I’m not sure if this film is going to be good, but it has the potential to take a unique look at the power of forgiveness to heal. The synopsis from the film’s web site says:

Identical twins Andy and Pete Goodwynn have been side-by-side since the womb. But that’s about to change…

As their high school graduation nears, Pete plans to marry Maggie, the love of his life, and head off to school to become a preacher. Andy, who wants nothing to do with God, has no plans, no direction, and seemingly no future.

But in a cruel twist of fate—orchestrated by a rival for Maggie’s heart—Pete finds himself locked away in prison on trumped-up charges.

Will Andy be able to help Pete gain his rightful freedom? Will the brothers seek vengeance on those whose corruption and deceit have taken that freedom away? While revenge may seem sweet, BROTHER’S KEEPER is a powerful reminder that only forgiveness can truly heal.

“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.

Finding Joe – Trailer V.7 from pat solomon on Vimeo.

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 our entire 9 minute conversation by clicking the play button below.

“Finding Joe” opens in theaters on the West Coast this weekend. For more information on where it is playing, please visit the film’s Web site at http://www.findingjoethemovie.com/.

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.”

Yoga Is from Suzanne bryant-cunha on Vimeo.

“Yoga Is” is a film about the transformational power of yoga. Follow filmmaker Suzanne Bryant as she meets with the most prominent Yoga Gurus and teachers in the west and travels to India to explore the power of this ancient practice. Along the way she discovers what YOGA IS. This is the story of a woman who thought she had it all …until she lost her beloved mother to cancer. Trying to process and understand her profound grief, Suzanne embarked on a journey and turned to a deeper practice of yoga.

SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA follows the story of Luke Chisolm (Lucas Black), a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour. When his first big shot turns out to be a very public disaster, Luke escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas, home to eccentric rancher Johnny Crawford (Robert Duvall). But Johnny’s more than meets the eye, and his profound ways of looking at life force Luke to question not only his past choices, but his direction for the future.

Stephen Simon is starting a film mentoring program to help you develop and manifest your film project. Stephen brings a deep level of experience, knowledge and insight into film making and developing…He personally produced Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, All The Right Moves with Tom Cruise, and the Academy Award-winning What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Annabella Sciorra. In 2003, he co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle, a DVD distribution business that is now in its eighth year with subscribers in over ninety countries. He has also directed two films: Indigo and Conversations with God.

The content of the program includes:

• Stephen will spend twenty hours per month on your project, including two hours per week of one-on-one phone conversations. He has installed a private line in his home office exclusively for this Film Mentoring Program. Phone sessions will generally last about an hour each, unless you’re working on script notes. Those conversations might last as long as two hours.

• If you want his input on your script or a book or article that you want to adapt, he will read the material thoroughly and discuss it with you in detail. This process might also include a page by page work through of new drafts of your script.

• If you’re in pre-production, production, or post production, he can advise you all along the way. This might include cast and crew recommendations, viewing early cuts of your film, and advising you on your next steps.

On the program’s Web site, Stephen writes:

“…Are you looking to entertain people, help them feel better about themselves and their world, illuminate human experiences that can fascinate and inspire others, or perhaps help us laugh at and with ourselves? If the answer to any of those questions is “yes”, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re looking to make films that exploit rather than uplift the audience, I am not your guy…”

For more information on Stephen Simon’s Film Mentoring program please visit http://theoldhollywood.com/stephen-simon-film-mentoring-program/

Finding Joe – Trailer V.7 from pat solomon on Vimeo.

Finding Joe is an exploration of famed Mythologist Joseph Campbell’s studies and their continuing impact on our culture. Through interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields interwoven with enactments of classic tales by a sweet and motley group of kids, the film navigates the stages of what Campbell dubbed The Hero’s Journey: the challenges, the fears, the dragons, the battles, and the return home as a changed person. Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, Finding Joe shows how Campbell’s work is relevant and essential in today’s world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life – or as Campbell would simply state, how to “follow your bliss”. For more information on the film, you can visit http://www.findingjoethemovie.com/.

Martin Sheen, plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to collect the remains of his adult son, killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James.

Driven by his profound sadness and desire to understand his son better, Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage, leaving his “California bubble life” behind.

Armed with his son’s backpack and guidebook, Tom navigates the 800km historical pilgrimage from the French Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela in the north west of Spain, but soon discovers that he will not be alone on this journey.

While walking The Camino, Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world, all broken and looking for greater meaning in their lives: a Dutchman (Yorick van Wageningen) a Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish writer (James Nesbitt) who is suffering from a bout of “writer’s block.”

