Whole Life Times: Finding God on the Silver Screen

January 2005

Finding God on the Silver Screen

Renegade Hollywood filmmaker Stephen Simon brings monthly spiritual sustenance to an audience of eager media devotees

by Harriette Yahr

Towards the end of the second act of producer/director Stephen Simon’s new film, Indigo, the action has shifted to a suburban park. The setting is ordinary enough: the sun shines, birds chirp, children play. Off in the distance we see Grace, a 10-year old we’ve met in an earlier scene, meandering through the park with her grandfather, Ray. The camera catches up to them and we observe their conversation. Grace — far wiser than her years — commands their interaction, fielding her grandfather’s questions, slowing her gait to match his. As the camera focuses in, Grace gets a sudden burst of energy and, much to Ray’s bewilderment, dashes away.

Cut to Nicolas. About the same age as Grace, he sits disinterestedly on a wooden step, aimlessly tossing rocks onto the ground. Nothing seems to engage him — not the kids nearby calling out, not his mother’s concern. Then, abruptly, Nicolas perks up and his mood completely shifts. Suddenly alert to some activity on his personal radar, he breaks into a knowing smile and rushes off.

It’s clear through a subsequent series of intercut shots that Grace and Nicolas are searching for one another. They race through the park, as if through a maze, accompanied by ethereal sounds and visuals of swirling, leaf-laden trees. Finally, Grace and Nicolas glimpse one another in the distance. But unlike two lovers falling into a passionate embrace, when Grace and Nicolas meet, they simply share a grin of recognition: They are both Indigo children.

Indigo children — so-called because of their allegedly indigo-hued auras — are, believers say, spiritual prodigies with psychic abilities and a restless, warrior nature that fuels their capacity to transform the world. They are said to communicate with each another via an energetic “grid” that covers the planet. In Indigo, Grace uses her gifts to help her grandfather heal wounds from the past and bring love, and his family, back into his life. It’s the classic story of redemption — with a mystical twist.

Indigo, which will hit Los Angeles theaters January 29 (for one day only), is an example of a movie with a metaphysical theme making its way to the big screen. Director Stephen Simon sees a trend. He calls it “spiritual cinema,” and he wants to codify the genre. He is co-founder of the Ojai-based Spiritual Cinema Circle (The Circle), a home-DVD subscription service that caters to movie lovers who prefer storylines that feature virtue over violence, and soul over gratuitous sex.

Simon, who produced What Dreams May Come and Somewhere in Time, heads the team of spiritually-oriented filmmakers who birthed Indigo. The film’s star and co-writer is Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-selling Conversations with God. James Twyman, whose books include Emissary of Love: The Psychic Children Speak and Messages from Thomas: Raising Psychic Children, is the other screenwriter. Twyman’s fascination with the phenomenon of Indigo children was the genesis of the film — he cut a $500,000 check to finance it.

Spiritual Phenomenon

You don’t need to be an Indigo child, parent one or even believe in psychics to appreciate the Spiritual Cinema Circle. Every month, the Circle sends its members a DVD compilation of spiritually uplifting shorts, documentaries and fiction features culled from direct submissions and film festivals around the world. Unlike Indigo, most of their selections won’t be making it to the neighborhood multiplex or even the independents. Their mission is broad: to move, touch and inspire the heart and soul.

Los Angeles filmmaker Geno Andrews, who is typical of Circle affiliates, has two shorts in distribution with the service: The Visits, profiling a painter dealing with a family death and finding the strength to move forward again; and Jillian’s Vantage, the story of a recluse who is set up on a blind date with a blind woman and learns to consider life through a different perspective. Andrews sees the Spiritual Cinema Circle as filling a void not only for cinephiles, but also for filmmakers who work with spiritually themed content. For him, the Circle is like the answer to a prayer. “It’s hard enough just to make a film,” explains Andrews, “and it’s hard to find an audience for short films with a spiritual message. Cut to: the Spiritual Cinema Circle. They bring something to the table we all need as story tellers... an audience.”

Spiritual vs. Religious

Stephen Simon’s mainstream production, What Dreams May Come, was undeniably flawed, but in a cinematic landscape littered with action films and date flicks, its innovation in addressing the subjects of karma and life after death was groundbreaking. The producer of two-dozen Hollywood films, now turned director, is determined to continue his exploration of such issues.

