\nProducer<\/strong>: Dagan Handy<\/p>\n
I AM<\/strong> is\u00a0an utterly engaging and entertaining non-fiction film that poses two practical and provocative questions: what\u2019s wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better?\u00a0\u00a0 The filmmaker behind the inquiry is Tom Shadyac, one of Hollywood\u2019s leading comedy practitioners and the creative force behind such blockbusters as \u201cAce Ventura,\u201d \u201cLiar Liar,\u201d \u201cThe Nutty Professor,\u201d and \u201cBruce Almighty.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 However, in I AM,\u00a0Shadyac steps in front of the camera to recount what happened to him after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good. Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged with a new sense of purpose, determined to share his own awakening to his prior life of excess and greed, and to investigate how he as an individual, and we as a race, could improve the way we live and walk in the world.<\/p>\n The pursuit of truth has been a lifelong passion for Shadyac. In 2007 Shadyac suffered an injury that changed everything.\u00a0 These symptoms include intense and painful reactions to light and sound, severe mood swings, and a constant ringing sound in the head.\u00a0 Shadyac tried every manner of treatment, traditional and alternative, but nothing worked.\u00a0 He suffered months of isolation and pain, and finally reached a point where he welcomed death as a release. But, as Shadyac wisely points out, \u201cDeath can be a very powerful motivator.\u201d\u00a0 Confronting his own mortality, he asked himself, \u201cIf this is it for me \u2013if I really am going to die\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 what do I want to say before I go?\u00a0 What will be my last testament?\u201d\u00a0 It was Shadyac\u2019s modern day dark night of soul and out of it, I AM was born.\u00a0 Thankfully, almost miraculously, his PCS symptoms began to recede, allowing him to travel and use his movie-making skills to explore the philosophical questions that inhabited him, and to communicate his findings in a lively, humorous, intellectually-challenging, and emotionally-charged film.<\/p>\n Shadyac was very specific about what he was after, wanting I AM to identify the underlying cause of the world\u2019s ills.\u00a0 In the process of trying to figure out what\u2019s\u00a0wrong with the world<\/strong>, Shadyac discovered there\u2019s more right<\/strong> than he ever imagined.\u00a0 The film further discovers that humans actually function better and remain healthier when expressing positive emotions, such as love, care, compassion, and gratitude, versus their negative counterparts, anxiety, frustration, anger and fear.<\/p>\n Shadyac\u2019s transformation remains in process.\u00a0\u00a0 He still lives simply, is back on his bicycle, riding to work, and teaching at a local college, another venue for sharing his life-affirming discoveries.\u00a0 Reflecting Shadyac\u2019s philosophy is the economic structure of the film\u2019s release; all proceeds from I AM will go to The Foundation for I AM, a non-profit established by Shadyac to fund various worthy causes and to educate the next generation about the issues and challenges explored in the film.\u00a0 When he directs another Hollywood movie, the bulk of his usual eight-figure fee will be deposited into a charitable account, as well.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/P3141517.jpg\" "\\"I")
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