program. There’s nothing explicitly religious or spiritual but ultimately it is a meditation on a conversation with God.

What is your background? Have you studied theology?

I am a religious Hassidic Jew myself. I was not born that way but got into it in college and became very committed. But our goal, as someone who grew up very mainstream and very secular, my goal is not to preach to the choir but to create content that is going to appeal to people who are more like those I grew up with and instill some thematics without being heavy-handed or didactic.

Why do mainstream films stay away from spiritual themes?

Appealing to people’s baser natures is an easy way to make a buck. It’s easier to seduce people than it is to challenge them. What’s happening in recent years is that people are saying, “We’re not as ignorant as you think we are. If you do challenge us and provide us with messages of hope and redemption, that will appeal to us more than all the thrillers and genre stuff you’ve been feeding us.”

What films inspire you?

The films that don’t preach but that have inspiring themes without being heavy-handed, like “The Matrix,” which has a real message that this reality we’re living in is only superficial and there’s something much deeper. A similar thematic was developed in “The Truman Show.” And others, obvious but just as powerful, “Freedom Writers,” “Pay it Forward,” “The Blind Side.” That’s a great example of a mainstream film with positive values at its core.

What makes your company different?

We are unabashed in our mission. When I started writing, I wrote something with a clear moral framework. I was put in touch with a producer who demoralized me and told me that any art with an agenda is not art at all. I studied literature and I certainly have experienced that intellectual elitism. But we do have a mission and we are not afraid to say that. Great art has the ability to inspire. The images people expose themselves to will affect their outlook and their conduct. If we can participate in that, don’t we have a responsibility to do that in a positive way?

Michael Medved’s book Hollywood vs. America: The Explosive Bestseller that Shows How-and Why-the Entertainment Industry Has Broken Faith With Its Audience inspired me early on. He says if you’re telling me that visual images don’t affect people’s action, the advertising industry should return all those billions of dollars. “The Passion of the Christ” really proved that there is a huge audience that really wants these films. There was a story in the Wall Street Journal: “They’ve seen the light and it is green.” So Hollywood is following the money trail.

Anybody who has strong beliefs or opinions will have to face people who don’t agree with them. You can either go through your life backing off or taking a stand. Even before I was religious I was always raised to take a stand. My personal and religious beliefs are that you don’t try to force anyone but if you act with kindness, the majority of people will respond with kindness.

What is the status of your films?

“Cafe,” with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy, won the Crystal Heart award at the Heartland Film Festival. “Everything Must Go” stars Will Ferrell as a guy who loses his job and his wife and hits rock bottom before he can pick himself up and start over again. It co-stars Rebecca Hall and Michael Pena. That will be released this spring.

How can people stay in touch with what you’re doing?

We’re really focused on building up a community of people who are interested in our mission and our content. So we’ve launched a community page for Nationlight on Facebook. We want people to come on and say “We want more positive fare.” It’s really a call to action. The more people we have on this community, the more we’ll be able to do.”

List: Spiritual Movie Families

Posted on March 25, 2010 at 2:02 pm

Beliefnet’s “How Spiritual is Your Family” quiz made me think of these movie families, among the very few on screen who are unabashedly spiritual.

1. The Blind Side Based on a true story, this movie makes it clear that a wealthy white family’s decision to adopt a homeless black teenager was not an impulse but was strongly grounded in a deep religious conviction.

2. The Friendly Persuasion is a rare movie that grapples with a loving family’s challenges in applying religious principles to difficult and complicated circumstances but with a supportive community. It is an even rarer movie that shows a character praying for guidance.

3. The Sound of Music a postulate brings not just music and warmth to a motherless family, but also the strength of her faith.

4. Fiddler on the Roof We see the family’s connection to their Jewish traditions and faith and to each other in the way they work to apply God’s laws and in their Sabbath rituals.

5. Not Easily Broken A young couple finds that it takes three to make their marriage work — the husband, the wife, and God.

Beliefnet Movie Awards

Posted on March 5, 2010 at 3:54 pm

Congratulations to Beliefnet judges and community members for selecting an outstanding group of winners for the Beliefnet movie awards.

Judges

Best Spiritual Film: The Road
Best Inspirational Film: Precious and Up (Tie)
Best Spiritual Documentary: ‘More Than a Game’

People’s Choice
Best Spiritual Film: The Blind Side
Best Inspirational Film: Precious
Best Spiritual Documentary: Earth

And check out the gallery of lessons from Oscar-nominated films, too!

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Awards

Movies Increasingly Feature Spiritual Themes

Posted on January 3, 2010 at 10:40 am

In today’s Washington Post, Robert W. Butler writes about the increasing number of wide-release films that include themes of religion and spirituality.

It’s everywhere at the multiplex these days: religion. Or if that word makes you uncomfortable, you can go with the more general “spirituality.”

In movies as varied as the dead serious “The Road,” the uplifting family picture “The Blind Side,” the biting comedy “The Invention of Lying” and even James Cameron’s sci-fi opus “Avatar,” issues of faith and morality and mankind’s place in the universe are all the rage.

Not all of these movies embrace religion. Some question human gullibility. Some ask for evidence of a higher purpose in what often seems a random universe. But whether they encourage prayer or doubt, they’re all part of the zeitgeist.

Butler asked some thoughtful observers of the influence that religion and pop culture have on each other to comment on this trend, but, as usual, everyone forgets that it takes many years for a movie to be made — twelve years in the case of “Avatar” — and so it does not make sense to try to tie them to current economic conditions. It may, however, affect the audience response to those themes. “Up in the Air” is mentioned in the article as not specifically religious in its themes but compared to “A Christmas Carol” as a story of a man who finds that there is more meaning in personal connections than in money. It benefitted from the timeliness of its character’s job, flying from company to company to tell workers they were being laid off. But it was based on a book that was published nine years ago.
The portrayal of religious themes I have found the most meaningful this year was in “The Blind Side,” with its unabashed and explicit acknowledgement that Christian faith was a guiding inspiration and base of support in the real-life story of a wealthy family who adopted a homeless teenager. This — and the box office success of “Fireproof” and other modestly-budgeted films with Christian themes targeted to a Christian audience — should address some of Hollywood’s traditional skittishness about portraying people of faith in a positive way.
Upcoming films with themes of religion and spirituality include “The Lovely Bones” (told by a murdered girl from a sort of heavenly waiting room), “Legion” (a battle between angels for the future of humanity), and “The Last Station” (about writer Leo Tolstoy’s religious conversion and its effect on his wife).