From the hardship experienced along “The Way” this unlikely quartet of misfits create an everlasting bond and Tom begins to learn what it means to be a citizen of the world again, and discovers the difference between “The life we live and the life we choose.”

“The Way” was filmed entirely in Spain and France along the actual Camino de Santiago. It will be in theaters in the US and Canada on October 7. This information was found on the film’s web site.

Warrior looks like it could be one of those movies, similar to The Fighter, that on the surface is marketed like a traditional sports movie; but is actually about overcoming your inner demons, rising to the occasion, and being there for family members in spite of past conflicts. Below is the movie trailer and write up for Warrior from IMDB. It will be in theaters starting September 9.

Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime – and the wreckage of their broken family – within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting in Lionsgate’s action/drama, WARRIOR. An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father. But when Brendan’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives

     The video clip below is an interview with Gary Renard from Living Luminaries: On The Serious Business of Happiness movie where he talks about forgiveness and the unconscious mind.  He says that if we condemn and judge others, then we are sending a message to our unconscious mind that we are not worthy of God’s love.  His teachings are focused on the level of the mind, in contrast to trying to help others change the “stuff” in their life.  According to him, we can change the experience of our life by changing the way we view others.  When we forgive others, then we are actually forgivining and healing our self on a conscious and unconscious level.  The result of this forgiveness work is that we see ourselves to be worthy of God’s love and decrease the seeming separation between our self and God.  This helps get rid of some of the ’junk’ in our mind so that we may be more open to receiving and acting upon inspiration.

You can purchase Living Luminaries: On The Serious Business of Happiness on Amazon by Clicking Here.

This article is a Guest Post about the spiritual insights in Finding Nemo
contributed by Larry E. Coleman, from Crowner-Coleman Publishing.

“Watch Finding Nemo and then journal about the pain and suffering in your life,” my instructor said.

I was taking a spiritual development course and couldn’t understand why my instructor would tell a fifty year old man to watch an animated film, but she was masterful, intuitive, and she saw things my ego wouldn’t allow me to see—and that’s what we were working on at the time—my ego, my shell for covering up all the hidden fears I had.

Yes, there was a reason why she wanted me to watch Finding Nemo, a reason why the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, and why the film has gross nearly $900,000,000 worldwide. Yes, there’s a reason why it still remains one of my all time favorite spiritual movies—and the animation is only a small part of it.

Finding Nemo’s worldwide appeal is the story, and hidden within the story are so many wonderful spiritual insights that it is nearly impossible to watch the movie and not take hold of at least one of them. Let me give you a few examples of how I interpreted some of the messages in Finding Nemo. But first, let’s supply a little backdrop of the movie in case some of you have forgotten it or have never seen the movie before.

1. Nemo’s mom and his unborn siblings were eaten by a barracuda.
2. Because of this traumatic event, Nemo’s father, Marlin, promised that he would never let anything happen to Nemo, who was the lone survivor.
3. The trauma of losing his family caused Marlin to be overprotected (fearful).
4. Marlin’s overprotection was compounded by his view that Nemo had limitations
because Nemo was born with one short fin. (Nemo call it his ‘lucky fin.’)

Here’s what I personally came away with by watching this wonderful inspiring story, and the lessons I believe my instructor wanted me to glean from it.

1. The ego perceives limitations by what it sees in this physical reality and couples this belief with fear. The fear then acts as a catalyst to bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In other words, Marlin’s fear that something might happen to his son came to fruition. He got exactly what he tried so desperately to avoid; his son being captured.

My instructor was trying to get me to understand that I was drawing many negative circumstances into my life through my own expectations, and my expectations were shrouded in fear.

2. The ego is often energized by fear. It does this under the guise that it knows what’s best for itself and other individuals.

That is to say, Marlin tried to project his own fears into the life of Nemo but Nemo rebelled against his father’s notion of fear and limitation. In other words, Marlin attempted to use fear to control his son’s journey by pointing out his limitations, but Nemo chose to follow his own course instead.

Again, my instructor wanted me to see that my attempt to control situations, events and the people around me only made life more difficult. In other words, ‘strength sets up resistance.’ She was telling me to relax and learn to go with the flow of life—a lesson all of us could learn.

Perhaps the moral of the story in Finding Nemo is this: Peace can only be achieved by following your own current downstream. Dory, a wonderful fish character in the movie, puts it this way: “When life gets you down just keep swimming.”

I think I’ll follow her advice.

This article was written by Larry E. Coleman. For more information on Larry, please visit his blog at http://womenmastermindgroups.blogspot.com/, which focuses on holistic business success for women.

You can purchase Finding Nemo on Amazon by Clicking Here