"We must be willing to get rid of the life that we've
planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
- Josepeh Campbell
"Finding Joe" is a documentary that interviews
visionaries from a wide variety of fields on how Joseph
Campbell's teachings on 'following your bliss' and
'The Hero's Journey' can be applied to our everyday life,
including our challenges and personal dragons.
While most inspirational documentaries focus on how good
life can be if you get everything you want; "Finding Joe"
stands out because it interviews real life people ranging from
Deepak Chopra, Tony Hawk, to Rashida Jones about how their
struggles, failures, and personal dragons were necessary to
help them develop the capabilities to truly follow their bliss.
According to the film, everybody receives some sort of
mysterious call to adventure or to awaken to a life previously
unknown. Not everybody answers this call. However, those that
do and then choose to act on this call embark on what Campbell
and the film describe as 'The Hero's Journey.'
As the documentary portrays in vivid detail from popular
movies, enactments of classic tales by a group of sweet and
motley group of kids, and first hand accounts from real people
'The Hero's Journey' is filled with a series of tests, trials,
or ordeals a person must go through to begin and complete a
transformation. Often a person will fail one or more of these
tests. But, if the hero remains steadfast and open to
unexpected help along the way, he or she will emerge victorious.
For example, Campbell summarizes this process in
"The Hero with a Thousand Faces" when he writes:
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a
region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back
from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons
on his fellow man."
I had the chance to interview the filmmaker for "Finding
Joe", Patrick Solomon, and asked him what sort of dragons he
faced in his personal journey. His answer was very insightful
and eye-opening:
"On my own personal journey, there are a lot of
challenges in making a movie. I went down this road when I
first started this movie. And I shot a bunch of things.
I went to Bali. I went to Jerusalem. I shot just a ton of film
and interviewed a bunch of people and when I started to put
that together it wasn't working.
So, at some point, I had to admit that this wasn't
going to work and we got to take another path. But, that to
me was a dragon. That was months and months of work and
thousands and thousands of dollars that I kind of had to let
go of and come to grips with the truth that that wasn't going
to work. And, that was a wrestling match and that took months
to come to the point of saying 'okay man this isn't going to
work, you gotta let that go.' And, I'm glad I did because the
movie would be quite different had I hung onto that."
The rest of our conversation focuses on why he made
"Finding Joe" in addition to some straightforward advice for
other filmmakers who are trying to make an inspirational or
transformational film.
You can listen to and download an MP3 of our entire 9 minute
interview by visiting:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=EKHdV&m=KsFC1LzHGh6qt5&b=2cnquFSc6HmZ4GNIpfIgeA
Finding Joe is truly a transformational film that will
help anyone who is wrestling with a personal dragon right now,
but knows in their heart that they are on path. Or as Joseph
Campbell said,
"Follow your bliss and the Universe will open doors where
there were only walls."
In Light and Love,
Matthew Welsh, Esq.
Creator of Spiritual Media Blog
--The News Source for Spiritual Entertainment--
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