Why are you doing movies?
There’s this famous quote: be the transformation you want in the world. I’ve always wished to see a movie where the protagonists appear naked and make love in the full beauty of a relationship in which the presence of God is alive; and this presence is recognized and celebrated by both of them.
Movies where protagonists make love, I have seen a lot - but God was not there. I've also seen movies where the characters communicated with God in their soul, but they never appeared in scenes of erotic intimacy.
Then I decided to create this type of movies.
All the feature films you have made picture nudity. Aren’t you afraid you could be accused of obscenity?
It’s not the human body that’s obscene but a certain way of treating it as an object and a certain kind of thinking that reduces it to a pleasure provider.
In the tantric tradition, nudity is sacred and the human body is a miniature representation of the cosmos. That is why the mystery of a naked feminine body calls to contemplation. It does not invite to possess but to empathize with the immaterial core that enlivens that body.
In our films I show what I believe in: the body is sacred because it is the carrier of the soul. Animated by love, the body becomes sublime.
Nudity was viewed differently in different epochs and civilizations. But the current culture has a very strange connection to it. It is often used by the media, the advertising and entertaining industry for manipulating and conditioning the subconscious. It has become a marketing tool and a product in itself.
At the same time the hypocrite attitude to ban and incriminate nudity and images that are full of eroticism – even when they have an unquestionable artistic value – is spreading more and more.
What is the response of the “Faces of the Great Goddess” to this state of affairs?
With this movie I did not intend to make a harsh critique of the problems we face in the present day society, nor to stir the audience's soul, bringing to the forefront the worst misery and pain of the pornographic industry, where the main protagonists come from.
I wanted to tell the story of a rightful hope – that it is possible for all of us to make the leap of consciousness from a distorted vision of the body, eros, the love relationship between man and woman, to a right one that can perceive what is truly divine in all these; and above all to a sacred life.
Because the crisis of Gino, the porn star, is not only his, as the alienation of Luz, the star actress is not just hers. We all can find ourselves in their drama in one form or another, even if we do not work in the adult industry. In a de-centered world, drowned in materiality, in obsession for consuming and hypnotized by the illusion that God does not exist, we all need to embark on a courageous spiritual adventure.
What do the word sex and the word eros mean in your vocabulary and that of the art group you have formed?
I think sexual energy is just a step in a huge stairway from Earth to Heaven, while eros is something sacred that can open our wings and make these stairs useless. It's only up to us if we want to get stuck on the first step and keep jumping on it until the plank breaks and we fall into the pit, or if we want to ascend, and like a bird, live the freedom and ecstasy of the flight.
Eros is both the cohesion of the atom and the pulsation of the galaxies. Eros is the complete fusion of the woman and the man who love each other with their body, soul, mind, and spirit. They merge to live the feeling of unity and infinity.
Sex means carnality, rudimentary pleasure based only on physical sensations. It means instinct, possessiveness, dependence on selfish satisfaction. Sex is a descent into materiality, it leads to the contraction of consciousness, suffering.
Sacred eros on the contrary, means ascension, expansion, authentic love, detachment, happiness beyond the desire to possess, to gain, to consume. It is the happiness of giving, of revelation, contemplation and of being.
When looking at the reality from the point of view of the tantric principles, a shocking truth emerges - pornography is not just what is happening in the adult movie studios.
Any erotic intercourse between two people, even when they are in love with each other, is prostitution, degradation, betrayal of the essence of life, if their fusion lacks love for God.
For a couple guided by the tantric principles, the vertical of this vision becomes the very axis that centers them. In such a relationship of love, the woman and the man are not lost in gazing into each other's eyes but, united in their hearts, they look together towards God.
How do you work with the actors and the whole team to capture such profound and ineffable moments of the soul and spirit?
All the artists I work with are concerned with amplifying contemplation, meditation, accessing the high spheres of inspiration. They know that the more they are deeply connected with their Self, the more expressive they become, more creative as artists. For them art is also assumed as an art of living, as a process of permanent transformation and spiritual growth.
I believe that art that is nourished from a sacred vision upon existence and man deserves to become a daily presence, not to be just an event that happens now and then, but to give ourselves the chance more and more to breathe the clear air of beauty and to restore our own divine beauty.
