A Quest for Meaning

The story « How it all began » « The quest » When Nathanael goes to visit Equipped with nothing more than Marc in New York, it’s been 10 a tiny camera and a microphone, years since they’ve last seen each they will attempt to uncover the other and their lives are totally causes of the current world crises different: Nathanael has just and discover a way to bring about finished an environmental film on change. From India to Guatemala, water access in India, and Marc from San Francisco to Southern works in sales and marketing for France, their whole world will be a global corporation that exports transformed… bottled water… Full of incredible testimonials, A small accident brings Marc’s moments of doubt and moments «American dream» to a halt. of joy, their journey encourages Stuck in bed, he ends up watching us to reconsider our rapport a bunch of documentaries on with nature, with happiness and globalisation that Nathanael with the meaning of life. These had left behind. That’s when 87 minutes will help us regain he realizes that he is part of the confidence in our ability to bring problem. He resolves to give up about change, within ourselves his career plans and goes to join and within society. Nathanael in India where they will embark on an epic, impromptu journey. The Film in Numbers: 6 months of travel 3 years of writing and on 3 continents editing 1 amateur video shooting 103 fits of uncontrollable 80% improvised laughter 29 interviews 13 highlighters 32 train rides 18 make-shift offices (plus 1 missed train) 1 sprained ankle + 80 hours footage 1 tendinitis of the wrist 8 different kinds of 4 periods of self-doubt transportation 12379 emails blow-out arguments 3 and text messages Main Players Anand JOSHI e arrived at Anand and inner strength to help the most Prema’s after traveling on destitute and underprivileged. a train all night long plus In the village of Kausani, at the foot Wa six-hour taxi ride. We had first of the Himalayas, Anand and his heard of them in a documentary wife Prema have opened a center at the CMS film festival in Delhi where they assist widows and and we had decided to go meet their children in difficulty. In their them. In his youth, Anand had workshop, Anand and his son also been injured while working at a make a number of very sturdy, construction site, and the doctors useful tools which are in high had insisted that he had no hope of demand. recovery. Through sheer will power, They take Gandhi as their inspiration dedication and the assiduous in everyday life and follow very closely practice of Kriya Yoga, he managed the concept of « Swaraj », which means to recover and decided to use his « self-governance ». Anand told us: « Life is going too fast, it is going so fast that it is spinning out of control. Gandhi encourages us to take control and to take our seat at the wheel! If you follow the teachings of Gandhi, of course life will be much slower. But it will be full of joy. » also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. She actively defends and supports the plight of small farmers faced with the agressive expansion policies of global corporations in the food and agriculture industry. She and Satish Kumar have founded «Navdanya», an association dedicated to the conservation of traditional grains and seeds. The farm at Navdanya has also trained over 10 000 farmers in organic farming techniques. For over 40 years, Vandana Shiva has been fighting the abusive practices of global corporations, as in Palchilmada, Kerala, where a group of women fought to close a Coca Cola factory that was draining the local Vandana SHIVA source of groundwater. We were lucky enough to be invited to the Vidyapeeth center for their seminar andana Shiva, a Physicist on « Gandhi and Globalisation », and Epistemologist with a where she introduced us to her PhD in the Philosophy of V friends. We were very inspired by Science, is one of the foremost her multidisciplinary approach and figures in the Anti-globalisation by her view that living beings are movement. In 1993, she received not just mechanical organisms. the «Right Livelihood Award», Vandana told us: « Spirituality is understanding your place in this universe, and understanding that we are all connected. Feeling that you are a part of a whole gives you enormous power, because the universe is an incredible creative force. » Satish KUMAR Jain monk from the age press the button, stop for a of 9, Satish renounced his minute and have a good cup of vocation in his adolescent tea.» The book No Destination Ayears and joined Gandhi’s tells the story of this adventure. movement for agricultural Satish is currently the Editor in reform. In 1962 he undertook Chief of the magazine «Resurgence a March for Peace of more than & Ecologist» and Program Director 12 000 km with E.P.Menon. The at Schumacher College in England, two companions traveled on where he lives. Far from the foot to Moscow, Paris, London Cartesian ideology that divides and Washington with no money, everything, Satish Kumar has in order to speak with the main a holistic view of the world and heads of State about nuclear encourages people to live with weapons and disarmament. «elegant simplicity». Our encounter They gave four of these heads with him totally shattered our of State a small bag of tea preconceived notions about man, accompanied by the message : nature and the rapport between «If ever you feel the urge to the two. Satish told us: « Pleasure is when you want something that you don’t have but that you think you need… Pleasure will always leave you unsatisfied and frustrated, whereas contentment brings happiness. So happiness is knowing that you have enough. » Surender SINGH urender Singh was born his own style of teaching. His and raised in Punjab, India incredible ability to cater to Sand moved to Rishikesh in students of all levels and the 1994 with his family. He began quality of his presence have practicing yoga as a way to find afforded him a certain fame. balance in his professional life as an Some students of his that we met engineer, and later went to perfect on the road told us to go meet his yoga practice at the Kavalya him, since we were looking for a Dham at Lonavala. yoga teacher who could tell us all In the end, he found his true life’s about this ancient practice and vocation in yoga, and gave up its ties with the West. his engineering career in order to teach yoga full-time and develop Surender told us: « Pleasure you can get at the supermarket. Happiness you cannot get at the market. Happiness you get by looking inside. Go deep inside, and stay there for a long time. » Frédéric LENOIR hilosopher, Sociologist and the centuries, and encourages his Expert in the History of readers to «revolutionize the world PReligions, Frederic Lenoir in order to heal it». He believes in was previously Editor in Chief merging the religions in a way that of the magazine «The World would transcend the world’s main of Religions» («Le monde des religious faiths, and like the Stoics, religions»). He left this position his credo could very well be: «You in 2013 to focus full-time on cannot change the world unless his writing. He is the author of you change yourself first, and more than 40 works, including rediscover your inner dimension». essays, novels, encyclopaedias, We met with him in 2010 at and short stories, many of the headquarters of French which have been translated into newspaper « Le Monde », and his a variety of langages. He has view gave us exactly the historical also written for the theater, the and philosophical insight we were cinema, and for comic strips. In looking for to help us along on our his writings, he gives a general quest. overview of the main streams of thought that have evolved over Frédéric told us: « Cartesian thought separated man from nature, and also the body from the spirit (…). The current environmental crises are the result of this way of thinking, as are the fact that Western man is dissociated from his body and is unable to manage his emotions or find inner peace.» Pierre RABHI riginally from Algeria, Pierre Agroecology movement, which Rabhi was entrusted as a upholds a holistic view of agriculture Ochild to a French couple and and of nature as an alternative to the received a European education, current social system. while also maintaining ties with In France, he has begun his roots. In the 1950s he became environmental movements like a factory-worker and began to «Terre & Humanisme» and «Colibris». question the values of productivism He can often be seen on and competition; he then decided mainstream media offering harsh to move to the country with his wife, criticism of the current system to a farm in the Cévennes region of and advocating a return to Southern France. For over 40 years, «Elegant Simplicity». His written Pierre Rabhi has been tending to works continue to inspire the new his small family garden and fighting generations of readers. against big-industry agriculture. We were lucky enough to meet with His unusual life path led him to him at his home in 2011. His vision begin writing about his experiences of the world and his efforts towards and about his own personal rapport the cause for self-sufficiency had a with modernity and happiness.

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