ILLUMINATE 2015 Lineup

Conscious Film Convergence • Healing Village

Tickets Now On Sale! • Festival Grid

Download the printable 2015 Program Guide  (6 MB PDF)




On Meditation 2
World Premiere

The World Premiere of On Meditation 2 is a fascinating portrait series that offers a rare glimpse into how meditation has transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures, including business and hip hop mogul Russell Simmons; motivational speaker, Super Soul Sunday favorite and NBC Today Show expert Gabrielle Bernstein; New York Times bestselling author and Insight Meditation Society co-founder Sharon Salzberg and acclaimed author and psychotherapist Mark Epstein.


A Q&A with director Rebecca Dreyfus and producer Susannah Ludwig will follow.




A Place to Stand
Encore Screening

A Place to Stand is the remarkable story of Jimmy Santiago Baca’s transformation from a functionally illiterate convict to an award-winning poet, novelist and screenwriter. A petty thief and drug dealer sentenced to five years in Arizona State Prison, Jimmy survived the brutal inhumanity of his incarceration by exploring deep within, discovering poetry at his soul’s core and healing deep childhood wounds. His story, both shocking and awe-inspiring, shows us how the power of art can transform and awaken.


A Q&A with director Daniel Glick will follow.




Transcending the Storm
World Premiere

Scottish filmmaker Stephen Mulhearn takes us on a journey of discovery as he attempts to leave an alcoholic and violent past behind following a dramatic near-death experience. His quest to understand human suffering, experience miraculous rituals and gather profound insights runs the gamut of alternative modalities for healing addictions, including firewalking, drumming, shamanism and reconnecting with his ancestral roots. The result is a triumph of the human spirit echoing the great quest before us all.


A Q&A with director Stephen Mulhearn will follow.




iGod
Festival World Premiere

Can the nature of God ever truly be understood or explained? iGOD traces how the various concepts of God have evolved and explores the questions that our greatest thinkers, spiritual leaders and philosophers have asked for thousands of years. Perhaps through this exploration we can finally begin to understand who we really are and why we are here. Featuring luminaries Neale Donald Walsch, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Gregg Braden, Alan Cohen and Barbara Marx Hubbard.


A live Skype workshop with Marianne Williamson, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Alan Cohen will follow.




PlantPure Nation
World Premiere

From the producer and writer/director who brought us Forks Over Knives comes the newest health-breakthrough documentary. Nutrition scientist and bestselling author Dr. T. Colin Campbell shows how our whole nation is catching on to the power of a plant-based diet, a total paradigm-shifting movement that is just reaching the tipping point.


A Q&A with distributor Evan Saxon will follow.




When I Was Young I Said I Would be Happy
Arizona Premiere

This film chronicles the transformation of 12 orphan genocide survivors in Rwanda after participating in a new form of sustainable humanitarian aid called Project LIGHT. These young ambassadors learn to be skilled practitioners of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT/Tapping) in order to heal themselves of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and teach others to do the same. In two short years, they pay forward their healing to hundreds, from Rwanda to Connecticut.


A Q&A with producer Barnet Bain will follow.




Messages of Hope
Sedona Premiere

When Naval Commander Suzanne Giesemann, a very left-brained military woman, walked the halls of the Pentagon and flew on Air Force One, she did everything by the book. Never did she expect that a life-changing family tragedy would propel her on a journey to launch a new career as an evidential medium connecting to loved ones on the “other side” and gain acknowledgment from authentic luminaries such as Wayne Dyer. A skepticism buster, this film will leave you with a renewed belief that there is so much more to this life and the next.





Love Thy Nature
Arizona Premiere

Narrated by Liam Neeson, Love Thy Nature is a cinematic immersion into the beauty and intimacy of our relationship with the natural world. Neeson is the voice of Homo Sapiens—our collective humankind—who, in the past few thousand years, has come to believe that we are separate from nature. But doctors are unveiling new findings on the role of nature to sustain and heal the human body-mind. Experts have discovered that just spending time in nature promotes healing, emotional stability, connectedness and even neurological health in children. Through Sapiens’ journey, the film reveals how a relationship with nature ignites a sense of meaning and wonder so profound that it touches us at the very core of what it means to be human.


A Q&A with director Sylvie Rokab will follow.

Preceded by:  
Chaos | Belgium | 2015 | 15 Minutes • Narrative Short