Why are you doing movies?
There’s this famous quote: be the transformation you want in the world. I’ve always wished to see a movie where the protagonists appear naked and make love in the full beauty of a relationship in which the presence of God is alive; and this presence is recognized and celebrated by both of them.
Movies where protagonists make love, I have seen a lot - but God was not there. I've also seen movies where the characters communicated with God in their soul, but they never appeared in scenes of erotic intimacy.
Then I decided to create this type of movies.
All the feature films you have made picture nudity. Aren’t you afraid you could be accused of obscenity?
It’s not the human body that’s obscene but a certain way of treating it as an object and a certain kind of thinking that reduces it to a pleasure provider.
In the tantric tradition, nudity is sacred and the human body is a miniature representation of the cosmos. That is why the mystery of a naked feminine body calls to contemplation. It does not invite to possess but to empathize with the immaterial core that enlivens that body.
In our films I show what I believe in: the body is sacred because it is the carrier of the soul. Animated by love, the body becomes sublime.
Nudity was viewed differently in different epochs and civilizations. But the current culture has a very strange connection to it. It is often used by the media, the advertising and entertaining industry for manipulating and conditioning the subconscious. It has become a marketing tool and a product in itself.
At the same time the hypocrite attitude to ban and incriminate nudity and images that are full of eroticism – even when they have an unquestionable artistic value – is spreading more and more.
What is the response of the “Faces of the Great Goddess” to this state of affairs?
With this movie I did not intend to make a harsh critique of the problems we face in the present day society, nor to stir the audience's soul, bringing to the forefront the worst misery and pain of the pornographic industry, where the main protagonists come from.
I wanted to tell the story of a rightful hope – that it is possible for all of us to make the leap of consciousness from a distorted vision of the body, eros, the love relationship between man and woman, to a right one that can perceive what is truly divine in all these; and above all to a sacred life.
Because the crisis of Gino, the porn star, is not only his, as the alienation of Luz, the star actress is not just hers. We all can find ourselves in their drama in one form or another, even if we do not work in the adult industry. In a de-centered world, drowned in materiality, in obsession for consuming and hypnotized by the illusion that God does not exist, we all need to embark on a courageous spiritual adventure.
What do the word sex and the word eros mean in your vocabulary and that of the art group you have formed?
I think sexual energy is just a step in a huge stairway from Earth to Heaven, while eros is something sacred that can open our wings and make these stairs useless. It's only up to us if we want to get stuck on the first step and keep jumping on it until the plank breaks and we fall into the pit, or if we want to ascend, and like a bird, live the freedom and ecstasy of the flight.
Eros is both the cohesion of the atom and the pulsation of the galaxies. Eros is the complete fusion of the woman and the man who love each other with their body, soul, mind, and spirit. They merge to live the feeling of unity and infinity.
Sex means carnality, rudimentary pleasure based only on physical sensations. It means instinct, possessiveness, dependence on selfish satisfaction. Sex is a descent into materiality, it leads to the contraction of consciousness, suffering.
Sacred eros on the contrary, means ascension, expansion, authentic love, detachment, happiness beyond the desire to possess, to gain, to consume. It is the happiness of giving, of revelation, contemplation and of being.
When looking at the reality from the point of view of the tantric principles, a shocking truth emerges - pornography is not just what is happening in the adult movie studios.
Any erotic intercourse between two people, even when they are in love with each other, is prostitution, degradation, betrayal of the essence of life, if their fusion lacks love for God.
For a couple guided by the tantric principles, the vertical of this vision becomes the very axis that centers them. In such a relationship of love, the woman and the man are not lost in gazing into each other's eyes but, united in their hearts, they look together towards God.
How do you work with the actors and the whole team to capture such profound and ineffable moments of the soul and spirit?
All the artists I work with are concerned with amplifying contemplation, meditation, accessing the high spheres of inspiration. They know that the more they are deeply connected with their Self, the more expressive they become, more creative as artists. For them art is also assumed as an art of living, as a process of permanent transformation and spiritual growth.
I believe that art that is nourished from a sacred vision upon existence and man deserves to become a daily presence, not to be just an event that happens now and then, but to give ourselves the chance more and more to breathe the clear air of beauty and to restore our own divine beauty.