We’re not sure if this is technically classified as a “review” or more of just a “mention”, but the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece on Enlighten Up! yesterday. (Check out the film’s website if you’re not up-to-speed on Enlighten Up!, which is kind of a big deal in the yoga world right now and you should probably know about it. 
) The SF Chronicle article points out something interesting which we hadn’t heard before: Kate hadn’t initially planned on featuring herself in the film, but when she realized that her presence on-screen allowed for an element of conflict (and therefore a stronger film), she decided to include herself.
Here’s the full SF Chronicle piece:
An enlightening documentary
Kate Churchill never planned to be the subject of her own documentary. Originally, the former PBS producer simply wanted to examine the world of yoga-based spirituality by following 29-year-old skeptic Nick Rosen as he trekked through India.
“The idea was to recruit a novice, immerse this person in yoga and measure the impact,” she says.
But when feedback to an early cut of “Enlighten Up!” centered on the film’s lack of conflict, Churchill went back to the drawing board.
“We waded through 500 hours of material, only to discover that the juiciest conflict lay between Nick and me,” Churchill says. “I never intended to be in the film, but my presence as the antagonist was indisputable.”
Compiling interviews with more than 70 yogis, Churchill spent 10 more months in the editing suite reshaping “Enlighten Up.” The process, she says, “challenged every belief I had about documentary filmmaking.”
We’re excited to report that we’ll finally be watching Enlighten Up! ourselves this evening, and we’ll be publishing the official Drishti review of this film in the next few days. Yay!
