Translator: Mohand Habchi Reviewer: eric vautier
LC: February 11, 2016, we are in Bali.
MB: We find ourselves in a sacred temple in the depths of a forest,
it’s raining cats, we’re freezing them, there’s leeches everywhere,
LC: We are under the supervision of a respected spiritual guide
called a “manku”,
and we are getting ready to do a 27-minute meditation.
So, what are we doing here, and how did we get there?
MB: Leslie and I, we’ve known each other for nine years,
we met on the set of a TV series,
and for five years, we have lived far apart,
she lives in Los Angeles, I live in Paris,
but we call them almost every day.
It had been years since we felt helpless in the face of the state of the world,
we wondered about the meaning of our lives
and on this society in which we did not meet again.
LC: We were participating in a system we criticized.
Me for example,
I am the first to grieve the fate of workers in Bangladesh
in the textile industry,
but I am also the first to jump on sales in Paris.
MB: And me for example,
I read books about Gandhi and about non-violence,
but it was enough for my neighbor to wake me up in the middle of the night,
so that I have only one desire, that of plastering it.
LC: Why do we all do things that cause damage,
causing suffering to people we do not know,
to the world in which we live, to ourselves and to our loved ones?
MB: One day, we realized
that all this was a reflection of our own suffering.
LC: We realized one thing,
we asked ourselves: “What is the cause of the wars,
of the ecological crisis,
MB: violence, domination,
LC: individualism, terrorism, racism,
MB: Fears, judgments and lack of self-esteem? “
LC: For us, the suffering and the violence of the world
are related to lack of love.
We can return the problem in all directions,
it always comes down to the same thing.
MB: This world needs love.
But what is true love,
and how could that be the solution to all our social problems?
LC: It’s been 10 years since I’m an actress, actress and model,
in appearance, I have a rather nice life,
I am very happy and I have a good life in Los Angeles.
But after a devastating breakup,
I realized that I lived in lies and illusion.
It’s my relationship with Marine that kept me going,
and our conversations about love and human relationships.
One day I have an idea. 2 years ago, I thought:
“There is only one person with whom I could do that,
and it’s Marine. “
So I called her, and I told her:
“Listen, we complain, we want it to change,
but what are we doing?
You’re a director, I’m an actress,
we did not find the documentary we want to see,
Well, come on, we’re doing it together. “
So there, imagine Marine at 23:30, at the end of the line, with the time difference,
Pissing his dog, who says to me, “Er …”
MB: At the moment, it seemed a bit crazy as a challenge.
I was in the middle of finishing my previous documentary,
I was exhausted,
and then I think I quickly felt
that this project was more than a movie,
that it had the potential to disrupt our lives.
And I know our two characters, and I was a little afraid for our friendship,
I wondered if she was strong enough
to support a project of this magnitude.
I would like to tell you
that there was a landmark event in my life that drove me to action,
but there was none.
It is rather a long progression of a malaise
and not succeed in finding his place, which made me follow Leslie.
As if the personal emergency was mixed with the urgency of the world.
LC: When we decided to start, there was no turning back.
We left everything,
it’s been two years since we refuse work to fully embark on this project,
even if it involves big financial risks.
MB: Our documentary:
LC: “I Love Therefore I Am”, “I like it I am” in French,
MB: is a research on the essence of love
and its impact in the world.
We would like to look for inspirations in different cultures,
in 20 countries, on four continents.
LC: We will live with indigenous peoples,
tribes, communities.
We will also meet experts in science,
in biology, psychology, ethology, philosophy,
and spiritual guides.
Our goal is to bring back solutions based on love, altruism,
cooperation, tolerance and compassion.
MB: We are convinced that love can solve economic crises,
ecological, ideological and identity.
LC: Imagine a world,
where love is needed against individualism and greed.
MB: Imagine a world,
where we live in harmony with nature without dominating it.
LC: Imagine a world where love is needed in the face of fear and conflict.
MB: Imagine a world where we would all accept ourselves as we are.
LC: If we could all put a little more love in our lives,
which society would emerge?
Well, at the beginning of the project,
some people told us that we were utopians.
But do not forget
that utopia always precedes reality.
The biggest movements began with small actions
and crazy ideas.
The biggest reforms were initiated by normal people who knew how to dream.
For us, utopia is a driving force.
MB: Some people also treated us as “Bisounours”.
Yet there are cultures where love is proclaimed and valued.
What is it that in our society,
love, which is the basic feeling of all living beings,
so much so denigrated, despised, put aside?
LC: So, in October 2015,
we launched a crowdfunding campaign
who has been racing on the networks.
MB: To date, more than 900 people have contributed financially,
to help us start shooting.
