AMDOCS - 6th Floor: Expanding Possibility
Human behavioral specialist, Candace Silvers, journeys clients through Bali to experience the island's native healers, and becomes one of the first people to study, learn, and bring a Balinese healing modality, Siwa Murti, to the United States.
Interview with Director/Producer Tommee May
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
For the past several years I’ve had the privilege and honor of traveling to Bali with groups of people under the guidance of human behavior expert Candace Silvers. Each experience was truly miraculous and not something I could ever put into words. From getting to be in the presence of these healers and watching their dedication, patience, and devotion to healing. Each of them will sit all day long and heal person after person after person (seeing up to 100s of patients a day) and their wife or another family member will bring them some food and they eat a bit and just keep healing. This culture of nowhere to get, happiness being where you are, and living to serve is so foreign to an American girl like myself who grew up in Los Angeles.
That alone was awe-inspiring but then to see the healings that occurred, that was a whole other level and truly not believable even being there. I have my own doubt and skepticism and honestly that’s what drew me to keep coming back. I could not believe what I was witnessing. I had to go myself to see it again. And finally after several trips, I knew I had to film this and see if I could capture a slice of what I’ve been able to experience to share with others who may be just as doubtful as I am as to what is truly possible.
All of this and on top of the context of America’s health system - being one of the richest countries in the world with the worst health care. I’m just going to leave these facts about United States Health Care right here (I’m interested in finding another way, and for these various ways and opportunities for health to empower one another):
The United States spends over $8,250 per capita on health care every year – that’s over 22% higher than the next highest country in the world and over 170% higher than the average of the highest-spending 50 countries in the world!
In 1960, the per capita cost of health care was $147 per person in America; adjusted for inflation, it would be $1,082 today; that means our current per capita cost has grown over 660% above and beyond normal inflation.
As a portion of the gross domestic product (GDP), health care spending accounts for 17.7 percent; the U.S. is second in the world and first among developed nations for the highest health care spending as a percentage of GDP.
The total amount of money spent on health care each year in the United States is $2.6 trillion, and it is expected to continue rising. By 2021, spending on health care each year is expected to be $4.8 trillion. It is estimated that 30% (about $750 billion) of health care spending each year is wasted.
Life expectancy in the United States is 77.4 years for men and 82.2 years for women; overall, America has the 34th highest life expectancy in the 195 countries of the world. The United States ranks 47th for infant mortality in the world. The World Health Organization has ranked the United States health care system as 37th in the world. America is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system.
About 75% of all health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic conditions, many of which are preventable, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, and others.
Paying for health care is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy filing every year in the U.S. Almost 2 million people need to file bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills each year, and outside of bankruptcy, over 20 percent of the population (about 56 million adults) between the ages of 19 and 64 struggle with health-care related bills each year.
A recent study found that lack of insurance coverage can be tied to 45,000 deaths per year in the United States and that people without health insurance have a 40% higher risk of death than those with private health insurance.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
For audience members that allow themselves to go for the ride of this 30 minute film, I believe it to be truly transformational. You get to see people on the trip actually transform, including the person leading the trip, Candace Silvers. We get to see her push through her own vulnerabilities and her own mind to learn a brand new ancient healing modality. I believe in life we are given opportunities to either expand or contract; we get to learn and grow from experiences and with age, or we can mutate and atrophy. It is truly a choice, and what I see people doing in this film is constantly push themselves towards growth and expansion. It’s remarkable to witness and I am in awe of everyone’s trust and vulnerability in allowing me to film their journeys.
I believe audiences have an opportunity to open themselves up in whatever way is unique to that individual doing the watching of the film. For an American audience, there is a familiar access point through the Westerners visiting Bali, and what we get to discover is something that not many people get to experience first hand. There’s an opportunity to experience an aspect of the world beyond our own individual life.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Both personal and universal themes with regard to healing are explored in 6th Floor. It is juxtaposed with westerners (western medicine framework) going into Bali (eastern medicine framework) with deep reverence for another culture’s healing practices. We share pieces of individual’s journeys with specific details about each person; what it breaks down to is that we are all human, and as humans most of us live with some form of ‘X’: high blood-pressure, diabetes, eating disorders, the need to wear glasses every day… Whatever it is we have our form of it, and we accept this as true because that is all we know. Our “problem” or “ailment”, our “X”, gives us our game chip of life to learn through from. This idea of ‘this is mine’ and ‘that’s yours’ separates ourselves from other.
