Yesterday in Marita's class we watched “I Am” a documentary about “the nature of humanity”, “what’s
wrong with our world” and “what we can do about it” directed by Tom Shadyac (Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, The Nutty
Professor, Patch Adams, Accepted). It’s absolutely noting like his previous
films, which are hilarious, but not great films to make you think or anything. I’m
choosing to write a blog post about it because it’s my favorite film I’ve seen
in class yet and I think everyone should watch it.
Basically,
Shaydac was in a very bad bicycle accident in Virginia where he broke his leg and suffered a bad concussion, and from post-concussion syndrome. Instead of
wallowing in his depression, which he knew was a very real side effect of his
brain injury; he decided to undertake a task to see what was wrong with the
world we live in today – and figure out why it’s so difficult to be happy in
our world today. He travels around the world interviewing scientists, religious
leaders, environmentalists and philosophers to ask them what they believe is
wrong with the world. What he discovers is a new side of human nature that
we’ve been denying exists. Through conversations with people like Desmond Tutu,
Noam Chomsky, Lynne McTaggart, and Howard Zinn he reveals that humans are
naturally egalitarian democrats. He shows his audience that the lives we’ve
built which echo a contrary set of values – individualism, capitalism, and
selfishness are not good for people.
He mentions at
one point in the movie that Darwin mentions “love” in his On the Origin of
Species 95 times, and “survival of the fittest” only twice, to help prove his
point that we as humans are all connected. That, biologically, we function best when we are happy, together and
connected to one another.
It was a really
awing movie for me and I recommend it to anyone interested in human rights,
neuroscience, biology, anthropology, sociology, economics – really anything. I
think it can be a moving experience for anyone and it really gave me a new perspective
on life and human nature.
It’s only 76
minutes - you can read more about it on the documentary’s website here:
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