It's always a joy seeing the Dalai Lama speak (especially on the big screen), and of course the scenery from India was beautiful. But as a whole, this documentary was a huge disappointment.
This film is about scholars who went to India on a global sustainability summit at the turn of the millennium. But the beautiful
scenery and good intentions were ruined by the bickering, egotistical scholars & participants from the West.
The summit very quickly devolved from discussions of global sustainability to ego battles among the participants. The almost singular exception Vicki Robin - one of my favorite speakers, and author of Your Money or Your Life.
As a social justice advocate, it was particularly frustrating to watch these progressives sabotage their own efforts ... because this is what I see in every city, among many organizations working towards sustainability.
If you're a huge fan of the Dalai Lama, go ahead and watch this film for the 10-15 minutes of him speaking. Or, if you're a part of an organization working for sustainability, and you want a case study of how destructive patterns sabotage a group, then you may get something out of this.
For most people, I suggest skipping this film completely.
July 16, 2009
Top Critic
