Why I Make Movies -
Mickey Lemle
All
movies are an illusion. We think we are seeing motion but in fact we are seeing
twenty-four still pictures every second. Half the time the screen is actually
black. Yet movies seem so real, and some have the potential to reveal great
truth. In the Hindu tradition, what we perceive of the outside world is called
maya, or illusion. It is described as a veil that obscures the truth. But maya
also has another aspect, which is the power to reveal the truth. Film and other
art forms can embody both aspects of maya.
“What
kinds of films do you make?” people often ask me, after I’ve told them that I
am a filmmaker. “Documentaries,” I tell them. “Oh, movies about reality,” they
say. “True stories.”
The
issue of “truth” versus “reality” is a constant tension in creation of any
film, especially documentaries. Filmmakers know that every time we make a
choice of where to put the camera or when to turn it on or off, we are making
choices about subjective perceptions of reality. When we edit, as I did in my
latest film, ninety hours of footage down to ninety minutes, we are clearly
manipulating reality, or truth.
Like
the best storytellers, I don’t let facts get in the way of the truth. This
might sound like heresy to some, but it is the nature of art. My motivation is
to move audiences: first and foremost, to tell them a great story that holds
their interest and attention, and then to put them in touch with some deep
truth, to the best of my ability to perceive it and communicate about it. In
that way, if the viewer is ready, the film has the potential to transform the
way one sees the world and oneself. Paradoxically, to accomplish this I must
manipulate reality.
As
an artist, one is always playing with perception. Most of us believe that what
we perceive is the truth. “Seeing is believing,” as the expression goes. For
instance, have you seen a beautiful sunset recently? Here we are hundreds of
years after Copernicus and Galileo, and we are still seeing the sunset. The sun
doesn’t set. The earth rotates and eclipses the sun.
Back
in the days of Newton, there were absolute laws of nature. Einstein explained
that everything is relative.
How
we perceive the truth is often influenced by our belief systems. In closed
systems of belief, in any orthodoxy, there can be absolute truth. True
believers believe that they—and their specific belief system—have a lock on the
Truth.
Mahatma
Gandhi was once leading a large protest march across India. A few days into the
march, he found out that there was to be a great deal of violence, and he
abruptly announced that he was ending the march. Some of his followers and
supporters said, “But Gandhiji, you can’t call off this march. Many people,
from all over India, left their jobs and came great distances to be on this
march.” Gandhi replied, “Only God knows absolute truth. I just know relative
truth. My allegiance must be to truth, not to consistency.”
Perhaps
one of the reasons we feel in the presence of Truth in front of great art is
that it takes us out of our belief system and opens us up to deeper
possibilities. I believe that each one of us has an honest witness deep inside
that tingles when we are in the presence of the Truth. It resonates, just as
when one experiences the presence of the divine in nature, in witnessing a
birth, a flower, an ocean storm, a volcano, or a tornado. One experiences awe
and aesthetic arrest. As James Joyce says, we are put in touch with the Primal
Cause of all things, with the Mystery. I’m with Joyce. That is what we strive
for. On really good days, we can get close.
About the Author:
Mickey Lemle is a filmmaker who has profiled the Dalai Lama, Ram Dass and many
others. This excerpt was taken from his
article in Parabola.
