Low-Budget Film Asks Experts Eternal Questions

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Can three guys kicking around the country with a mail-order video camera open doors on the wisdom of the universe? It’s beginning to look like a possibility to viewers of a low-budget film produced in Michigan by Chad M. Powers, an attorney, and friends Chad Munce and Scott Carter. […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Can three guys kicking around the country with a mail-order video camera open doors on the wisdom of the universe?

It’s beginning to look like a possibility to viewers of a low-budget film produced in Michigan by Chad M. Powers, an attorney, and friends Chad Munce and Scott Carter. They pooled funds for the $10,000 budget.


The filmmakers went knocking on the doors of some of the world’s most admired spiritual thinkers and _ far more than they had any reason to hope _ were welcomed with open arms and minds.

The trio was casting for answers to 30 profound questions, and they pulled in wisdom not only from those considered by many to be enlightened but from young people on the street in places as far-flung as Detroit’s Cass Corridor and Colorado’s mountains.

The final product concentrates on 15 of the questions, such as “What happens to you after you die?” “Describe God” and “What are we all so afraid of?”

The insights of the film coalesce in its title: “One,” distilled from its working title “We Are All One.”

Powers said he believes the trio connected with so many famous people because “they all sensed the urgency of the message, that awareness of our oneness is the next step.”

Munce (Powers’ cousin) ran the camera, and Carter helped with editing and has an acting role as a silent spiritual seeker in the movie. Perhaps the centerpiece of the film is the response of American-born Tibetan Buddhist monk and scholar Robert Thurman to the request: “Nonverbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to be the current condition of the world.”

Thurman’s solemn stare haunts the film. In one of the voice-overs describing the making of the film, Powers goes from wondering what Thurman is thinking, to fear that the inquirers are being dismissed to realizing, “Oh, it’s perfect!”


Those moments correspond to the steps of a spiritual journey, Powers said.

Everyone from fundamentalist Christians to people attending an atheist convention shared their views with the digital-camera-toting team, including:

_ Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

_ New Age author Deepak Chopra

_ Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk who is a leader in the contemplative prayer movement

_ Ram Dass, whose spiritual journey included psychedelic drugs in the ’60s and has continued through exploration of Hinduism, karma, yoga and Sufism.

Michael Fitzpatrick, who has traveled extensively with the Dalai Lama to produce a CD called “Compassion,” sent permission for its use as background music in “One,” along with a taped message from the exiled high priest of Tibetan Buddhism.

“There are no answers in it. Everyone finds their own truth. At the end, the answers are yours,” said Powers’ wife, Diane, the fourth member of the filmmaking crew. “That’s what we hoped to do: cast bread on the water and let people feed off it.”


Ward Powers said he was surprised that “One” triggered “so many tears,” even from a 35-year-old man at a recent film festival in Saugatuck, Mich. An older man told him: “You know what you’ve made here, son? You’ve made a cult classic. And you know who’s the cult? Everybody from 8 to 87.”

In Southfield, Mich., some viewers reserved a screening room to present the film to friends as a gift. One woman used it to celebrate her 50th birthday, and another to thank those who helped her through her first year of widowhood.

The idea for the film presented itself to Ward Powers more or less spontaneously in April 2002, in a world rapidly separating into factions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “There was a sense the world needed to pull together,” Powers said.

Diane Powers added: “We are all beautiful in our differences, (but) we had forgotten we belong to each other.”

A trial lawyer for 20 years, Powers and his friends had no experience as filmmakers when they jumped into the undertaking. Now, they’re learning to meet the post-production demands of a project that’s attracting hundreds of e-mails from across the country. Optimistic about hooking up with a national distributor, Powers currently has his sights set on an eight-city tour to places such as San Francisco; Portland, Ore.; Boulder, Colo.; and Santa Fe, N.M.

“Definitely, the demand is there,” he said. “Three weeks ago we were just coming out of the basement with this.”


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The following is suitable for a sidebar:

The 15 questions asked in the film:

_ What happens to you after you die?

_ Why is there poverty and suffering in the world?

_ Describe God.

_ How does one obtain true peace?

_ When is war justifiable?

_ Describe Heaven; and how do you get there.

_ What is the greatest quality humans possess?

_ Why are so many people depressed?

_ What is the meaning of life?

_ How would God want us to respond to aggression and terrorism?

_ What are we all so afraid of?

_ What is your one wish for the world?

_ What is our greatest distraction?

_ The theme of the project is: “We are all one.” What are your thoughts on this?

_ Nonverbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to

be the current condition of the world.

KRE/JL END RNS

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