Conscious Choice Seattle: Hollywood Aura

January 2005

Hollywood Aura

Veteran movie producer Stephen Simon sees spirituality through his lens and on your screen. His directorial debut, “Indigo,” premieres this month at movie houses and New Thought churches throughout the Puget Sound area.

by Harriette Yahr

Toward 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 and 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 other 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 other 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.

Let’s get metaphysical

“Indigo,” which will play in Seattle and the Puget Sound area Jan. 29, 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 cofounder of the Ojai, Calif.-based Spiritual Cinema Circle (visit www.spiritualcinemacircle.com), a home-DVD subscription service that caters to movie lovers who prefer story lines that feature virtue over violence, and soul over gratuitous sex.

That would be a lot of us.

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.

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.

A Filmmaker’s Perspective

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 from 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 Andrews, the Circle is like the answer to a prayer. “It’s hard enough to just 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 storytellers: an audience.”

The concept of spiritually themed cinema is not new. Movies that expand minds and hearts have been around since the creation of film. In “Reel Spirit: A Guide to Movies that Inspire, Explore, and Empower,” author Raymond Teague does a fine job of documenting this history. But there has 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 favorite films. “I’ve been very conscious for many years that no one has ever called it a genre.”

Name or no, 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 more than 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.

At theaters, the success of films like “Whale Rider,” “I (Heart) Huckabees,” and “What the #$*! 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 disc. The films you get from the Circle typically have limited or no theatrical release, small budgets and unknown, or lesser known, actors.

But that can change as metaphysical movies find more traction with the viewing public, which only figures to become increasingly fed up with, say, the violence in today’s blockbuster films. It can shift toward the gentler and more compassionate.

Toward the end of “Indigo,” Ray the grandfather’s own worldview has shifted.

“I understand a little more now,” says Ray, played by Neale Donald Walsch, about 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 is something new to learn.

The film is slated to have its Jan. 29 premiere to coincide with World Indigo Day, a day of prayer for the Indigo children organized by James Twyman and Doreen Virtue, author of “The 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. 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 sellouts at many upcoming January screenings across the country, the audience for this film either disagrees with this assessment or cares more about the message.

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.

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

FYI

There are JAN. 29 AMC Theater screenings at Pacific Place 11 in Seattle (already sold out), Renton Village 8 in Renton and Narrows Plaza 8 in Tacoma. Here are local New Thought churches and other facilities where the film will be playing. Check www.indigothemovie.com for times and possible additional locations:

The Pickford Dream Space, 1318 Bay St, Bellingham, WA, Contact: Unity Church office, 360-733-2270, www.pickfordcinema.org

Unity of Lewis County, 800 S Pearl St, Centralia, WA, 360-330-5259, cybless@yahoo.com, www.websyte.com/unity/centralia/

Ruby Theater, Chelan, WA, Contact: Patti Caputo, 509-682-2383, spiralofjoy@msn.com, www.spiralsofjoy.com

Lincoln Theatre Center Foundation, 712 S First St, Mount Vernon, WA, Ticket office: 360-336-8955, vicky@lincolntheatre.org, www.lincolntheatre.org

The Divine Fellowship, 513 Barth, Richland, WA, Contact: Valerie Engel, 509-946-8656, gardengoddess14@yahoo.com, www.thedivinefellowship.org

Unity Church of Truth, 2900 S Bernard, Spokane, WA, 509-838-6518, friends@unityspokane.org

Abundant Life Center at August Moon, 111 West 39th St, Vancouver, WA, 360-695-0211, info@abundant-life-center.org

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