In 6th Floor, it’s shown that there is no walk of life or historical background that doesn’t have an ‘X’, in the cultural sense and as individuals, and whoever is watching this film has an opportunity to connect with that on a personal level. Each person in this documentary gets to confront their ways of thinking and their beliefs. And see if it is possible to leave behind old ways of thinking and old beliefs to invite or allow more possibility. We get to examine the theme of our own inner power to change our perception, and the effect this has on our healing.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Originally, the film was an exploration of different healers in Bali with their individual healing modalities. That all shifted when Ms. Silvers took on the challenge of learning Siwa Murti. The healer and teacher of the hospital in Bali took her under his wing to guide her and invited her to the ‘social’ to practice on the community. She was then given permission to bring this healing to the U.S. and practice there. That’s what the main through-line of the piece became.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
With showing the film privately to people along the way, the feedback is varied, and covers the whole spectrum. There are those who really connected with the possibility of there being more to medicine and healing than what’s widely talked about, and others having strong opinions about Ms. Silvers and what they think is really going on. It was really fun to have our brilliant composer, Sage Lewis, go to Candace for a healing while working on this and get to experience it for himself and there are others whom after watching have been inspired to experience the healings for themselves.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The whole process of making this film has come from an open minded place, so I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. I am more intrigued by what a wide range of reactions people have to Ms. Silvers. And as much as I’d love for this film to start a conversation and possibly open up people's minds to the fact that there may be more than what we’ve been taught to believe regarding our health and healing; this film is really not to push any agenda. We are not saying this particular medicine is better than this medicine, or Eastern practices are better than Western. There’s room for all of it and I open and welcome all points of view.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
This film is here to offer up information and give room to open up a healthy conversation. Being visible on www.wearemovingstories.com is a wonderful opportunity to allow that conversation to grow it whatever form it takes.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Yes! All of the above. Anyone who feels compelled by the material, we welcome. Ideally, we would love to go more in depth. This 30 minute short is just the beginning. There’s potential to do a mini docu-series on healings in Bali, and have another season in Peru, and another season in another part of the world and lets respect and learn from our varied approaches to health.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
If this film causes a viewer to open up in anyway, to question a previously held belief, to start conversation, I am happy and feel I’ve done my job.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Do you believe that your mind and belief system is connected to health and healing?
Is there value and room for some of these older third world healing modalities?
Beyond the mind, through the power of belief, what is possible?
Would you like to add anything else?
Thank you to anyone who's open and willing to learn something new and challenge themselves to go beyond where s/he thought s/he could. To look at what we believe in and why we hold so true to that belief.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am in production on a docs-series that’s chronicling the history of LGBTQ images on television from the 1950s to the present and how those images reflect as well as influence our culture. Derek and Jessica are directing the debut feature for their company Journey Home Films this summer 2018. The coming of age story, titled Coast, is about a teenage girl of mixed ethnicity growing up in a farming community in central California written by Cindy Kitagawa and produced by Pin-Chun Lui.
Interview: March 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTIAQ+, scifi, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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6th Floor: Expanding Possibility
Human behavioral specialist, Candace Silvers, journeys clients through Bali to experience the island's native healers, and becomes one of the first people to study, learn, and bring a Balinese healing modality, Siwa Murti, to the United States.
Length: 30 minutes
Director: Tommee May
Producer: Derek Schweikart, Jessica Hester, and Tommee May
About the writer, director and producer:
Derek Schweickart is a filmmaker who often designs post-production workflows on studio feature films and finds joy in bringing cinematic visions to life.
Jessica Hester is a filmmaker, works include (The DRESS, ILLUSION, LONG WALK TO FOREVER adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's short story) currently directing her first feature, COAST.
Tommee May is a producer whose works include The Romantics, Beasts of No Nation, Aban+Khorshid. 6th Floor is her directorial debut.
Key cast:
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
Social media handles:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CWMprods/
Twitter: @CWMProds
Made in association with: Come What May Productions
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Saturday April 7th at AmDocs in Palm Springs. It also looks like we’re going to be playing in Los Angeles in the beginning of July.