Will Penn meditates on Maurice O’Brien’s documentary about a spiritual community on the wild cliffs of West Cork, Chasing The Light.
Chasing The Light’s is an ambitious and immediately likeable documentary that finds strength through the contradictions it presents. Its production is utterly gorgeous – and while it presents a difficult and shifting community, it does so in a way that feels sympathetic and respectful of everyone involved.
A pervasive theme throughout the film is one of coming home. Peter Cornish, founder of Dzogchen Beara, and reluctant hermit, describes this feeling when first setting eyes upon the views of the Beara Peninsula. In fact, many describe this feeling of being found after not realising that they had felt lost, realising that the immense peace just underscored how disenfranchised they had become. This homeliness is showcased in a variety of ways – the rolling, slow drone footage of the dramatic coastline to the beautiful, yearning ambient soundtrack are a high point within the film that conveys the transcendence of a place of such innate beauty.
Cornish is an immensely interesting, profoundly introverted and quietly funny narrator sets the tone for the film. It opens with beautiful archival footage of his arrival at the Beara Peninsula with his wife, Harriet, as he lays down the gauntlet at the beginning of the film, quick to warn us of the trappings of ego. He describes his personal vow to himself when he started Dzogchen Beara to never take on the role of a teacher. He never presumed himself so flawless as to believe he could avoid being completely corrupted by power.
This acts as a mantra that resonates throughout the rest of the film. As a counterbalance, or a tragic hero, Sogyal Rinpoche, the inaugural teacher at Dzogchen Beara, is introduced. It feels disingenuous to say that the film describes his crimes as a central point within the film. Indeed, many interviewed are quick to express gratitude to him and to his teachings. However, Sogyal Rinpoche’s legacy is acomplicated one, namely insofar that he played an instrumental role in bringing Buddhist teaching to the western world. His book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, has had more than three million copies printed in 34 languages and 80 countries while Rigpa, the organisation that he set up in the 1980s, has centres and groups in 41 countries around the world. The film holds what one participant describes as “the contradiction of it”. She articulates the kindness that he showed her, and subsequently taught her to demonstrate to herself. “And at the same time…” She trails off with a wry, uncomfortable smile.
The film is at its sharpest when it is focussed upon Cornish’s compassion for other people, like a guiding rationale for the various people who flit in and out of focus as volunteers within the organisation, people coming to terms with their own mortality, or those who simply went for some peace and quiet. There is scope for a comprehensive documentary of Sogyal Rinpoche’s abuse of power which the Chasing the Light only scratches the surface of. But what makes the film is a compassion for people and a sense of genuine place – rather than honing in upon one man’s abuse of power, it probes its subjects broad, resonant kindness.
In cinemas from 13th December 2024.
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