FILM INTERVIEW: JOHANNA DEMETRAKAS - DIRECTOR OF 'CRAZY WISDOM'

An Inspiring Documentary About Buddhist Teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

By: Emmanuel Itier

February 20, 2011

Famous French writer La Rochefoucauld noticed one day: "He who lives without being crazy is not as wise as he believes."

The balance between enlightenment and a closed mind, between sanity and madness, are at the core of the new movie, Crazy Wisdom, by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Johanna Demetrakas. In her inspiring and thought-provoking documentary, Johanna offers us the inner and outer truth of a daring and adventurous Tibetan, Chogyam Trunga Rinpoche (1939-1987). He reinvented himself by letting go of his dogmatic attachment to his spirituality to be one with the wholeness of Life. And he offered a new path of self-discovery and self-enlightenment to countless individuals in the West, tired of seemingly brain-washing religions.

Chogyam was a man of controversy. He was almost the “original punk” who dared to fight the system and propose another approach to awakening, to oneness with the Universe--like a perfect Lotus flower blossoming.  And under the delicate touch of Johanna Demetrakas, Crazy Wisdom attempts to bring you to the edge of your inner confrontation and lead you to self-realization.

As Gandhi wrote, “There is no way to Peace, Peace is The Way.” According to Crazy Wisdom, one must surrender to inner Peace--the realization that you’re born good and saved, and that you will always be both a Teacher and a Student, and dare to move onto your own path, your revelation, but without forgetting to have some good times and good laughs along the way. Chogyam Trungpa and his endless laughs, still echoing throughout the Galaxy, would have approved!

A little philosophical discussion with director Johanna Demetrakas:

Emmanuel Itier: What is your film about, and why this choice for your new documentary?

Johanna Demetrakas: It’s a film about a controversial, brilliant Buddhist teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who came to the West in the late '60s and, for the most part, played a very important role to bring Buddhism into the West. But really he took this ancient teaching that was in a different language from a different culture and has been isolated. And especially when the Chinese invaded Tibet, it was the end of it. So he was great because he did bring this to the West and created centers. Also, he had a huge sense of humor. When he came to the West, he realized that westerners were caught in the cult of the East, so nobody was truly listening, and then he did something amazing--he put aside his wows, to take off his robe and put on a beautiful suit, lit up a cigarette, and married a 16-year English aristocrat! And he went to America and led the foundation for the teaching of the West.

EI: Why him, and what were you trying to show with this film?

JD: I had studied with Trungpa. He was very fond of film and aware of what was giving the West its power in the world, and apparently living Tibet, he was quite aware that the power of the world was in the West through its science, their aggression. So he wanted to take his teaching to the West. I met him in 1971 and I was very interested in seeking a new spiritual path, and not necessarily in religion. He truly blew my mind and stunned me with his intellect, with understanding the dilemma of human existence, with his humor without end, his kindness. He was so unique and so brilliant.

EI: What was the principal lesson you learned from him--something that truly changed you, moved you?

JD: The principal thing is to become more and more aware of who you are, who you are in the world, how you relate to the world. And do you relate with awareness, with openness, or with cynicism and a closed mind? That is what is important: to open your mind. And then you have to open your heart. You can’t separate your mind from your heart. You can’t separate your heart, in what you do and how you treat people, from your mind because it’s not real; it’s not how life works. So you would go nowhere if you do this, and this is what causes depression and frustration. So awareness of mind and heart make you aware of other people. It takes lots of meditation to get to this point and to understand this.

EI: What were your challenges to bring this movie together?

JD: There were two great challenges: the challenge to raise money... And I anticipated this would be difficult because lots of people do documentaries about War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War. People are making films also about dysfunctional families or racism and so forth, and it’s important, but a film like this is totally different, and therefore it was difficult to get the funding I needed. But the big challenge as a filmmaker was to take him--who is not alive anymore and who can’t speak for himself and who had this enormous vision about where we’re going as a human race, and also who broke all the rules, since he started to drink and having several girlfriends... In the '70s, it wasn’t a big deal, but today we live in a much more conservative environment and in much more cynical times. So the challenge was to take the audience along and learn everything about him but at the same time present it in a way to give the audience to get his own awareness, and therefore that they are able to see beyond their own hesitation or judgment about drinking and everything else and just see him as this brilliant person who was out to uplift the world.

EI: How is being in Santa Barbara? And what’s next?

JD: This is an important and big film festival, and it’s such a beautiful place and this is our world premiere, so this is a wonderful experience. Then we will be in Boulder, where he did most of his teaching and had a center. So this is going to be equally a great film experience for this documentary.

Crazy Wisdom Films' 'Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche' is released on February 5, 2011.