Hare Krishna Mantra Hits Hollywood

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna Mantra Hits Hollywood

by Bhakta Jim Seymour

 

Posted April 17, 2004

 

On Thursday March 11th and Friday March 12th in Oakland CA, about 40

Krishna devotees from the Bay Area were invited to take part in a new

feature film starring Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche, Max Minghella and

Kate

Bosworth. The group of devotees were featured in a scene involving a

rousing

kirtan held at a Krishna Temple, with a few select devotees also being

used

in other scenes for the movie. The production will be in theatres by

next winter.

 

Story Background

 

The film, entitled "Bee Season", is based on the popular novel of the

same

name, written by Myla Goldberg. In the story, Richard Gere plays the

father

Saul, who absorbs himself in the study of Jewish Mysticism. His daughter

Eliza (played by young newcomer Flora Cross), becomes a national

spelling

bee champion. This event starts to dramatically alter the family's

comfortable existence. Saul soon begins to lavish time and affection on

the

blossoming Eliza, leaving his son Aaron desperately searching to find a

replacement for the connections to his father and his Jewish faith.

 

First-time actor Max Minghella, son of "Cold Mountain" director Anthony

Minghella, plays the part of Aaron. Now Aaron embarks on a type of

spiritual

vision quest, which leads him to meet Kate Bosworth's character Chali,

who

is a Hare Krishna devotee in the film. He becomes curious about her

chanting

the Hare Krishna Mantra on japa beads, and begins to ask her questions

about

the philosophy. I overheard Kate rehearsing some of her dialogue

off-set, and I heard, "There are many

names of God. We call Him Krishna". She later takes Aaron to the temple,

where they join the devotees for an ecstatic kirtan!

 

How it all came about

 

The film crew initially contacted Grantharaja dasa from the

Bhaktivedanta

Institute at the Berkeley Krishna Temple. He in turn put them in touch

with

Gadadhara dasa, a recent graduate of San Francisco State's Cinema

department. Gadadhara dasa then busily set out to coordinate an

incredible

mountain of legal and logistical details! Everything from casting to

costume

design to choreography was amazingly pulled together by this

hard-working

devotee. He even drove all the way to up to Redwood Valley in Mendocino

County to bring a beautiful Murti of Srila Prabhupada down to the film

set.

On Thursday before the film shoot, he and I prepared an enormous amount

of

prasadam to be distributed to the film crew the next day. We brought

lots of

Krishna books to distribute as well.

 

A week or so before the film shoot, Gadadhara dasa even arranged for

Max

Minghella, Kate Bosworth and others to meet with Hansadutta dasa, and

hear

from him all about Krishna Consciousness. They listened with rapt

attention

for over an hour and a half, being mesmerized by his expert preaching.

Later

they took Krishna prasadam. It was clear that they were very profoundly

affected by his explanations of the chanting, the philosophy and the

science

of self-realization. On the day of the film shoot, I spoke with Cristina

Solletti a legal clearance/Krishna devotee liaison on the crew, who

commented, "Until we all got to meet with Hansadutta, no one had ever

been

able to so clearly articulate to us what Krishna Consciousness actually

is.

He made it so easy for us to understand the philosophy. It was just

amazing".

 

Devotees on the Set, "Lights, camera...action!"

 

The actual filming of the kirtan scene was a fascinating experience

for

the devotees, and a very powerful experience for the film crew. Before

the

cameras rolled, we were summoned onto the set for a rehearsal kirtan.

Locannath dasa from Berkeley did a wonderful job leading our kirtans

for the

filming, and as soon as we started chanting the Hare Krishna

Maha-mantra, we

noticed a change in the atmosphere on the set, and in the attitudes of

the film crew.

 

After about two or three minutes of kirtan, the dual-directing team of

Scott McGhee and David Seigel (who previously directed "The Deep End")

stopped everyone, looked at each other and commented, "Wow, that's

really

powerful. This is going to be a great shoot!" They later commented,

"Your

spiritual practice of chanting Hare Krishna is the most beautiful thing

we

have ever witnessed. Outside of some very basic choreography that we

need

from you, whatever you naturally do, just go for it. We want you to

really

let go!" And, that's just what we did. It was completely ecstatic. We

actually saw a lot of the crew members chanting and dancing along with

us

from behind all the props and equipment!

 

One really interesting thing that happened for the crew was their

observation of the natural tendency for the men in the kirtan party to

gravitate to the center, and for the women to remain around the outside.

They stopped us a couple of times, and tried to get us to evenly mix and

mingle the men and the women. One devotee commented, "You can't change

nature". I spoke with Kate Bosworth several times on the film set, and

she

told me, "Wow, I never realized how fun the chanting and dancing could

be.

No wonder the devotees are always so happy when I see them out chanting

in the streets!"

 

For those of you who don't recognize Kate's name as an

actress, she played the blonde surfer in the film, "Blue Crush". I later

gave Max and her some japa beads, a book on Kirtan, and then I let her

choose which style and color of bead bag she wanted from an assortment I

brought from Vrindavan India. Upon this, she commented, "Now I want to

go to

India!" I encouraged her to definitely go if she finds the time between

her many movie projects.

 

As mentioned earlier, some devotees got to be on the film set for two

whole days, because they were cast in some other scenes for the movie

besides the kirtan scene. Kuvalesaya dasa, who came all the way up from

Los

Angeles, was cast in a scene where he meets Richard Gere, who asks him

directions to the temple. Other devotees who were cast in small scenes

included Laxshmi devi dasi, Krishna Priya devi dasi, Abhaya dasa, and

bhaktas Chad, Paul and Ian, who played background pedestrians and car

drivers.

 

"Cut. That's a wrap!"

 

At the end of day two's filming, several members of the film crew

unanimously commented to the devotees that, "Your presence here and your

chanting scene has not only been the most fun for all of us, but it has

been

the most incredible part of the entire movie!" It was truly a wonderful

opportunity for us to be able to meet, talk with and preach to this very

nice film crew. I saw many of them on several occasions reading Srila

Prabhupada's books. They were all very respectful, pious people, and

they

clearly appreciated the chance to intimately spend time with so many

devotees.

 

We were all grateful for the chance to spread the Holy Names of

Krishna through the medium of a motion picture. We can only hope that

the

editors don't cut out too much of our all-too-brief scenes for this

film! In

conclusion, I'd like to mention that it was clear to all of the devotees

that this event was the direct arrangement of Krishna. We agreed that

"we

were not the doers" of anything.

 

As Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, "I am the ability in man". Ki

Jaya!

 

Hare Krishna, and All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Your eternal servant,

Bhakta Jim Seymour

jim51 (AT) pon (DOT) net