Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/426101
Written and directed by Paola Di Florio & Lisa Leeman C reating a biographical fi lm of a yogi such as Paramah- ansa Yogananda involved unusual considerations. In ad- dition to the typical challenges of chronicling someone no longer on the physical plane without suffi cient footage to tell the full story, it was important to convey his mystical gifts and charisma, Awake: The Life of Yogananda got around this admirably by combining voiceover with archival footage of not just Yogananda, but also admirers including George Harrison, Krishna Das, musician Ravi Shankar, Bikram Choudhury, phys- icist Anita Goel, USC's Varun Soni and Steve Jobs, who had Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi on his iPad and shared it widely. There is also some not particularly useful reenactment. Deepak Chopra calls Yogananda a "spiritual genius," and he was, by all accounts, an extraordinary individual. He traveled alone to the United States in 1920, and after three years in Bos- ton the dark-skinned man in orange robes and turban realized L.A. would allow access to broader acceptance. From his base in Mt. Washington he inspired millions to seek self-realization through kriya yoga and meditation. The sign over the entrance to his center read: Self-Realization Church of All Religions. Yogananda considered yoga a science, and he had what was then a radical idea to go inward to connect with God. Among the fi rst to understand what we now call neuroplasticity, the idea that we can create our own reality, he said, "Your life follows the grooves that you yourself have created in your brain." When backlash in the press sent the yogi back to his homeland he noted with relief that, "It's wonderful to walk among people who don't need coax- ing to be spiritual." Nonetheless, Yogananda felt compelled to return to the U.S. As he approached the time he knew he would be leaving his physical body, he appeared to experience increasing al- tered states of consciousness, and checked out at age 59 right after giving a speech expressing his hope for a united world. Although the fi lm barely scratches the metaphysical surface of this astonishing man and ultimately left me hungry for more information and deeper insight, I'm grateful for a window into his life. (CounterPoint Films) —Abigail Lewis Awake: The Life of Yogananda FILM art & soul T here's a fast food restaurant on a street corner near my home that we pass every day. In fact, we stop there once or twice a week. French fries for my daughter after school. Iced coffee after the movies. Maybe a burger if we're too busy to go home and cook something. We're like lots of other families, our days crowded with school, work, home and family activities. We have a garden, belong to a food co-op and try to eat organic, locally grown foods most of the time. But there's no doubt we could do bet- ter. Slowing down, in every sense of the word, is more a mind- set than anything. If we examine where our time goes, I'm sure we could bypass the fast food restaurant and whip up a healthy dinner at home. Slow Food Story, a documentary now avail- able on Amazon Instant Video and DVD, reminds us of that. Directed by Stefano Sardo, this wonderful fi lm (in Italian with English subtitles) traces the origins of the slow food move- ment to Bra, a small town in the Pied- mont region of Italy. In 1986 Carlo Petrini launched Slow Food, a movement to dis- courage the rise of fast food chains and corporate restaurant cuisine, preserve regional and traditional foods, and encour- age farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. Slow Food Story Directed by Stefano Sardo Directed by Stefano Sardo Directed by Stefano Sardo 32 wholelifetimesmagazine.com