Thanks to Pepperdine’s relationship with successful Hollywood producer Tom Shadyac the university community got a early peak of Shadyac’s new documentary “I Am screened in Elkins Auditorium on Monday evening. The audience witnessed an inside-look at the legendary Hollywood producer’s glamourous and famed life—and why it all came to an end.
Spectators were challenged to adopt the very ideals that transformed Shadyac’s lifestyle, and to consider the mentality and knowledge that he says will help birth a better world.”
Before a bicycle accident in 2007 in which Shadyac sustained a serious head injury the legendary producer seemed to be living the dream: He pleasantly soaked up the rewards of more than $1.4 billion in box office hits from his lavish Pasadena mansion exotic cars and private planes included.
But the severe accident and head injury allowed Shadyac to realize he had gotten caught up in a façade of happiness that was anchored in superficial materialism. In asking himself what was wrong with the world—and why some live with far more than they need while others suffer in poverty—Shadyac found the answer: “I Am.” Thus was the inspiration behind his spiritual and pensive film which combines scientific evidence with an experimental truth.
Junior Jack Murphy said the screening was cause for meaningful discussion.
“At the core of the movie it starts a conversation that needs to be had Murphy said. It’s about how we can take action. It’s easy to romanticize that we should be loving but it’s another thing to say ‘How does this radically become a part of our society?'”
Shadyac says the answer lies in the empowerment of the individual in every person living to their fullest potential and in society adopting a measure of success that is not based on capital or materialism but on service to the world and to each other. This transition begins with a shift in one’s worldview.
“I would measure success based on the light beam coming out of your eye Shadyac said in a question-and-answer session following the screening. That light beam becomes bright and shines when you are authentic… when you are serving the uniqueness that is you.”
The film showcased the greed and yearning for material wealth that saturates present society. Central to its theme was a principle based on the natural world: When a living thing takes more than it needs it dies; when human body cells take more than they need it’s known as cancer. The economy Shadyac said “is a monstrous cancerous ideology” based on wild growth and competition.
Junior Wojtek Peliks took this philosophy to heart.
“It was a powerful movie that clearly presented what is wrong with the world and that there are two aspects to human nature— those are competition and cooperation. ‘Love’ is the answer for a society based on competition… While love seems to be a very general answer by which we solve the world’s problems we definitely need to look at a way to shift from competitive to cooperative.”
Instead of striving for being on top or being the “best” at something one should strive to use individual talent to serve others Shadyac described.
“I know we are competitive by nature and I love seeing excellence but you ‘win’ by creating the art that inspires people…We know that service is the greatest thing.”
In connection with Pepperdine’s faith-based mission students were given spiritual application in the philosophy of “I Am”.
“Faith is the ability to know that what you are doing is making a difference Shadyac said. I don’t know if Jesus knew the impact he would have in his preaching but he walked it.”
After giving away much of his material wealth—and personally funding the education of several Pepperdine film students—Shadyac now lives in a trailer park home in North Malibu. A national tour for the film will begin next month and Shadyac hopes “I Am” will spark a change in everyone it reaches just as the ideas led to his personal shift.
The producer left the Pepperdine community with a weighty prompt:
“Be that change. Just be it. In simple ways…Whatever is true for you is the shift.”