We do not know 70% of the participants,
and the participations come from all over the world.
A great solidarity movement has taken place around the project,
and over a hundred people offered us help,
by providing housing, financial assistance, equipment,
skills, or even time.
MB: We started filming in Bali and Nepal,
surrounded by five men, in charge of the technique.
LC: We had to deal with the stress, the financial pressure,
equipment breakdowns, accidents,
we had a lot of fright too, and after two months we were exhausted.
MB: And there, everything I was afraid of from the beginning has arrived.
The more time passed, the more a gap was created between us.
After two months, we could not stand each other anymore.
LC: It’s all the events of life added to each other,
which separate us and disconnect us all.
MB: We made love our mission,
and we were unable to connect to it.
We were stacking what we criticized society, sprinkler watered.
When trying to talk calmly,
we realized that each lived their experiences
according to his personal beliefs,
and we relived old patterns of childhood.
When I was little, I needed to feel safe,
I needed to be reassured, to be seen, to be heard,
and so, be the center of attention, and besides, I became an actress.
MB: Me on the contrary,
in my childhood, I experienced many attacks at school,
my survival mode was to be invisible,
which makes me, in fact, sickly shyness,
and I became a director stashed behind a camera.
LC: Understanding our behavior in Bali has allowed us to change.
What we feel today influences our relationships tomorrow.
MB It’s in Bali and Nepal
that we understand the importance of community life,
group cohesion, whether in family reunions or ceremonies,
and also of the consideration given to the elders and their wisdom,
when at home, in our society,
older people are experienced as a burden.
LC: In Nepal, we stayed with a Tharu community.
They had neither water nor electricity,
it was the first time they saw Westerners,
and we were welcomed by a family.
So, one evening, all together, as usual, gathered by the fire,
we told them we did not live with our families anymore.
MB: They did not understand at all that we could live far away,
to know loneliness, to run after money to have a roof,
neglecting the time spent with our children or with our loved ones.
LC: So, why in our society,
we do everything to leave the house as soon as possible,
and to be financially and emotionally independent,
and why they do everything to stay together,
and live in cooperation and interdependence?
MB: In Bali, we met a spiritual guide
in a temple in the middle of the rice fields.
Quickly, when we arrived, he gave us the tone:
“Do not pronounce any negative word. “
Frankly, it was not easy.
We had technical problems and it was super tempting to moan.
LC: During the interview, he explained to us
that you must constantly be respectful of your environment,
of the human, nature and animals,
and only then, we live in love.
We are all different, but all together we form a whole.
Our feelings today will impact our environment tomorrow.
MB: It’s also in Bali that we met two teenage girls
who impressed us:
Isabel and Melati from the Green School.
They too were utopians,
they got involved very early in the ecology.
LC: Result,
the governor of Bali has pledged to ban all plastic bags from the island
in 2018.
When they left, they told us, “Change must come from us,
we should not expect anything more from our governments. “
What we feel today will have an impact on our actions of tomorrow.
LC: There is an Amerindian tale,
who says we have both wolves in us
who clash at every moment: one who loves and one who suffers.
Whoever survives is the one who is chosen to feed.
With our documentary, what we would like to do,
it’s discovering how to feed one rather than the other,
despite the obstacles of life.
MB: We still have 18 countries to go,
and full of thinkers and doers to interview.
We are only at the beginning of the film.
We would also like to make a version for children
we hope to be able to broadcast in schools.
If we could learn to love and love each other from early childhood,
MB: if love became a priority and an automatism,
we would have extraordinary keys to better live together.
LC: What our children are feeling today
will influence our future tomorrow.
MB: That’s all this way
which brought us to this meditation in the rain, 27 minutes.
We had been interviewing our manku for an hour,
when he tells us:
“Now it’s time for you to meditate under the sacred tree.
You will ask questions of nature and she will answer you. “
Five minutes later, it’s raining ropes,
and we ask him if we can wait until the rain stops to meditate.
Normal, what?
LC: And there he looks at us, and he says to us gravely:
“Why do you want to control nature?
Nature is all around you, nature is in you,
Nature is you, we must accept it as it is.
So listen to nature and let it speak. “
LC: This meditation brought us face to face with ourselves,
to our limits and to our own inconsistency.
LC: This experience brought us face to face with our ways of living,
and above all, in the face of how one perceives the world.
MB: Are our ephemeral desires and happiness,
are at the price of the suffering of sentient beings
and populations around the world?
LC: Our feelings today are our choices tomorrow.
MB: For us, love is a daily decision.
Since this meditation,
we strive to make each of our choices based on love.
LC: And that’s the only way we can really change the world.
