Go Canada! As part of the Visions section of South By Southwest Film & TV, the Canadian doc YOUR HIGHER SELF was one of the few “relaxing” movies of this year’s festival, and as always I am eager to see Canadian content all the way down in Austin every year!
About: By observing the sessions of fifteen life coaches, Your Higher Self offers an offbeat philosophical essay around this booming profession, a true mirror of the values of our time. In a form that plays on distance to frame the intimate, the plot playfully explores the new sacralization of individual emancipation. Between an empathetic gaze and the unveiling of the absurd, YOUR HIGHER SELF is a cinematic reflection on the universal and perpetual quest of all human beings: the search for meaning.
Reaction: I sure hope there are breathing exercises done by the host of the screenings at SxSW! This is a very relaxing, beautifully made little documentary, running at a nice 80 minutes, about life coaches and their effects on people around the world. Featuring lots of great footage where I am surprised the subjects weren’t aware the cameras were running, YOUR HIGHER SELF has the benefits of therapy while also informing and entertaining as a documentary, the latter of which I am always on the lookout for at festivals. The movie is being distributed by Maison 4:3 in Canada but I also get a National Film Board of Canada vibe out of this one, in that I feel it will play well with documentary festivals and HOPING Canadian audiences will enjoy it….or relax with it, if you will.
This is one of the many movies playing in this year’s South By Southwest Film & TV Festival. For more information on the festival, point your browser to www.sxsw.com!