Hot Docs 2008

Every summer, more than a thousand people go looking for themselves and a soul-load of enlightenment at the No Mind Festival in northern Sweden. Deep in the forest, seekers divide into small, random "sharing groups" and submit to a two-week intensive program of pseudo-shamanic-tantric-reiki rituals. We follow the comical-come-karmic adventures of one sharing group made up of a middle-aged mojo-worn lothario, a Swedish pop star, the requisite Hawaiian hippy, an emotionally fragile Finnish grandma and the audience's sounding board, Nick, an Australian rugby coach who doesn't buy a second of their "find your inner power animal" antics. As the fire-walking and tree-hugging exercises continue, however, channels are opened into the very real issues that brought the characters there, including Nick's. In a completely free and honest environment, the camera captures the intimate conversations, startling breakdowns and defining confrontations that pave each of their remarkable journeys towards love, loathing, hilarity and themselves.
-Myrocia Watamaniuk