(Applause)
LC: February 11, 2016, we are in Bali.
MB: We find ourselves in a sacred temple in the depths of a forest,
it’s raining cats, we’re freezing them, there’s leeches everywhere,
LC: We are under the supervision of a respected spiritual guide
called a “manku”,
and we are getting ready to do a 27-minute meditation.
So, what are we doing here, and how did we get there?
MB: Leslie and I, we’ve known each other for nine years,
we met on the set of a TV series,
and for five years, we have lived far apart,
she lives in Los Angeles, I live in Paris,
but we call them almost every day.
It had been years since we felt helpless in the face of the state of the world,
we wondered about the meaning of our lives
and on this society in which we did not meet again.
LC: We were participating in a system we criticized.
Me for example,
I am the first to grieve the fate of workers in Bangladesh
in the textile industry,
but I am also the first to jump on sales in Paris.
MB: And me for example,
I read books about Gandhi and about non-violence,
but it was enough for my neighbor to wake me up in the middle of the night,
so that I have only one desire, that of plastering it.
LC: Why do we all do things that cause damage,
causing suffering to people we do not know,
to the world in which we live, to ourselves and to our loved ones?
MB: One day, we realized
that all this was a reflection of our own suffering.
LC: We realized one thing,
we asked ourselves: “What is the cause of the wars,
of the ecological crisis,
MB: violence, domination,
LC: individualism, terrorism, racism,
MB: Fears, judgments and lack of self-esteem? “
LC: For us, the suffering and the violence of the world
are related to lack of love.
We can return the problem in all directions,
it always comes down to the same thing.
MB: This world needs love.
But what is true love,
and how could that be the solution to all our social problems?
LC: It’s been 10 years since I’m an actress, actress and model,
in appearance, I have a rather nice life,
I am very happy and I have a good life in Los Angeles.
But after a devastating breakup,
I realized that I lived in lies and illusion.
It’s my relationship with Marine that kept me going,
and our conversations about love and human relationships.
One day I have an idea. 2 years ago, I thought:
“There is only one person with whom I could do that,
and it’s Marine. “
So I called her, and I told her:
“Listen, we complain, we want it to change,
but what are we doing?
You’re a director, I’m an actress,
we did not find the documentary we want to see,
Well, come on, we’re doing it together. “
So there, imagine Marine at 23:30, at the end of the line, with the time difference,
Pissing his dog, who says to me, “Er …”
MB: At the moment, it seemed a bit crazy as a challenge.
I was in the middle of finishing my previous documentary,
I was exhausted,
and then I think I quickly felt
that this project was more than a movie,
that it had the potential to disrupt our lives.
And I know our two characters, and I was a little afraid for our friendship,
I wondered if she was strong enough
to support a project of this magnitude.
I would like to tell you
that there was a landmark event in my life that drove me to action,
but there was none.
It is rather a long progression of a malaise
and not succeed in finding his place, which made me follow Leslie.
As if the personal emergency was mixed with the urgency of the world.
LC: When we decided to start, there was no turning back.
We left everything,
it’s been two years since we refuse work to fully embark on this project,
even if it involves big financial risks.
MB: Our documentary:
LC: “I Love Therefore I Am”, “I like it I am” in French,
MB: is a research on the essence of love
and its impact in the world.
We would like to look for inspirations in different cultures,
in 20 countries, on four continents.
LC: We will live with indigenous peoples,
tribes, communities.
We will also meet experts in science,
in biology, psychology, ethology, philosophy,
and spiritual guides.
Our goal is to bring back solutions based on love, altruism,
cooperation, tolerance and compassion.
MB: We are convinced that love can solve economic crises,
ecological, ideological and identity.
LC: Imagine a world,
where love is needed against individualism and greed.
MB: Imagine a world,
where we live in harmony with nature without dominating it.
LC: Imagine a world where love is needed in the face of fear and conflict.
MB: Imagine a world where we would all accept ourselves as we are.
LC: If we could all put a little more love in our lives,
which society would emerge?
Well, at the beginning of the project,
some people told us that we were utopians.
But do not forget
that utopia always precedes reality.
The biggest movements began with small actions
and crazy ideas.
The biggest reforms were initiated by normal people who knew how to dream.
For us, utopia is a driving force.
MB: Some people also treated us as “Bisounours”.
Yet there are cultures where love is proclaimed and valued.
What is it that in our society,
love, which is the basic feeling of all living beings,
so much so denigrated, despised, put aside?
LC: So, in October 2015,
we launched a crowdfunding campaign
who has been racing on the networks.
MB: To date, more than 900 people have contributed financially,
to help us start shooting.
