Ryan McNeil
Imagine meeting your idol. Imagine that the meeting isn’t just a moment to express admiration, get a photo, or snag an autograph. Imagine instead that they reach out a hand of encouragement. In a practically unsolicited show of support, your idol offers to mentor you in a way that can make you more creative and productive. Pretty motivating right?
But what if your idol is oddball director David Lynch?
Welcome to DAVID WANTS TO FLY. Director David Sieveking serves as our protagonist in a journey of creativity and spiritual awareness. After not being able to get any projects off the ground, Sieveking looks to his idol for guidance. He catches up with Lynch at a seminar promoting the world of Transcendental Meditation (TM), and it’s there that Lynch convinces him to give this spiritual world a try.
Sieveking heeds his mentor’s advice, and begins following the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi…he who took The Beatles under his wing many years ago. Amazingly, things do start looking up as David begins to practice meditation and focusing on his mantra. However, in short order the world of TM gets disrupted with the death of the Maharishi. It’s here that David’s journey – and likewise his doc – take a surreal turn.
With a small tweak here or there, this could easily pass for a fictional feature film. The fact that it’s a real look at one man’s journey of self discovery makes all the more incredible. When I asked Sieveking if he ever thought he’d taken a tumble down the rabbit hole, “Oh yeah” was his immediate response. ” I was sitting in front of about 30 serious looking men in robes wearing crowns resembling Burger King hats” he recalls “listening to their leader, the Maharaja, announce that very soon they were going to create Heaven On Earth”. He didn’t even mention going to meet the Skin Boy.
In a visual style befitting Felinni and Wenders, Sieveking’s film is an account of a search for spirituality on a personal level. It’s an such an interesting and authentic story, one made quite tender with the coming and going of his girlfriend Marie Pohl (and in a rather amusing moment, her grandmother too). An artist’s quest for creative understanding can be taxing enough on those the artist loves most. Looking for spiritual understanding at the same time is much like jamming all of your emotional baggage into a shopping bag and saying to that special someone “Hold this a sec?”.
Indeed Marie is no different, and David’s quest leads the two of them to a truly tender moment on Coney Island. It’s a wonderful scene, and a truly important stop on David’s path. Watching the scene, I couldn’t help but believe that if it was me, I’d want to shut everything down for a few minutes and figure things out. But perhaps in a sign that he was more enlightened than he knew, David disagreed. He believes that the more trouble you’re in, the more interesting the story is going to be. He thinks it’s healthy to consider bad times in one’s own life as chances for something beautiful.
Ultimately, a falling out with the suspicious teachings of TM send David to seek a higher truth. Already listening to a new self-chosen mantra “Liebe Mama” (‘Dear Mama’), David’s film reminds us that spiritualism should never have an undercurrent of money. “True Gurus don’t sell their knowledge. They share it” his film says. A very important message indeed. “You can’t buy enlightenment” he says. “Meditation is not a product that you purchase in a shop and put in your pocket. If you start selling courses as automatic steps to enlightenment it kills the very idea of spirituality.”
If there’s a difficulty to this memorable glimpse into David’s quest, it’s in deciding what to take away from it. Should one focus on the point that those who guide us, can guide us astray? That enlightenment, as David suggests, might be a McGuffin? or is it that truth is a pathless land, and that we all have to find our own way. It could be all three…or it could be none of them. Maybe the point isn’t to find the answer; perhaps the point is to never stop asking ourselves the questions.
DAVID WANTS TO FLY plays tonight – 9 pm at The Bloor Cinema, and again on Wednesday May 5th – 3:45pm at Cumberland 3.
Kind of reminds me of a book I read once for class called Selling Spirituality about some of the same things you were talking about towards the end.
This one actually sounds very fascinating. Thanks for the notice Hatter 🙂
Yeah, great post – reminds me of that line in bullet the blue sky (im sure ve mentioned this recently actually…)
"And I can't tell the difference between ABC news, Hill Street Blues and a preacher on the old time gospel hour stealing money from the sick and the old. Well the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister. I feel a long way from the hills of San Salvador where the sky is ripped open and the rain pours through a gaping wound pelting the women and children…pelting the women and children…who run …who run…into the arms…of America"
Simon
http://www.screeninsight.com
I caught this one last night at the Bloor and I couldn't believe how funny it was, not poking fun or anything just showing the lunacy of it all at time. Audience really digged it and it was a packed house. I hope it does well as it's to open soon in Germany, I assume it may be more than a little controversial.
@ Univarn… It's a comment on selling faith, and a quest to define one's own inner peace. And it's brilliant on both fronts.
Do check it out as soon as you have the chance.
@ Simon… Love that song. Love that version of that song (The Rattle and Hum version). Do try to track this film down, you won't be sorry!
@ Shannon… Hard to say wether it'll be controversial. It's a fair movie right? He doesn't make assumptions, he just keeps asking questions. But people high up the ladder in religious organizations don't like these sorts of questions – so you're probably right!