Milwaukee filmmakers Lora Nigro and Kevin Rutkowski posted a work in progress on YouTube recently. Their uncompleted documentary on the science and philosophy of consciousness,The Deeper You Go, already received thousands of hits—an example of how widely dispersed people with arcane interests can find each other online.
Nigro and Rutkowski are better known around town for their music: they were the partners behind Sometimes Y, a recording group whose lyrical explanations of meaning and reality provide a context for their interest in the subject of The Deeper You Go. Most of the film was shot guerilla style earlier this year in Tucson at conference sponsored by the University of Arizona’s Center for Consciousness Study. The speakers at the conference interviewed for the documentary are tops in their field, the “rock stars of consciousness” as Nigro describes them. By that definition, the superstar is Deepak Chopra. But the roster of talking heads includes names well known to students of neuroscience and related fields, including Eben Alexander, Susan Blackmore, Judith Blackstone and Don Hill.
Based on the short interviews included in the film thus far, none of the speakers agreed on much of anything. The questions are controversial and the answers touch on the most fundamental questions of who and what we are as humans. With their film, Nigro and Rutkowski cover a wide spectrum of opinion on the subject.
As of now, The Deeper You Go is around eight minutes long. Working with a single HD Camcoder, a tripod and microphone, Nigro and Rutkowski were assisted by Milwaukee expatriate cinematographer Vincent Gaudes. The filmmakers plan to complete the documentary and submit it to film festivals.
To watch the YouTube video, go to: http://youtu.be/rWhyMkmDhn0