We do not know 70% of the participants,
and the participations come from all over the world.
A great solidarity movement has taken place around the project,
and over a hundred people offered us help,
by providing housing, financial assistance, equipment,
skills, or even time.
MB: We started filming in Bali and Nepal,
surrounded by five men, in charge of the technique.
LC: We had to deal with the stress, the financial pressure,
equipment breakdowns, accidents,
we had a lot of fright too, and after two months we were exhausted.
MB: And there, everything I was afraid of from the beginning has arrived.
The more time passed, the more a gap was created between us.
After two months, we could not stand each other anymore.
LC: It’s all the events of life added to each other,
which separate us and disconnect us all.
MB: We made love our mission,
and we were unable to connect to it.
We were stacking what we criticized society, sprinkler watered.
When trying to talk calmly,
we realized that each lived their experiences
according to his personal beliefs,
and we relived old patterns of childhood.
When I was little, I needed to feel safe,
I needed to be reassured, to be seen, to be heard,
and so, be the center of attention, and besides, I became an actress.
MB: Me on the contrary,
in my childhood, I experienced many attacks at school,
my survival mode was to be invisible,
which makes me, in fact, sickly shyness,
and I became a director stashed behind a camera.
LC: Understanding our behavior in Bali has allowed us to change.
What we feel today influences our relationships tomorrow.
MB It’s in Bali and Nepal
that we understand the importance of community life,
group cohesion, whether in family reunions or ceremonies,
and also of the consideration given to the elders and their wisdom,
when at home, in our society,
older people are experienced as a burden.
LC: In Nepal, we stayed with a Tharu community.
They had neither water nor electricity,
it was the first time they saw Westerners,
and we were welcomed by a family.
So, one evening, all together, as usual, gathered by the fire,
we told them we did not live with our families anymore.
MB: They did not understand at all that we could live far away,
to know loneliness, to run after money to have a roof,
neglecting the time spent with our children or with our loved ones.
LC: So, why in our society,
we do everything to leave the house as soon as possible,
and to be financially and emotionally independent,
and why they do everything to stay together,
and live in cooperation and interdependence?
MB: In Bali, we met a spiritual guide
in a temple in the middle of the rice fields.
Quickly, when we arrived, he gave us the tone:
“Do not pronounce any negative word. “
Frankly, it was not easy.
We had technical problems and it was super tempting to moan.
LC: During the interview, he explained to us
that you must constantly be respectful of your environment,
of the human, nature and animals,
and only then, we live in love.
We are all different, but all together we form a whole.
Our feelings today will impact our environment tomorrow.
MB: It’s also in Bali that we met two teenage girls
who impressed us:
Isabel and Melati from the Green School.
They too were utopians,
they got involved very early in the ecology.
LC: Result,
the governor of Bali has pledged to ban all plastic bags from the island
in 2018.
When they left, they told us, “Change must come from us,
we should not expect anything more from our governments. “
What we feel today will have an impact on our actions of tomorrow.
LC: There is an Amerindian tale,
who says we have both wolves in us
who clash at every moment: one who loves and one who suffers.
Whoever survives is the one who is chosen to feed.
With our documentary, what we would like to do,
it’s discovering how to feed one rather than the other,
despite the obstacles of life.
MB: We still have 18 countries to go,
and full of thinkers and doers to interview.
We are only at the beginning of the film.
We would also like to make a version for children
we hope to be able to broadcast in schools.
If we could learn to love and love each other from early childhood,
MB: if love became a priority and an automatism,
we would have extraordinary keys to better live together.
LC: What our children are feeling today
will influence our future tomorrow.
MB: That’s all this way
which brought us to this meditation in the rain, 27 minutes.
We had been interviewing our manku for an hour,
when he tells us:
“Now it’s time for you to meditate under the sacred tree.
You will ask questions of nature and she will answer you. “
Five minutes later, it’s raining ropes,
and we ask him if we can wait until the rain stops to meditate.
Normal, what?
LC: And there he looks at us, and he says to us gravely:
“Why do you want to control nature?
Nature is all around you, nature is in you,
Nature is you, we must accept it as it is.
So listen to nature and let it speak. “
LC: This meditation brought us face to face with ourselves,
to our limits and to our own inconsistency.
LC: This experience brought us face to face with our ways of living,
and above all, in the face of how one perceives the world.
MB: Are our ephemeral desires and happiness,
are at the price of the suffering of sentient beings
and populations around the world?
LC: Our feelings today are our choices tomorrow.
MB: For us, love is a daily decision.
Since this meditation,
we strive to make each of our choices based on love.
LC: And that’s the only way we can really change the world.
(Applause)
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