RETURN TO LIGHT: A SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY (2002) ( NEW VERSION W/ AUDIO)

"An astounding piece of filmmaking of personal vision!...In Return to Light, they have taken the cinema of personal expression to an extreme few filmmakers approach." (Louis B. Parks, Houston Chronicle)

ARTIST STATEMENT:
For a long time we have had a dream of making a film about the Light. About the search for the Light and the longing for the Light that each human being carries deep within his or her soul. Before we ever picked up a camera, though, we were already on a spiritual odyssey - an odyssey that lasted half a lifetime and took us through the Western and Eastern philosophies as well as the mystical and religious art. Little did we know that our personal quest would reach a turning point in the Austrian Alps, where we finally found the inspiration to start filming our own cinematic odyssey.

"Return to Light" is about two artists-filmmakers (husband and wife), who are tragically separated by death - only to discover soon thereafter that there is no separation after all! When a husband's life is shattered by the sudden loss of his wife, he is forced for the first time to seriously confront the questions of life and death. As he grapples with the nature of his own oppressive reality, he becomes intuitively aware of his wife's presence. Soon he is able to freely communicate with his departed bride in their own private reality. Dealing with such concepts as "fate", "reincarnation" and "a higher purpose" of human life, she guides him step by step towards a greater spiritual awareness. The film itself serves as "a thread between here and the hereafter", connecting the husband with his departed beloved through a beautiful, otherworldly language of sound and image, which they both understand. Most significantly, the film reveals for the first time in the cinematic medium the "Greatest event and the Greatest tragedy" in human history that occurred in Germany in the years before the outbreak of WWII. This is something that has slipped past the notice of humanity for the better part of last century.

The story behind our film is the story of our life. Everything in the film is based on our own personal experiences and everything is literally true, except for the part that one of us dies. But that too is no mere plot point: it came as a result of our deep conviction that true art can help prepare one for death, and that through that preparation one can actually attain to a higher perspective on life. Many great artists and philosophers felt that way, so we feel a deep affinity not only with them, but with all the seeking spirits everywhere, who are dealing with matters of death and the transcendence of death. Though we ourselves play the characters in the film, we are not the stars of the film. The "star" of the film is the Light. It is our longing for the Light, our quest for the Light that is the focus of this film.

In our filmmaking we use an entirely intuitive approach. We do not work from a script, but follow a shared spiritual vision, which we try to translate into our earthly environment. We wanted to see if we could make a film that would speak in the language of the soul. This implied a greater emphasis on images rather than on words. In near-death experiences, people often report watching their life play back like in a movie house. And if the images of the film come deep from within one's being, then it is possible to create a similar kind of experience here as the images become "living". Then the film turns into a "living thing" for the viewer "Return to Light" is a document, as it were, of our personal quest, which is why we have dedicated it to the German-born philosopher Abd-ru-shin (1875-1941), author of the great work "In the Light of Truth: the Grail Message". We feel a deep spiritual connection with Abd-ru-shin, and his book has been a great inspiration to us.

Our film is subtitled "a spiritual odyssey" because, for us, there can be no other reason to make a feature film than to document and to inspire human spiritual growth. And, after all, aren't we all on a spiritual journey? Our hope is that our film will serve as a useful tool for the Light to awaken and ennoble human spirits the world over.

Love to you all,
Gregory and Maria Pearse

from Alexander Sokurov, director of "Russian Ark" and "Mother and Son": "This is a Light-bearing work, professionally bright...I am sure that such films doubtlessly have to be made."

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Tarkovsky
• Bunuel
• Bergman
• Bresson
• Sokurov
• art
• film
• spirituality
• cinema
• Reggio
• Dreyer
• Paradjanov
• Parajanov
• Grail
• Abd-ru-shin
• Abdrushin
• Abruschin
• Parsifal
• God