WLT: What is the definition of spiritual cinema? How do you distinguish it from religious cinema?

Stephen Simon: Religious cinema is The Passion of the Christ. Spiritual cinema is Whale Rider. Religious cinema follows the particular rules and regulations of a particular religion and that’s what The Passion of the Christ or The Ten Commandments represents. Spiritual cinema is movies that ask who we are and why we’re here.

Religion usually pertains to an organization that tells us we must follow a particular set of rules and regulations and rituals in order to experience God, “God” usually being defined as a male being outside of our experience. Spirituality is a personal, inner experience in which we experience God, Goddess, Life, The Universe, Spirit... however we want to define that force in a very particular, unique and individual way.

WLT: It’s interesting that your spiritual cinema is non-partisan and non-dogmatic.

SS: Correct.

WLT: We keep hearing about the divide created by “moral values” in the last election — there’s a fearful agenda attached to the words from the religious right, and then there’s the left, people like UC Berkeley professor of linguistics George Lakoff who want to reclaim the word “values” and bring it back in line with essential human dignities. Do you believe your cinema has a role to play in helping to heal that divide?

SS: Yes, the Circle is a bridge. Many of our subscribers are chaplains, reverends, ministers and priests who see what we’re doing as being a bridge because all our films have spiritual values — values about being empowered and inspired as a human being. And it is my strong desire to be able to bridge this gap that has come to exist between people who are deeply spiritual and people who are religious. We have much more in common than we do in difference.

In the Beginning Was Not the Word

The concept of spiritually-themed cinema is not new. Movies that expand minds and hearts have been around since the creation of film time. In Reel Spirit: A Guide to Movies that Inspire, Explore, and Empower, Raymond Teague does a fine job of documenting this history. But there’s never been an official genre for these films. That’s where Simon comes in. “Spiritual Cinema has always been the passion of my life,” he says, citing Field of Dreams and It’s a Wonderful Life as two of his most favorite films. “And I’ve been very conscious for many years that no one has ever called it a genre.”

Name or no name — and whether or not Simon succeeds in expanding the lexicon of filmspeak (and maybe it doesn’t matter anyway since thinking outside the box is endemic to this could-be genre’s viewers) — an audience for spiritual cinema exists and appears to be growing. Since the Spiritual Cinema Circle launched in April 2004, its subscriber base has climbed steadily to 12,000 and currently boasts members in 61 countries. Simon envisions video stores catching the metaphysical wave too, carving out sections devoted to this kind of cinema. And, theatrically-speaking, the success of films like Whale Rider, I (Heart) Huckabees and What the Bleep Do We Know? proves that films with spiritual or metaphysical themes can have box-office appeal. It’s worth mentioning that you won’t find hits like Whale Rider on a Spiritual Cinema Circle monthly DVD — go to Netflix or Blockbuster for that. The films you get from the Circle typically have limited or no theatrical release, small budgets and unknown, or lesser known, actors.

Towards the end of Indigo, Ray’s worldview has shifted. “I understand a little more now,” he says of his granddaughter’s healing powers. And maybe that’s the point of the film: Understanding a little more, seeing the world in a different way, opening to the idea that there’s something new to learn. The film is slated to have one screening only — 11 a.m. January 29 at various AMC Theaters — and will coincide with World Indigo Day, a day of prayer for the Indigo children organized by James Twyman and Doreen Virtue, author of Care and Feeding of Indigo Children. Additional screenings may be scheduled, based on audience response.

Indigo has received mixed reviews. Don’t go expecting a cinematic masterpiece — it has a made-for-TV feel and pervasive, stylized background music. And although they are credible in this context, film newcomers Walsch and the children are clearly not professional actors. All that notwithstanding, judging from a jam-packed preview screening in Los Angeles last year and early sell-out of many January screening locations, the audience for this film either disagrees with this assessment or cares more about the message. And, in the end, Indigo is one of those films where the story behind it — and in front of it — is greater than the one on the screen anyway: And that’s the story of spiritual cinema.

To find out more about Spiritual Cinema Circle, visit SpiritualCinemaCircle.com. For Indigo show times, surf over to IndigoTheMovie.com.

Harriette Yahr is a filmmaker and writer based in Los Angeles. Her latest film, Baker’s Men, aired on the Sundance Channel.

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